Previously classified letters between Osama bin Laden and a high-ranking Al Qaeda operative reveal that the Afghan government used a secret fund, bankrolled by the CIA, to facilitate the release of a senior Afghan official kidnapped by the terrorist organization in 2010, The New York Times reports.

In order to gain access to Afghan president Hamid Karzai's inner circle, the CIA secretly sent tens of millions of dollars to Karzai's office for over a decade. The money, all straight cash, of course, was delivered approximately every month and was packed in suitcases, backpacks, and plastic bags.

After meeting with Afghan President Karzai, President Obama announced US troops will move to a support role this spring.

An American soldier opened fire on civilians in Kandahar Sunday, killing 16 Afghans including 9 children and 3 women. While most reports say a single soldier is accountable for the massacre, some eyewitness accounts maintain it was a group of American soldiers "who were laughing and appeared drunk."

In another disturbing confirmation that, yes, the rest of the world is watching, Afghan President Hamid Karzai appears to have caught that clip of Herman Cain dismissing "insignificant" countries like "Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan" as things that aren't worth learning about. He even got Hillary Clinton to bring it up during their latest meeting, to share a laugh. "That wasn't right, but anyway, that's how politics are," Karzai empathized.

It's a good day to be an enterprising heroin dealer in southern Afghanistan. Ahmed Wali Karzai, half-brother of President Hamid Karzai, was shot and killed by a family bodyguard at his home in Kandahar, where he was the chief of the provincial council. The deceased is said to have been the owner of truckloads of heroin over the years, but to be fair, in a 2008 interview with the New York Times he said, "I am not a drug dealer, I never was and I never will be." So take that for what's it worth?

Barack Obama decided to head to Afghanistan for a pre-Christmas visit to the troops and to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. But due to bad weather and "technical difficulties," the meeting was downgraded to a lousy phone call.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai admitted to receiving bags of cash from Iran. Don't worry! He says it's "normal."

Top-level Taliban commanders are being transported from Pakistan to Afghanistan for face-to-face talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his government that could end to the War in Afghanistan. So, I guess, start preparing an unsatisfying, vaguely-defined celebration.

[Flawless Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yuks it up with Afghan President Hamid Karzai while posing for a picture in Kabul today. Image via AP]

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai fixed the recent presidential elections, and now he is blaming the UN for doing that. He is also threatening to join the Taliban and generally being kinda nutty. Diplomat Peter Galbraith says he is on drugs!

With 10% of the votes counted, the presidential election race between Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah is too close to call. Karzai leads by about 10,000 votes. But what should you think about it?

Sarah Palin increased her foreign policy experience by 475% today and the media wasn't allowed to hear any of it! Because Sarah Palin doesn't really speak to the media much/ever, so they have to follow her around and ask the photographers dispatched to capture the photo ops what they heard her say, as if she is just like her new pal Henry Kissinger and she is engaging in top-secret high-level diplomatic negotiations. Except… at the end of the meetings the ensuing media accounts don't have anything to write about, because nothing actually transpired, so the poor journalists are left to write about how she lipsynched that she "had a good time" meeting the emperor of Tokyo or whatever. So what's a bigger waste of time than following Sarah Palin around while she says nothing about meaningless meetings with foreign dignitaries? Making up fictional event-free meetings with foreign dignitaries for the sake of a pointless quiz to see if you can tell which ones actually (pointlessly) happened!Three of these meetings actually happened, according to the Times website. Three just happened the way I imagined they would were I a reporter assigned to watch various other foreign dignitaries harmlessly shaking hands and exchanging niceties with Sarah Palin before being ushered off to exchange more niceties and possibly a game recipe or two. Guess which is which! 1. Talking Georgia With Kissinger