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CIA Cash Wrecks Afghan President's Image. Really.
[An Nahar] Revelations that the CIA handed cash payments to Afghanistan's presidential office provoked criticism but little surprise from opposition groups and transparency campaigners in Kabul on Tuesday.The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... reported on Monday that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had delivered tens of millions of dollars in suitcases and backpacks to President Hamid Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... 's office over the past decade. Karzai declined to deny the report, instead expressing his thanks to the spy agency for what he called "small" amounts of money that were put to good use such as helping ill and maimed Afghans. But critics said the secret payments undermined the president's claim that he was fighting against U.S. interference and trying to establish Afghan illusory sovereignty. "Such money given to the office of the president is no doubt used to strengthen his position and weaken other democratic political groups," Sayed Fazel Sancharaki, front man for the opposition National Coalition, told Agence La Belle France Presse. "These payments highlight President Karzai's lack of loyalty. It's very unfortunate that such money is given in a non-transparent way and by foreign intelligence agencies." Afghanistan relies on international aid to pay its army and police and to fund most of its investments, but the Times said the CIA cash had been used to pay off warlords, politicians and others on whom Karzai relied for support. "Karzai is trying to give an independent picture of Afghanistan and of himself, and this definitely undermines his efforts," Waheed Wafa, director of the Afghanistan Center at Kabul University, told AFP. Posted by: Fred 2013-05-01 |
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