Hamid Karzai: U.S. Taxpayer-Funded Private Contractors Engaging In Terrorist, Mafia-Like Activity 22AUG10

KARZAI is a politician, a good one, and this is a smart move on his part. He reinforces the argument against private contractors many economist, DOD officials, human rights groups and other NGO's have been making (search this blog for earlier post on government contractors (govt contractors) and Afghanistan and Iraq). His argument about the pay issue is legitimate, now if he would just address the massive corruption problems in his own country and work on developing security forces the Afghan people and foreign governments and NGOs working in the country can trust. 

Afghanistan's embattled president Hamid Karzai said on Sunday that U.S. taxpayers were indirectly funding "mafia-like groups" and terrorist activities with the American government's support of private contractors inside his country.
In a rare U.S. media appearance, Karzai continued to press for the removal of the vast majority of U.S. private contractors by the end of this year. He argued that their continued presence inside Afghanistan was "an obstruction and impediment" to the country's growth, a massive waste of money, and a catalyst for corruption among Afghan officials.
"The more we wait the more we lose," Karzai said during an appearance on ABC's "This Week." "Therefore we have decided as an Afghan government to bring an end to the presence of these security companies... who are not only causing corruption in this country but who are looting and stealing from the Afghan people.
"One of the reasons that I want them disbanded and removed by four months from now is exactly because their presence is preventing the growth and development of the Afghan security forces -- especially the police force -- because if 40, 50,000 people are given more salaries than the Afghan police, why would an Afghan ... man come to the police if he can get a job in a security firm, have a lot of leeway without any discipline? So naturally our security forces will find it difficult to grow. In order for our security forces to grow these groups must be disbanded."
Karzai's campaign against U.S. contractors is, undoubtedly, compelled by his own domestic political concerns. The killing of innocent Afghanistan civilians has not only deeply soured the country's view of America's mission, but damaged Karzai's standing as well.
U.S. officials have warned that Afghanistan's army and police are nowhere near close to being ready to fill the void left by private contractors. If anything, the corruption that Karzai ties to the contractor community could be exacerbated if the Afghan army (itself plagued with scandal) were to play a bigger role.
Recognizing the reluctance of U.S. officials to endorse his approach, Karzai openly acknowledged that he was using his ABC sit down to make a direct pitch to the American public.

"I'm appealing to the U.S. taxpayer," he said, "not to allow their hard earned money to be wasted on groups that are not only providing lots of inconvenience to the Afghan people but are actually, god knows, in contract with mafia-like groups and perhaps also funding militants, and insurgents and terrorists with those funds."
WATCH:

Hamid Karzai: Escape from DC 17MAI10 from MOJO

I expected more from the Obama administration, not more of the failed george w bush policies in Afghanistan, but a demand from this administration on the issues of drugs, corruption and transparency in the Afghan nation and government, with it linked to a continued American and NATO presence in the country. It didn't have to be a public scolding, but we, the people who are sending tens of thousands of our troops, sacrificing hundreds of them, and having spent hundreds of billions of dollars on this war effort, we deserved to see our government demand a willing and able partner in the Afghan government, something Karzai was able to escape from D.C. without providing. Shame on the Obama administration for allowing this to happen.

Brodner's Cartoon du Jour: At the Karzai Inauguration . . .

— By Steve Brodner

 

Thu Nov. 19, 2009 11:01 AM PST

...the oath was reportedly administered by good friend Rod Blagojevich. In a lighthearted moment the two exchanged the hair for the hat. Also in attendance (and up for high-level Cabinet posts): Alberto Fujimori, Robert Mugabe, and 17 Madoffs.

I

— White House photo/Pete Souza (Government Work).

While in Washington, the leader of the corrupt and inept Afghan government avoids the tough questions, and Obama deftly pulls off a pivot.

— By David Corn


Mon May. 17, 2010 3:00 AM PDT

Afghan President Hamid Karzai made it out of Washington last week alive—that is, without having to answer in public the allegations that his government is profoundly corrupt and fundamentally inept. Nor did he have to explain the bizarre remarks he made earlier this spring, when he claimed that the extensive fraud in last year's presidential race was engineered by foreigners and when he threatened to join the Taliban. At the same time, it appears that the Obama White House orchestrated a successful pivot, patching up—or papering over—the tensions between the US administration and the Karzai government and finally settling on a communications strategy for talking about its relationship with Karzai. It was a week in which both sides escaped the dilemmas of the Afghanistan war.

