See some of Hollywood's biggest stars before they became household names. How many do you recognize?

Before They Were Famous: Actors' Early Roles

See some of Hollywood&#39;s biggest stars before they became household names. How many do you recognize?

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His family belongs to the Pashtun tribe and the Popalzai dynasty, which provided many kings of Afghanistan in the past. His father Abdul Ahad Karzai was a recognized Popalzai leader. After attending school in Kabul, Karzai began studying political science at the Indian University of Simla in 1979, which he completed in 1983. He then initially stayed in India, but also stayed in the USA, where he came into contact with the CIA. Meanwhile, Soviet troops had occupied Afghanistan. With the support of the American secret services, Karzai prepared resistance actions against the occupiers. Towards the end of the 1980s, Karzai returned to his homeland to actively support resistance groups against the Soviet occupation. After the withdrawal of Soviet troops, Karzai was appointed deputy foreign minister in Burhanuddin Rabbani's cabinet in 1992.

As the Taliban rose to power in the 1990s, Karzai initially emerged as a supporter. However, he soon distanced himself from the new forces because he did not share their Islamist goals. In 1996 he took refuge in the UN embassy and then went into exile in the USA. In 1999, his father was murdered by the Taliban in exile in Pakistan. In the USA, Karzai cooperated with the US secret services, with whom he prepared the overthrow of the Taliban regime after the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. The Afghan politician in exile was nominated as president of the future transitional government at the Bonn Afghanistan Conference in December 2001. After the American military strike against Afghanistan and the overthrow of the Taliban, Karzai was elected president of the interim government in June 2002. The provisional head of government narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in September 2002.

From December 2003 to January 2004, Karzai chaired the Constituent Grand Council (Loya Jirga), which adopted Afghanistan's new constitution, according to which the country was constituted as an Islamic republic. In the presidential elections of October 2004, Karzai won with 55.4% of the vote amid extremely high popular voter turnout. At the beginning of December 2004, the politician was ceremoniously inaugurated into office as head of state of the new Afghanistan in Kabul. One of the most important official acts of the President of Afghanistan, whose term of office is intended to last five years, was the holding of the country's first free parliamentary elections in April 2005. In mid-May 2005, Karzai made a state visit to Belgium, where he also met with EU representatives.

He then went on a state visit to Washington. Karzai was honored with the Philadelphia Liberty Medal in July 2004.

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