Afghan President Hamid Karzai has frequently lashed out at the US military for causing civilian casualties in its raids. But behind the scenes, he has been building a far broader case against the Americans, suggesting that they may have aided or conducted shadowy insurgent-style attacks to undermine his government, the Washington Post reported quoting senior Afghan officials.
Karzai has formalized his suspicions with a list of dozens of attacks that he believes the US government may have been involved in, according to one palace official. The list even includes the recent bomb and gun assault on a Lebanese restaurant in Kabul, one of the bloodiest acts targeting the international community in Afghanistan, the official said. The attack, which left 21 people dead, including three Americans, was almost universally attributed to the Taliban.
But Karzai believes it was one of many incidents that may have been planned by Americans to weaken him and foment instability in Afghanistan, according to the senior palace official, who is sympathetic to the president’s view and spoke on the condition of anonymity. He acknowledged that his government had no concrete evidence of US involvement and that the American role had not been formally confirmed.
US officials, who have been informed of some of the claims, have reacted with incredulity and anger to the idea that they are trying to debilitate Afghanistan’s government, which they have supported with hundreds of billions of dollars.
“It’s a deeply conspiratorial view that’s divorced from reality,” US Ambassador James B. Cunningham said Monday. He suggested that one reason for the allegations might be to “throw us off balance.”
The revelation of Karzai’s list helps explain why it has been so hard to conclude a security agreement that would leave thousands of US troops in Afghanistan after the formal end of American military operations this year. Many US and Afghan officials believe that accord is vital to this country’s long-term stability, but the Afghan leader has not signed it.
US officials and analysts offer a variety of theories for why Karzai has come to accuse his American counterparts of deeply insidious behavior. Conscious of his legacy, he might be looking to raise his profile by confronting a superpower, some say. Or, in shifting suspicion for major attacks from the Taliban to the United States, he might be trying to endear himself to the insurgents in hopes of a reconciliation, others speculate.
Top Afghan officials say that in the past, Karzai or his advisers have shared such allegations with high-level US officials.
In the wake of the Jan. 17 bombing of the popular La Taverna du Liban restaurant, which sent a shock wave through the expatriate community in Kabul, the palace issued a statement blaming “foreign intelligence services.” Most observers assumed that was a veiled reference to Pakistan, which is often accused of aiding the Taliban. But Afghan officials now say the language was intentionally vague, to reflect what they saw as possible US involvement.
Senior Afghan officials even considered a public statement that would have made their suspicions of American involvement more explicit, according to the palace official and US sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.