WSJ: Karzai Confirms Accepting CIA Cash Monthly for 10 Years

[Poll_Blind]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323798104578452532322242100.html

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Monday acknowledged that his office has been receiving money from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency over the past 10 years, dismissing the monthly cash payments as a "small amount."

Mr. Karzai addressed the issue after the New York Times reported on Sunday that the CIA has made tens of millions of dollars in secret payments, often cash packed in shopping bags, as it sought to maintain influence over Afghanistan's mercurial leader

"Yes, the office of the national security has been receiving support from the United States for the past 10 years," Mr. Karzai told reporters at a news briefing in Helsinki, Finland, responding to a question about whether he has received CIA cash. "Monthly. Not a big amount. A small amount which has been used for various purposes."

The CIA declined to comment on the matter.

But not just Mr. Karzai- check out this blast from the past:

10/27/09 - Brother of Afghan Leader Is Said to Be on C.I.A. Payroll

KABUL, Afghanistan — Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials.

The agency pays Mr. Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the C.I.A.’s direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar, Mr. Karzai’s home.

10/25/10 - Iran's Cash Support of Karzai Hardly a Surprise

Only those who have not been paying attention could see any kind of "Gotcha!" moment in reports that Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been receiving bags of cash from Iran. Karzai's response on Monday, Oct. 25, to the New York Times revelations to that effect was, essentially, a shrug: Sure, they give us money; so does the U.S. "This is a relationship between neighbors. And it will go on, and we will continue to ask for cash help from Iran."

A curious person could pull up information about at least a half dozen other major players, like the Chinese who, just like in Africa, are also playing sugar daddy in order to develop the natural resources in Afghanistan.

In fact, there's probably a long, long line of countries who are making Mr. Karzai's life busier by throwing cash at him in hopes of either securing a military or economic foothold in his country.

Which, IMO, is even more reason we shouldn't be playing the game with him.

PB

[Monk06]

1. Karzai has been on "the Company" payroll since the Russians invaded Afghanistan. He's just one of

the CIA's puppet presidents. The short list includes every president of Central America and everywhere else an America friendly government takes power.

[NYC_SKP]

2. Stolen goods.

Our money, goddammit.

[Cali_Democrat]

3. We need to cut programs like social security and medicare

But we still need to continue to deliver bags of taxpayer cash to Afghan warlords and drug traffickers.

Sounds like a plan.

[sabrina 1]

7. I wonder how many trillions of tax dollars has been passed along to our puppets in various

countries over the decades, in paper bags, or brief-cases. Maybe that's why they can't find all those trillions of dollars that are missing from the Pentagon and also why no one is looking for it. The KNOW where it went.

[Downwinder]

4. Recruited by MI5: the name's Mussolini

Documents reveal Italian dictator got start in politics in 1917 with help of £100 weekly wage from MI5

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/13/benito-mussolini-recruited-mi5-italy

[kenny blankenship]

5. Certainly it's chump change compared to his family's heroin income.

But every little bit helps. They can pay for his private 767 to Paris when the shit hits the fan.

[HiPointDem]

6. kr. karzai's had links to cia for a long time, as far back as the russian-afghanistan war or

even further, considering that his family has been in government forever.

His father, Abdul Ahad Karzai, served as the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament during the 1960s. His grandfather, Khair Mohammad Khan, had served in the 1919 Afghanistan's war of independence and as the Deputy Speaker of the Senate. Karzai's family were strong supporters of Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan. His uncle, Habibullah Karzai, served as representative of Afghanistan at the UN and is said to have accompanied King Zahir Shah in the early 1960s to the United States for a special meeting with U.S. President John F. Kennedy.[5]

After obtaining his Master's degree in India, he moved to neighboring Pakistan to work as a fundraiser for the anti-communist mujahideen during the 1980s Soviet war in Afghanistan.[8] The Mujahideen were backed by the United States, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran, and Karzai was a contractor for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) at the time.[9] While Karzai remained in Pakistan during the Soviet intervention,[10] his siblings emigrated to the United States.[8]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamid_Karzai