Hamid Karzai | president of Afghanistan | Britannica.com president of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, (born December 24, 1957, Kandahār , Afghanistan), Afghan politician who was the first elected president of Afghanistan (2004–14). Hamid Karzai, 2006. Paul Morse/White House Photo Karzai was the son of the chief of the Popalzai Pashtuns , and both his father and grandfather served in the government of Mohammad Zahir Shah . Under the Soviet-imposed regime in the 1980s, the Karzai family left Afghanistan and settled in Pakistan . Karzai attended Himachal Pradesh University in India , earning a master’s degree (1982) in political science. During the Afghan War he worked with the mujahideen , who sought to overthrow the Soviet-backed government, and often traveled to the United States to seek support for the cause. When the communist government of Najibullah fell in April 1992, the mujahideen established a coalition government, with Karzai serving as deputy foreign minister.

In 1994, however, he resigned, tired of the infighting within the government. The growing strife escalated until the mujahideen turned on one another, and in the ensuing turmoil the Taliban , an ultraconservative political and religious faction, came to power. Although initially supportive of the Taliban and the order that it introduced to the country, Karzai came to oppose the regime and again went into exile in Pakistan. In July 1999 his father was assassinated, an act that he blamed on the Taliban, and leadership of the Popalzai passed to Karzai. Shortly after the September 11 attacks in 2001, the United States led a military campaign to topple the Taliban and to capture terrorists that were based in the country. Karzai returned to Afghanistan to rally support for the U.S.-led mission, and by mid-November the Taliban regime had collapsed. To avert a destructive power struggle, representatives from various Afghan groups, aided by the international community , named Karzai chair of an interim administration; he was sworn into office in late December 2001.

In June 2002 a Loya Jirga, a traditional Afghan assembly, chose Karzai as president of a transitional government. Karzai faced numerous challenges, including controlling the country’s powerful traditional leaders and preventing the Taliban from recovering power. He also sought to rebuild the war-torn country. Violence continued to plague Afghanistan, and Karzai was the target of several assassination attempts. In January 2004 a new constitution was approved that called for a directly elected president. Later that year Karzai won the presidential election and was sworn into office. As Karzai entered office, he enjoyed strong support from Western allies, but he faced enormous challenges. Continued violence and instability and an inability to effectively build up Afghan institutions and provide basic services took its toll on his popularity at home and abroad, as did allegations of government corruption. The country was also plagued by an increase in drug trafficking—the country’s opium poppy harvest reached record levels in 2007—as well as by the resurgence of the Taliban, which mounted attacks with increasing frequency. As a result, pointed criticism , even from the United States, began to emerge. Britannica Stories Ringling Bros.

Folds Its Tent Karzai’s term as president was due to expire in May 2009, and at that time he was constitutionally obligated to step down. Because of logistical and security reasons, however, the approaching presidential election—in which Karzai would be a candidate—was postponed from May to August of that year. Karzai asserted that, for reasons of security, he should remain in office until the election took place. Critics were concerned that maintaining his position would give Karzai an undue electoral advantage, and they urged him to step down as mandated by the constitution and turn power over to an interim government. In March 2009 the Supreme Court ruled that Karzai could legally retain his position until the election in August. Discontent with Karzai’s leadership produced a number of presidential hopefuls, though Karzai was deftly able to neutralize or secure the backing of most of those who might have challenged him. Hamid Karzai Further Reading Hamid Karzai Hamid Karzai (born December 24, 1957) is Afghanistan first elected president. Priot to this, he served as interim president of the Afghan Transitional Administration.

He was named Chairman of the Afghan Transitional Administration during the Bonn Agreement, December 5, 2001, and his inauguration took place on December 22, 2001. He was named President at the Loya Jirga session on June 19, 2002. Official elections are scheduled to take place in Afghanistan on October 9, 2004. With the Loya Jirga of December 2003 approving the Constitution of Afghanistan, which will create a presidential system of government, Karzai said he would run for the position of President of Afghanistan. Karzai was born in Kandahar. An ethnic Pashtun and a member of the powerful Populzai clan (from which many Afghan Kings have come), he came from a family that were among the strongest supporters of King Zahir Shah. Thus, he was involved in politics in Afghanistan early on.

He took a postgraduate course in political science at Himachal University in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India from 1979 to 1983, then returned to work as a fund-raiser supporting anti-Soviet uprisings in Afghanistan during the rest of the 1980s. After the expulsion of Soviet forces, he served as a minister in the government of Burhanuddin Rabbani. Karzai speaks six languages; Pushtu, Dari, Urdu, English, French and Hindi. He is married to Zinat Karzai, a doctor by profession. They were married in 1998 and have no children. When the Taliban emerged onto the political scene in the 1990s, Karzai was initially among their supporters. However, he later broke with the Taliban, citing distrust of their links to Pakistan. After the Taliban overthrew Rabbani in 1996, Karzai refused to serve as their U.N. ambassador. In 1997, Karzai joined many of his family members in Quetta, from where he worked to reinstate Zahir Shah.

His father was assassinated, presumably by Taliban agents, July 14, 1999, and Karzai swore revenge against the Taliban by working to help overthrow it. In 2001, following the September 11 terrorist attack, Karzai worked with agents of the United States to overthrow the Taliban in Afghanistan and muster support for a new government. On December 5, 2001 exile Afghan political leaders--many with no followers inside Afghanistan--gathered in Bonn, Germany, and named Karzai chairman of a 29-member governing committee and leader of an interim government. The ceremony for the transfer of power took place December 22. Critics assert that he worked for the American oil company Unocal (see below), which has interests in the oil and gas industry across Central Asia. On September 5, 2002, an assassination attempt was made on Hamid Karzai in Kandahar. A gunman wearing the uniform of the new Afghan National Army opened fire, wounding the Governor of Kandahar and an American Special Operations officer. The gunman and one of the President's bodyguards were killed.

He received an honorary doctorate in literature from Himachal University on March 7, 2003. His brother Ahmed Wali Karzai helps coordinate humanitarian assistance in the southern province of Kandahar. Several sources, most notably the documentary film Fahrenheit 9/11, have reported that Karzai once worked as a consultant for the oil company Unocal. Spokesmen for both Unocal and Karzai have denied any such relationship. The claim appears to have originated in the December 9, 2001 issue of the French newspaper Le Monde. Some have suggested that Karzai was confused with U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad. His actual authority outside the capital city of Kabul has been said to be so limited that he had often been derided as the "Mayor of Kabul." Although he had little or no popular support outside Kabul, the Karzai defeated his 22 opponents in the country's presidential election on October 9th, 2004.