Following Obama and Karzai's Oval Office tete-a-tete on Wednesday, the two leaders held what the White House calls a "press availability." In the East Room of the White House, they spoke before the White House press corps and a handful of Afghan reporters, but they only took four questions—two from American journalists, two from the Afghan media. Karzai could have been pressed about graft and incompetence—or about the serious problems his country has had building up its own security forces, which is the cornerstone of US policy in Afghanistan. But Mark Knoller of CBS News asked if the two leaders had been able to "put aside the tensions and frictions" that had erupted after Karzai's curious comments. Both men essentially said, sure. CNN's Suzanne Malveaux asked if the United States was on track to start withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in July 2011. Both presidents predictably replied with upbeat talking points. Karzai was not forced to contend with a single uncomfortable query.

The next day, during a public discussion at the US Institute of Peace, Karzai, accompanied by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, again was not placed on the griddle. Most of the questions from the moderator, former Ambassador William Taylor, were policy-oriented and easy to field. ("What are your priorities? What specific steps will you take when you go back to Kabul?") At the end, an audience member asked if Obama or any other administration official had asked Karzai to "sideline or fire" his brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, who rules Kandahar, the strategically important city, where the next major operation of the war is expected to occur. (In April, New Yorker contributor Steve Coll wrote that Ahmed Wali Karzai "is the most visible, most intractable symbol of the corruption and the corporate self-interest of the Karzai government in southern Afghanistan.") Karzai replied that he had mentioned his brother to Obama, that he would not disclose any details, that he cannot fire his brother, and that the "issue is resolved as it stands now." Clinton didn't say anything. Anyone concerned with transparency and corruption (which could be the fatal flaw in the Obama administration's policy of building up the Afghanistan government and military) would not be encouraged by these responses.

Last October, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs declared that the administration could only succeed in Afghanistan if it had "a willing partner…that is free of corruption and transparent." That set a high bar—which obviously has not been met since then. And there were meetings this past week between Afghan ministers and their US administration counterparts, during which anti-corruption and governance matters were discussed. (The Obama administration, according to an adviser to the Afghan delegation, is seeking to work directly with Afghan ministers it considers honest and competent and, in a gentle way, nudge Karzai away from certain government functions.) But the pervasive corruption and previous electoral fraud—which undermines the legitimacy of the Karzai government and fuels popular resentment toward Kabul and the war effort—were never fully addressed in public while Karzai was in town. During the press availability, Obama claimed that anti-corruption efforts in Afghanistan have been strengthened, but he offered no specifics. Obama said nothing so bold as demanding that Karzai's government be "free of corruption and transparent."

The administration also gingerly—and perhaps deftly—navigated other Karzai-related shoals. Five weeks ago, Gibbs, at a press briefing, pointedly declined to call Karzai an "ally" or "credible partner." He would only refer to him as "the democratically elected leader of Afghanistan" (an arguable proposition). But during Karzai's DC trip, the president and administration officials repeatedly hailed the US-Afghanistan "partnership." They generally did not refer to Karzai as a partner, but they used the p-word to describe the overall relationship between the two nations. This seemed a deliberate effort to keep from fully embracing Karzai personally—without dissing him.

It was a fine line to walk. At a White House briefing last week, US ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry, whose skepticism regarding Karzai has been widely reported, was asked if the Afghan president is "an adequate strategic partner." He didn't say yes. Instead, he replied, "President Obama has expressed his confidence in President Karzai and our work together." Pressed on whether his previous concerns about Karzai have been addressed, Eikenberry said,

President Karzai is the—he’s the elected president of Afghanistan. Afghanistan is a close friend and ally, and of course I highly respect President Karzai in that capacity.

As he spoke those words, Eikenberry didn't look too comfortable.The reporter pushed further: "So your concerns have not been allayed?" Gibbs intervened: "I think he answered it."

He hadn't, of course. And a lot of critical questions about Karzai and the $100 billion-a-year war had gone unanswered (and unasked) throughout the week. Which made the visit a success for Karzai and his partners in the White House.

David Corn is Mother Jones' Washington bureau chief. For more of his stories, click here. He's also on Twitter.


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