 After the 2009 Afghan presidential election , Afghan President Karzai 's views about the security issues confronting Afghanistan and how best to deal with them reportedly changed . This impacted the working relationship between the President of Afghanistan and some of his cabinet ministers including his intelligence chief . Saleh said , " He [ Karzai ] thought democracy had hurt him as a person . His family had been attacked by the media unfairly , and the West was criticizing him unfairly . So after a presidential election , he was a changed man , and we could not have the same relationship as before the presidential election . " Political analyst Ahmed Rashid in 2010 observed the same , " Karzai 's new outlook is the most dramatic political shift he has undergone in the twenty @-@ six years that I have known him . " Both Saleh and Interior Minister Hanif Atmar subsequently had strong disagreements with Karzai on how to proceed against the Taliban , who Karzai began referring to as " brothers " . At that point Saleh and Atmar were increasingly isolated in the Karzai administration . 