Endorsement by the second Bush administration, incumbency, the brief one month campaign season, and the paucity of news coverage in the country about his opponents made him the winner in an election initially expected to be flawed by violence and vote fraud. On November 3, 2004, Hamid Karzai was declared the winner of Afghanistan's first-ever presidential election, after the United Nations-Afghan joint electoral commission endorsed the election results as free and fair and announced that Karzai had won more than 55% of the votes. On December 7, 2004, Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai took the oath of office and thus becoming Afghanistan's first popularly-elected president. During 2009 approximately five million citizens voted in presidential and provincial council elections, and the first competitive presidential election in the country's history. Hamid Karzai was declared the winner. President Karzai took his second oath of office on 19 November 2009. After a contentious and fraud-marred election, some question Karzai's legitimacy but he still enjoyed the broad acceptance of the Afghan people.

In conceding the need for a second round because his vote total was less than 50 percent of the valid votes cast, President Karzai accepted - grudgingly - that nearly a million of his initial votes had to be thrown out as fraudulent. Nonetheless, he never publicly apologized or disassociated himself from those who committed fraud on his behalf. Karzai struggles to maintain a balance between institutional and traditional informal governance, in an environment of poverty, social exhaustion, illicit power centers arising from decades of political breakdown, governmental incapacity, criminality, and insurgency. There are no easy answers, and neither Karzai nor the international community can fight all battles all the time. Karzai's alliance with warlords and other strongmen led to confrontation with his Western allies, who came to resent the dominant role such domestic powerbrokers play in Afghan politics, despite initially supporting them as allies against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. In meetings with Karzai, by 2009 two contrasting portraits emerge. The first is of a paranoid and weak individual unfamiliar with the basics of nation building and overly self-conscious that his time in the spotlight of glowing reviews from the international community has passed.

The other is that of an ever-shrewd politician who sees himself as a nationalist hero who can save the country from being divided by the decentralization-focused agenda of Abdullah, other political rivals, neighboring countries, and the US. Even some senior Afghan officials see Karzai as an "extremely weak man" who did not listen to facts but was instead easily swayed by anyone who came to him to report even the most bizarre stories of plots against him. Whenever this happened, Karzai would immediately judge the person to be loyal and would reward him. Karzaiï¿½s mercurial moods increasingly exasperated his international supporters. In September 2010 former Watergate investigator and noted journalist Bob Woodward reported that Karzai takes medication for his manic depression. His book ï¿½ ï¿½Obamaï¿½s Warsï¿½ ï¿½ cites American intelligence reports as saying that Karzai has been diagnosed as a manic depressive. ï¿½Heï¿½s on his meds, heï¿½s off his meds,ï¿½ Karl Eikenberry, US ambassador to Kabul, is quoted as saying in the book.

In a December 8, 2010, Washington Post article, while meeting with General Petraeus and former Ambassador Eikenberry, President Karzai said he has three ``main enemies'': the Taliban, the United States, and the international community. ``If I had to choose sides today, I'd choose the Taliban.'' By 2011 Karzai's gushing overtures to the Taliban, his courting of the Iranians, and his open disparagement of the United States had sent his popularity in Washington to an all-time low. Yyears of squalid revelations about the Karzai administration's alleged corruption, ineptitude, and nepotism had exasperated policymakers in Washington. In November 2011, after President Karzai made the outrageous statement that he would back Pakistan in a war against the United States, Major General Peter Fuller, one of the US troop commanders in Afghanistan, delivered a colorful and candid on-the-record reply. He said, ``Why don't you just poke me in the eye with a needle! You've got to be kidding me.

I'm sorry, we just gave you $11.6 billion, and now you're telling me, `I don't really care'.'' He said this of President Karzai , whom he also described as erratic and ``isolated from reality.'' Fuller was fired, relieved of his command by General John Allen, who admonished General Fuller for ``inappropriate public comments.'' What Major General Fuller had the audacity to say out loud--that the Karzai regime is feckless and corrupt--is what most people secretly believe. Time correspondent Mark Thompson put it this way: ``It is not a good sign when what everyone is saying privately cannot be stated publicly. In that case, only the troops--the ones dying--and the taxpayers--the people employing both Allen and Fuller--are kept willfully in the dark.'' The writer Christopher Hitchens put it even more bluntly, saying that to silence Fuller ``is to establish a stupid culture of denial in the ranks.'' Karzai acted largely on his desire to manipulate, not out of conviction. The President had a penchant for spending hours ruminating over the latest perceived foreign plot against him, rather than paying attention to his ministers and the challenges they face.

Karzai's obsession with protocol came with a complete disregard for substance. Karzai had squandered numerous past opportunities to build his nation. Karzai risked ruining his own and his country's future. NEWSLETTER Biography - Office of the President Office of the President Biography Biography Hamid Karzai was born on the 24th of December, 1957 (Quaus 9th, 1336) in the village of Karz, near Kandahar, Afghanistan. His grandfather, Khair Mohammad Khan, had served during Afghanistan’s war of independence and as the Deputy Speaker of the Senate. His father, Abdul Ahad Karzai, was a tribal (Popalzai) elder and a significant national political figure, who served as the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament during the 1960s. Abdul Karzai moved with his family to Kabul upon his election to the Parliament. Hamid Karzai studied at Mahmood Hotaki Elementary School, Sayed Jamaluddin Afghani School, and Habibia High School.

After graduating from high school, he traveled to India as an exchange student in 1976, and was accepted to study for his Masters Degree in International Relations and Political Science from Simla University. He obtained his Master’s Degree in 1983, shortly after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (which began in 1979). Hamid Karzai then traveled to Pakistan, joining the Mujahideen fighters resisting the Soviet occupation of his homeland. In 1985, he traveled to Lille, France, to attend a three-month journalism course. When he returned to Peshawar, Pakistan, he served as the Director of Information and later as the Deputy Director of the Political Office of the National Liberation Front led by Professor Sebghatullah Mujadidi. After the formation of the transitional government of the Mujahideen in 1989, he was appointed Director of the Foreign Relations Unit in the Office of the President of the Interim Government. When the Mujahideen Government was established in Kabul in 1992, Hamid Karzai was appointed Deputy Foreign Minister.

Two years later, when the civil war between the various Mujahideen groups began, he resigned from his post, and began to work actively for the organization of a national Loya Jirga (Grand Council). A devoted Muslim and Afghan patriot, he believed that only through a Loya Jirga could Afghanistan’s difficulties be overcome, and the differences between the competing parties resolved peacefully. This belief was borne out by the Emergency Loya Jirga of 2002 and the Constitutional Loya Jirga in 2003. In August 1999, Abdul Ahad Karzai, who was organizing resistance to the Taliban from his base in Quetta, Pakistan, was assassinated by the Taliban and their foreign supporters. Hamid Karzai with other three like-minded men returned to Uruzgan Province in October 2001, and worked to coordinate local efforts to rid Afghanistan of the Taliban. On December 5th, 2001, while he was still in Afghanistan leading these efforts, he was elected Chairman of the Interim Administration of Afghanistan, by participants at the UN-sponsored Bonn Conference.

