WikiLeaks founder’s counsel claims in high court that Swedish judges were misled about sexual assault and rape allegations The European arrest warrant issued for the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, is invalid, the high court was told on Tuesday, because of significant discrepancies between its allegations of sexual assault and rape and the testimonies of two women he allegedly had sex with. The warrant details four allegations of unlawful coercion, sexual molestation and rape, relating to encounters between Assange and two Swedish women while on a trip to Stockholm last August. But Ben Emmerson QC, for Assange, said the warrant was a misinterpretation of the evidence and it was “surprising and disturbing” that Swedish district judges who requested Assange’s extradition had been misled. Emmerson was opening the latest step in the Australian’s attempt to avoid being sent to Sweden for questioning and possible charges which Assange has said he fears could pave the way for him to be further extradited to the US. There he could face charges relating to the leak of hundreds of thousands of classified government documents through WikiLeaks. An earlier appeal failed and Assange has appointed a new legal team which is taking a more conciliatory approach. Emmerson told Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Ousely that there was no evidence about there being a lack of consent in the encounters as appeared to be suggested in the wording of the arrest warrant. He said three of the allegations would not amount to criminal offences under English law. Emmerson said: “The senior district judge found that those factual allegations would establish dual criminality on the basis that lack of consent, and lack of reasonable belief in consent, may properly be inferred from the conduct described, particularly the references to ‘violence’ and a ‘design’ to ‘violate sexual integrity’. However, that description of conduct is not accurate. The arrest warrant misstates the conduct and is, by that reason alone, an invalid warrant.” Emmerson examined the witness testimonies of the encounters in graphic detail. Referring to evidence of an encounter on the night of 13 August given by a woman known as AA who was hosting Assange at her apartment, Emmerson said: “The appellant’s physical advances were initially welcomed but then it felt awkward since he was ‘rough and impatient’… they lay down in bed. AA was lying on her back and Assange was on top of her … AA felt that Assange wanted to insert his penis into her vagina directly, which she did not want since he was not wearing a condom … she did not articulate this. Instead she therefore tried to turn her hips and squeeze her legs together in order to avoid a penetration … AA tried several times to reach for a condom which Assange had stopped her from doing by holding her arms and bending her legs open and try to penetrate her with his penis without using a condom. AA says that she felt about to cry since she was held down and could not reach a condom and felt this could end badly.” But, Emmerson said, crucially there was no lack of consent sufficient for the unlawful coercion allegation, because “after a while Assange asked what AA was doing and why she was squeezing her legs together. AA told him that she wanted him to put a condom on before he entered her. Assange let go of AA’s arms and put on a condom which AA found.” Emmerson told the court the case did not hinge on whether Assange accepted this version of events and others relating to other incidents because there were no charges against him, but whether the arrest warrant in connection with them was valid on “strict and narrow” legal grounds. As if to illustrate the change of strategy by Assange’s new legal team, Emmerson said: “Nothing I say should be taken as denigrating the complainant, the genuineness of their feelings of regret, to trivialise their experience or to challenge whether they felt Assange’s conduct was disrespectful, discourteous, disturbing or even pushing at the boundaries of what they felt comfortable with.” Assange was in court with supporters including Vaughan Smith, the founder of the Frontline Club who is hosting his house arrest at Ellingham Hall in Norfolk, and John Pilger, the veteran investigative journalist. Assange arrived at about 9.15am, saying nothing to questions as he moved at a snail’s pace through a tight scrum of photographers. He was asked if he was looking forward to his latest day in court and whether he would take the case to the supreme court if he lost over the next two days. He said nothing. By the court railings, small groups of protesters gathered, including one carrying a banner saying: “Free Assange! Free Manning! End the wars.” Julian Assange WikiLeaks Rape Sweden Europe Robert Booth guardian.co.uk
