Tales from the Trail

Since the September 11 attacks, CIA officials have made it clear that to get the intelligence needed to stop terrorism attacks, U.S. intelligence agencies sometimes have to deal with “bad guys.”

The issue is again in the public eye again after The New York Times reported that the CIA has been regularly paying Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, for at least eight years for services that included helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force. The newspaper report says that Ahmed Wali Karzai is a suspected player in the illegal opium trade, which he denies.

Senator John McCain told CBS “Early Show” yesterday: “I’d heard that rumor before. I think it’s wrong. It’s wrong of the CIA to do it and I’m sure our military commanders there would disagree with it.”

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One former intelligence official, who was not commenting specifically on the Karzai brother situation, said in general it would be worrisome if the debate restarts over whether the CIA should or should not do business with “tainted individuals” when trying to prevent harm to U.S. interests.

“I’ve seen that movie too many times before,” the former official said behind a cloak of  anonymity.

Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is striking back hard at her daughter’s ex-fiance, Levi Johnston, for what she called “mean-spirited, malicious and untrue attacks.”

Palin, and Johnston, who had a child out of wedlock with Palin’s daughter, Bristol, have been in a war of words since Levi and Bristol broke off plans to marry early this year.

Johnston appeared on CBS’ “Early Show” and repeated a charge he made in a recent Vanity Fair interview that Sarah Palin would often refer to her son with Down Syndrome, Trig Palin, as being “retarded.”