The Times
By Jerome Starkey and Richard Beeston in Kabul

Afghan intelligence officials expected high praise from their political masters after they arrested a police colonel accused of running a sophisticated drug-smuggling ring.

It was, after all, the first operation of the country’s new Major Crimes Taskforce; a “textbook” mission praised by Western mentors for taking a top scalp in the war on government corruption. Acting on information from a series of intercepted telephone conversations, Afghan commandos seized 80kg (176lb) of opium and almost four tonnes of marijuana in two raids in July. The colonel in question was arrested, along with his driver and two bodyguards, as he tried to board an aircraft at Kandahar airport.

However, instead of congratulations there were “howls of protest” from the Presidential Palace, officials said. A triumphant press conference was cancelled abruptly.

The Interior Minister was furious, intelligence sources told The Times, because the target — a border police chief in the southern province of Kandahar — was linked to President Karzai’s half-brother. “He was part of Ahmed Wali Karzai’s network,” said a senior government official involved in the case. “The President was very angry when he was arrested. Ahmed Wali was also very unhappy.” (Read more)