He, along with the appointed Cabinet, took his oath of office on December 22nd of that year. During Afghanistan’s first Presidential Election, on October 9th, 2004, Hamid Karzai won the majority of the votes, and was elected to a 5-year term as President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. He took his oath of allegiance at Salam Khana Palace on December 7th, 2004, in the presence of dignitaries and officials from around the world. Hamid Karzai run for the second term in 2009 Presidential Elections and was elected as the President of Afghanistan. He took oath of allegiance at Salam Khana Palace onNovember 19, 2009 in presence of dignitaries and high level foreign officials.

Hamid Karzai has been awarded many honors, among them a Honorary PHd Degree from Simla University of India (2002), Honorary Knighthood from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth (2003), the Philadelphia Liberty Medal (2004), World’s Most Successful President (2004), Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development (2005) and the American Bar Association-Asia Rule of Law Award (2003). Karzai has six brothers and one sister. In 1999, he married Dr. Zeenat Quraishi. He has one son, Merwais. He speaks Pashtu, Dari, Urdu and English fluently, and enjoys riding horses and studying philosophy. © e-Government of Afghanistan, Biography - Office of the President Office of the President Biography of President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani Overview Mohammad Ashraf Ghani grew up in Afghanistan before pursuing his education abroad. Like so many Afghans, foreign invasion and civil war led to the persecution of his family and forced him to remain in exile.

Whilst abroad, he became a leading scholar of Political Science and Anthropology and then worked at the World Bank where he learned the tools of international development. Following the fall of the Taliban in 2001,he returned to Afghanistan to devote his unique skills and knowledge to rebuilding the country. He advised interim President Karzai and served as the Finance Minister in the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan until December 2004. During his tenure as Finance Minister, he designed a package of reforms and initiated several public investment programs that led to significant improvements in the livelihoods of ordinary Afghans across the country. He declined to join the newly elected Government in December 2004. However, he remained an influential voice in the political circles both in Afghanistan and abroad. He served as the chairman of the Transition Coordination Commission (TCC) in 2010 which was responsible for transferring authority from foreign to national troops. He resigned from TCC to run for president in October 2013. He was declared winner on September 22, 2014. Early Life Dr. Ghani was born into an influential family in Afghanistan in 1949, and spent his early life in the province of Logar.

He completed his primary and secondary education in Habibia High School in Kabul. Growing up in Kabul under a monarchy, where his father worked in various senior capacities, he has been immersed in politics from his early days. Education and Early Career As a young man, Dr. Ghani travelled to Lebanon to attend the American University in Beirut, where he met his future wife, Rula, and earned his first degree in 1973. He returned to Afghanistan in 1974 to teach Afghan studies and Anthropology at Kabul University before winning a government scholarship to study for a Master’s degree in Anthropology at New York’s Columbia University. He left Afghanistan in 1977, intending to be away for two years. When pro-Soviet forces came to power, most of the male members of his family were imprisoned and he was stranded in the US. He stayed at Columbia University and earned his Ph.D. there, with a doctoral thesis entitled ‘Production and domination: Afghanistan, 1747-1901’, and was immediately invited to teach at University of California, Berkeley (1983) and then at Johns Hopkins University (1983-1991).

During this period, he became a frequent commentator on the BBC Dari and Pashto services, broadcast in Afghanistan. International Career In 1991, Dr. Ghani joined the World Bank as lead anthropologist, advising on the human dimension to economic programs. He served for 11 years, initially working on projects in East Asia, but moving in the mid-nineties towards articulating the Bank’s social policy and reviewing country strategies, conditionalities, and designing reform programs. In 1996, he pioneered the application of institutional and organizational analysis to macro processes of change and reform, working directly on the adjustment program of the Russian coal industry and carrying out reviews of the Bank’s country assistance strategies and structural adjustment programs globally. He spent five years in China, India, and Russia managing large-scale development and institutional transformation projects. Whilst at the World Bank, Dr. Ghani attended the Harvard-INSEAD and Stanford business school leadership training program. Work After 2001 Following the ousting of the Taliban in late 2001, Dr. Ghani was asked to serve as Special Adviser to Ambassador Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN Secretary General’s special envoy to Afghanistan. In that capacity, Dr.

Ghani returned to Afghanistan and worked on the design, negotiation and implementation of the Bonn Agreement, which set out the roadmap for transition to a new government based on popular consent. During the Interim Administration, Dr. Ghani served, on a pro bono basis, as Chief Adviser to Interim President Karzai and was among the first officials to disclose his own assets. In this capacity, he worked on the preparation of the Loya Jirgas (grand assemblies) that elected president Karzai and approved the constitution. Work as Finance Minister As Afghanistan’s Finance Minister for the duration of the Transitional Administration, Dr. Ghani is widely credited with the design and implementation of some of the most extensive and challenging reforms of the period. He issued a new currency in record time; computerized the operations of treasury; institutionalized the single treasury account; adopted a policy of no-deficit financing; introduced the budget as the central instrument of policy; centralized revenue; reformed the tariff system and overhauled customs; and instituted regular reporting to the cabinet, the people of Afghanistan, and international stakeholders as a tool of transparency and accountability. Dr. Ghani has combined personal integrity with extremely tough measures against corruption.

When he became Finance Minister, he fired corrupt officials from the Finance Ministry, ignoring those who threatened to take revenge. He refused to pay the army until they produced a genuine roster of soldiers, rightly suspecting that the figures were exaggerated so as to claim extra money. Dr. Ghani harnessed his knowledge of the international system to break new ground in coordinating donor assistance. He required donors to keep their interventions to three sectors, thereby bringing clarity and mutual accountability to their relations with government counterparts, and preparing a development strategy that put the Afghans in the driver’s seat regarding accountability for their future. In recognition of his services, he was awarded the Sayed Jamal-ud-Din Afghan medal, the highest civilian award in the country. He was recognized as the Best Finance Minister of Asia in 2003 by Emerging Markets for his efforts. On March 31-1 April 2004, he presented a seven-year program of public investment, ‘Securing Afghanistan’s Future’, to an international conference in Berlin attended by 65 finance and foreign ministers.

Described as the most comprehensive program ever prepared and presented by a poor country to the international community, ‘Securing Afghanistan’s Future’ was prepared by a team of one-hundred experts working under the supervision of a committee chaired by Dr. Ghani. The concept of a double-compact, between the donors and the government of Afghanistan on the one hand and between the government and people of Afghanistan on the other, underpinned the program of investment in ‘Securing Afghanistan’s Future’. The donors pledged $8.2 billion at the conference for the first three years of the program –- the exact amount asked by the government — and agreed that the government’s request for a total seven-year package of assistance of $27.5 billion was justified. Throughout his career, Dr. Ghani has focused relentlessly on poverty eradication through the creation of wealth and the establishment of the rights of citizenship. In Afghanistan, he is attributed with designing the National Solidarity Program, a program of block grants to villages in which elected village councils determine both the priorities and the mechanisms of implementation. The program has been rolled out across the country and has become so successful that other countries around the world are seeking to emulate it. Dr.

