A Puppet's Tale

[BarakzaiAbdali]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/ma...ding.html?_r=0

Interesting tidbits with my criticisms:

"Hamid is ineligible to run for a third term, and it had been long rumored in Kabul that he would anoint his brother Qayum as his successor. Mahmood had made it clear that he wanted the presidency to stay in the family; he had even begun to raise campaign funds for Qayum, just as he once had for Hamid."


Comment: Interesting to see nepotism in action. Fascinating how secular militants hold others to idealistic standards but then rationalize this completely farcical excuse for how power will pass on.

All this, along with Karzai’s angry rhetoric against the alleged misdeeds of his American backers, had caused some tensions around the family table. “I don’t feel comfortable talking to Hamid these days,” Mahmood said as we rode in his armored Land Cruiser, sandwiched between pickup trucks full of troops. “These ridiculous conspiracy theories. And his cynical view of the West. These ideas aren’t helping Afghanistan. I don’t think he understands the importance of a good economic policy.”

Comment: Mehmuda (feminized form) shut your big mouth. No one believes a word of this act of brothers at odds. This is a choreographed conflict and everyone with a brain understands this

“See over there — the grave with the old carved headstone?” he said. “That was my grandfather, the real leader of the family. He migrated to Karz from the west of the province and bought this land.”

Comment: Looks like AbbassinAfghan was right about Karzai's supposed roots being separate when the grandfather/spy Moin Jan generated links to the part of the province Karzai always touts as his ancestoral homeland.

"From the graveyard, we headed on into Karz, where the brothers spent their childhood. Low mud-brick houses flanked the road. “Imagine having to live in these conditions!” Mahmood said. “If I had my way, I’d demolish the entire village, rehouse everyone in apartments and turn this space over to agriculture.”

Comment: Mehmooda you are an idiot. Villagers' own lands are their own land and you trying to Chinafy them is ludicrous and retarded. Remember Zar, Zamin, Zan? You try and touch a Pashtun's zmaka and see what happens to your face.

Comment: Also, you admitted you are an implant to the area so you have no right to tell the villagers to live in any way, shape, or form.

After decades in the United States, where he started an Afghan restaurant chain, it all seemed a bit of a surprise to him: “Imagine hanging up goat meat in the sun in this heat! So unhygienic. . . . And all these people just sitting there. Do they have nothing to do, for crying out loud?

Comment: They could be Sharabyaan like you and get ahead by doing stupid crap. Also instead of stealing Kabul Bank Funds, their do nothing approach appears to be better for them then your do something approach

Just look how weak the retail community is here. Call these shops? What era are we in — the Roman Empire?”

Comment: You got your history wrong fool. The Romans were advanced with their kitchen war and structure and bathing.

I had asked to see the house where the brothers grew up, but after several false turns, we still couldn’t find the place. None of them had been back for years, not least because the village is now in the hands of a rival leader of the clan, their cousin Hashmat Karzai, and relations between the two factions of the family are not cordial

Comment: You cannot even find your own "ancestoral" house??? Are you really that much of a puppet and stooge and implant?

‘Nothing left at all? Just an empty space?” Hamid Karzai dropped a cherry into his mouth. “Not even the outbuildings?”

Another cherry followed the first: “I haven’t seen it since the 1980s, but I remember it all so well.” He paused to extract the two stones, lining them up neatly on a plate in front of him. “It was a typical Afghan village house,” he continued. “A mud house. With a long tunnel leading in from the main gate on the street. That was where I was born.”

Comment: If the moronic thief brother cannot find his house that is one thing... but the President himself has not, in over a decade even tried to see his "ancestoral" house? Wa da kharijaan da laas aala; potlaay yey aw weh.

More to come.

[Shah-i-Kot]

Inside Kabul's one garden of tranquillity – Hamid Karzai’s presidential palace











Evgeny Lebedev


Friday 22 November 2013









Kabul was once known as the ‘city of gardens’. Five hundred
years ago, when the Timurids and then the Mongols made it a capital
from which to maraud across Central Asia, walled enclaves were
built as havens from the harshness of the desert and mountains.


