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From the Pentagon, CBS' David Martin picked up on reporting by The New York Times that Ahmed Wali Karzai, the Kandahar warlord who is also the brother of Afghanistan's president Hamid Karzai, is a CIA spy: "In other words the United States is reportedly bankrolling a man suspected of being a major player in the corruption that handcuffs American troops in their fight against the Taliban." CBS' Martin checked in with Gretchen Peters, a former producer in Pakistan for ABC News, now author of Seeds of Terror on the Afghan opium trade. Karzai's brother "is the one that will make sure that the customs and border police do not search trucks that are full of drugs," she stated.
NBC went straight to Dexter Filkins, the Times reporter who had the Karzai scoop. This is how he put it: "The president's brother is widely believed to be involved in the poppy trade, in the opium trade, which is no small thing here. Most of the profits go to the Taliban so they go right to killing American soldiers. The second thing I learned--which was really the most surprising--was that Ahmed Wali Karzai is paid regularly, and has been paid regularly, by the Central Intelligence Agency." For the record, CBS' Martin was fair and balanced: "For his part, Ahmed Wali Karzai denies any ties to the drug trade or the CIA."
It was altogether a bad day for the Karzai siblings. ABC's Jim Sciutto reported that the day's fighting in downtown Kabul included a raid on the home of the president's sister.
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