Ex-CIA official: Only Taliban are incorrupt
Headlines Wednesday, September 1st, 2010A former senior American intelligence official has for the first time conceded that the only incorrupt people in Afghanistan are the Taliban and suggested “If you want no corruption, give the government back to the Taliban.”
In an interview with German magazine Der Spiegel CIA agent Michael Scheuer who supervised the CIA work in Afghanistan said that United States and other government are lying when they say that they can clean up corruption (in Afghanistan) and win the war.”
CIA official termed Afghan President Hamid Karzai as “a dishonest man”.
When asked if the allegation that CIA had been paying Mohammed Zia Salehi, an aide to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, for information and if CIA had damaged the Americans’ credibility, Michael Scheuer responded: “That’s absolutely good recruitment. I think you recruit whoever gives you access to a target. It might be someone who is a terrorist or it might be someone who’s a corrupt official.
When asked if Washington was being energetic enough in trying to fight corruption in Afghanistan, the CIA former official said “We’re really not in a position to push these people. Who’s going to replace them? There isn’t anyone less corrupt. Probably the only incorrupt people in Afghanistan are the Taliban. If you want no corruption, give the government back to the Taliban.”
The American intelligence official also said that he believed that those engaged in corruption in Afghanistan would not be tried for corruption and added “Salehi (a high-ranking member of Afghanistan’s National Security Council, allegedly been on the CIA payroll for years) knows so much about what goes on in that government and what’s been stolen and who’s doing the stealing, that if he got on a witness seat, it might as well be Karzai himself.”.
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on Sep 1 2010. Filed under