Afghan President Hamid Karzai has confirmed receiving secret cash payments delivered by CIA operatives to his office.<\/p>\n
A senior US Republican senator has blocked a 75-million-dollar American aid to Afghanistan pending assurances by the White House that the regular CIA cash payments to the Afghan government is not fueling the rampant corruption in the country.\n<\/p>\n
Tennessee Senator Bob Corker, the top Republican member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee announced on Monday that he was putting a hold on the US aid until the Obama administration provides \u00c5\u201csufficient assurances\u201d that the \u00c5\u201cbags of cash\u201d secretly, though admittedly, delivered to Afghan President Hamid Karzai by CIA operatives \u00c5\u201cwere not fueling the corruption that pervades the Afghan government,\u201d The New York Times<\/i> reports Tuesday.\n<\/p>\n
\u00c5\u201cIn recent months, I have repeatedly communicated directly to President Obama my concerns regarding alleged cash payments by the US government to President Karzai of Afghanistan,\u201d Corker stated in a letter announcing the aid freeze. \u00c5\u201cSpecifically, I highlighted the incoherence of a policy that at once seeks to root out corruption and establish the rule of law, while at the same time funneling secret cash payments to the president.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
One Afghan official, the report says, has described the cash delivered by CIA agents to the presidential palace as \u00c5\u201cghost money,\u201d underlining that the spy agency has delivered \u00c5\u201ctens of millions of dollars worth of secret cash payments\u201d to President Karzai\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s office over the years, citing Afghan and American officials.\n<\/p>\n
According to the daily, the USD75 million being withheld by Senator Corker was \u00c5\u201cintended to help Afghanistan organize elections\u201d and is considered a tiny sum compared to the billions of dollars in development and military aid annually provided to Afghanistan as part of the US-led occupation of the war-torn country.\n<\/p>\n
However, it notes, the aid cutoff marks \u00c5\u201ca rare moment of concrete Congressional pushback\u201d on the Obama administration\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s Afghan strategy.\n<\/p>\n
\u00c5\u201cI have repeatedly requested briefings and additional information on the nature and effect of this policy, classified and unclassified, as appropriate. The administration\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s lack of any response to these requests, its apparent decision to flout the Foreign Relations Committee\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s oversight, and its inability (or unwillingness) to explain such a policy is unacceptable,\u201d Senator Corker further explained in his letter to the White House. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u00c5\u201cAs a consequence,\u201d he added, \u00c5\u201cI have determined that the further commitment of taxpayer funds at this time toward such an incoherent governance strategy would not be in our national interest.\u201d<\/p>\n
The White House, according to the report, has so far refused to explain the secret CIA payments.\n<\/p>\n
The US National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden, however, said on Monday that the White House had been in \u00c5\u201cclose touch\u201d with Senator Corker\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s staff since he first demanded an explanation of the payments in early May, without elaborating.\n<\/p>\n
This while the CIA payments have faced sharp criticism by many Afghan, American and European officials since they were first reported by The New York Times<\/i> in April and following Karzai\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s confirmation that the secret payments continued.\n<\/p>\n
These officials say in a bid to maintain influence over President Karzai\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s inner circle and \u00c5\u201cstabilize\u201d the Afghan government, the CIA has for more than a decade financed a \u00c5\u201cslush fund used to pay off warlords, politicians, lawmakers and other powerful Afghans\u201d upon whom Karzai depends for support, the report adds.\n<\/p>\n
It further cites the officials as underlining that \u00c5\u201csome of those being paid have ties to the Taliban\u2026 others are involved in opium trafficking, but\u2026 the mere existence of the slush fund effectively undercuts a pillar of the American war strategy: the building of a clean and credible Afghan government.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
The US-led invasion of Afghanistan began in 2001 under the pretext of ousting the then-Taliban regime and rooting out terrorism, insecurity and narcotics production and trade, among other things. However, more than 11 years later, terrorism, insecurity and drug trade, in addition to mass displacement of the civilian population has drastically surged in the war-torn nation.\n<\/p>\n
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