KABUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s own inner circle considers him weak and sometimes unscrupulous, leaked U.S. diplomatic cables show, a domestic vote of no confidence that may be more damaging than foreign criticisms.

Karzai, known to be sensitive about his team’s loyalty, is likely to be infuriated by the idea of his cabinet discussing his flaws, making deals behind his back and sharing concerns with a U.S. embassy considered highly critical of his rule.

Dispatches from U.S. ambassador Karl Eikenberry were even less flattering, but Karzai’s rocky relationship with Washington is well known, and criticisms are often voiced face to face.

Finance Minister Omar Zakhilwal described Karzai as an “extremely weak man” who did not listen to facts, one cable dated February this year said, and former Interior Minister Hanif Atmar claimed Karzai did not understand U.S. policy in the region.

Zakhilwal said Karzai’s inner circle had agreed to “collaborate to influence Karzai when they see him going astray,” and support each other if they faced the president’s anger for raising sensitive issues..

The cables contain allegations Karzai colluded in the intimidation of a senior official, and “ashamed” his Chief of Staff Umar Daudzai by pardoning narcotraffickers for political reasons, according to Britain’s Guardian newspaper.

The New York Times and Britain’s The Guardian newspaper have been given advanced access by WikiLeaks to over 250,000 cables.

KABUL, Nov 30 (Reuters) – Afghan security forces are freeing captured senior Taliban for payment or political motives, with President Hamid Karzai and his powerful brother among those authorising and requesting releases.

The practice is so systemic that the Taliban have a committee focused on getting their fighters out of jail. It undermines the deterrent effect of arrest and the potential of the prisoner population as a card to play in peace talks, analysts say.

The releases, which were confirmed to Reuters by several sources familiar with a range of cases, also raise questions about the capacity and political will of Afghan security forces meant to be taking over from foreign troops starting next year.

U.S. forces will begin drawing down numbers from next July and NATO hopes to meet Karzai’s 2014 target for all security to be provided by Afghan police and military.

But cases uncovered by Reuters including that of Ghulam Haidar, a top insurgent in the southern Taliban heartland of Kandahar, suggest that a web of complex loyalties and widespread corruption are undermining the fight against the insurgency.

Ghulam Haidar, meaning “servant of God”, is a common name in Afghanistan so when Canadian forces turned one of the most dangerous men in Kandahar city over to their Afghan counterparts in March, they may not have realised who he was.

Days later he was walking free again, according to three sources who have investigated prisoner releases or have seen documents about Haidar’s capture. They asked not to be named because they are not authorised to release information.

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan security forces are freeing captured senior Taliban for payment or political motives, with President Hamid Karzai and his powerful brother among those authorising and requesting releases.

The practice is so systemic that the Taliban have a committee focused on getting their fighters out of jail. It undermines the deterrent effect of arrest and the potential of the prisoner population as a card to play in peace talks, analysts say.

The releases, which were confirmed to Reuters by several sources familiar with a range of cases, also raise questions about the capacity and political will of Afghan security forces meant to be taking over from foreign troops starting next year.

U.S. forces will begin drawing down numbers from next July and NATO hopes to meet Karzai’s 2014 target for all security to be provided by Afghan police and military.

But cases uncovered by Reuters including that of Ghulam Haidar, a top insurgent in the southern Taliban heartland of Kandahar, suggest that a web of complex loyalties and widespread corruption are undermining the fight against the insurgency.

Ghulam Haidar, meaning “servant of God,” is a common name in Afghanistan so when Canadian forces turned one of the most dangerous men in Kandahar city over to their Afghan counterparts in March, they may not have realized who he was.

Days later he was walking free again, according to three sources who have investigated prisoner releases or have seen documents about Haidar’s capture. They asked not to be named because they are not authorized to release information.

KABUL (Reuters) – Leaked diplomatic cables that describe Afghan President Hamid Karzai as “extremely weak” and his brother as a corrupt drug trafficker won’t strain ties with Washington, Karzai’s spokesman said on Monday.

The secret messages from Kabul to Washington also allege that a former vice-president fled the country with over $50 million (32 million pounds) in cash, cables and media reports about the cache of documents say.