Ghani also partnered with the Ministry of Communication to ensure that telecom licenses were granted on a fully-transparent basis. As a result, the number of mobile phones in the country jumped from 100 in July 2002 to over a million at the end of 2005. Private investment in the sector exceeded $200 million and the telecom sector emerged as one of the major sectors of revenue generation for the government. Post-Finance Ministry After the election of President Karzai in October 2004, Mr Ghani declined to join the cabinet and instead asked to be appointed as Chancellor of Kabul University. As Chancellor, he was engaged in articulating the concept of shared governance among the faculty, students, and staff and advocating a vision of the University where men and women with skills and commitment to lead their country in the age of globalization can be trained. Dr. Ghani subsequently founded the Institute for State Effectiveness, to help governments and their international partners to build more effective, accountable systems of government. As Chairman of the Institute, Dr. Ghani co-authored a book, ‘Fixing Failed States’, to international acclaim. As a candidate during the 2009 presidential elections, he placed fourth.

In 2010, he served as chairman of the Transition Coordination Commission. TCC was responsible for transfer of power from ISAF/NATO troops to Afghan Security Forces. During his time at TCC, he visited all of the 34 provinces several times. On October 1st 2013, he resigned as the chairman of TCC to run for presidential elections in 2014. He was declared winner of the June 14th runoff on September 22, 2014 with 55.27% of total votes. He was sworn in as president on September 29th, 2014. © e-Government of Afghanistan, BBC News - Profile: Hamid Karzai Printable version Profile: Hamid Karzai Hamid Karzai became the first popularly elected president of Afghanistan in 2004 - nearly three years after being appointed the country's interim leader. He was declared president for a second term on 2 November 2009 following elections dogged by controversy over vote fraud.

After taking up power in December 2001, Mr Karzai survived an early assassination attempt and infighting among ethnic groups to carve out a reputation as a shrewd statesman. Hamid Karzai has long supported a broad-based government But he faced a storm of criticism during the 2009 election. Initial results suggesting he had won outright were overturned by a UN-backed panel. A second round run-off was cancelled after his main rival Abdullah Abdullah pulled out - leaving some people to question Mr Karzai's legitimacy and ability to govern effectively. Although relations between Mr Karzai and his Western allies continue to be close, tensions have crept in over recent years. His critics say he has had little control of events much beyond the capital, Kabul, where an insurgency by the Taliban and their allies is growing in strength. Ethnic warlords still hold sway in many parts of the country. Billions of dollars of international aid have been poured into the country - and Mr Karzai's government says it needs billions more. His critics say much money has been lost because of widespread corruption. Foreign donors want more done to stamp this out and co-ordinate relief efforts.

But allegations of corruption and fraud rose to a new level in the August 2009 election campaign and its aftermath, as international observers reported widespread ballot-stuffing and other irregularities. Soviet resistance Mr Karzai was born on 24 December 1957 in Kandahar. After being educated in Kabul, the fluent English speaker went to university in Simla, India. In 1982, he joined the struggle against the Soviets and became director of information at the Afghan National Liberation Front (ANLF). When the Taliban erupted on to Afghanistan's political scene in the early 1990s, Mr Karzai initially supported them. However, by late 1994 he had become suspicious of the movement, fearing it had been infiltrated and was controlled by foreigners, including Pakistanis and Arabs. That led him on the path which resulted in him leading his country following the Taliban's fall. Mr Karzai long supported plans to build a broad-based government. Mr Karzai was feted by Western governments He first began lobbying for this after slipping into Afghanistan from Pakistan - where his family had lived in exile for some years - in October 2001.

At the time, US forces were carrying out military operations against the Taliban in Afghanistan. When the news leaked to the Taliban that Mr Karzai was back in the country, they raided his hideout and set off in pursuit of him. He was rescued by US helicopters and special forces. He is said to have played a key role in helping to oust the Taliban from their final stronghold of Kandahar in December 2001. By the time a United Nations-sponsored conference met to set up an interim government for Afghanistan, Mr Karzai had strong American backing and was clearly being groomed for leadership. After assuming the interim presidency, Mr Karzai wasted no time in carving out a high profile at home and abroad. He swept on to the international stage in January 2002 at an international donors' conference in Tokyo, where he managed to attract pledges of more than $4bn to help rebuild Afghanistan. He then embarked on a tour of world capitals. Well educated, Westernised and stylish, Mr Karzai was feted by foreign governments.

He quickly built up considerable support at home, partly a tribute to his diplomatic skills, but also because many ordinary Afghans were disillusioned with the warlords who had returned to rule them. Correspondents say that, as a royalist Pashtun from the south, he was accepted in a way few ethnic minority leaders from the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance would be. And, they say, his record as an anti-Soviet combatant served him well with former mujahideen followers. Horse-trading Mr Karzai's critics have accused him of being an American stooge - particularly after the way in which the US intervened ahead of a second loya jirga in June 2002 to announce that the former king would not oppose Mr Karzai as a candidate for head of state. A key plank of Mr Karzai's policies is the fledgling national army The political horse-trading may have tarnished his image with some Afghans. He has always faced great pressure to appear not to favour one faction over the other - nor to appear too beholden to the Americans.

That task was not eased by the clear need to upgrade security around the president following an attempt to assassinate him by suspected Taliban members in Kandahar in September 2002. Nevertheless, Mr Karzai pressed on with proposals for Afghans to take a greater role in security. Efforts are under way to train a 70,000-strong national army - a force Mr Karzai says will be loyal solely to his government and the only legal army Afghanistan will recognise. But many doubt its ability to ensure security in the country. Some observers predicted the Taliban were finished after the 2004 presidential election went off relatively smoothly. But the country's hard-line former rulers came back with a vengeance and violence has risen steadily to levels not seen since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. The Afghan conflict now presents a bigger policy headache for the US and their allies than Iraq, and threatens to destabilise neighbouring nuclear-armed Pakistan. Relations with Pakistan have been generally strained and mistrustful during Mr Karzai's time in office. Islamabad has frequently denied it could do more to stop the Taliban launching attacks in Afghanistan from bases inside Pakistan.

