Well now. This isn’t good. The Karzai Administration is taking in more than $1 million a year off the books from Iran’s government to pay for presidential expenses. The Chief of Staff is taking in the cash, no doubt helping Mr. Karzai pay for his lavishly, handsomely decorated, pain-stakingly made shawls. Some of it goes toward the squeaky wheels circulated slowly in, around and outside Kabul.
The amount of money taken in varies according to the party delivering the figures. Anonymous sources cite figures as high as $2 million every other month. The Karzai administration insists that no more than a two millions comes in every year.
Now, keep in mind that Iran has always supported the Northern Alliance against the Sunni, Taliban domination of Afghanistan, and that the Karzai government is in some way a direct descendant of the Northern Alliance but this revelation, first reported by the New York Times yesterday (October 24, 2010), shows that Karzai, through his Chief of Staff, is very openly lining his pockets with Iranian money while, with his other scratchy hand, taking U.S. tax payer dollars to do his bliss.
Now, now. This isn’t good. Of course, obviously this exchange is part of the ‘relationship between neighbors’. But still, this isn’t good. For though procedurally, unremarkable, the news and the facts it reveals cannot be construed as being anything other than unhelpful to the situation at large in Afghanistan. Iran is trying to buy a wedge between Kabul and its American sponsors. It seems, the gamble has worked. Mr. Karzai is chiding the Times for revelations that it deems defamatory.
This is not language that bears on one party’s innocence over a victimless crime.
Mr. Karzai on the fact that the U.S. pays him in cash, just to keep up with the Joneses (in Iran) it seems:
“They do give us bags of money,” he said. “Yes, yes, they do. It’s all the same. So let’s not make this an issue.”
I’ll soon have some more thoughts on this. Some claim of normative versus procedural constraints made apparent in the light of the day, under some relevant concept of transparency.