US Solves Afghanistan "Corruption": Turning Karzai the Poacher Into Karzai the Gamekeeper (Mazzetti/Nordland)

"Poacher Turned Gamekeeper": Someone who gets a legitimate job which is the opposite of their previous one....

After weeks of in-fighting in the Obama Administration over how to deal with the issue of "corruption" and relations with the Afghan Government, Mark Mazzetti and Rod Nordland of The New York Times write about a possible resolution: instead of targeting Afghan President Hamid Karzai for the alleged financial misdeeds, make him the Sheriff of Responsibility:

The Obama administration is debating whether to make Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, a more central player in efforts to root out corruption in his own government, including giving him more oversight of graft investigators and notifying him before any arrests, according to senior American officials.

Such a change would represent a significant shift in strategy for an administration that once pinned much of the blame for Afghan corruption on Mr. Karzai, but is now worried that escalating tensions between Kabul and Washington could alienate Mr. Karzai and sabotage the broader campaign to battle the Taliban.

Some administration officials, though, are concerned that such a move could undermine efforts to hold officials in Kabul accountable for a web of corruption inside the Afghan government, efforts Mr. Karzai thwarted in recent weeks by intervening to have a top aide released from jail.

In Kabul, American and Afghan officials said that new corruption prosecutions had ground to a halt as a result of a dispute within the government over the limits of American-backed anticorruption teams that have pursued Afghan officials. A Western diplomat said Tuesday that the work of Justice Department advisers helping with the corruption cases had “paused.”

The corruption issue was at the center of a two-hour White House meeting on Monday, with President Obama and senior aides agreeing that efforts to tackle corruption should be balanced against the need to maintain ties with the Afghan government.

“The discussion on corruption, in essence, is really a discussion about our relationship with Karzai,” said one senior Obama administration official, who like several others interviewed for this article spoke only on condition of anonymity.

Officials cautioned that no firm decisions had been made about whether President Karzai should have any veto power over anticorruption efforts. They said that Mr. Obama told his advisers on Monday to come up with a more “sophisticated” policy toward Afghan corruption.

Mr. Obama, the officials said, directed government agencies — including the Pentagon, the State Department, the Justice Department and the C.I.A. — to develop guidelines that could isolate the corruption that fuels anger among Afghans and drives many into the ranks of the insurgency, as opposed to the more routine kickbacks and bribes that grease the Afghan political system.

“The corruption we need to combat is the corruption that undermines the fight against the Taliban,” said a second American official. “That means going after officials who abuse ordinary Afghans and drive them to the other side — a plundering landlord or a brutal, thieving cop.”

Such distinctions could be difficult to draw. Moreover, there is widespread suspicion in Afghanistan that Mr. Karzai’s inner circle and some of his family members have enriched themselves through land grabs and sweetheart business deals, including the self-dealing that led to the recent crisis at Kabul Bank.

Nevertheless, American officials said that shifting tactics to focus anticorruption efforts on practices that benefit the Taliban could help build good will with the Karzai government and could decrease suspicion inside the presidential palace.

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