2/24/2014 Karzai suspects U.S.

is behind insurgent-style attacks, Afghan officials say - The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/karzai-suspects-us-is-behind-insurgent-style-attacks-afghan-officials-say/2014/01/27/a70d7568-8779-11e3-a760-a86415d 1/4
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Karzai suspects U.S. is behind insurgent-style
attacks, Afghan officials say
Rahmat Gul/AP - An Afghan driver looks out from a broken windshield after a recent suicide bombing outside
a Lebanese restaurant in Kabul that left 21 dead.
By Kev in Sieff, Published: January 27 E-mail the writer
KABUL President Hamid Karzai has frequently lashed out at the U.S. military for causing
civilian casualties in its raids. But behind the scenes, he has been building a far broader case
against the Americans, suggesting that they may have aided or conducted shadowy
insurgent-style attacks to undermine his government, according to senior Afghan officials.
Karzai has formalized his suspicions with a list of dozens of attacks that he believes the U.S.
government may have been involved in, according to one palace official. The list even
includes the recent bomb and gun assault on a Lebanese restaurant in Kabul, one of the
bloodiest acts targeting the international community in Afghanistan, the official said. The
attack, which left 21 people dead, including three Americans, was almost universally
attributed to the Taliban.
But Karzai believes it was one of many
incidents that may have been planned by
Americans to weaken him and foment
instability in Afghanistan, according to the
senior palace official, who is sympathetic to
the presidents view and spoke on the
condition of anonymity. He acknowledged
that his government had no concrete
evidence of U.S. involvement and that the
American role had not been formally
confirmed.
U.S. officials, who have been informed of
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2/24/2014 Karzai suspects U.S. is behind insurgent-style attacks, Afghan officials say - The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/karzai-suspects-us-is-behind-insurgent-style-attacks-afghan-officials-say/2014/01/27/a70d7568-8779-11e3-a760-a86415d 2/4
some of the claims, have reacted with
incredulity and anger to the idea that they
are trying to debilitate Afghanistans
government, which they have supported
with hundreds of billions of dollars.
Its a deeply conspiratorial view thats
divorced from reality, U.S. Ambassador
James B. Cunningham said Monday. He
suggested that one reason for the allegations
might be to throw us off balance.
The revelation of Karzais list helps explain
why it has been so hard to conclude a
security agreement that would leave
thousands of U.S. troops in Afghanistan
after the formal end of American military
operations this year. Many U.S. and Afghan
officials believe that accord is vital to this
countrys long-term stability, but the
Afghan leader has not signed it.
U.S. officials and analysts offer a variety of
theories for why Karzai has come to accuse
his American counterparts of deeply
insidious behavior. Conscious of his legacy,
he might be looking to raise his profile by
confronting a superpower, some say. Or, in
shifting suspicion for major attacks from the Taliban to the United States, he might be
trying to endear himself to the insurgents in hopes of a reconciliation, others speculate.
The senior palace official said that the president began keeping the list several years ago to
catalogue what were seen as suspicious incidents that might involve the U.S. government
and that he added a slew of new ones over the past year.
Senior Afghan officials have provided no evidence of a U.S. role in the attacks on the list,
which include an assault on a Justice Ministry building in Kabul and another on a
courthouse in western Farah province that left more than 50 people dead.
The palace declined to comment on the record about the allegations.
The Taliban has publicly claimed responsibility for many incidents on Karzais list, including
the massacre at the restaurant.
It flies in the face of logic and morality to think that we would aid the enemy were trying
to defeat, said Cunningham, who added that he was aware of such allegations but had not
directly heard such charges from Karzai.
Top Afghan officials say that in the past, Karzai or his advisers have shared such allegations
with high-level U.S. officials.
The suspicion and the current environment of distrust is framed by the sad experiences of
the past, said the senior palace official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the
allegations.
He said the suspicion of American involvement came from investigations and the pattern
of the attacks suggesting that the complex, insurgent-style assaults often happened
shortly after U.S. airstrikes left civilians dead in other areas and might have been aimed at
drawing attention away from those casualties.
Palace officials dismissed the Talibans claims of responsibility for many of the attacks.
