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Karzai assassin had been CIA contact

Afghan President Hamid Karzai attended trilateral talks with Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari (unseen) and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (unseen) in the presidential palace in Tehran, Iran on June 24, 2011. Karzai scheduled to participate in the Global Fight against Terrorism International Summit which will be held on June 25 and 26 in Tehran, Iran. UPI/Maryam Rahmanian
Afghan President Hamid Karzai attended trilateral talks with Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari (unseen) and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (unseen) in the presidential palace in Tehran, Iran on June 24, 2011. Karzai scheduled to participate in the Global Fight against Terrorism International Summit which will be held on June 25 and 26 in Tehran, Iran. UPI/Maryam Rahmanian | License Photo

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 16 (UPI) -- The guard who assassinated Afghan President Hamid Karzai's brother was a trusted CIA contact before he joined forces with the Taliban, The Independent reported.

Sardar Mohammad, who shot Ahmed Wali Karzai Tuesday in Kandahar, also attended regular meetings with U.K. officials, and two of his brothers-in-law worked in a CIA-run paramilitary unit, the newspaper said.

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Mohammad's action was initially believed to be motivated by personal circumstances, but security officials soon learned Taliban intelligence operatives had infiltrated Afghan security and reached Karzai's innermost circle.

The insurgents "get these very big victories quite often and I think probably we underestimate the [Taliban's] intelligence components," one Western analyst told the newspaper.

"Our investigation shows that for the last three months he was acting out of character, not normal, erratic," said Mahmoud Karzai, another of Karzai's brothers.

"He wasn't sleeping, he was nervous, he was getting phone calls in the middle of the night, and our information shows he made a trip to Quetta [in Pakistan] and met with some Taliban. His father was a mullah. So all these things combined, plus the Taliban claim of responsibility ... but our preliminary investigation indicates this was the work of the Taliban."

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The Washington Post reported Ahmed Wali Karzai met with Mohammad six days a week and had even taken his mother to Mohammad's house.

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