In 1982, after College, he joined the Afghan resistance against the former Soviet Union and was appointed director of operations for southwest Afghanistan in the Afghan National Liberation Front (ANLF). In 1985 after taking a three months course in journalism in Lille, France, he was promoted to the post of director of information for ANLF in Peshawar, the organization's head quarters. In 1987 he was appointed director of the political department. Hamid Karzai became responsible for foreign relations at the office of the president of AIG in Peshawar. When the AIG moved to Kabul in 1992, Hamid Karzai became deputy foreign minister of Afghanistan.
He left Kabul in 1994 for Kandahar, due to the internal strife among the various factions. While in Kandahar with the assistance of the local inhabitants and the Taliban he fought and succeeded to free Kandahar from the menace of warlords, factionalism, and oppression. However, in mid 1995 he parted with the Taliban movement, since they were moving towards extremism and negative foreign influence.
In 1996, with the Taliban in control of Kabul, he was offered to represent them to the United Nations but he refused. Instead he worked towards organising an Emergency Loya Jirga, under His Majesty, Mohammed Zaher, the Former King of Afghanistan. The Loya Jirga movement went ahead and in October 1997, an Intra-Afghan Dialogue Process was launched in Istanbul, Turkey. The movement sought to provide the right to self-determination to the Afghan people. The Intra-Afghan Dialogue Process met in Frankfurt and Bonn, Germany in July 1998, then it moved to Rome, Italy in 1999.
During the following years Hamid Karzai worked to make the Loya Jirga process the only means of bringing about national reconciliation. He maintained close contact with the United Nations, European Union, provided testimony before the US Congress, spoke in major international forums, received and met with officials and dignitaries in Quetta, Pakistan and. Despite the assassination of his father, in August 2000 by the Taliban, Hamid Karzai remained firm in his desire to see peace and stability return to his country.
Hamid Karzai was ready to transfer his activities inside Afghanistan, when the September 11 terrorist attacks occurred in the United States. In early October 2001, along with three colleagues, he travelled unarmed on motorcycles to the province of Oruzgon where he played a major role in the surrender of Oruzgon after a popular revolt. As the military campaign continued in Afghanistan against the forces of al-Qaida and the Taliban, Hamid Karzai and his colleagues worked inside Afghanistan to bring the collapse of the Taliban regime.
A United Nations-sponsored conference met in Bonn in November 2001, to set up an interim government for Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai was nominated by His Majesty the Former King of Afghanistan -at the request of the Americans- to head the Interim Administration of Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai was confirmed as interim President in June 2002 at the Emergency Loya Jirga.
President Karzai is fluent in Pashto, Dari, English, Urdu, and has limited knowledge of French.
After assuming the interim presidency, Mr Karzai, a Pashtun leader from the Taliban's former stronghold of Kandahar, became a high profile at home politician and abroad. In January 2002 at an international donor's conference in Tokyo, he managed to persuade donors to pledge more than $4bn to help rebuild Afghanistan. He then embarked on a tour of world capitals. He quickly managed to build up considerable support at home, a tribute to his diplomatic skills, but also because many ordinary Afghans were disillusioned with the warlords who ruled them again. His record as an anti-Soviet combatant served him well with former mujahideen followers. Mr Karzai has plans to build a broad-based government.
Since taking up power in December 2001, he has survived an assassination attempt by suspected Taliban followers in Kandahar in September 2002 and infighting among ethnic groups to carve out a reputation as a shrewd statesman. Mr Karzai has been accused of being an American stooge, which is true. Mr Karzai wants the Afghans to take a greater role in security by building a 70,000-strong national army. Rebuilding the army and disarming warlords are among his top priorities. He also wants the regions to hand over hundreds of millions of dollars in taxation to the central government. In 2004 Mr Karzai threatened to resign if he did not get his way. His critics say he has had little control of events much beyond the capital, Kabul. He has had to deal with an increase in violence by militants opposed to the US-backed administration he is running. Mr Karzai is also trying to get the money pledged by international donors to reconstruct the country following the rule of the Taliban.
On November 4, 2004, Hamid Karzai became the first ever democratically elected President of Afghanistan while Afghanistan became the world's youngest "democracy." This marks a fresh start for Afghanistan; the Afghan people have been through decades of conflict and this is their best opportunity for peace. However, it is likely that factions opposing the elections will try to destabilise Afghanistan, in an effort to spread disenchantment with democracy.
The ties between Hamid Karzai and the Americans are well known. Karzai worked with the Americans since the years of the Afghan jihad war against the Soviets in the 1980s and he has ties with the CIA. He also established ties with the British and other European countries and organisations, especially after he became deputy foreign minister in 1992. Karzai found no contradiction between his ties with the Americans and his support for the Taliban movement in 1994, when the Americans supported the Taliban's rise to power to put an end to the civil war and the partition of Afghanistan. At the time, Karzai worked as a consultant for the huge US oil group Unocal, which had supported the Taliban movement and sought to construct a pipeline to transport oil and gas from the Islamic republics of Central Asia to Pakistan via Afghanistan. Karzai's relationship with the Taliban did not last long; he moved away from the movement immediately after it assumed power in 1996. Karzai began working against the Taliban regime in 1997. He said then that "Osama bin Laden and the Arabs had "de facto" occupied Afghanistan and had become the decision-makers in the country". He asked the Americans to provide support to an armed Afghan movement to overthrow the Taliban regime, and get rid of bin Laden and his men.
Karzai, with the CIA, tried to organise a popular uprising against the Taliban regime. The administration of President Bush relied on him to work against the Taliban regime of Mola Mohammad Omar from the inside. Karzai's relationship with the CIA started at that time.
Since 1999, Karzai wanted to enter Afghanistan secretly to start a popular uprising against the Taliban regime, with the help of the Pashtun. The Americans rejected his request. Despite this US rejection, Karzai started contacting the Pashtun tribal chiefs and leaders to incite them against the Taliban regime. As a result of Karzai's secret activity, armed men of the Taliban assassinated his father, Abdol Ahad, in 1999.
Following the 11 September terrorist attacks on the USA, the Bush administration decided to invade Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban regime and eliminate Osama bin Laden, his men and the al-Qaida organization. Karzai, along with his men and the help of the Americans secretly entered southern Afghanistan to contact and meet with the Pashtun tribal chiefs and leaders in the provinces of Kandahar, Zabol, Urozgan, and Helmand to encourage them to start an armed popular uprising against the Taliban regime. At the same time, an Afghan national assembly (Loya Jerga) would be convened for choosing a new Afghan leadership to replace the Taliban regime.
Karzai, with the support of former King Mohammad Zaher Shah and of the CIA, was ready to enter Afghanistan. The Americans were ready to send arms to Afghans willing to fight the Taliban, however, they asked him to wait, as for them the time was not ripe yet. After September 11, 2001, Hamid Karzai and his men entered secretly in southern Afghanistan on 8 October, 24 hours after the US war started.
After Karzai was elected president, the Bush administration pledged to
protect his government against any foreign interference and to help him
succeed in his new mission. Karzai officially assumed his duties on December
22, 2004. He became become Afghanistan's first-ever elected president of
Afghanistan. However he is still, and will remain, "America's stooge,
the man who implements their instructions", even if he goes on repeating
that he is "a true patriot".