From today’s New York Times on the most recent Wikileaks document dump–this bit on the corruption endemic in Afghanistan politics:
Suspicions of corruption in the Afghan government: 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.)
This isn’t very surprising. This is just another story about Afghanistan foreign policy. However instead of bartering on contracts and treaties, Afghan leaders trade goods, services and promises in cash. The leaders of Afghanistan (read-Hamid Karzai and his cabinet) have been touted out for taking cash payments in dollars from Iran. Perhaps, those leaders are in the habit of paying out officials in the U.A.E. Money, no doubt that is just an insignificant pebble in the mountain of cash and assets with which those leaders are building top notch monuments to contemporary art and architecture.