I would agree with the bulk of that statement. It's certainly no secret the way the NDS has behaved over time. In my view, they are not accountable to anyone, perhaps other than the president.
Mr. Saleh is considered a de facto cabinet minister himself. The people we worked with on the ground in Kandahar over my time, Mr. Quyaum and now Mr. Momin, sit at the governor's table for meetings not unlike this, almost independent of the rest of the Afghans they work with.