Afghan VIPs Steal $10 Million From You Every Day, in Cash

By Mark Benjamin | July 21, 2011 | +

Afghan government VIPs stuff your tax dollars into suitcases and fly the money out of the Kabul airport to parts unknown, possibly at the rate of about $10 million bucks a day. That’s one of the startling conclusions in the latest report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction released on Wednesday.

It says that the United States has pumped more than $70 billion into development projects in Afghanistan since 2002. A lot of that is converted to cash. But the United States has “limited visibility over U.S. cash that enters the economy — leaving it vulnerable to fraud and diversion to the insurgency.” In other words, Afghans are stealing our money or giving it to other Afghans who kill U.S. soldiers. Great.

It would help if Americans could monitor what the heck was going on at the Afghan central bank, but Afghan President Hamid Karzai has “barred U.S. government advisors” from going there.

And we are not allowed to look into the suitcases of government VIPs as they ship out cash at the airport, since the Afghan government lets VIP bypass the main security and customs screening area. Oh, and U.S. officials are barred from the VIP area.

In other good news, the report adds that the U.S. Treasury Department does alert the Afghan Attorney General about suspected financial crimes. But the Afghan Attorney General doesn’t do much with that information.

Related Topics: Afghanistan

@TIME

Latest on Battleland

Afghanistan May 21, 2012

Only One Year of U.S.-Led Fighting Left

President Obama’s goal at the NATO summit this week is looking increasingly clear: wrap up U.S. troops’ combat role over the coming year, and get the allies to pay more money to enable the Afghan military to fill the gap.

Missile Defense May 21, 2012

House Pushes for East Coast Missile Shield

The House has approved a $643 billion defense-spending bill for 2013 that’s $3.7 billion more than the Obama Administration, and its Pentagon, is seeking. That’s just about the same amount the Congressional Budget Office estimates the House bill’s push for an East Coast missile shield will cost over the next five years.

Military Spending May 21, 2012

The Pentagon’s “Washington Monument Strategy”

Whenever federal bureaucrats running the nation’s parks get antsy that their purse is likely to shrink, they roll out something long known as the “Washington Monument strategy.” That’s the tried-and-true technique of warning the public that if money isn’t forthcoming, one of the first budget cuts will force the shutting down of the popular obelisk to Washington, D.C., tourists.