Billions Down The Drain In Afghanistan

WASHINGTON -- The revelation that Afghanistan's vice president was caught carrying $52 million in cash last year in a Persian Gulf tax haven (and was allowed to keep it) is only the latest bit of evidence that countless billions of U.S. taxpayer money have been wasted in Afghanistan due to mismanagement, fraud and endemic corruption.

The latest disclosure comes courtesy of the international whistleblower website WikiLeaks, which is in the process of releasing more than a quarter million State Department cables. As The New York Times reported:

When Afghanistan's vice president visited the United Arab Emirates last year, local authorities working with the Drug Enforcement Administration discovered that he was carrying $52 million in cash. With wry understatement, a cable from the American Embassy in Kabul called the money "a significant amount" that the official, Ahmed Zia Massoud, "was ultimately allowed to keep without revealing the money's origin or destination." (Mr. Massoud denies taking any money out of Afghanistan.)

Yes, that's "a significant amount" of money by normal standards. But by Afghan standards, it's actually small change. The U.S. is spending more than $2 billion a week in a country with a gross domestic product of about $14 billion a year-- and a lot of it isn't going where it's supposed to. Here is a look at some other examples of the vast waste of U.S. taxpayer money in Afghanistan.

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Countless Dollars Literally Taking Flight

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The Wall Street Journal reported in June that more than $3 billion in cash has been openly flown out of Kabul International Airport in the past three years -- “packed into suitcases, piled onto pallets and loaded into airplanes.” Only so much of that could be drug money. The bulk, presumably, was skimmed from U.S. aid and logistics spending. And that’s just what people are declaring. The Journal calculated the $3 billion figure based on Afghan customs records, noting: “More declared cash flies out of Kabul each year than the Afghan government collects in tax and customs revenue nationwide.” The actual amount of money flown out of the country is, of course, higher. As the Journal noted: “One courier alone carried $2.3 billion between the second half of 2008 and the end of 2009, said a senior U.S. official, citing other documents that are in the possession of investigators.” The New York Times reported in August 2010:

The flow of capital out of Afghanistan is so large that it makes up a substantial portion of Afghanistan’s gross domestic product. In an interview, a United Arab Emirates customs official said it received about $1 billion from Afghanistan in 2009. But the American official said the amount might be closer to $2.5 billion.

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The Wall Street Journal reported in June that more than $3 billion in cash has been openly flown out of Kabul International Airport in the past three years -- “packed into suitcases, piled onto pallets and loaded into airplanes.” Only so much of that could be drug money. The bulk, presumably, was skimmed from U.S. aid and logistics spending.

And that’s just what people are declaring. The Journal calculated the $3 billion figure based on Afghan customs records, noting: “More declared cash flies out of Kabul each year than the Afghan government collects in tax and customs revenue nationwide.”

The actual amount of money flown out of the country is, of course, higher. As the Journal noted: “One courier alone carried $2.3 billion between the second half of 2008 and the end of 2009, said a senior U.S. official, citing other documents that are in the possession of investigators.”

The New York Times reported in August 2010:

The flow of capital out of Afghanistan is so large that it makes up a substantial portion of Afghanistan’s gross domestic product. In an interview, a United Arab Emirates customs official said it received about $1 billion from Afghanistan in 2009. But the American official said the amount might be closer to $2.5 billion.

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Dan Froomkin is senior Washington correspondent for the Huffington Post. You can send him an e-mail, bookmark his page; subscribe to his RSS feed, follow him on Twitter, friend him on Facebook, and/or become a fan and get e-mail alerts when he writes.

Comments

[Golemaximus]

09:33 PM on 12/22/2010

You Liberals still want to raise revenues for this type of spending? What the @$&$ are you thinking? You want to fund all your social welfare programs and balance the budget! Try electing some officials that will end the wars not grow them. Obama's war and liberal stupidity! Oh yes! They forgot to mention the increase in KIAs to more than 40 lives a month. "We're making progress" We're degrading their abilities" total BS. What Democrats and Obama should being saying is - We're wasting more money, lives and resources on incompetence! Can't wait to hear some liberal hypocrite tell me how this is still GW's fault!!

