The Ouellette Gazette, November 6, 2009: “C.I.A./Ahmed Karzai Relationship”
CIA and MI6 ghost money may fuel Afghan corruption, say diplomats
Failure of peace initiatives raises questions over whether British eagerness for political settlement may have been exploited
Julian Borger, diplomatic editor / guardian.co.uk, Monday 29 April 2013
The CIA and MI6 have regularly given large cash payments to Hamid Karzai‘s office with the aim of maintaining access to the Afghan leader and his top allies and officials, but the attempt to buy influence has largely failed and may have backfired, former diplomats and policy analysts say.
The Guardian understands that the payments by British intelligence were on a smaller scale than the CIA’s handouts, reported in the New York Times to have been in the tens of millions, and much of the British money has gone towards attempts to finance peace initiatives, which have so far proved abortive.
