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Article: Walking a Fine Line.(Hamid Karzai and Afghanistan)
- Article from:
- Newsweek International
- Article date:
- June 9, 2003
- Author:
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Around 8 each morning, Afghan President Hamid Karzai emerges from his two-story residence within the sprawling grounds of Kabul's royal palace and walks to his presidential office, several hundred yards away. He is not alone. An American agent armed with a concealed pistol walks by his side; another is in front and another behind, both carrying M-4 automatic rifles. More than a dozen U.S. trained Afghan guards trot alongside, also heavily armed. U.S. and Afghan sharpshooters watch from the rooftops of nearby buildings as he passes. Karzai survived a hail of assassin's bullets last September, but neither that memory nor the blanket security seems to dampen his mood. He ...