Karzai brother a concern in Kandahar campaign

WASHINGTON- Pentagon war planners see the controversial leadership role of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's half-brother in Kandahar as a challenge to their campaign to win over the city, officials said on Friday.
Ahmad Wali Karzai, the head of Kandahar's provincial council and one of the most powerful men in the south, has long been under scrutiny because of reports linking him to Afghanistan's entrenched heroin and opium trade and the CIA. He denies the charges and the U.S. spy agency would neither confirm nor deny any ties.
At a congressional hearing in December, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said the United States had problems with the president's half-brother but his dominant presence has taken on added importance for Washington now that efforts to win "hearts and minds" in Kandahar are beginning.
The campaign to gradually retake full control of Afghanistan's second-largest city will test U.S. President Barack Obama's strategy for reversing Taliban momentum after more than eight years of war."He's a challenge they're trying to work through over there," a senior U.S. military official said of the role played by Ahmad Wali Karzai.Another U.S. defence official said the United States has been pressing Karzai to limit his half-brother's role in Kandahar, asserting that the controversy further undercut efforts to establish his government's credibility in the city, known as the birthplace of the Taliban."Karzai's protecting him," the defence official said of the president's half-brother. "It has been a giant thorn in our side and terrible for the credibility of the government."

KARZAI DENIALS

President Karzai has long been dogged by accusations that members of his family are involved in drugs, undermining Western support, but he says he has seen no evidence of wrongdoing by his brother.General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said earlier this week that he envisions a gradual campaign in Kandahar aimed at delivering security and governance, as opposed to one big military assault.McChrystal has not given a timeline for the operation but told reporters last week in Kabul that troops would be at full force for Kandahar operations by the early summer.
The senior U.S. military official said preliminary talks with tribal leaders from Kandahar have begun, laying the groundwork for a larger number of troops later.
"You've got to work the population hard," the official said, referring to McChrystal's counterinsurgency strategy, which puts an emphasis on securing population centers over killing Taliban fighters.The official said each phase of the campaign would take a "considerable amount of time."
U.S. military and civilian leaders have stepped up pressure on Karzai in recent weeks to do more to combat corruption, suggesting Washington is increasingly concerned that Kabul's inaction undercut the campaign against the Taliban."There have been some actions taken to remove corrupt individuals and there's no question that there need to be more," U.S. General David Petraeus, whose Central Command oversees wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, told a Senate hearing this week without identifying anyone by name.Kandahar served as the spiritual seat of power for reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar before the militants were ousted from Afghanistan by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in 2001.Militants have since made substantial gains in the area.