Begging All the Way to the Bank

A while back, I wrote about what was going on at Kabul Bank; essentially, that Karzai, his family and his cronies were using it as their private piggy bank. Now we know that they were all dipping into it to the tune of $900 million. No wonder Karzai is such a snappy dresser, while Afghanistan is in the mess it's in!

There's an interesting sideline to all of this. Contrary to some pundits' opinions - including Mario Vargas Llosa's considered one - Wikileaks is much more that a gossipy tabloid. In this instance, thanks to documents revealed by it, we know that the American government was aware of, at least, questionable dealings at the bank, but chose to ignore it, I suppose in pursuit of a "greater good" in Afghanistan.

Here comes another bank bailout...

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