[BlackYowe]

06:22 PM on 12/14/2010

We got this instead of Universal Health Care!

[donnac406]

02:12 AM on 12/15/2010

and when we consider that this war is going to cost about $100 billion for 2010 and we've k*ll*ed about 5,000 taliban soldiers this year it boils down to about $20 million per soldier.

that's a lot of health care and unemployment benefits.

[BlackYowe]

03:35 PM on 12/15/2010

sigh

[Kojo Curtis]

11:58 AM on 12/14/2010

The Power of Prayer(?) Or is it the almighty $$$'s?

As a Combat Infantry Soldier during the Korean War, (1950/51)
And author of: WHAT‘S A COMMIE EVER DONE TO BLACK PEOPLE??
I witness many soldiers reading their bibles before a battle or an oncoming night attack by the enemy, to retake the position our unit had just taken from them. At roll call, the next morning they did not answer when their names were called, only their remains was left behind. Our questions at the time would be, why them old Lord, and not I? A question we the survivors were confronted with after many battles or firefights… Moreover, to this day the question remains… Still we pray… At this stage of my life, I have arrived to the conclusion that since God/Allah or Jesus Christ did not declare wars, it was man made, so it is left to humankind to end wars. The Alternative is to destroy ourselves in the process.

Signed by:
Forgotten Warriors. Of Forgotten Wars.

[Citizen P77]

10:21 PM on 12/13/2010

So shady...

[delta7777]

03:51 AM on 12/11/2010

.
it would be interesting to know how much
of the corrupt cashmoney flowing into and aroundAfghanistan
flows directly back here to corrupt US lobby/contacts
or to their overseas bank accounts ?????

There is too much "poorly supervised" money
for this not to be happening.
.

[trafalgar50]

07:17 PM on 12/10/2010

As to whether we have spent money wisely in Afghanistan? I can answer that question, and I don't have a PHD. Where else can people sit around on blankets with piles of hundred dollar bills or wander around aimlessly with 52 million dollars in suitcases?? Yeah, we've done a heck of a job Brownie.

[irochfpst]

12:38 AM on 12/05/2010

war does not change idealogy. what is this war really about? are we really any more secure than we were before. we allow our country to take in immigrants form countries where people do not like us effectively welcoming known terrorist that we do nothing about. we watch them and do nothing because we want to go to war, essentially with as many middle eastern countries as we can name. 9-11 was meant to plant fear in the minds of mindless americans who are more likely to die in a car crashs while using their cell phones than dying in a terrorist attack the question you have to ask yourself is what are the people in power really after. . the loss of countless and innocent lives lost and continue to be lost have not insured our security. the billions of dollars spent on these wars have improvished all of us. we have sacrificed out children to protect the powerful and the greedy. and why do we keep electing people who lie to us and are corrupted before they reach office. our politics is a reflection of ourselves as a vain,uninformed, self-centered, and narrow minded electorate. why are we surprised we are at war when we are at war with each other?

[Pamm Stadt]

07:05 PM on 12/04/2010

No outsider has won a war in that region since the Pashtun learned to fight. They are very good at defending their tribal territory. From the very eastern end of Afghanistan to the western edge of Pakistan the Pashtun have lived for centuries. They do not recognize the border between the two countries. They call this region the death of emperors. The Taliban are Pashtun. (not all Pashtuns are fighters.)

So, we're not going to win, there are no mineral rights not already bought up. We are dumping money into the bad guy's pockets. So, Obama, stand up for this country and get the heck outta Afghanistan and keep that money here. Peace in the middle east will not come with a democracy. It will come when the people involved are ready for it to come. No matter how hard we try.

