I am shocked and utterly surprised by this story

[Cain]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/asia/28intel.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&hpm

Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country's booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials.

Gosh.  Are they sure?  This doesn't seem like something the CIA would approve of.

[Elder Iptuous]

who coordinates to make sure that the DEA and the CIA aren't continuously fighting?
especially when they are both over in a foreign environment like Afghanistan....

[Cain]

I'm not sure, actually.  In theory, I would assume it was the Director of National Intelligence, currently Dennis C. Blair who was formally with the ONI.  But I don't know if he appoints people on a regional basis, like with the Af-Pak area, or if it would fall under the remit of McChrystal due to the ongoing occupation.

[Halfbaked1]

In the past the CIA has operated on its own and provided the military with operational data on a need to know basis, so I would not doubt that they were paying someone on Karzais side of things and the money went to him.  But like I have told folks, if you only want to deal with Afghans who have had nothing to do with the opium trade then you are going to be a very lonely person in that country.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

In the past the CIA has operated on its own and provided the military with operational data on a need to know basis, so I would not doubt that they were paying someone on Karzais side of things and the money went to him.  But like I have told folks, if you only want to deal with Afghans who have had nothing to do with the opium trade then you are going to be a very lonely person in that country.

Not the point.  The point is, we now have two agencies in the same government fighting a proxy war with each other.

If that ain't proof of Eris, nothing is.

[Cain]

I assumed this was the case in 2007, when the CIA helped take down an anti-drug warlord the British military had been courting.

It's nice to know I was right, even if it did take over two years to be proven.

[Elder Iptuous]

Not the point.  The point is, we now have two agencies in the same government fighting a proxy war with each other.

If that ain't proof of Eris, nothing is.

of course, this has been the case for decades with the Cocaine Import Agency undermining the efforts of the DEA. (or alternatively, providing them job security....)

[Jenne]

Not the point.  The point is, we now have two agencies in the same government fighting a proxy war with each other.

If that ain't proof of Eris, nothing is.

of course, this has been the case for decades with the Cocaine Import Agency undermining the efforts of the DEA. (or alternatively, providing them job security....)

Ha, that's what I thought of this afternoon when I read this thread and just forgot to say anything about it.  That drug war documentary/movie (The Great White Hype) drove that home in many ways for me.