Afghanistan controlled by mafia-like system, hands out US wealth, punishing anyone who speaks up-LA Times Op-ed, Chayes

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9/25/11, "Government by crime syndicate," LA Times, Op-ed, Sarah Chayes,
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"In Afghanistan and elsewhere, rampant corruption threatens security and the rule of law."

"Afghanistan is controlled by a structured, mafiaesque system, in which money flows upward via purchase of office, kickbacks or "sweets" in return for permission to extract resources (of which more varieties exist in impoverished Afghanistan than one might think) and protection in case of legal or international scrutiny. Those foolish enough to raise objections are punished. The result is a system that selects for criminality, excluding and marginalizing the very men and women of probity

• most needed to build a sustainable state....

The remarkable public confrontation between the Gandhi-like ascetic Anna Hazare and the government of India — which came to a triumphant end last month with a glass of orange juice and a government promise to create a strong, independent anti-corruption agency — is the latest manifestation of a worldwide explosion of outrage at what historians may someday come to deem humanity's latest form of tyranny: the capture of states by criminal syndicates.

• Otherwise known as rampant public corruption."...

Ms. Chayes is the "author of "The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban" and designed an anti-corruption strategy for the command of the international forces."

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Ed. note: The first paragraph is also how I'd describe the US today. Criminal gangs run the government, exemplified by the sub-prime scam, the global warming scam, and of course all the fake wars. Republicans don't complain because they think Afghanistan is really a war and "our guys" are "keeping us safe over there."



via Lucianne