Karzai’s brother threatens reporter
McClatchy’s Tom Lasseter describes an interesting encounter with Ahmed Wali Karzai, head of the Kandahar provincial council, brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and accused drug trafficker. According to Lasseter’s account, Karzai became irritated with questions about his ties to the poppy trade: He began to glare at me and questioned whether I was really ...
McClatchy's Tom Lasseter describes an interesting encounter with Ahmed Wali Karzai, head of the Kandahar provincial council, brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and accused drug trafficker.
McClatchy’s Tom Lasseter describes an interesting encounter with Ahmed Wali Karzai, head of the Kandahar provincial council, brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and accused drug trafficker.
According to Lasseter’s account, Karzai became irritated with questions about his ties to the poppy trade:
He began to glare at me and questioned whether I was really a reporter.
“It seems like someone sent you to write these things,” he said, scowling.
Karzai glared some more.
“You should leave right now,” he said.
I stuck my hand out to shake his; if I learned anything from three years of reporting in Iraq and then trips to Afghanistan during the past couple of years, it’s that when things turn bad, you should cling to any remaining shred of hospitality.
Karzai grabbed my hand and used it to give me a bit of a push into the next room. He followed me, and his voice rose until it was a scream of curse words and threats.
I managed to record just one full sentence: “Get the (expletive) out before I kick your (expletive).”
(Hat Tip: TransMission)
Joshua Keating is a former associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating
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