Hamid Karzai Seeks to Curb CIA Operations in Afghanistan

Emma Graham-Harrison | Guardian UK | Reader Supported News | April 20, 2013

President believes battle in which 10 children and a US agent died was fought by illegal militia working for spy agency.

resident Hamid Karzai is determined to curb CIA operations in Afghanistan after the death of a US agent and 10 Afghan children in a battle he believes was fought by an illegal militia working for the US spy agency.

The campaign sets the Afghan leader up for another heated showdown with the US government, and will reignite questions about the CIA’s extensive but highly secretive operations in the country.

Karzai’s spokesman Aimal Faizi said the CIA controlled large commando-like units, some of whom operated under the nominal stamp of the Afghan government’s intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), but were not actually under its control.

“Some of them are said to be working with the NDS, but they are not armed by the NDS, not paid by the NDS, and not sent to operations by the NDS. Sometimes they only inform the NDS minutes before the operation,” Faizi said. “They are conducting operations without informing local authorities and when something goes wrong it is called a joint operation.”

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US and Afghanistan Reach Deal on Pullout of American Special Forces

Associated Press | Reader Supported News | March 21, 2013

he US military and the Afghan government have reached a deal on the pullout of American special operations forces and their Afghan counterparts from a strategic eastern province after complaints that they were involved in human rights abuses.

American military officials have steadfastly denied the Afghan abuse allegations, which led the president, Hamid Karzai, to demand the withdrawal of the US commandos from Wardak province despite fears the decision could leave the area and the neighbouring capital of Kabul more vulnerable to al-Qaida and other insurgents.

The agreement calls for the US-led coalition to withdraw the special operations forces from Wardak’s Nirkh district, the area where the abuses allegedly occurred, along with the Afghan forces who work with them, as they are replaced by the Afghan army or national police. The rest of the province would “transition over time,” according to a statement.

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