[Golemaximus]

09:37 PM on 12/22/2010

Pamm - Excellent comment! F&F

[MichaelAKD]

06:23 PM on 12/04/2010

NEW TERM, WORD,...Bureaucra-moronic, "a state of mind exhibited by government bureaucrats who do not learn from the mistakes of the past" e.g. vietnam case in point. a recent historical event involving the united states support of the south which cost our nation billions of dollars. only God knows how much was siphoned off by the cronies in the south's government let alone the thousands of lives lost and for what? not to protect us from terrorists, back then it was communists, different time different enemy, same old scam. the government of the south was even at the time of the french rife with corruption which only got worse after the u.s. stepped in with wallets wide open. their leaders fed at the american cash trough just as so many others have time and time again. a few more examples, the philippines and marcos, panama and noriega, it just goes on and on, the stream of u.s. dollars to corrupt regimes and their leaders given the green light by both republican and democratic administrations. ALL repeating the mistakes of their predecessors. as for the information on vietnam, i received that straight from the horse's mouth so to speak. as a young and naive undergrad in college i was enrolled at the time in a vietnam history course at colorado state university where general westmoreland had a speaking engagement. some three decades have since passed and so little has sadly changed other than the names.

[omobob]

12:16 PM on 12/02/2010

Down the drain is an apt description for the corruption and lack of over sight in Iraq and Afghanistan. The American taxpayer has been taken for a ride on the first all debt war.

[baxtron]

05:05 PM on 12/01/2010

Norm Coleman Senator R-MN 2002-2008. Not one inquiry into military contracting in Iraq or Afghanistan.

I think I see the solution. We build them a new country in our empty factories, then pay ourselves to ship it over there.

[optura]

10:41 PM on 12/01/2010

your idea reduces their profit 90%

[Gray Mouser]

03:13 PM on 12/01/2010

Another wonderful reason to stop the war and bring our troops home. Use that money here in the US where folks are suffering and need it.

Common sense.

[Vernie31]

02:00 PM on 12/01/2010

(2) TWO BILLION, (800) EIGHT HUNDRED MILLION U.S. DOLLARS PER WEEK and no ONE is screaming "PRAY TELL FOR WHAT?" THE politicians have their heads in the SAND, Literally.

[totaldisbelief]

02:32 PM on 12/01/2010

the bought and paid for politicos know what they're doing...their owners want things to go like they are going.
You seem surprised...I'm surprised that you're surprised...after all , this is just business as usual.
These are the priorities.....change the priorities and all this changes.

[charles116]

06:18 PM on 12/04/2010

For Campaign contributing war profiteers.
But the poor and the middle class MUST expect cuts and sacrifices.

[BobHiggins]

12:36 PM on 12/01/2010

The goose needs to pack up its golden eggs and return to roost. We can't afford to support our own corrupt politicians who now want to cut social security, medicare and privatize the VA in order to further fund the already bloated top tier of wealthy criminals among us.

I'm listening to several expensively dressed, carefully blow dried politicians right now mouthing pious fiscal platitudes at a presser on the cat food commission.

No one was concerned with debt or deficits during the last ten years as they carpet bombed the Middle East and South Asia with bales of hundred dollar bills nor were they concerned with propping up our completely corrupt banking and finance system with great mounds of borrowed money.

Now that they want to pretend again that deficits matter, they expect the middle and working class to pick up the tab for trillions of dollars that went into the pockets of the wealthiest people in the country.

When will the working people of this nation wake up to the reality of the crimes being perpetrated against them?

Tens of millions out of work, millions about to lose unemployment insurance, no jobs despite the assurances from the upper tier of crooks that all would be well if we bailed them out of their gambling problems and now the problem becomes entitlements?

Face it folks, these people are liars, they are thieves, they are killing the world and if we don't stop them we are worse than fools.

[Progressives-Unite]

11:56 AM on 12/01/2010

Finally, someone in the media is talking about this issue. While these criminals in congress try to cut programs and give further tax breaks to the wealthy, they are stealing our tax dollars. They are sending it through Afghanistan and out the back door to Dubai where they can hide.

[Enroh Mot]

12:36 PM on 12/01/2010

Dubai......the new Switzerland.

[BobHiggins]

01:36 PM on 12/01/2010

Hence the indoor ski lifts and desert powder. Shreddin' down the wadi?

[totaldisbelief]

02:34 PM on 12/01/2010

I wonder if the Money is going to build Arks for the Elites to escape the end of the world as we know it....just like in the movie!