The NY Times report (on Apr 28th) that the CIA is carting suitcases, backpacks, & shopping bags of tens of millions of bribery money into the offices of Afghanistan president, Hamid Karzai is causing quite a splash--in the rest of the media. Usually reports on US foreign diplomacy make it look like high-level negotiating rather than the arm-twisting & payola that is more typical & so much more effective than legal persuasions. The NY Times article says the US began the payments in a bribery war with Iran that at least had the class to deliver the dough in an SUV or deposit it in Karzai’s bank account--& had the good sense to stop the deliveries when they saw even money couldn’t rein in Karzai’s corruption.
The article reports all this with a feigned, almost simple-minded credulity. You’re supposed to suspend disbelief when the article says, “there is little evidence that the payments bought the influence the CIA sought,” & again “Mr. Karzai is seemingly unable to be bought.” Here’s when the simple-minded erupts without disguise. Does the NY Times really think the US chooses the princes among men as its henchmen & local allies in its murderous wars!? You can’t off buy off Karzai because there’s nothing left of his soul to mortgage. But mostly because he makes more money in drug trafficking than he does in chump change bribery from the CIA!
The NY Times pretends the CIA dough (robbed from the US coffers of Social Security & public education) is to get Karzai to cooperate against Al Qaeda or the Taliban or whoever the hell they tell us is fighting US occupation & the article complains, “It is not clear that the United States is getting what it pays for.” Actually the dough is to pay off politicians, drug traffickers, organized crime syndicates who work directly with the Karzai clan & the CIA in the production, processing, & transportation of heroin. Surely the NY Times is aware of the well-documented history of CIA drug trafficking; playing stupid doesn’t fly anymore in the media than it does in a court of law.
There’s just no end to the NY Time’s credulity. They reported Karzai’s claim, without a hint of sarcasm, that he’s using the dough for charitable projects like helping the sick & wounded. This is even worse than trying to sell swamp land in Florida.
There are tidbits of useful information in the article. For example, “The cash does not appear to be subject to the oversight & restrictions placed on official American aid to the country or even the CIA’s formal assistance programs, like financing Afghan intelligence agencies.” If public education, health care, & Social Security funds are being used to bankroll corrupt politicians, drug trafficking, & surveillance then US taxpayers have a duty to demand full accountability from the White House & an end to this murderous war.
No to the US-NATO war! Out now! Sequester & dismantle the CIA!
(Don't want Karzai's criminal mug on my FB wall so instead this is a photo of a homeless Afghan boy who hurt his finger while collecting broken glasses & bulbs. From website watanafghanistan.tumblr.com/)
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