Source: New York Times
WASHINGTON — Unlike his predecessor, Afghanistan’s spy chief, Rahmatullah Nabil, has never been accused by human rights groups of having a torture chamber in his basement.
To the contrary, there are many Afghans who fear that Mr. Nabil may actually be too gentle for the job. Their thinking is that defeating the Taliban, resourceful enemies who live among the Afghan people, takes a certain ruthlessness.
At the same time, other Afghans and Western officials worry that Mr. Nabil is not as committed as he claims to modernizing and reining in a spy agency that grew out of a feared K.G.B.-trained secret police force, and retains a reputation for brutality.