Lines of trees were planted, flowerbeds laid, and fruit grown. The Mongol Emperor Babur was even buried in his garden in Kabul, his tomb ordered left open so wild flowers could grow around him.
Such tranquillity is rare nowadays in war-torn Afghanistan. Yet one significant remnant still survives. It does so perhaps in the most unlikely spot of all: the presidential palace that serves as the heart of the country’s government.
You would not know from the outside. First laid out in 1883, the building was built as a fortress complete with a moat. These are now augmented by blast walls and rolls of razor wire.
Visitors pass through four checkpoints, have all personal belongings – even pens and cigarettes – removed, and are scrutinised by sniffer dogs. Inside, however, is a different world. Roses bloom and gnarled trees provide welcome shade. Uniformed gardeners diligently keep the lawns manicured.
The ambience harks back to the site’s pre-Taliban incarnation as home to Afghanistan’s royal family. Indeed the children of the last king, Mohammad Zahir Shah, still have a house within its 83 acres.
Karzai drinking tea in his private apartment. The President is said to be a huge fan of the ‘English country style’ of interiors Food is served on white, linen tablecloths. Paintings of pastoral scenes hang in waiting rooms. The furniture is painted gold, and the curtains made from rich maroon cloth. At times the effect may be more Hyatt Regency than Palace of Versailles, yet the intent is one of refined civility.
Only the ever-present security cracks the illusion. Dark-suited security guards lurk in corridors. An official escort has to accompany visitors from one building to the next.
Even the President, Hamid Karzai, cannot move freely. Security guards trail behind him, ear-pieces in place and bulges under their jackets. Each morning, two black Land Cruisers shadow him the hundred yards across the palace to his work from the house he shares with his wife and two young children.
The palace may be his office and also his home but, whatever its cultivated tranquillity, this is clearly no haven. Danger lurks just as it does on the far side of its turreted walls.

Evgeny Lebedev is the owner of the Evening Standard and The Independent newspapers.
Follow @mrevgenylebedev

Photographs by Lalage Snow


Inside Kabul's one garden of tranquillity

[Shah-i-Kot]

while Pashtun children are being killed outside his comfy palace, puppet Karzai is worried about his son knowing the words "ministry of defense."

[Kushan Prince]

For the sake of the future of Afghanistan, i hope his son doesn't become a politician.

The Popolazai's have ruined and sold Afghanistan quite enough.

[Admin Khan]

[MENTION=1772]BarakzaiAbdali[/MENTION]

I think it would be silly, and unfair, for you or for anyone to assume that Karzai either:

A)Controls his own destiny
B)Has any guts/balls, to say what he really feels like saying

He was installed as a puppet, and will remain a puppet. Even these 'outbursts' are more than likely approved by the US, as some sort of psy-ops, to sort of give Physicians and Engineers, like you and me, the false paradigm that he, somehow, is indeed independent in his decisions, and without a doubt he heads a 'sovereign' nation.

About 4 years ago, in PF, I said I don't consider any nation who has foreign troops in their nation as 'sovereign'. The aforementioned also applies to South Korea, Germany, and Japan of course. When you have an American citizens fighting on your behalf, albeit for their own interests as well, you simply can't assume they will look out for your national interests.

Best,

[BarakzaiAbdali]

[MENTION=1772]BarakzaiAbdali[/MENTION]

I think it would be silly, and unfair, for you or for anyone to assume that Karzai either:

A)Controls his own destiny
B)Has any guts/balls, to say what he really feels like saying

He was installed as a puppet, and will remain a puppet. Even these 'outbursts' are more than likely approved by the US, as some sort of psy-ops, to sort of give Physicians and Engineers, like you and me, the false paradigm that he, somehow, is indeed independent in his decisions, and without a doubt he heads a 'sovereign' nation.

About 4 years ago, in PF, I said I don't consider any nation who has foreign troops in their nation as 'sovereign'. The aforementioned also applies to South Korea, Germany, and Japan of course. When you have an American citizens fighting on your behalf, albeit for their own interests as well, you simply can't assume they will look out for your national interests.

Best,

Thanks Admin.

I expect a lot out of leaders... perhaps too much when they are not leaders, but instead politicians (perhaps why I loathe politicians)

I think you probably heard the story a few years ago that circulates in the circles of Kandahar expats -

I never saw it documented but heard it from the elders.