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Subpoena from 3M would force defence secretary Liam Fox to answer claim under oath in US court Liam Fox, the defence secretary, may be forced to give evidence in a blackmail trial in the United States, the Guardian has learnt. The “unprecedented” legal action could make Fox the first serving British cabinet minister to give evidence in a serious legal case in America. The Guardian understands that US conglomerate 3M is preparing to serve Fox with a subpoena demanding that he gives evidence over a claim that he was aware of a threat to interfere with the award of a knighthood to 3M’s British-born chief executive. It has been alleged that a private equity partner of the Ministry of Defence demanded that 3M hand over $30m (£18.5m) or risk the embarrassment of the government interfering with the knighthood award to George Buckley, 3M’s chief executive. It has been alleged that Fox was party to a conversation about the alleged suggestion. A 3M subpoena would force Fox to answer the claim under oath. An email to the private equity company from 3M’s lawyers, seen by the Guardian, said: “We request that you accept subpoenas on [Fox's] behalf for the production of documents and deposition upon oral testimony.” 3M’s lawyers have yet to serve a subpoena on Fox. Harvey Boulter, chief executive of Porton Capital, which worked with the government to develop innovative technology to help combat MRSA, has been accused of blackmail and served with legal papers. Boulter and Porton Capital deny the claim. According to 3M’s lawyers, Boulter told them that if an earlier legal battle over the MRSA technology was not settled out of court he would use his political influence to interfere with Buckley’s recently awarded knighthood. The blackmail case is built on emails Boulter sent to 3M’s lawyers last month. “As a result of my meeting [with Fox] you ought to understand that David Cameron’s cabinet might very shortly be discussing the rather embarrassing situation of George [Buckley]‘s knighthood. It was discussed today,” Boulter said in one of the emails. “Governments are big and sometimes decisions in one part are not well co-ordinated.” Bill Brewer, 3M’s lawyer, said: “We are committed to determine who aided, abetted or participated with Boulter in any manner relative to the demands that were made to 3M during the weekend of 18 June.” The MoD has denied that Fox discussed the continuing legal case or Buckley’s knighthood. However, in a new statement, Boulter has again claimed that he and Fox discussed the litigation. The MoD declined to issue a fresh statement. Mark Stephens, a high-profile media lawyer with London firm Finers Stephens Innocent, said: “Calling a serving British cabinet ministers to give evidence is pretty unprecedented.” Stephens said that if the subpoena is served Fox would be pushed to give evidence in America or speak to US lawyers in a British court. Private equity Liam Fox United States Defence policy Rupert Neate guardian.co.uk
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Shakil Afridi, who helped track down Osama bin Laden using DNA samples, is being held by ISI in Pakistan Fears are growing for the safety of the Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA search for Osama bin Laden, as relations between Islamabad and Washington move closer towards breakdown. Pakistan threatened to pull its soldiers off its side of the border with Afghanistan on Tuesday in a tit-for-tat move after the US said it would hold back $800m (£500m) of military aid. The doctor who helped the CIA, Shakil Afridi, is being held by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency. The Guardian has revealed that Afridi had worked for the CIA in the weeks leading up to the raid on the Bin Laden compound in Abbottabad, northern Pakistan, in an attempt to collect DNA samples from those who lived in the house. The intelligence agency wanted to confirm suspicions that the al-Qaida leader and his family were hiding there. The detention of Afridi has introduced further tension to US-Pakistani ties, which had already been damaged by the killing of Bin Laden by US forces on 2 May. Washington is concerned that Pakistan is not hunting down the network that kept Bin Laden in Abbottabad for five years but is instead on a witch-hunt for those who helped the CIA track him down. The doctor, a senior government employee, was initially detained in Peshawar in the north-west but may have been transferred to custody in Islamabad. It is thought that he has not been formally charged, which is not unusual for someone being held by the ISI. The Pakistani authorities are holding him for working for a foreign intelligence agency, which carries harsh punishment, including the death penalty. The Guardian story was headline news in Pakistan on Tuesday but so far, government officials have offered no comment. The CIA was never sure that Bin Laden was hiding in the Abbottabad house, so the Pakistani doctor, who would have been paid handsomely for his work for the CIA, was hired to try to collect DNA samples from those in the house to see if they were Bin Laden family members. Afridi set up a fake vaccination programme to get access to the Bin Laden compound. In Abbottabad, an atmosphere of fear hangs over the town, with Pakistani intelligence agents having terrified the population into silence. Washington is to withhold $800m of military aid to Pakistan. Much of that money would have gone toward reimbursing Pakistan for the costs of keeping over 100,000 troops in the tribal area, guarding the porous border with Afghanistan, under a scheme known as Coalition Support Funds. “This is money we have already spent on this war,” Ahmad Mukhtar, Pakistan’s defence minister, said in an interview with Express 24/7, a Pakistani news channel. “The next step is that the government or armed forces will remove these soldiers from the border.” According to figures released by Congress, Washington has paid Pakistan $8.9bn in Coalition Support Funds since 2001. The money is meant to pay for the costs of maintaining the Pakistani troops in the tribal area. Pakistan’s armed forces are accused of allowing militants to sneak across the border, from safe havens in the tribal area, to carry out attacks in Afghanistan. However, Pakistan says it maintains 1,100 border checkpoints. If they were removed, Taliban would be able to pour across unhindered, a potential disaster for the coalition effort in Afghanistan. But Mukhtar’s comment are likely to be a warning shot, as pulling out those troops from the tribal area would create a sizeable security threat to Pakistan too. Pakistan Osama bin Laden Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Saeed Shah guardian.co.uk
