Millions in CIA money paid to Karzai's office
Source: Agencies |
April 30, 2013, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
TENS of millions of US dollars in cash were delivered by the CIA in suitcases, backpacks and plastic shopping bags to the office of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai for more than a decade, according to the New York Times, citing current and former advisers to the Afghan leader.
The so-called "ghost money" was meant to buy influence for the Central Intelligence Agency but instead fuelled corruption and empowered warlords, undermining Washington's exit strategy from Afghanistan, the newspaper quoted US officials as saying.
"The biggest source of corruption in Afghanistan", one American official said, "was the United States."
"We called it 'ghost money'," Khalil Roman, who served as Karzai's chief of staff from 2002 until 2005, told the newspaper. "It came in secret and it left in secret."
There was no evidence that Karzai personally received any of the money, Afghan officials told the newspaper. The cash was handled by his National Security Council, it added.
In response to the report, Karzai told reporters in Helsinki after a meeting with Finnish leaders that the office of the National Security Council had been receiving support from the US government for the past 10 years. He said the amounts had been "not big" and the funds were used for various purposes including assistance for the wounded.
"It's multi-purpose assistance," he said, without commenting on the report's claims the funds fuelled corruption and empowered warlords.
However, Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai said in Kabul that there was no proof or evidence to back up the claims in the story.
For over a decade the cash was dropped off every month or so at the Afghan president's office, the newspaper said.
Handing out cash has been standard procedure for the CIA in Afghanistan since the start of the war.
The cash payments to the president's office do not appear to be subject to oversight and restrictions placed on official American aid to the country or the CIA's formal assistance programs, like financing Afghan intelligence agencies, and do not appear to violate US laws, said the newspaper.
US and Afghan officials familiar with the payments were quoted as saying that the main goal in providing the cash was to maintain access to Karzai and his inner circle and to guarantee the CIA's influence at the presidential palace.
The so-called "ghost money" was meant to buy influence for the Central Intelligence Agency but instead fuelled corruption and empowered warlords, undermining Washington's exit strategy from Afghanistan, the newspaper quoted US officials as saying.
"The biggest source of corruption in Afghanistan", one American official said, "was the United States."
"We called it 'ghost money'," Khalil Roman, who served as Karzai's chief of staff from 2002 until 2005, told the newspaper. "It came in secret and it left in secret."
There was no evidence that Karzai personally received any of the money, Afghan officials told the newspaper. The cash was handled by his National Security Council, it added.
In response to the report, Karzai told reporters in Helsinki after a meeting with Finnish leaders that the office of the National Security Council had been receiving support from the US government for the past 10 years. He said the amounts had been "not big" and the funds were used for various purposes including assistance for the wounded.
"It's multi-purpose assistance," he said, without commenting on the report's claims the funds fuelled corruption and empowered warlords.
However, Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai said in Kabul that there was no proof or evidence to back up the claims in the story.
For over a decade the cash was dropped off every month or so at the Afghan president's office, the newspaper said.
Handing out cash has been standard procedure for the CIA in Afghanistan since the start of the war.
The cash payments to the president's office do not appear to be subject to oversight and restrictions placed on official American aid to the country or the CIA's formal assistance programs, like financing Afghan intelligence agencies, and do not appear to violate US laws, said the newspaper.
US and Afghan officials familiar with the payments were quoted as saying that the main goal in providing the cash was to maintain access to Karzai and his inner circle and to guarantee the CIA's influence at the presidential palace.
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