MONDAY, JUNE 28, 2010
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Foreign Policy
Panetta: Afghan reconciliation ‘difficult’ No insurgent group has
shown real interest in talks, CIA chief says
by Peter Finn
and Karen DeYoung CIA Director Leon Panetta said
ANDREA BRUCE FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
Attorney General Mohammed Ishaq Aloko, left, with Kandahar Gov. Tooryalai Wesa and Ahmed Wali Karzai, the president’s brother.
Karzai officials deny interference in cases
afghanistan from A1
Mohammed Ishaq Aloko, was seen as a potential ally against corruption when he took the job two years ago. Some investiga- tions have ended in convictions. But U.S. officials said that Aloko, a native of Kandahar province who studied law in Germany, has re- peatedly impeded prosecutions of suspects with political ties. In meetings with U.S. Justice
Department officials, Aloko has seemed almost apologetic and ac- knowledged coming under pres- sure from Karzai as well as mem- bers of parliament, officials said. On one occasion, according to a U.S. official, Aloko told his Amer- ican counterparts, “I’m doing this because that is what the president tells me I have to do.” The official, like others quoted in this report, spoke on the condi- tion of anonymity to discuss sen- sitive investigations. Aloko referred questions to his
deputy, Rahmatullah Nazari, who blamed resource constraints for his office’s failure to win more cor- ruption convictions. “There isn’t any kind of pressure on the attor- ney general’s office,” Nazari said. “If anyone caves to pressure, they should go to prison.” But U.S. officials point to multi- ple instances of interference. The most prominent example to sur- face publicly involves Afghani- stan’s former minister of Islamic affairs, who fled the country this year as prosecutors were prepar- ing to charge him with extorting millions of dollars from compa- nies seeking contracts to take pil- grims to the Muslim holy land, a trip known as the hajj. Atravel ban was issued to block the former minister, Mohammad Siddiq Chakari, from leaving. But U.S. officials said Chakari escaped after showing airport security of- ficials a letter he obtained from Aloko’s office saying he had coop- erated in the case and was not to be detained. Nazari said Chakari had not been convicted of a crime and, therefore, could not be pre- vented from leaving. Chakari, who is now in London, has repeatedly maintained his in- nocence. Because there is no ex- tradition treaty between Afghani- stan and Britain, U.S. officials said it is unlikely that he will ever stand trial. Even so, some regard his departure as a moral victory. “The very fact that the former minister of the hajj had to leave the country is in a way a remark- able achievement,” said Steve Kraft, director of Afghanistan and Pakistan programs for the State Department’s Bureau of Interna- tional Narcotics and Law Enforce- ment. “We would rather see him in jail here. But in the old days, they would have scoffed” at the idea of pursuing such a probe, he added.
Combined efforts
Critics say Karzai’s initiatives are meant to appease the interna- tional community. “It’s all a show,” lawmaker Sayed Rahman said, noting that no senior government official has been imprisoned on corruption charges. Over the past year, U.S. officials said, Afghan investigators have assembled evidence against three Karzai-appointed provincial gov- ernors accused of embezzlement or bribery. All three cases have been blocked. The interference has persisted, officials said, de- spite Karzai’s pledge in November during his second inaugural ad- dress to make fighting corruption a focus of his new term. The extent of the interference has become evident, officials said, in large part because of improve- ments in Afghan authorities’ abil- ity to pursue corruption cases. Over the past two years, U.S.
agencies have allied with their Af- ghan counterparts to create elite investigative and prosecutorial teams. Afghan applicants under- go polygraph tests in which they are asked whether they have tak- en bribes. Some have been sent to U.S. facilities, including the DEA academy in Quantico, to be trained.
Still, Karzai’s administration has reportedly taken steps to limit the independence of these units. The U.S. official said that Aloko recently created a three-member commission to “review” the units’ cases and that it has removed names of politically connected Af- ghans from prosecutors’ files. Nazari, Aloko’s deputy, said
that if others know of a list of names that have been removed, “they should bring it to us.” The long-term aim of the anti- corruption units, Kraft said, is to assemble cases in which the evi- dence is “so profound and well- known that the ability to get peo- ple off the hook will no longer be there.”
Evidence from wiretaps
A key capability is a U.S.-pro- vided eavesdropping system that allows Afghan investigators to in- tercept cellphone calls in the most populous parts of the country. The wiretaps, approved by Af- ghan judges, have yielded key evi- dence in a growing list of embez- zlement and bribery cases. U.S. of- ficials said the wiretaps have also caught senior officials and mem- bers of parliament discussing ef- forts to derail certain cases. In January, Afghan authorities
raided the offices of New Ansari, a firm that has served as Afghani- stan’s primary link to the “hawa- la” money exchange system. This informal system for transferring cash overseas makes electronic tracking difficult. A second U.S. official familiar with the investi- gation said the firm is suspected of laundering drug money, deliv- ering funds to insurgents and helping Afghan officials transfer tens of millions of dollars to ac- counts abroad. After the raid, wiretaps picked
up conversations indicating that there had been a frantic meeting involving Karzai aides at the presidential palace. U.S. officials said members of Karzai’s admin- istration as well as members of parliament held subsequent meetings with Aloko, pressuring him to ensure that certain New Ansari executives not be charged. Among those protected was
Haji Muhammad Rafi Azimi, dep- uty chairman of Afghan United Bank, a subsidiary of New Ansari, U.S. officials said. On a wiretap re- cording, Azimi is heard discuss- ing bribes paid to Chakari. The re- corded conversations were played in open court in the trial of a low- er-ranking official in the Reli- gious Affairs Ministry, Moham- med Noor. “It’s clear to everyone involved he should be indicted and charged,” a U.S. official said of Azi- mi. But, the official said, Azimi is “a businessman who knows a great deal about the finances of government officials.” A second U.S. official familiar with the case concurred. “What happened is a large group of very powerful people . . . went to the attorney general and told him to stand down,” the official said. Phone calls and e-mails to Azi- mi did not elicit any responses. Guards outside New Ansari’s of- fice in Kabul told a reporter that the site had been closed for months. They said they did not know why they were still getting paid to guard it. Noor, a civil servant, was sen- tenced to 15 years in prison after being convicted in May of collect- ing bribe money for Chakari in Saudi Arabia and bringing it to Afghanistan. Two others in the case are awaiting trial. Azimi re- mains in his position at Afghan United Bank. Aloko has announced that his
office is investigating five current and former ministers, reportedly including Mohammad Ibrahim Adel, the mines minister, accused by U.S. officials of taking a $30 million bribe from a Chinese firm. Adel stepped down, but nei- ther he nor any other minister — besides Chakari — has been charged.