It has never, ever been verified if such statements are not fake and foreign intelligence
agencies are not behind such statements, said the senior palace official.
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2/24/2014 Karzai suspects U.S. is behind insurgent-style attacks, Afghan officials say - The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/karzai-suspects-us-is-behind-insurgent-style-attacks-afghan-officials-say/2014/01/27/a70d7568-8779-11e3-a760-a86415d 3/4
507 Comments Discussion Policy
1/27/2014 7:08 PM CST

reussere wr ot e:
Its hard to dismiss the man as a paranoid megalomaniac (which is my opinion), without noting the large
number of people in this country who have even wilder fantasies regarding secret government operations
For its part, the Taliban disputed the palaces account of possible U.S. involvement in the
attacks.
Whatever claims we make, those are attacks that have genuinely been carried out by our
forces, spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a phone interview.
In the wake of the Jan. 17 bombing of the popular La Taverna du Liban restaurant, which
sent a shock wave through the expatriate community in Kabul, the palace issued a
statement blaming foreign intelligence services. Most observers assumed that was a veiled
reference to Pakistan, which is often accused of aiding the Taliban. But Afghan officials now
say the language was intentionally vague, to reflect what they saw as possible U.S.
involvement.
Karzai and some of his senior advisers suspect that the attack could have been carried out to
distract attention from a U.S. airstrike in Parwan province, north of Kabul, which had left
several Afghan civilians dead two days earlier, according to the senior palace official.
Deadly attacks like the one on the restaurant are too sophisticated to be the handiwork of
[the] Taliban, he added.
Senior Afghan officials even considered a public statement that would have made their
suspicions of American involvement more explicit, according to the palace official and U.S.
sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matters sensitivity.
After previous attacks, the governments suspicions were fueled by local witnesses who
shared what they have witnessed about U.S. involvement with the insurgency, said the
senior palace official.
But Afghan investigations of such attacks have recently been called into question,
particularly after the New York Times found last week that a 2009 photo was presented in
an Afghan investigative dossier as evidence of damage caused by the U.S. airstrike in
Parwan this month.
Privately, many U.S. officials wonder whether Karzai even believes his most incendiary
contentions or if they are part of an effort to gain politically by demonizing American troops
and diplomats.
Any suggestion that the U.S. has been involved in any way in suicide attacks or deliberate
attacks on Afghan civilians is ludicrous, said Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the top U.S.
commander in Afghanistan. We have spent 12 years trying to bring peace and stability to
Afghanistan in the face of threats from terrorist and insurgent networks ... to suggest
otherwise does a grave disservice to those who have sacrificed for the people of
Afghanistan.
The one point both the Afghan and American sides seem to agree on is that relations have
deteriorated during the last months of Karzais presidency. Congress recently sharply
curtailed development aid and military assistance plans for Afghanistan ahead of the U.S.
pullout.
While his skepticism of the U.S. mission appears to have reached a fever pitch, Karzai has
long been known for controversial public statements. Last year, he appeared to imply that
Americans were collaborating with insurgents, claiming that a recent Taliban attack had
showed that [insurgents] are at the service of America in attempting to destabilize
Afghanistan.
Repri nts
2/24/2014 Karzai suspects U.S. is behind insurgent-style attacks, Afghan officials say - The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/karzai-suspects-us-is-behind-insurgent-style-attacks-afghan-officials-say/2014/01/27/a70d7568-8779-11e3-a760-a86415d 4/4
1/27/2014 11:32 PM CST
1/28/2014 3:15 AM CST
and some kind of secret agenda on the part of the President to turn America into a socialist marxist muslim
communist whatever. Karzai is basically a middle of the road crazie compared with the American
conservative tin foil hat crazies.
jabal ong r esponds:
Amen. It doesn't excuse Karzai's madness, but why should Americans be surprised at paranoia
abroad, when American is full of its citizens that sees conspiracies everywhere. It's probably human
nature in general. That said, with so many American being paranoid and creating irrational
conspiracies about their own government, that's bound to affect how foreigners see America. It just
validates their own paranoia and distrust of the USA. It'd be a good start if more rational voices
within America could regain control of the country.
jivemi r esponds:
That's funny. I thought most 9/11 "Truthers" were Democrats.
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