Is Afghan president Hamid Karzai’s brother on the CIA payroll? The New York Times is reporting that Ahmed Wali Karzai, a Kandahar strongman and reputed big-wig in the country’s illegal opium trade, has been receiving cash for eight years in exchange for tilting local militias in the direction of NATO rather than the Taliban. The Karzais are fighting back, and have published a rebuttal on the Daily Beast website. But all of this raises the question of motive. Could somebody be trying to ensure that Hamid Karzai (now deeply unpopular with the West) loses the upcoming run-off election?