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| Afghanistan |
| Karzai sacks intelligence chief |
| 2004-02-05 |
| President Hamid Karzai removed Muhammad Arif Sarwari, the head of the National Security Directorate, the Afghan intelligence service, on Wednesday in a move that many here took as a sign of Mr. Karzai’s growing confidence. The dismissal, announced by the official Bakhtar news agency, came amid a flurry of new appointments in the last week, including four new provincial governors and many new regional police chiefs. The appointments, coming soon after the approval of a new constitution, are part of a drive to improve efficiency and governance, aides to the president said, as well as an indication of Mr. Karzai’s increasing influence. Foreign diplomats and military, United Nations and human rights officials had long called for Mr. Sarwari’s removal. The National Security Directorate, designed along the lines of the KGB, is a Soviet-era relic that was criticized in the last two years for human rights abuses, spying on citizens and serving factional interests rather than the interests of the president and the country. Some Western diplomats have cast aspersions on the directorate’s performance on intelligence matters. Mr. Sarwari is a Panjshiri, a member of the powerful clique from the Panjshir Valley, which still dominates the key ministries of foreign affairs, defense and intelligence in Mr. Karzai’s government. He was removed by presidential decree and appointed as an adviser to the president without portfolio. Replacing Mr. Sarwari will open the way to modernizing the intelligence service, a presidential aide said. Mr. Sarwari’s replacement has not been announced, but officials said it was likely to be Amrullah Saleh, a former assistant to the intelligence chief and also a Pansjhiri. Mr. Saleh, younger than Mr. Sarwari, well educated and an English speaker, has served until now as the chief liaison officer with the foreign military and diplomatic corps in Kabul. Mr. Sarwari served as the head of intelligence for the Northern Alliance during its resistance to the Taliban in the years before the American invasion in 2001, and was in charge when the alliance’s leader, Ahmed Shah Massoud, was assassinated by suspected Al Qaeda operatives on Sept. 9, 2001. Although blamed by some for that grave security lapse, Mr. Sarwari, better known as Engineer Arif, became head of the National Security Directorate in Kabul when the Northern Alliance took control there in December 2001. In a speech to the loya jirga, or grand council, Mr. Karzai spoke passionately about the need to abolish a service that spies on its own people. The council approved the constitution a month ago. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #18 Its like living in town where there are a thousand town meetings every day and you can go to as many as you like. Apt analogy, phil. Especially since every so often one of the village idiots stumbles through the door to amuse us... |
| Posted by: Pappy 2004-2-5 11:07:18 PM |
| #17 "Modernizing the intel service." Maybe they could give us some ideas??? |
| Posted by: Anonymous2U 2004-2-5 6:51:47 PM |
| #16 In a sense the Internet has taken us back 200 years to before the days of mass media and the consenses they manufacture. Its like living in town where there are a thousand town meetings every day and you can go to as many as you like. Never again will elites be able to impose their views through bias, spin and false dichotomies. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2004-2-5 6:28:47 PM |
| #15 Our weapon of choice is truth, intelligently intertwined around smartassery to mask its power during its subtle intrusion into their limited minds. Damn, that's good.... worked on me. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-2-5 5:57:17 PM |
| #14 I like Uncle Cecil's motto Fightin Ingnorance since 1973 |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-2-5 4:50:32 PM |
| #13 Tony: It's actually faculty, students, alumni, and associates of the University of Rantburg (UR, nor RU), with the expressed motto of "Live Free Through Better Intelligence". Our mission is to educate the rest of the self-inflicted, self-inflated dumba$$es into why their leftist, victim mentality is unworthy of continued support. Our secondary goal is to seek out, understand, and destroy those cultures who wish to enslave us with their seventh-century stupidity. Our weapon of choice is truth, intelligently intertwined around smartassery to mask its power during its subtle intrusion into their limited minds. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2004-2-5 4:10:19 PM |
| #12 Is it citizen on Rantburg or citizen of Rantburg. Certainly when I come here I feel I'm among like minds! |
| Posted by: Tony (UK) 2004-2-5 3:31:11 PM |
| #11 He was removed by presidential decree and appointed as an adviser to the president without portfolio I guess that means they gave him a title and a paycheck to keep him from becoming an enemy. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer..as they say. PS DAN - by leaving out the smartassery, it just gives the rest of us a blank canvas to work on without having to go find our own articles. Thanks |
| Posted by: B 2004-2-5 11:11:56 AM |
| #10 Key smartassery for the above - how this intell chief screwed up by not stopping the assasination of Massoud. Which, BTW, took place on Sept 10th, 2001. The guys were AQ agents posing as journalists - not a very good job of vetting them was done. If Massoud had lived, the post war Afghan political situation would have been very different to say the least. All of the above sounds like good news. Karzai is gradually gaining control over the central govt, and limiting the role of the Panjshiri-Northern Alliance types - but doing it subtly and moderately - he didnt replace the old intell chief with a Pashtun, but with another more "modernist" Panjshiri. Also by appointing new provincial governors, he is extending the writ of the central govt in the provinces. He is even pushing it west, hemming in the turf of "moderate" islamist warlord Ismail Khan, the "emir" of Herat. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2004-2-5 9:31:21 AM |
| #9 Rantburg: Now with 20% more smartassery (and fresh lemony scent)! |
| Posted by: Dar 2004-2-5 8:02:35 AM |
| #8 Hear! Hear! |
| Posted by: phil_b 2004-2-5 6:29:50 AM |
| #7 One small correction, Dan: neither you, nor I, nor any citizen on Rantburg will ever be enslaved in the Khalifah. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2004-2-5 1:45:46 AM |
| #6 LOL, I don't plan to, guys. I'm in this one for the long haul, same as Fred and the rest of you. We keep on Rantburging until the war ends or we're all dead or enslaved in the Khalifah. That's what it'll take and I think we're more than up to the challenge. |
| Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-2-5 1:06:24 AM |
| #5 DD, but don't ever go away! |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-2-5 12:59:40 AM |
| #4 Yeah, I get about halfway through D's articles and really feel a need for a pith break. |
| Posted by: 4thInfVet 2004-2-5 12:29:27 AM |
| #3 Yeah, let's have some smartassery!!! |
| Posted by: Rafael 2004-2-5 12:29:20 AM |
| #2 Sorry, I normally post these articles before going to bed and am generally rather tired, hence the noticeable lack of commentary. I figure they're good in of themselves for the information, though. That and I don't know a thing about the internal politicking of the Northern Alliance ;) |
| Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-2-5 12:28:41 AM |
| #1 Dan: you do yeoman's work which I appreciate, but could you, like, break up these longish articles with some pithy commentary? |
| Posted by: someone 2004-2-5 12:26:51 AM |