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July 17, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Washington Times: A 3 million USD U.S.-contracted schools project in Afghanistan remains grossly unfinished more than four years after the start of construction because the Army Corps of Engineers did not hold the contractor accountable for the work it has been paid to do, a new report by a U.S. government watchdog says. Full news...
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June 27, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
NBC News: A 70 million USD agricultural aid program in Afghanistan spent millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars on tractors that went missing, irrigation pumps that were never used and solar panels that wound up in private homes, according to government investigators. A report released Thursday by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction blamed the problems on USAID... Full news...
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June 13, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
IWPR: Bombs have become so common in Afghanistan that the attacks themselves, still less the human costs months and years later, are rarely reported. When a bomb went off at a clinic in Logar, a province south of Kabul, in July 2011, 30 people were killed instantly and at least ten died afterwards as a result of the injuries they sustained. Full news...
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June 5, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Fiscal Times: The number of contractors working in Afghanistan now vastly outnumbers American troops stationed there, according to a Congressional Research Service report. CRS, along with the Government Accountability Office, also determined that the Pentagon is unable to properly document the work these contractors are doing. Full news...
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May 26, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Killid Group: There is overwhelming evidence of a proliferation of poorly constructed, illegal townships across the country with efforts ongoing to execute more housing schemes on usurped lands. An investigation by the Independent Media Consortium (IMC)* reveals there are multiple agencies at work and unable to check the rot. High Office of Oversight and Anti-Corruption chief Azizullah Ludin says documents of most of townships are fake... Full news...
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May 16, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Daily Beast: The impeachment of Afghan Finance Minister Omar Zakhilwal, on charges of accusing M.P.s of smuggling, began like any other. Zakhilwal patiently listened to members of Parliament ask their questions—about budget cuts, nepotism in his ministry, and tax evasion by large companies. Full news...
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May 15, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: More than 2,000 residents of Dehsabz district on Wednesday staged a violent protest against the no-payment of their land seized by the government, officials said. The two-hour protest erupted at 9am on the Pul-i-Charkhi-Airport road, hurling stones at police and journalists, injuring the deputy police chief, Brig. Gen. Daud Amin, and a photographer of Pajhwok Afghan News. Full news...
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May 9, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Antiwar.com: In a speech yesterday at the New American Foundation, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko revealed that he has been under pressure from officials across several departments for publicizing his audits on waste and fraud in the Afghan War. Full news...
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May 2, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Bloomberg: In the unforgiving Afghan landscape, we have learned that you can’t buy a warlord. You can only rent one. We owe this education to our man in Kabul, President Hamid Karzai. For more than a decade, it has been recently confirmed, U.S. dollars packed into suitcases, backpacks and plastic shopping bags have been delivered every month or so to Karzai’s office. Full news...
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April 28, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The New York Times: For more than a decade, wads of American dollars packed into suitcases, backpacks and, on occasion, plastic shopping bags have been dropped off every month or so at the offices of Afghanistan’s president — courtesy of the Central Intelligence Agency. All told, tens of millions of dollars have flowed from the C.I.A. to the office of President Hamid Karzai, according to current and former advisers to the Afghan leader. Full news...
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April 27, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Center for Public Integrity: The principal food supplier to US troops in Afghanistan is embroiled in a costly dispute with the Pentagon that has attracted congressional interest. The Pentagon allowed a private firm providing food and water to U.S. troops in Afghanistan to overbill taxpayers 757 million USD and awarded the company no-bid contract extensions worth more than 4 billion USD over three years... Full news...
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April 25, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Washington Guardian: Talk about burning taxpayer money! The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spent more than 5 million USD to have a contractor build two garbage incinerators at a forward-operating base in Afghanistan, but then the military never used the equipment because officials closed out the project and released the contractors before the machines actually worked. Full news...
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April 15, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Reuters: How do you collect a 200,000 USD electricity bill from an Afghan warlord? Try cutting him off from the grid. Then turn off your cell phone so he can’t yell at you. General Rashid Dostum - one of Afghanistan’s most powerful militia leaders - found someone else to reconnect him within hours, said Mirwais Alami, the chief commercial officer at Afghanistan’s national power company. Full news...
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April 2, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
TomDispatch.com: Washington has vociferously denounced Afghan corruption as a major obstacle to the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. This has been widely reported. Only one crucial element is missing from this routine censure: a credible explanation of why American nation-building failed there. No wonder. To do so, the U.S. would have to denounce itself. Full news...
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March 28, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: The governor of northern Faryab province on Thursday accused the local authorities of illegally distributing governmental land to people of his choice, leaving few plots for offices. Governor Mohammadullah Batash, addressing a foundation-laying ceremony for the justice department building, alleged: “Most of government-owned land has been gifted away to undeserving individuals.” Full news...
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March 6, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Fiscal Times: The decision by the United States Agency for International Development to scrap the completion of a dam project meant to supply electricity to Kandahar, the spiritual home of the Taliban in Afghanistan, is the latest and perhaps largest failure of the United States to use development dollars to create stability by building Afghan infrastructure. Full news...
