Karzai's bro reveals targeted assassinations

Interviewed by the Los Angeles Times, President Karzai's brother Ahmed Wali Karzai claims that US forces engage in targeted assainations:

... Amid the recent deluge of discouraging reports citing declining security in swaths of southern Afghanistan, Karzai's is a rare voice of optimism, claiming that U.S. special forces already have begun to turn the tide in Kandahar with targeted strikes against individual commanders of the fundamentalist group, which was ousted from power six years ago.

"These operations are extremely quiet. They cause no civilian casualties and no damage to the villages," said Karzai, whose power derives in part from being the younger brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

"The Americans are very professional," he said. "They go in; they get out. It's just like you see in the movies." ... (link)

[N.B. Ahmed Wali Karzai may make for a bad witness, as it is alleged that Ahmed, an elder of the Popolzai clan, is a druglord and regional kingpin in Kandahar province.]

As Defence Minister MacKay might point out, the tactic of targeted assassination is favoured by Liberal MP Michael Ignatieff:

[H]aving Michael Ignatieff question the Tories on [abuse of Afghan detainees] is to have invited the retort that Defence Minister Peter MacKay gave:

"He seems to have changed his position. ... He has said previously, `Sticking too firmly to the rule of law simply allows terrorists too much leeway to exploit our freedoms. ... To defeat evil,' we must `traffic in evils: indefinite detention of suspects, coercive interrogations, targeted assassinations, even pre-emptive war.'" ... (Columnist Haroon Siddiqui, Toronto Star - link.)