CAMP DAVID, Md. – President Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday began a search for answers to the deteriorating security and sporadic rule of law in Afghanistan.
Karzai’s two-day visit to Bush’s mountain retreat comes as he faces competing troubles at home: a hostage crisis, civilian killings, drug trafficking and a resurgent Taliban.
All of those matters are likely to be discussed with Bush. The U.S. president is looking to bolster Karzai but also to prod his government to exert and extend its authority.
Ahead of his arrival, Karzai offered a reminder of the trouble that remains nearly six years after U.S. and coalition forces entered his country. In the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the United States and its allies have essentially gotten nowhere lately, Karzai said.
“We are not closer, we are not further away from it,” Karzai said in an interview with CNN’s “Late Edition,” which aired Sunday. “We are where we were a few years ago.”
Karzai ruled out that bin Laden was in Afghanistan, but otherwise said he didn’t know where the leader of the al-Qaida terror network was likely to be hiding. Bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, is believed to be living in the tribal border region of Pakistan.
Despite its progress since U.S.-led forces toppled the militant Taliban regime in 2001, Afghanistan still is dominated by poverty and lawlessness. Stability has been hindered by the lack of government order, particularly in the southern part of the country.
“The security situation in Afghanistan over the past two years has definitely deteriorated,” Karzai said in the interview. “There is no doubt about that.”
Karzai said he is investigating reports that Iran is fueling violence in Afghanistan by sending in weaponry such as sophisticated roadside bombs. Yet he also praised Iran as a partner in peace and against narcotics. “So far, Iran has been a helper,” he said.
Meanwhile, an American member of al-Qaida threatened foreign diplomats and embassies across the Islamic world in a new video Sunday, saying they would targeted as “spy dens.”
Adam Gadahn, a Californian also known as Azzan al-Amriki, was charged with treason in the United States last fall and has been wanted since 2004 by the FBI.
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