Karzai admits CIA delivered money

Hamid Karzai has confirmed his government received money from the Central Intelligence Agency after reports Monday tens of millions of dollars were delivered to the Afghan president over the past decade.

Cash stuffed into suitcases, backpacks and even plastic shopping bags was sent to Kabul by the U.s. intelligence agency with the aim of retaining influence, but may instead have fuelled corruption and ended up in the pockets of warlords, The New York Times reported.

Mr. Karzai confirmed in a statement Monday the National security Council, which is part of the president’s office, had accepted payments he said were used for good causes.

“yes, the NSC of Afghanistan has received money from CIA in the past 10 years. The amount was not big, rather it was small,” he said.

Khalil Roman, who served as Mr. Karzai’s deputy chief of staff from 2002 until 2005, told the U.s. newspaper: “We called it ‘ghost money.’ It came in secret, and it left in secret.”

The new accounts of offthe-books cash deliveries delivered directly to the Afghan president’s office show payments on a greater scale and with a far-greater impact on everyday government.

The Americans were not alone in delivering cash to Mr. Karzai. He acknowledged a few years ago Iran regularly gave bags of cash to one of his top aides.

In fact, the payments are one of Afghanistan’s worstkept secrets. The details are an illustration of the way that dollars lubricate the business of government but may also act against U.s. interests, propping up criminal and patronage networks even as other projects try to dismantle them.

some of the money may have ended up with officials linked to the Taliban or the drug trade, according to the newspaper.

“The biggest source of corruption in Afghanistan was the United states,” one U.s. official told the Times.

Cash payments have been used ever since the war began

Biggest source of corruption … was the United States

in 2001, initially to buy the services of warlords to wage war on the Taliban.

Mr. Karzai and his aides then asked for the money to be routed through his office, according to a former advisor, so that he could buy their loyalty himself.

The CIA payments began soon after Iranian officials delivered a carload of cash in December 2002, and continued in monthly deposits.

The money was used for off-the-books expenses, such as paying off parliamentarians, and underwriting delicate diplomatic trips or informal negotiations, officials said. some still goes to keeping warlords on side, such as Abdul Rashid Dostum, whose militia was backed by the

CIA in 2001.

Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai