Since 2007, at Least $3 Billion Has Left Afghanistan by Plane in Boxes and Suitcases
July 6th, 2010Via: Der Spiegel:
Billions of dollars are being secreted out of Kabul to help well-connected Afghans buy luxury villas in Dubai. Amid concerns that the money could be the result of corruption, American politicians have temporarily cut off aid to the Afghan government.
Brigadier General Mohammed Asif Jabarkhel sits with folded arms in his office, just a few steps away from the security checkpoint at Kabul International Airport. “Of course I know what’s going on here,” the 59-year-old head of the airport’s customs police grumbles from beneath his thick moustache as a fan whirs in the background. “But, in this country, who’s allowed to speak the truth?”
Jabarkhel is referring to the huge amounts of money regularly being secreted out of Afghanistan by plane in boxes and suitcases. According to some estimates, since 2007, at least $3 billion (€2.4 billion) in cash has left the country in this way. The preferred destination for these funds is Dubai, the tax haven in the Persian Gulf. And, given the fact that Afghanistan’s total GDP amounts to the equivalent of $13.5 billion, there is no way that the funds involved in this exodus are merely the proceeds of legal business transactions.
Jabarkhel complains that all of his many attempts to stop this hemorrhaging have failed. “The central bank has reached an agreement with the government that makes these kinds of transfers supposedly legal,” he says. “And whenever we try to look into where the money is coming from, pressure comes from the very top.”
Since invading Afghanistan in 2001, the United States alone has invested almost $300 billion in military and reconstruction efforts there. But far less progress has been made than what was either hoped for or expected. One major reason for this could be the fact that a significant portion of the millions meant for reconstructive efforts continue to be siphoned off. The people benefiting are often those who enjoy extremely close business ties with the donor countries.
It is clear that much more money is making its way out of Afghanistan through Kabul’s airport than is being officially declared and logged. For example, important politicians and businesspeople can often board planes from the airport’s special VIP area without being searched. And if customs officials do conduct a search and find a suitcase stuffed with millions of dollars in cash, people with powerful connections often step in to make sure that the luggage makes it out of the country with its owner — no questions asked. “A couple phone calls are made,” General Jabarkhel says with frustration in his voice, “and the person can carry on.”
This is a perfect example of why the West feels justified in warring against the Middle East. Middle Eastern plutarchs are even more corrupt than Western plutarchs, so the Western plutarchs’ position is: “Why should those greedy schmucks get all the oil money? We’ll trump up the usual political/religious excuses to invade and get some for ourselves.” The problem is, Middle Eastern plutarchs have been playing the game 3000 years longer than the U.S. and 2000 years longer than Europe, so when it comes to scheming the money in their direction they can run circles around the Western upstarts any day of the week, as this articles shows.
I’m pretty sure that if one follows the money, one finds that your so-called Middle Eastern “plutarchs” lobbied for the invasion in the first place.