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Climate secretary unveils a package of far-reaching reforms in the biggest shake-up of the electricity market since privatisation • Follow the day’s events and post your comments here Households and businesses across the UK face a future of power blackouts unless they help to pay for major new investments in the country’s creaking infrastructure, the energy secretary warned on Tuesday. “We have to stop dithering – you can have blackouts or you can have investment. Which do you want?” asked Chris Huhne, unveiling a package of far-reaching reforms in the biggest shake-up of the electricity market since privatisation. He said the UK’s energy infrastructure, from ageing power stations to an outdated grid, was in such poor state that it would cost scores of billions of pounds to overhaul, even without investment in low-carbon generation. Government estimates show the total investment required in both electricity and gas is likely to be £200bn by 2020. The reforms – to come into effect from 2013 – include new long-term contracts for renewable energy generation, a minimum price for carbon emissions from fossil fuel plants, and contracts that encourage companies to help their customers become more energy efficient. Huhne also ushered in a new “dash for gas”, inviting the construction of new gas-fired power stations with a promise that a new ” emissions performance standard ” would be set at a rate that favoured gas but blocked new coal-fired power. He promised this new regulation would not be reviewed until 2015, and any revision would not be retroactive, giving gas companies a clear window for investment. “We are sending a clear signal that we do want new gas,” he said. Some critics have labelled the reforms too expensive, claiming they would add hundreds of pounds in “green taxes” to already stretched consumer energy bills and penalise heavy industry. But Huhne rebuffed claims that investing in greener energy – one of the aims of the reforms, as well as improving the security of electricity supply – would lead to an increase in bills. “I am absolutely convinced that what we are doing is the best possible solution for the British consumer,” he said. Government estimates show that if the reforms are implemented, consumers are likely to see smaller rises in their energy bills in the next two decades than if the current market is allowed to continue. On previous policies, consumers would face an increase of about £200 on a yearly bill by 2030, but because of the reforms, this increase is likely to be limited to £160. Charles Hendry, a Conservative energy minister, backed up his coalition partner. “One of the reasons [the UK has] historically had the lowest prices is that we have not seen the necessary investments in the replacement of new power plants,” he said. Green campaigners are concerned that the UK may be locked into an over-reliance on gas – not least because Huhne himself blamed recent energy bill rises on soaring gas prices. Friends of the Earth pointed out that gas prices have risen 84% since 2004, and domestic energy bills by 90%. Over the same period, the costs of renewables have increased to only about 1% of energy bills. Andy Atkins, executive director, said: “If we keep relying on dirty imported energy and expensive nuclear to power our homes, we’ll all pay the price for years to come.” Others complained that the government had not done enough to break the “stranglehold” of the six biggest energy companies, from which 99% of consumers get their energy. John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, said: “They have been given a continued licence to pocket rather than save customers money. For millions of consumers, many now living in fuel poverty, this white paper just increased the amount they will have to fork out each year without fundamentally changing the foundations for a shift to an energy efficient and renewable energy economy – the only way customers can in future be protected from the rise in fossil fuel prices.” Energy Green economy Energy bills Consumer affairs Household bills Energy industry Chris Huhne Green politics Fiona Harvey guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …In New Hampshire, a five-member council has overruled the state legislature and cut off $1.8 million in funding to Planned Parenthood. The state’s Republican-dominated Executive Council, which must approve all state contracts greater than $10,000, has axed state funding for the group and removed its authority to dispense…