Karzai’s spokesman shrugged off comments in the first round of leaks, but acknowledged there was still room for damage.

“It won’t have a noticeable effect on our broader strategic relationship with the U.S.,” spokesman Waheed Omer told a news conference in Kabul.

“There is not much in the documents to surprise us and we don’t see anything substantive that will strain our relationship, but there is more still to come.”

Only a handful of over 250,000 documents given to a small group of international media have been released so far, but they paint a particularly negative picture of the President’s half brother Ahmad Wali Karzai, a major power broker in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.

“While we must deal with AWK as the head of the Provincial Council, he is widely understood to be corrupt and a narcotics trafficker,” says one confidential cable from Kabul, dated October 2009 and signed off by Ambassador Karl Eikenberry.

KABUL (Reuters) – Leaked diplomatic cables that describe President Hamid Karzai as “extremely weak” and his brother as a corrupt drugs trafficker won’t strain ties with Washington, Karzai’s spokesman said on Wednesday.

The secret messages from Kabul to Washington also allege that a former vice-president fled the country with over $50 million in cash, cables and media reports about the cache of documents say.

Karzai’s spokesman shrugged off comments in the first round of leaks, but acknowledged there was still room for damage.

“It won’t have a noticeable effect on our broader strategic relationship with the U.S.,” spokesman Waheed Omer told a news conference in Kabul.

“There is not much in the documents to surprise us and we don’t see anything substantive that will strain our relationship, but there is more still to come.”

Only a handful of over 250,000 documents given to a small group of international media have been released so far, but they paint a particularly negative picture of the President’s half brother Ahmad Wali Karzai, a major power broker in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.

“While we must deal with AWK as the head of the Provincial Council, he is widely understood to be corrupt and a narcotics trafficker,” says one confidential cable from Kabul, dated October 2009 and signed off by Ambassador Karl Eikenberry.

KABUL (Reuters) – A loose coalition of Afghan lawmakers who oppose Afghan president Hamid Karzai have won enough seats in a new parliament to place some checks on presidential power, a senior opposition figure said on Wednesday.

Abdullah Abdullah, an ophthalmologist who was Karzai’s main rival in presidential elections last year, said more than 90 candidates who had pledged their support to his movement had won seats, although he declined to give an exact number.

Long-delayed results from the September 18 parliamentary poll were announced on Wednesday.

But the disqualification of three more candidates, the absence of one province from what was supposed to be a final tally, and angry protests further clouded an election already tainted by widespread allegations of fraud.

Abdullah said he had scored a massive increase on the number of opposition MPs who formed a cohesive bloc in the last parliament, and potentially enough to provide a real counterweight to Karzai’s power.

“In terms of the numbers I would say that it is already more than 90,” Abdullah said when asked about the size of his unofficial party in parliament.

“The presence of a bigger number of opposition members of parliament will certainly have an impact … I think we will be able to introduce some checks and balances,” he told reporters.

KABUL (Reuters) – A top NATO official’s warning that the alliance may miss a 2014 deadline for handing over control of Afghan security exposed a gulf between political timelines and complex military reality just before a major summit on the war.

Afghanistan will top the agenda at a NATO summit in Lisbon this week, where world leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama will gather to plan their troops’ exit from an increasingly unpopular war.

Afghan leader Hamid Karzai has said he wants the Afghan army and police, which are being rapidly beefed up by foreign trainers and cash, to have control of the country by 2014 and that goal has been endorsed by NATO and its allies.

But Mark Sedwill, the top NATO civilian representative in Afghanistan, said Wednesday that the transition process may run into 2015 and beyond, and that after foreign troops step down from combat roles the country could see “eye-watering levels of violence.”

“There has been a clear decision that there needs to be a transition, a handover,” said Martine van Bijlert, co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network.

“Now they are faced with the reality of it, and although you can spin quite a lot there are limits, and that is perhaps where this comes from — trying to soften the timeline while holding onto the message they are transitioning and planning to leave.”

Violence in Afghanistan is at its worst since the Taliban were overthrown in late 2001, with record casualties on all sides of the conflict, and the insurgency spreading to previously peaceful northern and western parts of the country.