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US to Cut $4bn in Afghan Aid After Corruption Allegations
Claims that large amounts of money have been flown out of war-torn country but government has blocked investigations
News reports have alleged that large amounts of cash have been flown out of the country, while President Hamid Karzai's government has blocked corruption investigations of political allies.
A displaced Afghan child from Helmand province looks out from her shelter located on the outskirts of Kabul. A senior US lawmaker has said she would refuse to consider any assistance for Afghanistan other than "life-saving humanitarian aid" after allegations of major corruption among high-ranking Afghan officials surfaced. (AFP/File/Shah Marai) The move to withdraw aid came as the US senate voted unanimously to confirm General David Petraeus as commander of the Afghan war, and the UK defence secretary Liam Fox insisted the British army must not leave Afghanistan "before the job is finished".
A subcommittee of the House of Representatives voted yesterday to block $3.9bn (£2.6bn) in aid that the Obama administration sought for Kabul, although the panel's chair, Nita Lowey, said the aid could be reconsidered once the Afghanistan government's efforts to fight corruption have been reconsidered.
Last week the Wall Street Journal reported that more than $3bn in cash has been flown out of Kabul International airport in the past three years, while The Washington Post alleged that officials in Karzai's government have been blocking corruption investigations of political allies.
"The cash – packed into suitcases, piled onto pallets and loaded into aeroplanes – is declared and legal to move," the Wall Street Journal said.
"But US and Afghan officials say they are targeting the flows in major anti-corruption and drug trafficking investigations because of their size relative to Afghanistan's small economy and the murkiness of their origins."
Last year the gross domestic product of Afghanistan was $13.5bn, according to the CIA world factbook.
Lowey said she has written to US government auditors asking them to audit all US aid to Afghanistan from the last three years.
The aid withdrawal came as the US senate voted 99-0 in favour of appointing Petraeus to command the Afghan war, after the dramatic sacking of the previous commander Stanley McChrystal last week.
However the unanimous support for Petraeus, seen by some as Obama's last hope in Afghanistan, came amid growing anxiety in among both Democrats and Republicans about an unpopular war, in which casualties are rising, ahead of the November US congressional elections.
"Regardless of who is in command, the president's current strategy in Afghanistan is counterproductive," said Democrat Senator Russ Feingold after voting for Petraeus – whom he stressed was "clearly qualified" for the job.
In the UK, Liam Fox appeared to defy David Cameron's weekend pledge to withdraw all British troops from Afghanistan by 2015, saying an early withdrawal of coalition troops from Afghanistan would risk a return of civil war and act as a "shot in the arm to jihadists".
"Were we to leave prematurely, without degrading the insurgency and increasing the capability of the Afghan national security forces, we could see the return of the destructive forces of transnational terror," he said.
"Not only would we risk the return of civil war in Afghanistan, creating a security vacuum, but we would also risk the destabilisation of Pakistan with potentially unthinkable regional, and possibly nuclear, consequences."
Fox said Britain would be betraying the sacrifices of its fallen soldiers if it left "before the job is finished", adding that British forces would be among the last to leave Afghanistan, as they are stationed in Helmand, one the most dangerous provinces in the country.
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16 Comments so far
Show AllThe article does not mention WHO is taking the cash out.
I bet dollars to donuts the majority is Corrupt USA contractors and USA citizen druglords.
But the Congress has plenty of money for the more corrupt killing operations.
Just get out now, give up your pipe dreams and let the Afghans have their way more superior pipe dreams.
Now if we could just block the war funding !
But I guess that would deprive the USofA of its only export - death and mayhem in the name of corporate profits.
David Cameron, the British prime minister needs to get control of his own cabinet by firing this arrogant, mouthy, full of it defense secretary.
AD
There were similar stories about pallets of shrink wrapped, freshly minted US currency being unloaded from US aircraft in Baghdad during viceroy Paul Bremer's provisional regime era in occupied Iraq.