Bookmark with: Hamid Karzai Fast Facts - CNN.com Hamid Karzai Fast Facts CNN Library Updated 3:21 PM ET, Sun December 11, 2016 Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds. (CNN) Here is a look at the life of Hamid Karzai , the former president of Afghanistan. Personal: Birth date: December 24, 1957 Birth place: Kandahar, Afghanistan Father: Abdul Ahad Karzai, politician Mother: Mother's name unavailable publicly Read More Education: Himachal University, India, masters degree in Political Science Other Facts: A member of the Popalzai clan, part of the larger Pashtun tribe. Karzai was educated in India and is fluent in several languages, including English, Pashto, Dari and Urdu. His grandfather served as deputy speaker of the Afghan Parliament. His father held high level posts in the government of King Mohammed Zahir Shah. Timeline: 1979 - After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Karzai and his father flee to Pakistan .

1992-1993 - Serves as deputy foreign minister, in the government of Afghanistan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, after the withdrawal of the Soviet Union. Mid-1990s - Briefly aligns himself with the Taliban . 1996 - Declines an invitation to become Taliban ambassador to the United Nations . 1999 - Karzai's father is murdered in Quetta, Pakistan, allegedly by the Taliban. October 2001 - Slips into Afghanistan from Pakistan, to incite an uprising against the Taliban. November 2001 - Is rescued by US forces during a skirmish with Taliban fighters. December 2001 - Karzai is chosen as interim leader of Afghanistan. December 5, 2001 - Is slightly injured by an errant US bomb. December 22, 2001 - Is inaugurated as interim president in Kabul. January 2002 - Visits the United States and the United Nations. Is an honored guest at President George W. Bush's State of the Union address.

June 13, 2002 - At the Loya Jirga, Karzai is named president of Afghanistan for a two-year term. September 5, 2002 - Survives an assassination attempt in his hometown of Kandahar. February 26-28, 2003 - Travels to the United States to meet with President George W. Bush and answers questions about progress in Afghanistan during a meeting with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. November 3, 2004 - Is officially elected president of Afghanistan. December 7, 2004 - Is inaugurated president of Afghanistan. September 18, 2005 - First open parliamentary elections in 30 years. April 27, 2008 - Narrowly escapes an assassination attempt at a military parade in Kabul. March 29, 2009 - After the date of the presidential election is moved to August 2009, the Afghan Supreme Court rules that Karzai will remain in office for three months after his official term ends in May. August 20, 2009 - Afghanistan holds its second presidential election.

Karzai wins by a landslide despite widespread allegations of low voter turnout, intimidation and fraud. October 31, 2009 - A run-off election is canceled when Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah drops out, leaving Karzai as the only candidate and winner by default. November 19, 2009 - Karzai is sworn in for a second term as president of Afghanistan. May 12, 2010 - Meets with US President Barack Obama at the White House. July 20, 2010 - Announces he would like to see Afghan security forces take the lead on military operations in Afghanistan by 2014. January 26, 2011 - Inaugurates the National Assembly, ending a political standoff between Karzai and the parliament. The inauguration comes four months after a nationwide election that critics said was marked by extensive fraud. September 29, 2014 - Steps down as president. June 2015 - Travels to Moscow to meet with President Vladimir Putin.

The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency Background: Ahmad Shah DURRANI unified the Pashtun tribes and founded Afghanistan in 1747. The country served as a buffer between the British and Russian Empires until it won independence from notional British control in 1919. A brief experiment in democracy ended in a 1973 coup and a 1978 communist countercoup. The Soviet Union invaded in 1979 to support the tottering Afghan communist regime, touching off a long and destructive war. The USSR withdrew in 1989 under relentless pressure by internationally supported anti-communist mujahidin rebels. A series of subsequent civil wars saw Kabul finally fall in 1996 to the Taliban, a hardline Pakistani-sponsored movement that emerged in 1994 to end the country's civil war and anarchy. Following the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, a US, Allied, and anti-Taliban Northern Alliance military action toppled the Taliban for sheltering Usama BIN LADIN.

A UN-sponsored Bonn Conference in 2001 established a process for political reconstruction that included the adoption of a new constitution, a presidential election in 2004, and National Assembly elections in 2005. In December 2004, Hamid KARZAI became the first democratically elected president of Afghanistan, and the National Assembly was inaugurated the following December. KARZAI was reelected in August 2009 for a second term. The 2014 presidential election was the country's first to include a runoff, which featured the top two vote-getters from the first round, Abdullah ABDULLAH and Ashraf GHANI. Throughout the summer of 2014, their campaigns disputed the results and traded accusations of fraud, leading to a US-led diplomatic intervention that included a full vote audit as well as political negotiations between the two camps. In September 2014, GHANI and ABDULLAH agreed to form the Government of National Unity, with GHANI inaugurated as president and ABDULLAH elevated to the newly-created position of chief executive officer.

The day after the inauguration, the GHANI administration signed the US-Afghan Bilateral Security Agreement and NATO Status of Forces Agreement, which provide the legal basis for the post-2014 international military presence in Afghanistan. Despite gains toward building a stable central government, the Taliban remains a serious challenge for the Afghan Government in almost every province. The Taliban still considers itself the rightful government of Afghanistan, and it remains a capable and confident insurgent force despite its last two spiritual leaders being killed; it continues to declare that it will pursue a peace deal with Kabul only after foreign military forces depart.

Geography :: AFGHANISTAN Ethnic groups: Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek, other (includes smaller numbers of Baloch, Turkmen, Nuristani, Pamiri, Arab, Gujar, Brahui, Qizilbash, Aimaq, Pashai, and Kyrghyz) note: current statistical data on the sensitive subject of ethnicity in Afghanistan is not available, and ethnicity data from small samples of respondents to opinion polls are not a reliable alternative; Afghanistan's 2004 constitution recognizes 14 ethnic groups: Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek, Baloch, Turkmen, Nuristani, Pamiri, Arab, Gujar, Brahui, Qizilbash, Aimaq, and Pashai (2015) Languages: Afghan Persian or Dari (official) 50%, Pashto (official) 35%, Turkic languages (primarily Uzbek and Turkmen) 11%, 30 minor languages (primarily Balochi and Pashai) 4%, much bilingualism, but Dari functions as the lingua franca note: the Turkic languages Uzbek and Turkmen, as well as Balochi,

 Pashai, Nuristani, and Pamiri are the third official languages in areas where the majority speaks them total number: 2,082,722 percentage: 25.3% note: data on child labor in Afghanistan is uncertain and may be higher than the estimated 25.3% of children ages 5-14 derived from 2010-11 survey results; UNICEF estimated that 30% of children ages 5-14 in 2011 were engaged in child labor (2010/11 est.) Government :: AFGHANISTAN conventional long form: Islamic Republic of Afghanistan conventional short form: Afghanistan local long form: Jamhuri-ye Islami-ye Afghanistan local short form: Afghanistan former: Republic of Afghanistan etymology: the name "Afghan" originally referred to the Pashtun people (today it is understood to include all the country's ethnic groups), while the suffix "-stan" means "place of" or "country"; so Afghanistan literally means the "Land of the Afghans" Executive branch: chief of state: President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Ashraf GHANI Ahmadzai (since 29 September

