Karzai Asserts Control Over U.S.-Backed Anticorruption Units

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Upset by the recent arrest of a key adviser accused of taking a bribe, Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday sought to have more oversight over the work of a new anti-corruption task force.

The move comes as "a huge blow" to U.S. efforts to fight corruption in Afghanistan -- a stated top priority of Gen. David Petraeus -- a senior U.S. official tells the Wall Street Journal.

"What they're trying to do, what they're saying to us is: 'We don't care what you think. We've had enough,' " the official said.

Mohammad Zia Salehi, the head of administration for the Afghan National Security Council, was arrested last week and accused of accepting a car in exchange for his help in seeking the release of a suspect detained in another corruption case, said Fazel Ahmad Faqiryar, first deputy attorney general.

He said the attorney general's office has wiretaps of Salehi discussing the vehicle. "He tried to use his influence in different departments to free that guy any way possible," Faqiryar said.

Karzai gathered his top law enforcement and justice officials at the presidential palace Wednesday to hear from a delegation he asked to monitor the work of the Major Crimes Task Force. U.S. and British law enforcement officers serve as advisers to the task force, which was set up to battle graft and corruption that has become endemic in Afghan society.

U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller was in Kabul in February to help inaugurate the task force headquarters.

A statement issued by Karzai's office said the task force has worked within the legal framework of Afghanistan, but in some cases, its activities violated human rights. After listening to the delegation's report and recommendations, Karzai stated that the Ministry of Justice should monitor more of the activities of the Major Crimes Task Force.

The task force's work should follow Afghan law, respect Afghan values and respect the national sovereignty of the nation, the statement from Karzai's office said.

"All the cases, which are being investigated and those cases that have been completed, should be reviewed by the delegation and the outcome of its assessment should be reported to Karzai's office," the statement said. "All the activities -- arresting, investigation, questioning and detention -- should be based on the principles and laws of the country and respect human rights."

Comments

[DougDeWitt]

08:17 PM on 08/10/2010

"Karzai stated that the Ministry of Justice should monitor more of the activities of the Major Crimes Task Force. The task force's work should follow Afghan law, respect Afghan values and respect the national sovereignty of the nation, the statement from Karzai's office said."

Uh huh... for how else can Karzai, a man for whom there is very little political support from any quarter in his own country, maintain his fragile base? Without some way to channel bribery and graft to those to whom he has so enabled, his regime would fall on its face.

[Doc Scott]

06:04 AM on 08/09/2010

Putting Karzai in control of the anti-corruption unit in Afghanistan is like putting the fox in charge of the hen house. The entire government in Afghanistan is corrupt and profiting mightily from the incompetent oversight of the U.S. military occupation and allocation of funds. This is just one more reminder that the U.S. has no business in Afghanistan. There is no "victory" to be achieved, only continued death and misery for the Afghan people while the Taliban strengthen and the Karzai government lines its pockets! The Afghan population does not want the U.S. in their country. The only people who really want the U.S. there are those who are benefiting financially from it. A sad state of affairs, indeed.

[DougDeWitt]

08:18 PM on 08/10/2010

fanned... for insight.

[Hassan shoja]

02:53 AM on 08/06/2010

Off course he does not want us to know that he finance his Taliban friends with US taxpayers' money.

[Red Crow]

08:56 PM on 08/05/2010

"I spent thirty-three years and four months in active service in the country’s most agile military force, the Marines. I served in all ranks from second lieutenant to major general. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. Thus I helped make Mexico, and especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenue in. I helped in the raping of half-a-dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers and Co. in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras ‘right’ for American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested."

---- Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler (Commandant, U.S. Marine Corps), November 1935

[Jack Cope]

09:10 PM on 08/05/2010

Unfortunately true... I was set to join up at one point, but then I saw what I'd really be doing and decided that my soul was worth more :-) Respect to those who serve of course, but at the same time massive disrespect to those who use and abuse them to line their pockets.

[Dan1902]

01:12 PM on 08/05/2010

This is exactly why we must leave!!! If you have corruption throughout the so called Afghan govt then no matter how much money you throw at it or how many bombs you drop the effort is futile!!! This war is bankrupting us,and that was Bin Laden's goal from the get go!!!

[Hassan shoja]

03:22 PM on 08/05/2010

We hold the course. That's what armies do.

Do you want change? Didn't we have enough change already?

How do you want to bring about this change?

You see all countries have do deal with their own type of corruptions.

They have theirs, we have ours.

Which one is most important to deal with? Our own corruption or Afghan's corruptions?

[notillegal2]

01:11 PM on 08/05/2010

Obama's man so leave him alone.

[opines]

01:07 PM on 08/05/2010

U.S. wants to muscle in on Afghan warlords' opium business.

[jahmac]

12:58 PM on 08/05/2010

what are we doing in a out-house like Afghanistan? we need the money spent there here in America! what does government need to see...glasses???

[faster72i]

12:52 PM on 08/05/2010

obama - keep your promise and drawdown the troops starting next year. all we need are those drones if taliban or al qaeda becomes a problem again. let this tribal chief get what all corrupt warlords eventually get...

why does this mother f-er get a bailout and the 99ers can get theirs?

[Enroh Mot]

12:58 PM on 08/05/2010

The war profiteers get their money first, everybody else gets to the back of the line, and it's a long line.

[audadvnc]

12:51 PM on 08/05/2010

I know! Let's give the biggest, big time heroin traffickers all our money and trainloads of guns. Then they'll love us and do whatever we ask them to do...

[steve11407]

12:22 PM on 08/05/2010

Let these 4th century tribal people go their own way.

[Okieborn]

12:46 PM on 08/05/2010

I agree 100% !!
For our troops and the economy bring our troops home now !!

[Dennis Santiago]

12:19 PM on 08/05/2010

Continuing to be dragged into the domestic affairs of another sovereign nation probably isn't in our long term interest. My most recent thoughts on this below,

Re-Assessing Afghanistan From a National Interest Perspective
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dennis-santiago/re-assessing-afghanistan_b_671016.html

[MajorMalfunction]

12:48 PM on 08/05/2010

"Dragged in"? We invaded their country.

[Dennis Santiago]

02:33 PM on 08/05/2010

A Faustian bargain to be sure. But one we've made and need to somehow navigate.

[Enroh Mot]

12:06 PM on 08/05/2010

" I settled in Pakistan in the Afghan border region, there I received volunteers from the Saudi kingdom and all the Arab and Muslim countries. I set up my first camp where the volunteers were trained by Pakistani and American officers. The weapons were supplied by the Americans, the money by the Saudis" Osama bin Laden

[mattwg440]

11:50 AM on 08/05/2010

Get out
Get out
Get out

[Dare Taiwo]

11:50 AM on 08/05/2010

Isn't Karzai's action louder the the words he is trying to pass across? An African proverb says "it is so that a deaf can hear that criticism of him is made in the present of his Child". The Afghan Government is corrupt and any attempt by any anti-corruption body to checkmate corrupt tendencies in the government would be met with a fight. My heart goes to the US that still feels it has an ally in President Karzai. Since america's money is been used to develop infrastructure in Afghanistan in a bid to "win hearts and minds" - which by the way are unwinnable, it leaves a big chunk of Afghan Treasury in the hand of Karzai and his cronies to embezzle. If the US government knows what is best for itself, it would call it a day in Afghanistan pronto.