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| Afghanistan |
| Afghan president denies CIA cash buys off warlords |
| 2013-05-05 |
[Al Ahram] Afghanistan's Caped 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... on Saturday denied that CIA cash delivered each month to his office was used to buy the support of warlords who could tip the country back into civil war. The US Central Intelligence Agency has secretly handed over tens of millions of dollars to Karzai's office over the last decade, the New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... said recently in a revelation that provoked anger in both Washington and Kabul. But Karzai said the bundles of cash -- allegedly packed in suitcases, backpacks and plastic shopping bags -- were used for health care and scholarships, and that full receipts are issued to the Americans. "This money was not given to warlords," the president told a presser in Kabul. "The major part of this money was spent on government employees such as our guards... it has been paid to individuals not movements. "It is used for different issues such as treating patients, scholarships for youths... we give receipts for all these expenditures to the US government." The New York Times alleged that some of funds were used to bribe warlords into supporting Karzai's US-backed government as the international coalition tries to stabilise the country before NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... troops withdraw next year. Warlords who fought against both the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and Taliban regime retain huge influence, and many have close links to Karzai's government that rose to power after the Taliban were ousted in 2001. With the NATO-led mission winding down after more than 11 years of fighting, the warlords look set to renew their battle for power in Afghanistan and the weak central government faces a tough challenge to impose stability. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Purchased loyalty requires that at least a portion of it be pushed down to the user levels, that being provincial governors [warlords], intelligence service, Afghan National Security Forces [ANSF], police and Border Patrol. These are the structures holding Karzai up. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-05-05 06:43 |
| #1 No, it goes right into Karzai's Swiss bank account. |
| Posted by: Perfesser 2013-05-05 04:47 |