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Germany’s answer to MI6 faces difficult questions as Angela Merkel orders inquiry into security breach There may be high fences and security cameras around the building site in Berlin, but that wasn’t enough to prevent the blueprints for one of the city’s biggest construction projects from going missing. The site is for the headquarters of Germany’s answer to M16, making the loss all the more embarrassing. The spy agency is facing difficult questions after it emerged that it could not even keep the plans for its new hi-tech offices from going astray. According to a report in Focus magazine, the blueprints contained sensitive information relating to the security of the Berlin headquarters. The government has set up an investigation and requested a revision of security measures at the site. “It’s a serious issue and the government is interested in clearing up this case as quickly as possible,” said Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert. The blueprints showed highly sensitive areas of the headquarters, including its logistical nerve centre, anti-terror installations, emergency exits and alarm systems. The data, most likely stored on a USB stick, was stolen a year ago, public broadcaster ARD reported on Tuesday, citing an unnamed government official. The core of the building may now have to be redesigned, the TV station reported. The security leak is a huge embarrassment to the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany’s foreign intelligence agency. It is based in Pullach, a Bavarian village near Munich, but the government decided to move the agency to the capital following the terror attacks of 11 September 2001. The cost of the project had been estimated at €500m (£440m) but had risen to around €1.5bn. The headquarters, which will be located right next to where the wall once stood in the former east Berlin, are expected to be completed by 2014 and will house some 4,000 agency staff.Wolfgang Bosbach, a member of Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats and chairman of the parliamentary domestic affairs committee, expressed deep concern about the vanished blueprints. “This is a serious incident,” he told the Guardian, adding that it is still not clear if the blueprints had been stolen or mislaid due to “sloppiness”. “The big worry is that these plans have fallen into the wrong hands,” he said. “We could also lose the trust of our foreign partners, who may think: how can we give the Germans information and documents if they don’t look after them carefully?” Germany Europe Surveillance Angela Merkel guardian.co.uk
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Wave of condemnation for new law forbidding citizens from promoting academic, consumer or cultural boycotts Israeli civil rights groups have launched legal challenges to a new law that in effect bans citizens from calling for boycotts of Israeli goods, services, businesses or cultural or academic institutions. The passing of the law late on Monday night prompted a wave of criticism and condemnation in the Israeli press, with one eminent law professor describing it as “the blackest day in Knesset [Israeli parliament] history”. Gush Shalom, an organisation that campaigns for an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory, filed a petition to the supreme court, saying the new law was an attempt “to silence criticism against the government’s policies in general and its policies in the occupied territories in particular, and prevent an open and productive political discourse, which is the backbone of a democratic regime”. The Association of Civil Rights in Israel filed a petition to the high court of justice, saying the new law was “unconstitutional and undemocratic” and set a precedent for limiting freedom of expression. A coalition of four rights groups – Adalah, a legal rights organisation for Israeli-Arabs, Physicians for Human Rights, the Public Committee Against Torture and the Coalition of Women for Peace – also pledged to launch a high court challenge. The new law “gives protection to the illegal West Bank settlements in Israeli law by penalising their opponents”, the coalition said. In defiance of the law, Peace Now launched a new campaign calling for the boycott of wine and olive oil produced in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Under the terms of the law, passed by 47 votes to 38, an individual or organisation proposing a boycott may be sued for compensation by any individual or institution facing possible damage as a result. Evidence of actual damage will not be required. It bans consumer boycotts of goods and services produced in West Bank settlements and the blacklisting of cultural and academic institutions in settlements. It also bars the government from doing business with companies that comply with boycotts. Israel’s finance minister, Yuval Steinitz, defended the law on Israeli Army Radio: “Boycotts against the state of Israel certainly cannot be considered legitimate from Israel’s point of view and boycotts against the settlements or any other region of the country are not a democratic way to determine democratic oversight.” Israel has occupied the West Bank for 44 years but its settlements there are illegal under international law. The absence of the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, from the vote on the new law came under fire. Sima Kadamon in Yedioth Ahranoth questioned why Netanyahu, who was reportedly at home on Monday evening, missed the vote. “Could it be that [he] realises that this is one of the most anti-democratic and individual right-denying laws ever passed … and that he was simply ashamed to be present?” Ehud Barak, the defence minister, also was absent from the vote although the bill, sponsored by