By : BBC Monitoring

- Close ties with the CIA

- Worked for American oil company, Unocal

The head of the new Afghan provisional government is a "true patriot", despite long-standing ties with the USA. Sources quoted by the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan report that Karzai changed from being an early supporter of the Taleban to leading an undercover resistance against them. Karzai warned the West early on about the influence of Usamah Bin-Ladin and now has full US support. The following is the text of the report, published on the newspaper's web site on 11 December:

Al-Watan has received new, important information about secret ties existing between Hamed Karzai, head of the Afghan provisional government, and the Americans from well-informed US and European diplomatic sources. The information confirms that Karzai has cooperated with the Americans since the years of Afghan jihad [war] against the Soviets in the 1980s and that he has ties with the CIA. The information also confirms that Karzai, in coordination and cooperation with the CIA, carried out a large-scale covert operation inside Afghanistan with the objective of igniting a popular uprising against the Taleban regime. According to this information, Karzai was in fact the main Afghan leader the administration of President Bush relied on to work against the [Taleban] regime of Mola Mohammad Omar from the inside.

The same sources told Al-Watan that, after Karzai was elected head of the provisional government, the Bush administration made "pledges" to him to protect his government against any foreign interference or obstacles and to help him succeed in his new mission. However, the same sources noted that Karzai, who will officially assume his duties on 22 December to become Afghanistan's first man, is not "America's stooge or man who implements its instructions", but "a true patriot".

Hamed Karzai, 44, comes from a respectable family, which has influence in the ranks of Pashtuns, who make up the majority in Afghanistan. His grandfather was speaker of the parliament in the monarchical era. On the other hand, his father was a deputy and assumed several high-level posts during the rule of King Mohammad Zaher Shah. Hamed Karzai's relationship with the Americans started in the mid-1980s, when he was living in Pakistan during the years of Afghan jihad against the Soviets. At the time, he acted as an intermediary and link between the groups of Afghan mojahedin [fighters] and the Americans. As a result, he helped secure the delivery of various kinds of weapons and aid to those mojahedin. Karzai's relationship with the CIA started at that time, since the CIA was a major party that was assigned to follow up the Afghan file.

Since then, Karzai's ties with the Americans have not been interrupted. At the same time, he established ties with the British and other European and international sides, especially after he became deputy foreign minister in 1992 in the wake of the Afghan mojahedin's assumption of power and the overthrow of the pro-Moscow Najibollah regime. Karzai found no contradiction between his ties with the Americans and his support for the Taleban movement as of 1994, when the Americans had - secretly and through the Pakistanis - supported the Taleban's assumption of power to put an end to the civil war and the actual partition of Afghanistan due to the failure of Borhanoddin Rabbani's experience in ruling the country. At the time, Karzai worked as a consultant for the huge US oil group Unocal, which had supported the Taleban movement and sought to construct a pipeline to transport oil and gas from the Islamic republics of Central Asia to Pakistan via Afghanistan. However, Karzai's relationship with the Taleban did not last long, since he moved away from the movement immediately after it assumed power in 1996 and turned down the movement's offer to appoint him as its ambassador to the United Nations.

The same sources disclosed to Al-Watan that Karzai began to work against the Taleban regime in 1997, and it was then, in his talks with US officials and diplomats, that he began to stress that "Usamah Bin-Ladin and the Arabs have occupied Afghanistan and become the decision-makers in this country". He also began to strongly suggest that the Americans provide real support to an armed Afghan movement, which would work from the inside to overthrow the Taleban regime and get rid of Bin-Ladin and his men "before a big disaster happens". Since 1999, Karzai has expressed his willingness to enter Afghanistan secretly and to work, in secret coordination and cooperation with the Americans, to ignite a popular uprising, especially within the ranks of the Pashtuns, against the Taleban regime. The Americans, however, rejected his request. Despite this US rejection, Karzai started making contacts with the Pashtun tribal chiefs and leaders from his place of residence in Pakistan to incite them against the Taleban regime. As a result of Karzai's secret activity, armed men of the Taleban assassinated his father, Abdol Ahad, in 1999.

A major development occurred in the wake of the 11 September terrorist operation and the Bush administration's decision to wage war in Afghanistan to overthrow the Taleban regime and eliminate Usamah Bin-Ladin, his men and the Al-Qa'idah organization. According to Al-Watan, Hamed Karzai drew up a plan at the time, on which he briefed US officials. According to this plan, Karzai, along with a group of his men, would secretly enter southern Afghanistan to contact and meet with the Pashtun tribal chiefs and leaders in the provinces of Kandahar, Zabol, Urozgan, and Helmand to encourage them to stage an armed popular uprising against the Taleban regime. At the same time, an expanded Afghan national assembly (Loya Jerga) would be convened for the purpose of forming a new Afghan leadership to replace the Taleban regime.

Karzai obtained the support of former King Mohammad Zaher Shah for this plan. The Americans, including CIA officials, also told him they would support this plan and that they were ready to send arms to Afghans who split from the Taleban. The Americans, however, asked him to wait and not to head to southern Afghanistan before giving him the green light. This is what happened, indeed, and Hamed Karzai and a group of his men left secretly for southern Afghanistan on 8 October, 24 hours after the US war started. Karzai did this in coordination with US officials, with the knowledge and approval of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and CIA Director George Tenet.

Since his entry into Afghanistan, Karzai has been in daily contact with CIA officials stationed in Pakistan or in northern Afghanistan. Through a private telephone line, Karzai briefed these officials on the substance of his meetings with the Pashtun tribal chiefs and leaders, his movements and the routes he would follow so that US forces could intervene to rescue him if he was attacked by the Taleban forces. After the Taleban forces killed Afghan commander Abdol Haq on 21 October, when Karzai was on a mission to ignite an uprising against the regime of Mola Omar, the Americans offered to send US special forces to protect and escort him in his movements, but he rejected this. In early November, some Taleban forces encircled a position where Karzai and his men were stationed. Karzai informed the Americans, who quickly sent military helicopters to rescue him.

Following the fall of Kabul, Karzai, in coordination with the Americans, held secret contacts with Mola Omar and some of his close associates to convince the Taleban leader and his forces to lay down their weapons and officially give up power. But Mola Omar had rejected this demand until last week, when he yielded, agreed to surrender and withdrew his forces from Kandahar and other areas.

The same sources told Al-Watan that, despite his strong and special relationship with the Americans, Hamed Karzai is not "America's man in Afghanistan" and is not the Americans' stooge who implements their instructions. In fact, according to the sources, Karzai is "a true patriot and a skilled politician and diplomat, who is characterized by his realism, moderation, openness and desire to resolve disputes and settle problems through dialogue and negotiations and sometimes through bargaining, not through confrontation and military force". After he officially assumes his duties on 22 December, Karzai's priority is to work to achieve national reconciliation and find a formula for peaceful coexistence among the various Afghan factions and forces to achieve security and stability and pave the way for reconstructing Afghanistan.

The same sources told Al-Watan that the Bush administration has promised Hamed Karzai that it will play an active role in encouraging Afghanistan's neighbours, led by Pakistan, Iran, and Russia, to play a positive role in assisting the new Afghan leader and not to place obstacles in his way. The Bush administration has also promised Karzai that it will provide all the necessary US and international "political, diplomatic, military, and security support" to back the new Afghan regime and prevent a repetition of the Usamah Bin-Ladin and Mola Mohammad Omar experience in Afghanistan.

From BBC Monitoring