millergreg@washpost.com londonoe@washpost.com
Londoño reported from Kabul.
Sunday that U.S. officials had not seen “any firm intelligence” that insurgent groups in Afghanistan are interested in reconciliation, and he dismissed reports that a top militant leader was open to a Pakistan-brokered agreement. “We have seen no evidence that
they are truly interested in recon- ciliation where they would sur- render their arms, where they would denounce al-Qaeda, where they would really try to become part of that society,” Panetta said on ABC’s “This Week.” “My view is that . . . unless they’re convinced the United States is going to win and that they are going to be de- feated, I think it is very difficult to proceed with a reconciliation that is going to be meaningful.” Panetta was responding to re-
ports that senior Pakistani mili- tary and intelligence officials are seeking to broker a deal that would usher the network led by Sirajuddin Haqqani, a major ele- ment in the insurgency in Af- ghanistan and an ally of al-Qae- da, into a power-sharing arrange- ment in Kabul. More broadly, though, Panetta said that none of
the insurgent groups in Afghani- stan has shown a real interest in talks. The Obama administration, which has always maintained that the war will end with a polit- ical settlement rather than a mili- tary one, has gradually warmed to the idea of negotiations with insurgent groups. But senior ad- ministration officials have warned Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan that Wash- ington considers Haqqani’s net- work off-limits. Any deal between the sides would drive a wedge be- tween Karzai and the United States and would rehabilitate the Haqqani network, a longtime Pakistani asset.
Karzai has said that he will talk with any insurgent group about its grievances, but that any deal must include a commitment by fighters to give up arms, sever ties with al-Qaeda and respect the Af- ghan constitution. His aides have held inconclusive meetings, with- in and outside Afghanistan, with representatives of two groups loosely linked under the banner of the Afghan Taliban — the Quet- ta shura led by Mohammad Omar and the Hezb-i-Islami. On Sunday, television network
al-Jazeera, citing unnamed sources, reported that Karzai re- cently held face-to-face talks with Haqqani, in the presence of Paki- stan’s army and intelligence chiefs. Karzai’s office denied that, as did a Pakistani military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Ab-
bas, who called the report “base- less and concocted with mali- cious intent.” Haqqani fighters, based in Pa-
kistan’s North Waziristan tribal area, operate primarily in eastern Afghanistan, where their attacks against coalition forces and Af- ghan civilians have grown in- creasingly ruthless. Haqqani’s fa- ther, the founder of the network, is a former Afghan warlord who fought occupying Soviet forces with U.S. and Pakistani assis- tance during the 1980s, battled the Taliban after the Soviet de- parture, then joined the Taliban when it took over the country in the mid-1990s. Panetta’s remarks came as a
suspected CIA missile strike killed three militants in North Waziristan, thought to be the lo- cation of al-Qaeda’s Pakistan headquarters. He said that only 50 to 100 al-Qaeda operatives re- main inside Afghanistan. And without explicitly acknowledging the CIA’s drone campaign, he said the actions of the United States were in compliance with domes- tic and international law. He acknowledged that the fight in Afghanistan has proved “hard- er” and “slower than I think any- one anticipated.” He defined “winning” as “having a country that is stable enough to ensure that there is no safe haven for al- Qaeda or for a militant Taliban that welcomes al-Qaeda. That is the measure of success for the United States.”
A5 Panetta also warned that being
a U.S. citizen was no protection for those who conspire against the United States. He had been asked about Anwar al-Aulaqi, an American-born cleric, now in Yemen, who has been linked to a succession of terrorist attacks, in- cluding the Fort Hood shootings and the bombing attempt on a Detroit-bound plane last Christ- mas. “Aulaqi is a terrorist and, yes, he is a U.S. citizen, but he is first and foremost a terrorist, and we are going to treat him like a ter- rorist,” Panetta said when asked whether Aulaqi was on an assas- sination list. “We don’t have an assassination list, but I can tell you this: We have a terrorist list, and he’s on it.” Intelligence and counterterrorism officials have said that Aulaqi is on a target list of terrorists who can be killed. On other subjects, Panetta said
that Iran has enough low-en- riched uranium for two nuclear bombs but that it would take the country two years to build the bombs and a weapon-delivery system. He said the latest round of U.N. sanctions will weaken Iran but is unlikely to thwart its nuclear ambitions. But he said it was still a matter of debate whether Iran has decided to pro- ceed with the bomb.
finnp@washpost.com
deyoungk@washpost.com
Staff writer Karin Brulliard in Islamabad contributed to this report.
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