 2014); CEO Abdullah ABDULLAH (since 29 September 2014); First Vice President Abdul Rashid DOSTAM (since 29 September 2014); Second Vice President Sarwar DANESH (since 29 September 2014); note - the president is both chief of state and head of government head of government: President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Ashraf GHANI Ahmadzai (since 29 September 2014 ); CEO Abdullah ABDULLAH (since 29 September 2014); First Vice President Abdul Rashid DOSTAM (since 29 September 2014 ); Second Vice President Sarwar DANESH (since 29 September 2014) cabinet: Cabinet consists of 26 ministers appointed by the president, approved by the National Assembly elections/appointments: president directly elected by absolute majority popular vote in 2 rounds if needed for a 5-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held in 2 rounds on 5 April and 14 June 2014 (next to be held in 2019) election results: percent of vote in first

 round - Abdullah ABDULLAH (National Coalition of Afghanistan) 45%, Ashraf GHANI (independent) 31.6%, Zalmai RASSOUL 11.4%, other 12%; percent of vote in second round - Ashraf GHANI 56.4%, Abdullah ABDULLAH 43.6% Legislative branch: description: bicameral National Assembly consists of the Meshrano Jirga or House of Elders (102 seats; 34 members indirectly elected by district councils to serve 3-year terms, 34 indirectly elected by provincial councils to serve 4-year terms, and 34 nominated by the president of which 17 must be women, 2 must represent the disabled, and 2 must be Kuchi nomads; members serve 5-year terms) and the Wolesi Jirga or House of People (249 seats; members directly elected in multi-seat constituencies by proportional representation vote to serve 5-year terms) note: the constitution allows the government to convene a constitutional Loya Jirga (Grand Council) on issues of independence, national sovereignty, and territorial integrity; it can amend the provisions of the

 constitution and prosecute the president; it consists of members of the National Assembly and chairpersons of the provincial and district councils; no constitutional Loya Jirga has ever been held, and district councils have never been elected; the president appointed 34 members of the Meshrano Jirga that the district councils should have indirectly elected elections: the Wolesi Jirga’s five-year term expired in 2015, but the president extended its term by decree until elections can be held election results: results by party - NA; seats by party - NA Judicial branch: highest court(s): Supreme Court or Stera Mahkama (consists of the supreme court chief and 8 justices organized into criminal, public security, civil, and commercial divisions or dewans) judge selection and term of office: court chief and justices appointed by the president with the approval of the Wolesi Jirga; court chief and justices serve single 10-year terms subordinate courts: Appeals Courts; Primary Courts; Special Courts for issues including narcotics, security, property, family, and juveniles chief of mission: Ambassador P.

Michael MCKINLEY (since 22 December 2014) embassy: Bibi Mahru, Kabul mailing address: U.S.

Embassy Kabul, APO, AE 09806 telephone: [00 93] 0700 108 001 FAX: [00 93] 0700 108 564 Flag description: three equal vertical bands of black (hoist side), red, and green, with the national emblem in white centered on the red band and slightly overlapping the other two bands; the center of the emblem features a mosque with pulpit and flags on either side, below the mosque are numerals for the solar year 1298 (1919 in the Gregorian calendar, the year of Afghan independence from the UK); this central image is circled by a border consisting of sheaves of wheat on the left and right, in the upper-center is an Arabic inscription of the Shahada (Muslim creed) below which are rays of the rising sun over the Takbir (Arabic expression meaning "God is great"), and at bottom center is a scroll bearing the name Afghanistan; black signifies the past, red is for the blood shed for independence, and green can represent either hope for the future, agricultural prosperity, or Islam note: Afghanistan had more changes to

 its national flag in the 20th century than any other country; the colors black, red, and green appeared on most of them name: "Milli Surood" (National Anthem) lyrics/music: Abdul Bari JAHANI/Babrak WASA note: adopted 2006; the 2004 constitution of the post-Taliban government mandated that a new national anthem should be written containing the phrase "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) and mentioning the names of Afghanistan's ethnic groups Economy :: AFGHANISTAN Economy - overview: Afghanistan's economy is recovering from decades of conflict.

The economy has improved significantly since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001 largely because of the infusion of international assistance, the recovery of the agricultural sector, and service sector growth. Despite the progress of the past few years, Afghanistan is extremely poor, landlocked, and highly dependent on foreign aid. Much of the population continues to suffer from shortages of housing, clean water, electricity, medical care, and jobs. Criminality, insecurity, weak governance, lack of infrastructure, and the Afghan Government's difficulty in extending rule of law to all parts of the country pose challenges to future economic growth. Afghanistan's living standards are among the lowest in the world. The international community remains committed to Afghanistan's development, pledging over $67 billion at nine donors' conferences between 2003 and 2010. In July 2012, the donors at the Tokyo conference pledged an additional $16 billion in civilian aid through 2015. Despite this help, the Government of Afghanistan will need to overcome a number of challenges, including low revenue collection, anemic job creation, high levels of corruption, weak government capacity, and poor public infrastructure.

Afghanistan's growth rate slowed markedly in 2014-15. The drawdown of international security forces that started in 2014 has negatively affected economic growth, as a substantial portion of commerce, especially in the services sector, has catered to the ongoing international troop presence in the country. Afghan President Ashraf GHANI Ahmadzai is dedicated to instituting economic reforms to include improving revenue collection and fighting corruption. However, the reforms will take time to implement and Afghanistan will remain dependent on international donor support over the next several years.

Disputes - international: Afghan, Coalition, and Pakistan military meet periodically to clarify the alignment of the boundary on the ground and on maps and since 2014 have met to discuss collaboration on the Taliban insurgency and counterterrorism efforts; Afghan and Iranian commissioners have discussed boundary monument densification and resurvey; Iran protests Afghanistan's restricting flow of dammed Helmand River tributaries during drought; Pakistan has sent troops across and built fences along some remote tribal areas of its treaty-defined Durand Line border with Afghanistan which serve as bases for foreign terrorists and other illegal activities; Russia remains concerned about the smuggling of poppy derivatives from Afghanistan through Central Asian countries Refugees and internally displaced persons: refugees (country of origin): 257,523 (Pakistan) (2015) IDPs: 1,174,306 (mostly Pashtuns and Kuchis displaced in the south and west due to drought and political instability) (2015) Illicit drugs: world's largest producer of opium; poppy cultivation increased 7 percent, to a record 211,000 hectares in 2014 from 198,000 hectares in 201

3, while eradication dropped sharply; relatively low opium yields due to poor weather kept potential opium production - 6,300 metric tons - below the record set in 2007; the Taliban and other antigovernment groups participate in and profit from the opiate trade, which is a key source of revenue for the Taliban inside Afghanistan; widespread corruption and instability impede counterdrug efforts; most of the heroin consumed in Europe and Eurasia is derived from Afghan opium; Afghanistan is also struggling to respond to a burgeoning domestic opiate addiction problem; vulnerable to drug money laundering through informal financial networks; illicit cultivation of cannabis and regional source of hashish Hamid Karzai Biography - life, family, history, school, book, information, born, drugs, siblings, house, time Hamid Karzai Biography December 24, 1957 • Karz, Kandahar, Afghanistan President of Afghanistan For most of his life Hamid Karzai has dedicated himself to bringing peace and unity to his homeland of Afghanistan, a nearly impossible task because the country has been plagued by internal tensions and external threats for decades.