One smart thing Hamid Karzai tried to do initially when he was securing the surrender of Kandahar was to let Mullah Omar and some of the other Quetta shura members put down their arms and live in Kandahar - though they were to surrender the city.

It was a purely Kandahar jirga with Naqeeb et al that drew up this set of terms.

It was all set to go - but then when Karzai conveyed the plan to Rumsfeld, the latter said that he would accept nothing less than the arrest or death of the Mullah Omar.

This is my point - Karzai from the get go appears to have an understanding, to some degree of how things work locally. It may have resulted in re-establishing the Khan in the hujra and the mullah in the madrassa/masjid paradigm in many villages and Pashtun areas. A return of balance would have occurred probably and folks would have been able to keep the central shura under watch.

Karzai apparently tried to discuss it further with Rumsfeld but ended up relenting.

I mean - people need to recognize that was a crucial failure of leadership. An Afghan leader with independence should have told Rumsfeld: Idiot, we know our people - if we do not pursue things this way we are buying ourselves a delayed insurgency. And that is exactly what happened at the end of it all.

That single decision has led to the subsequent chaos, need to install idiot Abdurrazzaq, resulting killing of lots of Noorzai innocents, etc.

You can check that out and ask your own relatives back there, but I am 98% certain that the story is true.

On the one hand every other guy like Sayyaf and Dostum who are clear killers are sitting in parliament and jirgas, but Karzai could not tell Rumsfeld that out of all the guys with bloody hands, this guy probably has even less than those guys?

This is why issue with him really. Its not simply the document where he is going to renege on autonomy and immunity and night raids... but those initial decisions that made it so that it progressed to this.

They needed him in that early stage more than he needed them and he should have told them - hey idiot Rumsfeld - you either let me navigate the waters of Kandahar in a way that is going to avert problems or I walk.

Instead he let an angreez moron who people here consider a sneaky bas-tard light the match that lit the fire.

Word got to the shura members and they were on motorbikes straight out to begin to lay the foundations of the longest war in American history.

A child could have predicted that outcome.

[Admin Khan]

Thanks Admin.

I expect a lot out of leaders... perhaps too much when they are not leaders, but instead politicians (perhaps why I loathe politicians)

I think you probably heard the story a few years ago that circulates in the circles of Kandahar expats -

I never saw it documented but heard it from the elders.

One smart thing Hamid Karzai tried to do initially when he was securing the surrender of Kandahar was to let Mullah Omar and some of the other Quetta shura members put down their arms and live in Kandahar - though they were to surrender the city.

It was a purely Kandahar jirga with Naqeeb et al that drew up this set of terms.

It was all set to go - but then when Karzai conveyed the plan to Rumsfeld, the latter said that he would accept nothing less than the arrest or death of the Mullah Omar.

This is my point - Karzai from the get go appears to have an understanding, to some degree of how things work locally. It may have resulted in re-establishing the Khan in the hujra and the mullah in the madrassa/masjid paradigm in many villages and Pashtun areas. A return of balance would have occurred probably and folks would have been able to keep the central shura under watch.

Karzai apparently tried to discuss it further with Rumsfeld but ended up relenting.

I mean - people need to recognize that was a crucial failure of leadership. An Afghan leader with independence should have told Rumsfeld: Idiot, we know our people - if we do not pursue things this way we are buying ourselves a delayed insurgency. And that is exactly what happened at the end of it all.

That single decision has led to the subsequent chaos, need to install idiot Abdurrazzaq, resulting killing of lots of Noorzai innocents, etc.

You can check that out and ask your own relatives back there, but I am 98% certain that the story is true.

On the one hand every other guy like Sayyaf and Dostum who are clear killers are sitting in parliament and jirgas, but Karzai could not tell Rumsfeld that out of all the guys with bloody hands, this guy probably has even less than those guys?

This is why issue with him really. Its not simply the document where he is going to renege on autonomy and immunity and night raids... but those initial decisions that made it so that it progressed to this.

They needed him in that early stage more than he needed them and he should have told them - hey idiot Rumsfeld - you either let me navigate the waters of Kandahar in a way that is going to avert problems or I walk.

Instead he let an angreez moron who people here consider a sneaky bas-tard light the match that lit the fire.

Word got to the shura members and they were on motorbikes straight out to begin to lay the foundations of the longest war in American history.

