Looks like the Afghanistan project for democracy is going great there guys, bravo.

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Who made Kabul corrupt?

Pious bromides about tackling corruption in Afghanistan cannot hide the fact that the buck stops in Washington



Afghan intelligence officers beat back Afghan police officers who mobbed the only branch of Kabul Bank open in the capital on Wednesday, in a desperate attempt to draw money before it closed for Eid al-Fitr, the most important festival of the year in Islamic countries. Eid marks the end of a month of Ramadan fasting and most Afghans spend a small fortune on food and presents for the holiday.

Most of the 250,000 government employees in Afghanistan receive their salaries via electronic transfer to Kabul Bank, the country's largest private bank, which is reported to be on the verge of collapse. Blame has been cast on the biggest borrower – a man named Abdul Hasin, who was given $100m for a variety of projects which he has not repaid. Hasin happens to be the half-brother of the vice president of the country, Mohammed Qasim Fahim.

A little less than a year ago, I visited the heavily guarded headquarters of Abdul Hasin's business conglomerate – Zahid Walid – in the wealthy Kabul neighbourhood of Wazir Akbar Khan, not far from the even more heavily fortified US embassy. Neither Hasin nor Fahim were wealthy when the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001, but as the de facto leader of the Northern Alliance, Fahim was perfectly placed to profit from the new opportunities created by the collapse of the Taliban.

Ramin Seddiqui, the managing director of the Zahid Walid's diesel import business, filled me in on how the business grew: first, a series of lucrative contracts to pour concrete for a Nato base, as well as portions of the US embassy being rebuilt in Kabul and the city's airport, which was in a state of disrepair.

On a plot of land in downtown Kabul acquired for a pittance by Fahim, Abdul Hasin also financed the construction of a high-rise building dubbed "Goldpoint", which now houses dozens of jewelry shops. Soon, the company was importing Russian gas, and not long after that, Abdul Hasin set up the Gas Group, which markets bottled gas to households and small businesses.

Beginning in the winter of 2006, Zahid Walid won over $90m in contracts from the Afghan ministry of energy and water to supply fuel to the diesel power plants in Kabul. (I was involved in making a video for Channel 4 investigating the overspending on the Tarakhil diesel plant.)

The business deals of Abdul Hasin were legal, but given their apparent failure, major questions can – and should – be raised about nepotism and backroom deals cut by the Bush and the Obama administrations in their drive to combat corruption in Afghanistan. Hasin's epic default hardly makes him the only businessman whose dealings deserve closer scrutiny – his business partner is Mahmoud Karzai, brother of the president, who flipped a house Dubai's Palm Jumeirah with the Kabul Bank's former chairman, Sher Khan Farnood. Karzai was quoted this week saying: "Making a profit on a house is beautiful."

Mohammed Zia Salehi, the chief of administration for the national security council who was recently arrested – then released, at President Karzai's behest – in a corruption investigation, appears to have been on the CIA payroll for many years, according to the New York Times, as is Ahmed Wali Karzai, another brother of the president.

What is to be done about these gentlemen? In a report released this week, Anthony Cordesman, a former Pentagon official who now works at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Titled "Time to Look in the Mirror", the report correctly notes that low-level corruption is not the problem:

"Unfortunately, the worst aspects of this corruption are largely the product of our mistakes. The fact is that we are at least as much to blame for what has happened as the Afghans, and we have been grindingly slow either to admit our faults or to correct them."

There is absolutely no doubt in the mind of anyone in Kabul that corruption is endemic among Afghanistan's ruling elite. But who granted the contracts, put them on the payroll and gave them the money?

So, when are we going to see those CIA and Pentagon officials in Washington DC facing charges?

Source: The Guardian

Soren wrote on Sep 13^th, 2010 at 10:19pm:

Soren wrote on Sep 13^th, 2010 at 10:19pm:


Actually Soren, I think it was Dorethy Parker 

Karzai's brother, Mahmud, swaggers into the Kabul Bank carrying a black briefcase. Dressed in jeans, pointy boots, gold rings and a suit jacket covering a packed holster, Mahmud is ready for action.

"How may I help you, sir?"

"Give me one - no. Five million."

"Do you have an account with us, sir?"

"Abesh! Do I have an account!? Where is your boss?"

"He's currently dealing with another client, sir. If I may be of help..."