During the 1980s, when Afghanistan was controlled by Soviet forces, Karzai fled to Pakistan, where he served as director for the Afghan National Liberation Front. In the early 1990s, following Soviet expulsion, Karzai filled several political posts in the newly installed Burhanuddin Rabbani government. For the remainder of the decade he traveled around the world, working tirelessly to raise awareness of his war-torn country and to raise funds to help his people, who had been ravaged by years of constant struggle. Afghanistan did eventually find itself the focus of international attention, but unfortunately it was because Taliban extremists, who had taken control of the country, were linked with the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. Karzai rallied internal forces and joined with U.S. troops to oust the Islamic faction from power. After the fall of the Taliban, Karzai served as both the chairman and interim president of the transitional government. In December 2004, despite predictions to the contrary, the Afghani people filed to the polls to vote in their first presidential election.

On December 7, 2004, the charismatic and devoted Karzai was officially named Afghanistan's first democratically elected leader. Royal legacy Hamid Karzai was born on December 24, 1957, in Karz, a small village near Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. His was a royal birth since members of the Karzai family, who belong to the Populzai clan, have been rulers of the country for over six hundred years. The Populzai clan is part of the Pashtun tribe, which is the largest Islamic ethnic group in Afghanistan, numbering close to half a million. Karzai's grandfather was president of the national council under King Mohammed Zahir Shah (1914–; ruled 1933–73); his father served as a senator in the king's parliament. Karzai has seven siblings—six brothers and one sister—five of whom live in the United States, where they run a chain of Afghan restaurants called Helmand. Although he spent most of his early years in Kandahar, Karzai attended high school in Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan.

He also attended the Habibia School in Kabul, where he earned a bachelor's degree in political science. In 1979, after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, the entire Karzai family fled the country and settled in Quetta, Pakistan. Meanwhile Karzai continued his education in political science at "It is our humanity that ultimately brings us together, while the pursuit of narrow interests divides us all." the Himachal Pradesh University in Simla, India. In 1985 the studious Karzai traveled to Paris, France, to study journalism at the Ecole Superieure. By the age of twenty-eight, the future diplomat was fluent in seven languages and had racked up an impressive number of professional degrees. During his years of self-imposed exile, Karzai retained close ties to his homeland. While living in Pakistan he was director of the Afghan National Liberation Front and worked for the mujahedin, a force of anti-Soviet guerillas (small bands of fighters who make surprise attacks) that funneled weapons and supplies from the United States to Afghanistan. In 1989, when Soviet forces were finally overthrown, the country was left in shambles.

According to United Nations' estimates, nearly one million Afghanis had died during the decade of occupation and resistance. (The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945 and composed of most of the countries in the world.) Various factions fought to gain control of the Afghan government, and in 1992 a coalition of Islamic groups known as the Seven Party Alliance named Burhanuddin Rabbani (1940–) president of the interim, or temporary, Islamic Council. Taliban takes control From 1992 through 1994 Karzai returned to Afghanistan and served as the deputy foreign minister in the Rabbani government. But life under Rabbani rule was chaotic, riddled by infighting within the Rabbani government and rife with corruption. A disillusioned Karzai resigned his post and left for Pakistan, where, for a time, he allied himself with a newly formed group called the Taliban. The Taliban was composed of conservative Islamic students and clerics who wanted to establish religious rule in Afghanistan. Some felt the Taliban were extremists, almost fanatical, but Karzai believed them to be allies since they were part of the Pashtun tribe.

As he told Justin Huggler of the Independent, "The Taliban were good, honest people. I had no reservations about helping them." Karzai's support of the Taliban, however, was short-lived. After the Taliban took control of the government in 1996 they used Islamic law to impose severe restrictions, especially on women, and their treatment of Afghani citizens was often brutal. When Taliban followers from outside the country began to establish terrorist camps throughout Afghanistan, Karzai distanced himself from the group, and he and his father, Abdul Mohamed, became outspoken opponents. In 1999, while walking home from a mosque (an Islamic house of worship), Abdul Mohamed was assassinated. Karzai blamed the Taliban, and he resolved to rid thecountry of the extremists. As the new khan, or head, of the Populzai clan, he also vowed to devote himself to his father's dream of creating a wholly unique Afghan government that would embrace all clans, tribes, and ethnicities. From his outpost in Pakistan, Karzai organized a Taliban resistance movement. He also traveled frequently to the United States to plead for support against the Taliban, even appearing before the U.S. Senate.

Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, when terrorists hijacked U.S. planes and crashed them into buildings in New York City and Washington, D.C., the United States began to take Karzai and the Taliban threat more seriously. The September 11 attacks were directly linked to Taliban extremists, and U.S. troops were immediately sent out in full force. The U.S. military worked with the Northern Alliance— Afghani factions united to remove the Taliban; Karzai slipped into southern Afghanistan to supply intelligence reports and to rally southern tribes. In October 2001, after a month of massive attacks, the Taliban was finally toppled. Transitional authority In December 2001 exiled Afghanistan politicians and Afghani tribal leaders met in Bonn, Germany, to discuss a new government structure. Karzai communicated via satellite telephone, and by unanimous vote, he was named interim president for six months, after which a loya jirga (a traditional council of Afghani elders) would be assembled to decide on future leadership.

On December 22, 2001, Karzai was sworn in as president, along with a thirty-person cabinet, including representatives of various clans, two of whom were women. In June 2002 the loya jirga gathered to choose new government leadership until elections could be held in 2004. Taking 1,295 out of 1,575 votes, Karzai was elected president of the Afghan Transitional Administration. Twenty-eight cabinet members were named and three vice presidents, representing multiple ethnic backgrounds, were installed. Violence erupted almost immediately. Just weeks after taking office, on July 6, 2002, Vice President Haji Abdul Qadir was assassinated. Karzai, himself, narrowly escaped being killed in September 2002 when a gunman opened fire as he was getting into his car. In addition car bombings and grenade attacks became everyday occurrences, aimed at both Afghani heads of state and foreign leaders stationed in the country on peacekeeping missions. Despite threats to his safety, Karzai launched himself into his new post of president with tireless zeal.

Given the constant skirmishes between the various clan warlords his first priority was to focus on security by re-establishing a strong national army and a unified police force. In an attempt to maintain control over the scattered provinces Karzai also fired more than twenty regional officials who were accused of drug trafficking, excessive taxation, and countless other types of corruption. At the most basic level, the new president was faced with the problem of providing his citizens with the simplest necessities. After years of being ravaged by war, many Afghanis had no access to safe drinking water, electricity, or passable roads. To rally international support Karzai traveled to over fifteen countries, ultimately acquiring nearly $5 billion in aid. According to analysts and members of the press, Karzai was so successful because he charmed world leaders with his mild manner, his intelligent persuasiveness, and his stylish way of dressing. Wearing business suits mixed with colorful capes and wool fezzes, the Afghanistan president struck just the right balance between a modern-day politician and a traditional nationalist (someone who feels devotion and pride in his country and who advocates for strong national independence). Hamid Karzai, pictured here with U.S.

secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, was inaugurated as president of Afghanistan in December 2004. © Yuri Gripas/Reuters/Corbis. Democracy arrives In late 2004, despite continued personal peril (by this time he had round-the-clock protection by U.S. bodyguards), Karzai was the top contender in the first presidential race in Afghanistan history. Analysts claimed that there was a lack of national interest and many were worried the elections would not take place given vocal threats of violence issued by Taliban representatives. On October 9, 2004, however, despite the threats, eight million Afghanis headed to the polls to cast their ballots. When the votes were counted, Karzai had defeated twenty-two opponents by taking 55.4 percent. According to William Safire of the New York Times, "The biggest winner is the cause of democracy in the world, and especially in this region, which much of the West assumed was too culturally backward to express a longing for freedom." Karzai's inauguration took place on December 7, 2004, at the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan.

With his hand placed on the Koran (the holy book of Islam) he recited this oath, as quoted on the Radio Free Afghanistan Web site: "I will safeguard the rights and interests of the Afghan people. And by the help of Almighty God—and the support of the nation—I will continue my efforts for the welfare and the development of the country. Almighty God, help me." The crowd in attendance, which included such foreign dignitaries as Vice President Dick Cheney (1941–), gave Karzai a standing ovation as he proceeded to give his acceptance speech. Lisa Stein of U.S. News … World Report described a particularly heartfelt moment when the newly elected president proclaimed, "We have now left a hard and dark past behind us, and today we are opening a new chapter in our history. On this day of a new, peaceful, prosperous era for our country, I would like to wish the best for Afghanistan." No easy answers Despite Karzai's sincere intentions, rebuilding Afghanistan would prove to be a difficult task. In an attempt to further rein in regional warlords who relied on illegal drug trafficking, the new president announced he would put an end to the production of opium-poppy, which is used to create heroin.

According to statistics issued by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 87 percent of opium sold in the worldwide drug trade originates in Afghanistan. Critics, however, claim that since taking office Karzai had done little to address the drug issue, in part because there was no easy solution, and also because the drug trade has been central to the country's economy for so long. As Isobel Coleman of the Council on Foreign Relations told Nikola Krastev of Radio Free Europe, "It's very destabilizing in the country to take away people's only livelihood. And I think the Karzai government ... has soft-pedaled on this issue for that reason." The biggest hurdle remained the constant outbreaks of violence among various ethnic groups, with the biggest threat coming from the Taliban, not official heads of government anymore, but still an active militant group. After the presidential elections many believed that the Taliban movement had been suppressed, but throughout 2005 tensions continued to increase. Almost daily there were attacks by Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan. Taliban terrorists staged kidnappings of several foreign visitors, and heated demonstrations against the Karzai government popped up on a regular basis.

On June 28, 2005, the violence reached a climax when a U.S. military helicopter carrying seventeen Americans was shot down over Kabul. Once again Karzai turned to the international The Taliban In the early 1990s, after Soviet forces were driven out from Afghanistan, the country experienced a civil war as various warlords of several ethnic tribes fought for control. One of the groups that emerged was known as the Taliban, a word that comes from the Arabic term for "seeker" or "student." The term was appropriate because most of the Taliban members were Islamic clerics and students who were refugees studying at seminars in nearby Pakistan. Members of the Taliban were strict followers of Islam and belonged to the Pashtun tribe, which early on offered them considerable support. The Taliban's first leader, Mohammed Omar (1959–), emerged in 1994 and quickly rose to prominence after organizing a sophisticated military unit of over 1,500 men. Omar's followers continued to increase, and over the next few years they overtook Afghanistan, beginning in the western regions.

On September 26, 1996, the Taliban captured the capital city of Kabul; President Burhanuddin Rabbani fled and Omar established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, with himself as the new head of state. Although the Taliban essentially ruled the majority of the country through 2001, only three nations recognized their authority: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Until the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States and the rest of the world took a hands-off approach to the Taliban, considering the amount of friction among other ethnic Afghan tribes seemed to be under control. For most Afghani citizens, however, life under Taliban rule was often brutal. Since Taliban members were strict followers of Islam, Islamic law was firmly enforced. For example, all television, music, and sports were banned; men were expected to trim their beards to a specific length; and criminals were severely punished. A person found guilty of robbery might have a hand cut off by the Taliban police. The treatment of women under Taliban rule was particularly harsh. Women were forbidden to work outside the home; girls' schools were closed; and women were regularly prohibited from coming into direct contact with men.

The Taliban also enforced a strict dress code: Women were not allowed in public unless their faces were completely covered by a veil known as a burqa. community to come to the assistance of his country, pleading, in particular, for the United States and Australia to bring in more troops. According to Carlotta Gall of the Houston Chronicle, just months after his country had enjoyed its first taste of freedom Karzai's people were "feeling uneasy about the future." For More Information Periodicals Fang, Bay. "After the Election, What? Afghan Elections." U.S. News … World Report (November 8, 2004): p. 38. "The Final Results." National Review (November 8, 2004): p. 10. Huggler, Justin. "Hamid Karzai: Steel in an Afghan Cloak." The Independent (UK) (May 21, 2002). Moreau, Ron, and Sami Yousafzai. "Taliban Are Welcome: Interview with President Karzi." Newsweek (December 20, 2004): p. 32. Safire, William.

"The Best Political News of 2004: The Afghan Election." New York Times (November 29, 2004): p. 20. Starr, S. Frederick. Silk Road to Success. The National Interest (Winter 2004): pp. 65–73. Stein, Lisa. "A New, Peaceful Era." U.S. News … World Report (December 20, 2004): p. 14. Web Sites "Karzai Sworn in as Afghan President." Radio Free Afghanistan: Weekly Report (December 8, 2004). (accessed on August 23, 2005). Krastev, Nikola. "Afghanistan: UN Highlights Long-Term Drug Threat." Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.com (June 29, 2005). (accessed on August 23, 2005). User Contributions:

Question: Who became president of Afghanistan in December 2004?
Answer: Hamid Karzai