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February 28, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Sunday Times: Handing over security operations in Afghanistan to the Afghans is “proceeding very well”, Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, said on a recent visit to Helmand. “The Afghans are developing capabilities faster than we expected.” He was echoing the unbridled optimism of many British and American officials. Having just returned from five weeks in Sangin — the most violent district in Afghanistan’s most violent province — I cannot see any reason for such optimism. Full news...
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February 22, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Pluto Press: As Obama proclaims that the US adventure in Afghanistan will draw to a close over the next couple years, we may look at the balance sheet with respect to one of the occupation’s alleged justifications: the fight against Afghan heroin. The outcome has been a total failure. Full news...
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February 7, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Associated Press: The cost of corruption in Afghanistan rose sharply last year to 3.9 billion USD, and half of all Afghans bribed public officials for services, the U.N. said Thursday. The findings came despite repeated promises by President Hamid Karzai to clean up his government. The international community has long expressed concern about the problem of corruption in Afghanistan because it reduces confidence in the Western-backed government. Full news...
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February 7, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Guardian: Living in the shadow of terror and the threat of assassination around the clock, Hamid Karzai could be forgiven for indulging in a bit of relaxing comfort whenever he gets the chance. But to touch down in London and check into Claridge’s, one of the most luxurious hotels in the world, the day he issued a decree back home to curtail government expenses is, at best, a sign that the Afghan president is prone to a touch of political frailty... Full news...
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February 1, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Washington Examiner: The unprecedented 100 billion USD program slated to rebuild war-torn Afghanistan has been ravaged by theft, cost overruns, bribes, unused facilities and “incalculable waste,” and now the federal auditor of the reconstruction effort is urging Congress to make sure taxpayers are getting their money’s worth before spending more. Full news...
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January 25, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Wall Street Journal: The U.S. military has blacklisted Afghanistan’s largest private airline, alleging it is smuggling “bulk” quantities of opium on civilian flights to Tajikistan, a corridor through which the drugs reach the rest of the world. Kam Air was barred this month from receiving U.S. military contracts by U.S. Central Command chief Marine Gen. James Mattis, according to U.S. military officials. Full news...
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January 21, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: A lawmaker and member of the National Front of Afghanistan, Mohammad Mohaqiq, denied involvement in seizing government-owned land and stealing the revenue of customs departments in northern provinces. Quoting sources in the Attorney General Office and the High Office of Oversight and Anti-Corruption, some media outlets on Sunday reported Mohaqiq and some other political figures had pocketed huge government funds Full news...
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January 11, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Christian Science Monitor: As two Afghan farmers tell it, they are part of the “good” militia in their northern province: unofficial armed men who protect schools, families, and farms, and have chased Taliban insurgents away. They are not part of the “bad” militia, they say, that since 2010 has especially traumatized parts of Kunduz Province by forcibly extracting “taxes” from villagers, and engaging in killings and rape – all in the name of fighting insurgents themselves. Full news...
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January 9, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Vanity Fair: “Just look at this view,” said my guide, as he waved his arm expansively from right to left. We had just emerged onto the sun-drenched roof terrace of a so-called narco-villa in Kabul’s Sherpur neighborhood. Sherpur is the epicenter of an eye-catching architectural style in a district where the gusher of money from drugs and corruption has found full expression. Full news...
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January 6, 2013 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
PAN: Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been stolen from three branches of the Afghan Millie Bank, a senior official said on Sunday. Several people have been detained on suspicion of complicity in the theft. Mohibullah Safi, the bank’s chief, told Pajhwok Afghan News that a moneychanger had filched 200,000 USD from the bank’s branch in Kabul. But security forces had arrested the individuals who stood guarantee for the moneychanger. Full news...
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December 25, 2012 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Killid Group: There’s a cloud over the Afghan Local Police (ALP). The ALP is a militia set up two years ago by US forces in villages where the Afghan National Police (ANP) - trained by NATO - is weak. Esmatullah Mayar investigates in Kunduz, Paktia and Paktika. A spike in armed robberies, murder and sexual aggression in the three provinces has been blamed on the local police. Full news...
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December 24, 2012 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Center for Public Integrity: The multinational NATO force in Afghanistan has declared that it spent more than 200 million USD to buy fuel for the Afghan Army in 2010 and 2011, but cannot locate any documents to substantiate the expense or show precisely where the money went, according to a special report by a government watchdog on Dec. 20. Full news...
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December 22, 2012 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Trend.az: Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday blamed foreign forces for “hundreds of millions of dollars” worth of corruption in the war-torn country, DPA reported. Speaking at a Kabul meeting marking the country’s anti-corruption day, Karzai said: “Part of this corruption that exists in our administration is small and (mostly) bribery. Other part of the corruption, which is huge and (worth) hundreds of millions of dollars, is not our corruption.” Full news...
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December 15, 2012 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The New York Times: Packed into hand luggage and tucked into jacket pockets, roughly hewed bars of gold are being flown out of Kabul with increasing regularity, confounding Afghan and American officials who fear money launderers have found a new way to spirit funds from the country. Most of the gold is being carried on commercial flights destined for Dubai, according to airport security reports and officials. Full news...
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