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| Afghanistan |
| Corruption Suspected in Airlift of Billions in Cash From Kabul |
| 2010-06-28 |
| More than $3 billion in cash has been openly flown out of Kabul International Airport in the past three years, a sum so large that U.S. investigators believe top Afghan officials and their associates are sending billions of diverted U.S. aid and logistics dollars and drug money to financial safe havens abroad. The cash—packed into suitcases, piled onto pallets and loaded into airplanes—is declared and legal to move. But U.S. and Afghan officials say they are targeting the flows in major anticorruption and drug trafficking investigations because of their size relative to Afghanistan's small economy and the murkiness of their origins. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #9 NZ would be lovely for Karzai this time of year; with pallets of freshly-printed, worthless U$Abux, wooly rams and ewes. |
| Posted by: Asymmetrical 2010-06-28 23:24 |
| #8 ...er...so were billions of dollars of TARP money used in backing unsecured Frannie Mae paper Euro banks bought in the speculation markets. That flew to Europe. From there, who knows. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2010-06-28 17:31 |
| #7 Much of this money is U.S. taxpayers money being flown out. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-06-28 13:58 |
| #6 If you had suitcases full of money would you keep living in a country that smells like ass? New Zealand is supposed to be nice. |
| Posted by: bigjim-CA 2010-06-28 13:48 |
| #5 If I was Karzai I'd be on one of those planes myself. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2010-06-28 12:22 |
| #4 ...the man's from Chicago, why would he think there's anything unusual going on? |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2010-06-28 08:19 |
| #3 Alternate headline: "Obama Afghanistan Policies Fail to Stop Corruption" Gee...I wonder why headlines like that don't exist (snark) |
| Posted by: logi_cal 2010-06-28 07:46 |
| #2 Something new here? I thought this was standard procedure for US foreign aid recipient governments. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-06-28 04:26 |
| #1 Pallets of cash on planes bound for... Dubai, most likely. Well, at least Dubai's getting some stimulus funds. Tommy Friedman should be happy. |
| Posted by: lex 2010-06-28 02:22 |