A child could have predicted that outcome.

I've heard of that story, and what you mentioned is factually accurate. Right now, he is hard at work to 'protect his legacy', but fact is, what legacy is there to 'protect'?

[Bost Bastan News]

Mr Barakzai, are you calling our Excellency´s family a family of sell-outs and criminals? What do you people know about ruling a country like Afghanistan? You call the grand-father of our Excellency Mr. Hamid Karzai a british spy while you forget that the Barakzai tribe was their servants. The British promoted the Barakzai nationalism in Afghanistan, particularely among Pashtuns and gave them the right to rule Afghanistan, millions of pounds, weapons and in return the British Empire had the right to dominate Afghanistan´s foreign policy. In war times they even supported your tribe with men-power and Indian-Pathan soldiers. If you call other people spy or agents than don´t forget your own role in the history. Who sold Pashtun lands to the Indo-British Empire?

[ComradePashtun]

Tell your Excellency to prove Barakzai wrong and not make a fool out of himself by caving in again. Only then will all his past deeds be wiped off.

Just as the Hazara servile swines have made the offer to Americans for an extra and tenth military base in Bamyan, and since the real representatives of Pashtuns were not present in the Jirga, we expect Karzai to do what is best in the interest of Pashtuns. So far the Americans have only brought death and destruction and societal decline for us Pashtuns.

We want peace with our fellow Pashtuns, not a U.S. military base. Get this to your Excellency loud and clear. Tell him to hold true to his words and his guns just for once. A starting point should the U.S. to make reparation to us Pashtuns and Afghanistan for its atrocities first and then we can talk about BSA. But I doubt you Bostan, you will sign the BSA and the Americans will commit yet further atrocities and bring death and destruction to us what Karzai has now openly acknowledged to have been perpetrated.

[Bost Bastan News]

Tell your Excellency to prove Barakzai wrong and not make a fool out of himself by caving in again. Only then will all his past deeds be wiped off.

Just as the Hazara servile swines have made the offer to Americans for an extra and tenth military base in Bamyan, and since the real representatives of Pashtuns were not present in the Jirga, we expect Karzai to do what is best in the interest of Pashtuns. So far the Americans have only brought death and destruction and societal decline for us Pashtuns.

We want peace with our fellow Pashtuns, not a U.S. military base. Get this to your Excellency loud and clear. Tell him to hold true to his words and his guns just for once. A starting point should the U.S. to make reparation to us Pashtuns and Afghanistan for its atrocities first and then we can talk about BSA. But I doubt you Bostan, you will sign the BSA and the Americans will commit yet further atrocities and bring death and destruction to us what Karzai has now openly acknowledged to have been perpetrated.

You don´t know anything. You just talk what serve your non-existent private ''pride''. 62.24% of the participants were Pashtuns from south and north, yet some clueless people here want us to divert reality. If Hazaras wish a base in Bamian than it´s their choise. That base will bring work and money to them. It will ensure education, schools, hospitals and improvement. If people in Kandahar are against such bases (27% of the participants were from Kandhaar) than they had voted against... Wthout US Afghanistan won´t survive. Neither Afghanistan nor the remnants of the former royal family, the real and historical sell-outs of Afghanistan and the real and main reasons for the chaos we have in Afghanistan. So, please, shut up. If you are against the BSA than come to Afghanistan. Give up your American or British or Denish or whatever identity and join ''your'' country. We don´t forbidde you to come ... but have a bit dignity and give up your citizenship in the west. Sitting in the wealthy west and enjoying wellfare and talking behind the sceen is one thing, but living here under the current situation is another thing.

[Bost Bastan News]

And if you call our Excellency a sell-out than why is the difference between him and those lazy fat Barakzai sell-outs who mostly today live in the west with millions of stolen dollars and enjoying life in night clubs or immobilias bought with the money of millions of Afghans? Someone from abroad has no right to talk about Afghanistan, its people or her government.

[khushal]

I heard of that story too and even afterwards in 2002, Karzai wanted to give Omar immunity in exchange for peace but rumsfeld again vetoed him.

In reality, Karezai is a puppet of the NA and the NA is using the US for its own interests. Pashtuns in afghansitan realize that their interests lies with the only organized pashtun group that can rival the NA. Love them or hate them but that is the fact.