Ze’ev Elkin, the chairman of the governing coalition, was endorsed in advance by the cabinet. Ben Caspit, a commentator for the Maariv newspaper, said: “This is a blatant and a resounding shutting of people’s mouths. This is thought police. There is no choice but to use this word. Fascism at its worst is raging.” In the same paper, law professor Amnon Rubenstein said: “This law will serve as a weapon in the hands of those people who claim that Israel is not a democracy and does not respect human rights. It will also increase Israel’s isolation in the academic world and among western liberal democracies. Paradoxically, this law increases the danger of anti-Israel boycotts … It seems to me that yesterday will be remembered for years to come as the blackest day in Knesset history.” Israel Palestinian territories Middle East Harriet Sherwood guardian.co.uk
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Interviewer and columnist has been suspended for two months pending outcome of internal investigation Johann Hari, the Independent interviewer and columnist accused of plagiarism , has been suspended. Hari was suspended on Tuesday for two months pending the outcome of an internal investigation by former Independent editor Andreas Whittam-Smith. He seemed to have survived the initial plagiarism allegations last month, but is now facing separate claims of “sock puppetry” – that he used an online comment alias to hit back at fellow journalists who had criticised his work. It is understood both allegations will be considered by Whittam-Smith. Chris Blackhurst, who replaced Simon Kelner as editor of the Independent earlier this month , said: “Johann Hari has been suspended for two months pending the outcome of an internal enquiry. We have no further comment to make.” More details soon… • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook The Independent Independent News & Media Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers Jason Deans guardian.co.uk
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Core work, including supervising offenders and writing pre-sentence reports, to be taken out of the public sector Core probation services, including the supervision of criminals, are to be put out to competition, in the most arresting example yet of the impact of the “big society” drive on the criminal justice system. The 35 chief officers of probation have been told they need to examine the “potential for core probation services” to be put up for competition. Michael Spurr, the chief executive of the National Offender Management Service, has written to chief probation officers telling them: “We intend to examine a range of possible options for service improvements and different models of delivering offender services within the community. “The aim is to create a long-term direction for probation which is consistent with the government’s key objective for reform.” He said it was hoped the competition process would also ensure that those probation functions remaining in the public sector were delivered with clear benefits in terms of costs, efficiency, quality and risk management. It is not thought that entire probation areas would be turned over to the private or voluntary sector. It is, however, highly likely that chunks of key probation work – such as supervising offenders in the community and prisoners on release, and writing pre-sentence reports for the courts, including recommendations of what should happen on conviction – will be taken out of the public sector. So far, the electronic tagging of offenders and the management of bail hostels and other probation support services have been put out to tender, but core probation services have been left untouched. The Community Justice Partnership – which includes the charities Working Links and Nacro, and the private security company Sodexo Justice Services – immediately said it would be bidding for some of the work. “This is unprecedented in the justice sector and may be the shape of things to come, as private and charitable bodies come together to provide the scope and scale to successfully deliver end-to-end services in large geographical areas,” said Debbie Ryan of Working Links, which works with the long-term unemployed. Harry Fletcher of Napo, the probation union, said: “Probation services do not lend themselves to the normal laws of supply and demand, it is unclear who the customer is. The government has little if any understanding of how complex work with offenders is and how demanding supervision can be,” he said. “Privatisation so far has been a disaster. Cleaning and maintenance of probation premises was put out to tender several years ago and has hardly been a success story. The privatisation of bail beds was so poor that the contract had to be taken away.” He predicted that selling off the work to the lowest bidder for profit would not raise standards. “Indeed the reverse is the case. The quality of the work will fall and public protection will be compromised,” he said. Prisons and probation UK criminal justice Crime Alan Travis guardian.co.uk
