Pubdate: Thu, 27 Aug 2009
Source: New York Times (NY)
Page: A1, Front Page
Copyright: 2009 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Authors: James Risen and Mark Landler
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Afghanistan
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?236 (Corruption - Outside U.S.)

ACCUSED OF DRUG TIES, AFGHAN OFFICIAL WORRIES U.S.

WASHINGTON -- It was a heated debate during the Bush administration: 
What to do about evidence that Afghanistan's powerful defense 
minister was involved in drug trafficking? Officials from the time 
say they needed him to help run the troubled country. So the answer, 
in the end: look the other way.

Today that debate will be even more fraught for a new administration, 
for the former defense minister, Marshal Muhammad Qasim Fahim, stands 
a strong chance of becoming the next vice president of Afghanistan.

In his bid for re-election, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan has 
surrounded himself with checkered figures who could bring him votes: 
warlords suspected of war crimes, corruption and trafficking in the 
country's lucrative poppy crop. But none is as influential as Marshal 
Fahim, his running mate, whose trajectory in and out of power, and 
American favor, says much about the struggle the United States has 
had in dealing with corruption in Afghanistan.

As evidence of the tensions, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham 
Clinton bluntly told Mr. Karzai that running with Marshal Fahim would 
damage his standing with the United States and other countries, 
according to one senior administration official.

Now, the problem of how to grapple with Marshal Fahim adds to the 
complexity of managing an uneasy relationship with Mr. Karzai. 
Partial election results show Mr. Karzai leading other contenders, 
but allegations of fraud threaten to add to the credibility problems 
facing a second Karzai-led government.

If Marshal Fahim did take office, the administration official said, 
the United States would probably consider imposing sanctions like 
refusing to issue him a travel visa -- something it does with other 
foreign officials suspected of corruption -- though the official 
cautioned that the subject had not come up in internal deliberations.

The United States could take harsher steps, like going after the 
marshal's finances, but this would be a remarkable move, given the 
deep American involvement in Afghanistan and the importance of its 
relationship with the Karzai government, said the official, who spoke 
on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the matter.

And Marshal Fahim is not the only Afghan official forcing such a 
tricky calculation. This summer President Obama called for an 
investigation of a warlord, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, who is accused 
of involvement in the killings of thousands of Taliban prisoners of 
war early in the conflict. That demand fell on deaf ears: Mr. Karzai 
recently allowed General Dostum to return from exile, reinstating him 
to his government position. The general, in turn, has endorsed Mr. 
Karzai and campaigned for him.

Said Tayeb Jawad, the Afghan ambassador to the United States, said 
allegations of Marshal Fahim's involvement in drugs were "politically 
motivated."

As for the Obama administration's opposition to his selection as vice 
president, Mr. Jawad said he was chosen for "the role he could play 
in national unity in Afghanistan, not for his ability to make foreign trips."

The Bush administration had felt it had no choice but to rely on the 
warlords, many of them corrupt and brutal, who wielded power before 
and during the Karzai era.

In 2001, when United States forces swept into Afghanistan to 
overthrow the Taliban, Marshal Fahim, then a general, was a crucial 
ally as the military commander of the Northern Alliance.

He worked closely with the Central Intelligence Agency and was 
rewarded with millions of dollars in cash, according to current and 
former United States officials. After Mr. Karzai became head of 
Afghanistan's transitional government, General Fahim was named 
defense minister.

In early 2002, at a Rose Garden ceremony with Mr. Karzai, then a 
darling of the White House, President George W. Bush announced that 
the United States would help create and train a new Afghan Army. That 
meant sending millions of dollars in aid to General Fahim and his ministry.

But by 2002, C.I.A. intelligence reports flowing into the Bush 
administration included evidence that Marshal Fahim was involved in 
Afghanistan's lucrative drug trade, according to officials discussing 
the reports and the internal debate for the first time.

He had a history of narcotics trafficking before the invasion, the 
C.I.A. reports showed. But what was most alarming in the reports were 
allegations that he was still involved after regaining power and 
becoming defense minister. He now had a Soviet-made cargo plane at 
his disposal that was making flights north to transport heroin 
through Russia, returning laden with cash, the reports said, 
according to American officials who read them. Aides in the Defense 
Ministry were also said to be involved.

The reports stunned some United States officials, and ignited a 
high-level, secret scramble.

Hillary Mann Leverett, then director for Afghanistan at the National 
Security Council, recalled a secure videoconference discussion where 
the State Department warned it might be illegal to provide military 
assistance through Marshal Fahim.

"They pointed out that if Fahim was involved in narcotics 
trafficking, then there is a problem because there is a U.S. law that 
would prohibit military aid provided to a known narcotics 
trafficker," Ms. Leverett said.

Alarmed, National Security Council officials took the matter to 
Stephen J. Hadley, then the deputy national security adviser. Another 
round of meetings followed, with Mr. Hadley ordering that the 
delicate debate be kept to a small number of senior administration 
officials, including Mr. Hadley and John E. McLaughlin, then C.I.A. 
deputy director, according to Ms. Leverett.

Meanwhile, the allegations of drug dealing by the top Afghan defense 
official were also raising concerns at the new American Embassy in 
Kabul, where officials say they considered whether they could meet 
with Marshal Fahim or provide him with funds.

Some United States officials in Washington and Kabul argued that 
there was no smoking gun proving his involvement in narcotics 
trafficking, and thus no need to break off contact with him. And 
eventually, the Bush administration hit on what officials thought was 
a solution: American military trainers would be directed to deal only 
with subordinates to Marshal Fahim, and not Marshal Fahim himself.

That would at least give the Bush administration the appearance of 
complying with the law.

But as it turns out, both Afghan and American officials now say that 
Marshal Fahim continued to meet routinely with top American 
officials, including Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Lt. 
Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry, then the American officer in charge of the 
military assistance to the new Afghan Army.

General Eikenberry, now the American ambassador to Afghanistan, said 
in an e-mail message earlier this year that at the time he was 
unaware of the debate at the White House and that he was never barred 
from meeting with Marshal Fahim.

In hindsight, several current and former administration officials say 
they have come to believe the decision to turn a blind eye to the 
warlords and drug traffickers who took advantage of the power vacuum 
in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks was one of the fundamental 
strategic mistakes of the Afghan war. It sent a signal to the Afghan 
people that the most corrupt warlords had the backing of the United 
States, that the Karzai government had no real power or credibility 
and that the drug economy was the path to power in the country.

By late 2003, officials said, the Bush administration began to 
realize its mistake, and initiated what officials called its "warlord 
strategy" to try to ease key warlords out of power. Marshal Fahim 
remained defense minister until 2004 and was briefly Mr. Karzai's 
running mate as vice president in elections that year, but Mr. Karzai 
then dropped him.

Marshal Fahim remains a powerful figure among Tajiks, the ethnic 
group in north Afghanistan, and Mr. Karzai, a Pashtun from the south, 
calculated that an alliance with the general would help him increase 
his support in northern Afghanistan. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake