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View Full Version : CIA Dumps 'Bags of Cash' on Corrupt Hamid Karzai




Lucille
04-29-2013, 08:39 AM
Ron Paul: “There’s been a coup, have you heard? It’s the CIA coup. The CIA runs everything, they run the military. They’re the ones who are over there lobbing missiles and bombs on countries. … And of course the CIA is every bit as secretive as the Federal Reserve. … And yet think of the harm they have done since they were established [after] World War II. They are a government unto themselves. They’re in businesses, in drug businesses, they take out dictators … We need to take out the CIA.”

CIA Dumps 'Bags of Cash' on Corrupt Hamid Karzai
http://reason.com/blog/2013/04/29/cia-dumps-bags-of-cash-on-corrupt-hamid


Can we declare victory and go home already?


KABUL, Afghanistan — For more than a decade, wads of American dollars packed into suitcases, backpacks and, on occasion, plastic shopping bags have been dropped off every month or so at the offices of Afghanistan’s president — courtesy of the Central Intelligence Agency.

All told, tens of millions of dollars have flowed from the C.I.A. to the office of President Hamid Karzai, according to current and former advisers to the Afghan leader.

"We called it 'ghost money,'" said Khalil Roman, who served as Mr. Karzai's deputy chief of staff from 2002 until 2005. "It came in secret, and it left in secret."

Whole New York Times article here. This passage should get your week off to a bad start:


Moreover, there is little evidence that the payments bought the influence the C.I.A. sought. Instead, some American officials said, the cash has fueled corruption and empowered warlords, undermining Washington’s exit strategy from Afghanistan.

"The biggest source of corruption in Afghanistan," one American official said, "was the United States."

The United States was not alone in delivering cash to the president. Mr. Karzai acknowledged a few years ago that Iran regularly gave bags of cash to one of his top aides.
[...]
Payments ordinarily range from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars, the officials said, though none could provide exact figures. The money is used to cover a slew of off-the-books expenses, like paying off lawmakers or underwriting delicate diplomatic trips or informal negotiations.

Much of it also still goes to keeping old warlords in line. One is Abdul Rashid Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek whose militia served as a C.I.A. proxy force in 2001. He receives nearly $100,000 a month from the palace, two Afghan officials said. Other officials said the amount was significantly lower.


The creepy puppet-president of Afghanistan. I remember when it was revealed that the king of Jordan--duh--was getting big checks for following US orders, and Reagan made such a revelation into a federal crime. So this story has CIA approval (http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/136848.html). Who else is on the CIA payroll? Every "ally" and his possible successors. Not you, of course.

HOLLYWOOD
04-29-2013, 08:48 AM
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?412776-AFGHANISTAN-Karzai%92s-Office-Gets-Bribery-Bags-Full-of-C-I-A-Cash