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Brother of Afghan president Hamid Karzai shot dead by security guard was seen as keystone of security in the south Ahmed Wali Karzai, the powerful half-brother of the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has been killed by one of his security guards inside his house in Kandahar, raising the prospect of turmoil in a city widely seen as the key to the war in Afghanistan. The president confirmed the death at a press conference in Kabul intended to mark the visit of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, to the capital. “Ahmed Wali Karzai was killed at about 11.30am,” General Abdul Razaq, Kandahar’s chief of border police, said. “He was killed by his bodyguard inside his house.” Officials said the assassin, named as Sardar Mohammed, reportedly Ahmed Wali Karzai’s chief of security, had been killed on the spot. “After Sardar Mohammed killed Ahmed Wali Karzai, other bodyguards shot Sardar Mohammed,” Colonel Mohammad Mohsen, of the Afghan national army 205 Atal (Hero) Corps in Kandahar, said. “The bodies have been taken to the [local] hospital. We expect some officials including President Karzai to come to Kandahar for his brother’s funeral.” Razaq said an investigation into the assassination was under way, but according to initial reports from Kandahar, Sardar entered his boss’s home and approached him with papers to sign, shooting him at close range with a pistol concealed under the papers. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assassination, saying it was one of their “biggest and most successful” operations. However, western officials said it was possible that he could have been killed as part of a settling of scores among tribal leaders or drug traffickers. Ahmed Wali Karzai had frequently been accused by western officials of being a regional kingpin and warlord in the opium trade. He also faced allegations of being on the CIA’s payroll. He rejected all the charges, claiming they were made by western forces to cover their own shortcomings. Ahmed Wali Karzai was a powerful figure in Afghan politics. He had been a member of the provincial council in Kandahar since 2005 and was its chief at the time of his death, although his family, tribal and business contacts gave him influence far beyond his official title. “He was the president of Kandahar,” said provincial elder Abdul Samat Zarih. “The governor, police chiefs and other officials all had to discuss things with him before they made a decision.” Zarih added that Ahmed Wali Karzai had many enemies, including the Taliban. “Maybe the Taliban killed him because he was close to the government. Maybe he didn’t obey or follow whatever the foreigners said to him. It’s a situation in which you can’t figure out what is going on,” he said. Ahmed Wali Karzai was also seen as a keystone of security in the south and his assassination will raise fears about a potential power and security vacuum in the insurgent-ridden region. President Karzai also valued him as a trusted liaison between the government in Kabul and the nation’s second-biggest city. “People are asking what tomorrow will bring,” said a senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Who is capable of replacing Ahmed Wali on the provincial council? As an intermediary between Kabul and Kandahar? Who is going to try and keep at bay the different rivalries bandaged over for the last few years? Who will fill the various holes occupied by AWK? These are all important questions.” He added his death was “first and foremost a setback for Afghanistan as a whole”. Other western officials predicted that although there would be “turbulence” in the short term, while a new power structure took shape in Kandahar, in the longer term the absence of Ahmed Wali Karzai as a power broker could provide an opportunity to strengthen legitimate local government. Ahmed Wali Karzai had been the target of previous assassination attempts. In 2009 four suicide bombers stormed the provincial council office in Kandahar, killing 13 people. Departing US commander General David Petraeus said the International Security Assistance Force had halted the Taliban’s momentum in key areas. However, the Taliban strategy of targeted assassinations in Kandahar province demonstrates its continued ability to strike Isaf and the Afghan government where it hurts. The Kandahar deputy governor, Abdul Latif Ashna, and provincial police chief, General Mohammad Mojayed, were killed in suicide attacks this year. The Taliban claimed responsibility for both deaths. The Isaf spokesman, Carsten Jacobson, agreed it was not yet certain the Taliban had carried out the attack. He denied the assassination was a setback for Isaf. “We must find out how he was killed,” Wahid Mujda, a former member of the Taliban turned analyst, said. “We don’t know whether it was carried out by a power rival or by the Taliban.” Mujda added the death would have an impact on the government and the progress being made in reconciliation talks with the Taliban. Karzai supported the peace process and had chalked up a few reintegration successes in the province. Haji Padsha, an elder of the Alikozai tribe in Kandahar province, said Karzai had been shot on his return from a meeting with foreigners at the former house of Mullah Mohammed Omar, the fugitive leader of the Afghan Taliban. Karzai had come under criticism in the past from Afghans for renting the property to international officials. It was reported in the New York Times in 2009 that he received rent from the CIA and American special operations forces for allowing them to occupy a large compound outside the city that is the former home of Mullah Mohammed Omar. The Kandahar Strike Force, a militia run by the CIA, also shares the compound. Hamid Karzai Afghanistan Julian Borger guardian.co.uk
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