The Soviet idealist — some would say warlord — took regular swipes at his superiors and had envisioned building his own neo-socialist "Cossack" republic centered in the depressed mining town of Stakhanov.
"The principal private security subcontractors," the report said, "are warlords, strongmen, commanders and militia leaders who compete with the Afghan central government for power and authority.
In Kabul, Mr. Khan's provocative actions have played out in the news media and brought a fierce reaction from some members of Parliament, who said the warlords were preparing to take advantage of the American troop withdrawal set for 2014.
Morton Sklar, executive director of the World Organization Against Torture, a human rights group, said foreign warlords and torturers made up only a tiny fraction of the criminals granted protection under the antitorture law.
If the U.S. and NATO military commanders tried to cut their ties with the private militias, Sherman said the warlords "would actually become a security threat".
"He sits in a room and is afraid to come out," said the warlord tauntingly, running his left hand through his thinning hair.
But in other areas, locals say, the warlords remain in charge.
The problem is, no matter what they say, these warlords aren't going to behave.
Critics say the warlords fabricate reports of the crops destroyed, so that some fields are left intact, or only partly eradicated.
A full-blast jag against takeaway chips, for example—"drenched in ascorbic acid, or bleeding Heinz"—makes them sound not so very different (give or take) from, say, Serbian warlords.
