Word: tribalized
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There may be more to it than that. A Western diplomat in Kabul says intelligence reports indicate that Iranian agents have been seen around Khost--far to the east of where they were thought to have been most active--buying off tribal commanders in a deliberate effort to undermine Karzai. That's why the Americans thought there were "bad guys" in the region. But nobody supposes that Karzai can demand the application of American force against his rivals whenever he feels like it. "We keep telling [the government], 'Don't cry wolf,'" says a European official in Kabul. "They...
...Karzai's health. He looks a decade older than 44, and when he is fatigued, his facial muscles twitch. Born in Kandahar and educated in India, Karzai is the scion of a noble Pashtun clan. He glides easily between the traditional and the modern worlds. He relishes sparring with tribal visitors, who come grumbling about their local rivals or demanding special attention. It's like the court of a traditional Afghan chieftain. Everyone has his say, but Karzai, with humor but firmness, imposes his will...
...typical thuggish warrior chieftain. He is too courtly, too intellectual. But when he was in exile in Pakistan, Hamid Karzai had an intensity that attracted all kinds of Afghans to his salons. I remember sitting at a Karzai banquet with an Afghan former communist general, a Kunduz tribal elder and a wizened chess master. Karzai listened to them as equals, and they in turn were inspired by his quiet determination. Then one day I heard that Karzai had hopped a motorcycle, smuggled himself into southern Afghanistan and started his dangerous--but ultimately successful--campaign against the Taliban, all without...
...sent five letters to the U.S. embassy in Kabul, offering to meet the diplomats and pass on information about al-Qaeda hideouts in Afghanistan. Khaksar says the reason the U.S. hasn't been able to find Omar so far is that it is relying on "liars" and tribal chieftains who are using U.S. firepower to take revenge on their enemies. He claims to have information about al-Qaeda links to the ISI, the Pakistani intelligence agency that has been a key partner in the U.S. war on terror. In exchange for his information, Khaksar wants safe passage for his family...
...seems far-fetched that a tribal chieftain secluded in a villa in northern Tehran, his phone lines cut and official visits banned could pose any threat to neighboring Afghanistan. Hekmatyar has been holed up in Iran since being driven out of Kabul by the Taliban in 1996, and has little support, even his one-time followers, and lacks the war chest to raise an army. Most Afghanis loathe him as the commander responsible for reducing Kabul to rubble in a fierce power struggle with rival commanders that killed tens of thousands of people in the early 1990s. But his virulent...