Afghan President Karzai Wants More CIA Money

War News Updates

The Afghan leader Hamid Karzai told reporters Saturday that money delivered by the C.I.A. was “an easy source of petty cash.” Mohammad Ismail/Reuters 

Karzai Says He Was Assured C.I.A. Would Continue Delivering Bags of Cash -- New York Times

KABUL, Afghanistan — The C.I.A.’s station chief here met with President Hamid Karzai on Saturday, and the Afghan leader said he had been assured the agency would continue dropping off stacks of cash at his office despite a storm of criticism that has erupted since the payments were disclosed.

The C.I.A. money, Mr. Karzai told reporters, was “an easy source of petty cash,” and he suggested that some of it was used to pay off warlords and power brokers.

The use of the C.I.A. cash to pay those people has prompted criticism from many Afghans and some American and European officials who complain that the agency, in its quest to maintain access and influence at the presidential palace, financed what is essentially a presidential slush fund. The practice, the officials say, effectively undercut a pillar of the American war strategy: the building of a clean and credible Afghan government.

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