I've spoken to a returning Iraq war vet who confided that for a substantial portion of his/her duty tour there in 2004-2005, his/her daily military duty assignment consisted of sitting at a desk in the Green Zone, and handing out packets of $20, $50, and $100 bills to authorized Iraqis and authorized US contractors. This veteran personally dispensed millions of crisp, clean US dollars in this fashion, as standard clerical operating procedure.
There was no paper trail whatsoever generated to audit how those funds were spent, nor where thoose greenbacks actually went, once the duly authorized recipients walked back out of the Green Zone. The sole transaction record was some sort of checklist, which functioned as a receipt record of sorts reflecting who went out the door on what day with how much.
Thus, it doesn't surprise me a bit to read how in 2010 a billion dollars a year in United States currency literally flies in, recycles, and flies right back out, of Kabul airport. This issue is much, much bigger than the rumored character flaws of the brothers Karzai.
If this House Committee were serious about corruption in Afghanistan and massive theft in broad daylight from the federal treasury, there should be an investigation focusing upon how much has vanished, and how much remains unaccounted for, in Uncle Sam's wars abroad since 9/11. Do the official Pentagon budget first, then the CIA/DIA/NSA black budget. Main Street America could relate to a sincere Congressional crackdown on such blatant, institutionalized war profiteering, much like the public applauded the Truman Commission's watchdog efforts on waste and fraud in the World War II war effort.
Politically - and bipartisanly - this should be a no brainer. Very curious, isn't it, that nobody in Washington DC appears to really give a shit about who took the money and ran during the Bush/Cheney era, nor who's on the duly authorised list to take the money and run the same scam under Barack Obama today.
Bill from Saginaw
Yes, so true.
Also, just days before 9/11, huge sums of money (hundreds of millions of dollars) were reported to be missing from the Pentagon. Whatever happened to that money and did Congress investigate its disappearance?
As there is plenty of corruption in the two houses, it might be time to stop paying the salaries of the corrupt politicos that are seated there.
This is why the republican good old boy network used every dirty trick in the books to get another republican elected, to protect their cronie network of thieves.
But now the they had to let the democrats in the good old boy network , so they can share the booty, and thats why the war still continues, they are all getting a piece of the pie.
End these wars, the lies, and the robbery of our treasure and civil rights protections.
The patriot act is being used to protect the thieves , they come after anyone that wants to tell the truth with their stazi fusion center gang stalking spies.
Bring our troops home, its time to kick some unpatriotic stazi spy ass, shut down the Patriot Act, and restore the constitution.
Borfreemen, joe spagnuolo , bradenton florida , victim of community watch fusion center gang stalking torture for three years 24/7 , they wont accuse me of a crime and give me my day in court, they wont admit they have tried feverishly to drive me crazy or make me look crazy, they hide behind their stazi lies and stazi masters.
Live Free or Die, I am ready, to fight.
from the article:
~ Fox said Britain would be betraying the sacrifices of its fallen soldiers if it left "before the job is finished" ~
cruel, threadbare mind play...
It's like a cruel joke for the USA to point at corruption in Afghanistan when the corruption in the USA is mind-boggling.
But instead of a cruel joke, it's actually a cruel strategy, to cultivate patriotic delusions in the USA, of a "just empire" under which the domestic corruption rackets may continue to thrive and redistribute wealth "upward" from the USan people to their elite masters.
Yes.
We forged an abyss into which our soldiers died. We then sent more of our soldiers who died in that same abyss, BECAUSE if we didn't, those who had already died in it would have died in vain.
AD INFINITUM.
Sound reasoning... !
Who's we, asshole?
The congress, the congress. Those fuckers will never make a stand.
Withdraw from that country. Make the ruling elite (your masters) give up their dream of a pipe line across Afghanistan to the Sea.
I would love to shove a knife into the gut of some of those fuckers.
They are damaging humankinds right to survival.
a congress of cowards, i say. what will karzai have to do for us to punish him? start firing on american troops?
When all else fails, punish the most needy. Just like the "deciders" did with Cuban embargo and the Iranians in the 70's. I guarantee that little child in the picture took no billions and yet she will suffer EVEN MORE! What a country we have become.