Karzai drug claims prompt questions about Presidents state of mind

Jerome Starkey, Kabul & ,}

Controversial claims by a former UN envoy that Hamid Karzai has taken drugs are formed on a personal inform about hold up in the presidential house in Kabul, horse opera officials have told The Times.

Peter Galbraith, the former emissary head of the UN mission in Afghanistan, told the US network MSNBC about the allegations connected with the Afghan President.

Although Mr Karzais war-ravaged nation is well well known for the fender drug harvest most of that is converted in to heroin prior to it is exported The Times understands that Mr Galbraiths remarks do not impute to heroin.

Asked to uphold his claim, Mr Galbraith pronounced only: There are reports to that outcome but, whatever the means is, the being is he can be really emotional.

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Two officials who have seen the inform pronounced that it minute the Presidents likes, his dislikes, whom he trusts inside of his middle round and how he relaxes. The document, that amounts to out-of-date espionage, was compiled by Western analysts during Mr Galbraith"s short reign in Kabul, the officials told The Times.

Although the allegations are doubtful to means most of a stir in Afghanistan, where smoking drug is as hackneyed as carrying a splash after work, it will raise serve questions about Mr Karzais state of mind days after a array of sarcastic outbursts opposite his horse opera paymasters. Mr Karzai has a reputation for being loyal, both to his brothers who helped to lift him and to the American bodyguards who once saved his life, but he is additionally notoriously rarely strung. Mr Galbraith said: Hes disposed to tirades, he can be really emotional, action impulsively.

A minute form with the title Karzai in his labyrinth, published last Aug in The New York Times, embellished a design of a tortured personality enormous underneath the claustrophobic vigour of his job. His friends told me he has health problems. Hes skin and bones. He regularly has a cold or a cough and takes gaseous vitamin C tablets compulsively, wrote Elizabeth Rubin. He snaps easily. Promotes flatterers. Kills the messenger. Hugs his enemies. Abuses his friends. And his twitching eye a nervous tic, [friends] contend is scarcely active.

Although aides explain that Mr Karzais ultimate outbursts opposite America and the EU were misunderstood, he has described his rage as an asset. When needed, my impassioned toughness with the allies is an item I wish the Afghan people to have if they select so, he said. He does, however, cry a lot in private, sources told The Times.

Abdullah Abdullah, his second-placed presidential rival, pronounced that he thought the President was working erratically. I think hes lost it, he said.