Karzai aide linked to CIA

Dick Taffe — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 19:47:07 +0000

The New York Times reports that a key aid to Afghan President Hamid Karzai is on the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency payroll and has been for years. The aide, Mohammed Zia Salehi, is the chief of administration for the Afghanistan National Security Council and is at the center of a politically sensitive corruption investigation. International relations Professor Arthur Hulnick, a 35-year veteran of the intelligence profession, mostly with the CIA, says relationships the agency develops overseas inevitably include some people of questionable character.

“But that’s how the agency finds out what’s happening. Too bad that people who understand intelligence — and the New York Times reporters certainly do – -still spin the story to make it appear that the CIA is somehow ‘evil.’ They know better, even while the public is misled.”

Contact Arthur Hulnick, 617-353-8978, ahulnick@bu.edu

Afghan President Karzai riles U.S.

Dick Taffe — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 19:16:36 +0000

Recent anti-western rhetoric from Afghan President Hamid Karzai is stressing American officials and the Obama administration is concerned that it may hamper efforts to wind down U.S. military operations in Afghanistan. International Relations Professor William Keylor, author of “A World of Nations: The International Order Since 1945,” says Karzai is playing with fire.

“With Al-Qaeda virtually gone from Afghanistan, the question ‘what are we fighting for?’ may surface in American public discourse for the first time since the Taliban regime was overthrown.”

Contact William Keylor, 617-358-0197, wrkeylor@bu.edu

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Karzai aide linked to CIA

Afghan President Karzai riles U.S.