Mahmud spits out of the corner of his mouth. "Do you know who I am?"

"You are a customer, sir."

Mahmud studies the teller's face. "Customer."

"May I have your name, sir?"

"You know who the president is?"

"Of course, sir."

"You know who owns this place?"

The teller's jaw drops.

"Please forgive me, sir. I will get the manager."

Mahmud's eyes follow the teller like a crocodile. He pulls out a cigar, bites off the end and lights a match on the sole of his boot. He lights his cigar and drops the match on the marble floor, dead. "Customer..."

Mahmud knows there are no customers in Kabul, only fish. And sharks. Mahmud learned business in the West. In the West they know how to do business. In Afghanistan all they know how to do is sit around drinking tea and smoking hookahs. In the West, Mahmud learned the art of the deal.

The bank manager glides out and offers to greet Mahmud with both arms in the Afghani way. "Mr Karzai, sir!"

Mahmud holds him off with a stare, the cigar smoking between his teeth.

"Allow me to express my gratitude that you are using our humble branch to complete your transactions!"

"Five million. Dollars." He hands the briefcase over.

The teller looks on from behind the counter's bars.

"Of course, Mr Karzai. Immediately. Will you take tea?"

Mahmud sucks his teeth. "Give me coffee. But make it quick."

"Yes, sir. Of course, I must obtain the money. Unless you'd prefer a cheque."

Mahmud eyes the manager like a crocodile.

"We will obtain the bills, Mr Karzai." He turns to the teller. "Bills! Dollars! Run!" He turns to give Mahmud a wide grin. "Come, sir. We will have coffee."

The manager carries Mahmud's briefcase like a Faberge egg. Outside, a security guard squats on the pavement with an old carbine rifle, his epelettes sagging on his ill-fitting sleeves. It is 45 degrees. A beggar, with stumps instead of legs, looks up at the sky. The Americans fly sorties at this time every day.

The sun beats down on the new Afghanistan, a land of customers with hopes and dreams. The teller runs from branch to branch, collecting bills in a sack and overhead, right on time, the silent American planes cast their shadows over the buildings. Five seconds later, as they reach the horizon, their roar cancels out the sound of the Kabul streets.

abu_rashid wrote on Sep 15^th, 2010 at 8:51pm:



Au contraire, democracy has never 'infected' Muslims. There has never, ever been democracy and civil society in a Muslim country. From your posts, we know why. But that's ther problem - even the smartest ones are intellectually as stunted as you are. Stuck in a psychological time warp, unable either to go back or to go ahead. Paralysed and now revolting against whatever is near you - to you, its westerners, for muslims elsewhere it is other muslims, hindus, Thai buddhists, jews, the Chinese, black animists - everybody.

'Filthy garbage religion democracy' is just an excuse for not facing facts and realising that the Muslims are where they are because Allah wants them there. But that just makes you angry. The pure Muslims are supposed to be the new chosen people and they are buggered everywhere.

What can YOU do, you ask? Here's what Mohammed says:

Amadd wrote on Sep 16^th, 2010 at 5:45am:


Yes - it would be alright if they just stayed over there, but no. They have to bring their stinking, ghetto-living, goat-hearding, ways over here too. They call it the spread of Islam.

We've tried to leave them alone, of course. But we must help them develop. If we don't teach them how to do business in a civilized fashion we'll be overun by a world of bazzar touts and camel drivers.

We call it the spread of democracy. If it was up to them, Dubai would still be a desert. But no. Now they have air conditioning. Starbucks. Armani. The goat-hearders have turned into property developers. And they love us for it.

Let's face it. In the modern world, you have a choice: whether to drive a camel or a BMW. This is the beauty of liberal democracy.

abu_rashid wrote on Sep 15^th, 2010 at 8:51pm:



And yet, here you are living in a Western democratic country.
You must be doing it tough.

chicken,

Quote:


Well in their own countries the West do not implement it as horribly as they do in their neo-colonies.

jaykaye,

Quote:


I was speaking more about the corrupt and tyrannical regimes the West thrusts upon the Muslim world.

You seem to have misunderstood me there.

Quote:


Well actually we can. Because all Muslim lands, without exception, had Islam forcibly removed from them by the West, and replaced with Western-inspired systems. Even the "monarchy" of Saudi Arabia is a Western creation.

Islam had no role in their current situation at all.