Who Made Kabul Corrupt?

[unhappycamper]

Who Made Kabul Corrupt?
by Pratap Chatterjee
Published on Sunday, September 12, 2010 by the Guardian/UK

Afghan intelligence officers beat back Afghan police officers who mobbed the only branch of Kabul Bank open in the capital on Wednesday, in a desperate attempt to draw money before it closed for Eid al-Fitr, the most important festival of the year in Islamic countries. Eid marks the end of a month of Ramadan fasting and most Afghans spend a small fortune on food and presents for the holiday.

Most of the 250,000 government employees in Afghanistan receive their salaries via electronic transfer to Kabul Bank, the country's largest private bank, which is reported to be on the verge of collapse. Blame has been cast on the biggest borrower – a man named Abdul Hasin, who was given $100m for a variety of projects which he has not repaid. Hasin happens to be the half-brother of the vice president of the country, Mohammed Qasim Fahim.

~snip~

Mohammed Zia Salehi, the chief of administration for the national security council who was recently arrested – then released, at President Karzai's behest – in a corruption investigation, appears to have been on the CIA payroll for many years, according to the New York Times, as is Ahmed Wali Karzai, another brother of the president.

~snip~

There is absolutely no doubt in the mind of anyone in Kabul that corruption is endemic among Afghanistan's ruling elite. But who granted the contracts, put them on the payroll and gave them the money?

So, when are we going to see those CIA and Pentagon officials in Washington DC facing charges?

[Karenina]

1. Is this a trick question?

:freak: ;-)

[stray cat]

2. Do some homework -it has ruble regions meaning family and tribe first - not a nation

[Panaconda]

3. K&R

Did you see this piece?

The US Strategy: The Making of an Afghan Neocolony:

Between 2001-2010 the US military expenditures total $428 billion dollars; the colonial occupation has led to over 7,228 dead and wounded as of June 1, 2010. As the US military situation deteriorates, the White House escalates the number of troops resulting in a greater number of killed and wounded. During the past 18 months of the Obama regime more soldiers were killed or wounded than in the previous eight years.

The White House and Pentagon strategy is premised on massive flows of money, arms and an increase in the number of surrogates, mainly subsidized warlords and puppet western educated ex-pats. The White House “development aid” involves, literally, purchasing the transient loyalties of clan leaders. The White House attempts to give a veneer of legitimacy by running elections, which enhance the corrupt image of the incumbent puppet regime in Kabul and its regional associates.

On the military front, the Pentagon launches one “offensive” after another, announcing one success after another, followed by a retreat and return of the Resistance fighters. The US campaigns disrupt trade, agricultural harvests and markets, while the air assaults targeting “Taliban” and militants, more frequently than not end up killing more civilians celebrating weddings, religious holidays and shoppers at markets than combatants. The reason for the high percentage of civilian killings is clear to everyone except the US Generals: there are no distinctions between “militants” and millions of Afghan civilians since the former are an integral part of their communities.
The key and ultimately decisive problem facing the US occupation is that it is a colonial enclave in the midst of a colonized people. The US, its local puppets and its NATO allies are a foreign colonial army and its Afghan military and police recruits are seen as mere instruments perpetuating illegitimate rule. Every action, whether violent or benign, is perceived and interpreted as transgressing the norms and historical legacies of a proud and independent people. In everyday life, every move by the occupation is disruptive; nothing moves except by command of the foreign directed military and police. Under threat of force, people fake co-operation and then provide assistance to their fathers, brothers and sons in the Resistance. The recruits take the money and turn their arms over to the Resistance. The paid village informants are double agents or identified by their neighbors and targeted by insurgents.

...

http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/13401-afghanistan-the-longest-lost-war-.html

[unhappycamper]

4. Afghanistan = Vietnam = Quagmire

I've seen it before. :(

[KharmaTrain]

5. A True Culture Of Coruption...

I just saw a very well produced program about the Taliban on NatGeo. A major focus was on the tribal differences of the various groups inside of Afghanistan that makes it all but impossible to create a true national government and invites one group to exploit power and influence over another.

Right now the biggest industries in that country are graft...from the military or from cultivating opium. There are few other means to do well in that country and opens the door to massive amounts of corrupt. Combine that with the tribal divisions and the problems multiply...especially when one tribal chieftain like a Karzai is favored over another. The program showed there was a small window where the US could have helped form a more cohesive national government but boooosh got fixated on Iraq and left Karzai to install his stooges who not only alienated his former Tajik and Uzbek allies as well as his fellow Pashtuns...all who have turned to the Taliban as the lesser of evils. And we're stuck protecting a warlord who is not only unpopular with his people but whose continued presence will energize opposition.

[bvar22]

6. Nobody could have forseen.....yadda, yadda, yadda.....

Meet Hamid Karzai
or as Obama calls him, "The Government of Afghanistan".

He was appointed by Bush the Lesser to run Afghanistan.
He is one of the most despicable criminals in The World,
But NOW we like him so much
that our children fighting and dying in the deserts of Afghanistan to keep him in power.

[gratuitous]

7. We could argue all day about who's looting whose money

The point is the money's gone, and there's really no use looking for it, especially not in anyone's pocket. So let's just move forward and see how things go from here. The first thing that needs to happen is that the U.S.--oops, I mean the international coalition needs to replenish the missing funds. Just leave it right there on the corner of President Karzai's desk, and we'll all roll up our sleeves and get back to work on a New Dawn for Afghanistan. After you.