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Afghan Pres. Secured His Brother Lucrative Mining Deals w/ US Defense Contractor

29 points by pizza 5y ago

kingsuper20 5y ago
I'd be much more likely to read it if it said "Afghanistan’s President Doesn't Help His Brother Secure Lucrative Mining Deals with a U.S. Contractor".
- ChuckNorris89 5y ago
  IKR? Don't get why people are surprised about this when even in Germany/Europe it's that common for government contracts going to friends and family members of the ruling class (through some very complex schemes to hide the blatant corruption of course).
- vlovich123 5y ago
  To me the article is more interesting as it details a shadow military-industrial effort (the article talks about links to Patreus) that’s been pushing an agenda to mine minerals perhaps valuable to the military but even more valuable to them personally. And of course the entire mining operation was abandoned under Obama because it financed militants, used children for the mining operation, and was extremely hazardous to the environment. Of course the Trump administration greenlit this scheme and the Afghan President’s family, which personally benefited from this arrangement (despite being banned by law) supported this arrangement (because hey, it’s not the American government, just well-connected private businesses). The scale of corruption and self-dealing here enabled under the Trump administration is actually quite fascinating. No wonder he enjoys support from his constituents when he’s enriching them in this way. It’s how a lot of people choose to wield power unfortunately.
farseer 5y ago
When the Taliban took over Kabul a few years after Soviet withdrawal, the first thing they did was to hang Najibullah, the Soviet installed president of Afghanistan. The hanging was prominent because of the way it was carried out, instead of his neck, they hung the president by his testicles until death.
- aliswe 5y ago
  This is not true, which is apparent from the images.
- justicezyx 5y ago
  What you want to say?
ARandomerDude 5y ago
Afghanistan is a very corrupt place. During the first conversation I ever had with a high-ish ranking man in the Afghan National Army, he asked me if I'd be willing to smuggle American goods off our forward operating base for him to sell on the black market. I was shocked that he would have the nerve to ask, and that he wouldn't blush to do so in an introductory conversation.
- bellyfullofbac 5y ago
  A good article about it from 2015, and how the corruption helps the insurgency (e.g. the locals would be thinking "Why should I warn the corrupt idiots about that IED targetting their shiny black SUVs?"): https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/01/19/corruption-revolt https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/01/19/corruption-rev... It's a book review of "Thieves of State", which is also a good read. Hah I just scrolled through that article again, and it ends with: In September [2014], the former World Bank official and good-governance expert Ashraf Ghani was sworn in as the new President of Afghanistan, amid widespread allegations of vote-tampering. He has promised to tackle corruption.

29 points by pizza 5y ago

I'd be much more likely to read it if it said "Afghanistan’s President Doesn't Help His Brother Secure Lucrative Mining Deals with a U.S. Contractor".

ChuckNorris89 5y ago
IKR? Don't get why people are surprised about this when even in Germany/Europe it's that common for government contracts going to friends and family members of the ruling class (through some very complex schemes to hide the blatant corruption of course).
vlovich123 5y ago
To me the article is more interesting as it details a shadow military-industrial effort (the article talks about links to Patreus) that’s been pushing an agenda to mine minerals perhaps valuable to the military but even more valuable to them personally. And of course the entire mining operation was abandoned under Obama because it financed militants, used children for the mining operation, and was extremely hazardous to the environment. Of course the Trump administration greenlit this scheme and the Afghan President’s family, which personally benefited from this arrangement (despite being banned by law) supported this arrangement (because hey, it’s not the American government, just well-connected private businesses). The scale of corruption and self-dealing here enabled under the Trump administration is actually quite fascinating. No wonder he enjoys support from his constituents when he’s enriching them in this way. It’s how a lot of people choose to wield power unfortunately.

farseer 5y ago

When the Taliban took over Kabul a few years after Soviet withdrawal, the first thing they did was to hang Najibullah, the Soviet installed president of Afghanistan. The hanging was prominent because of the way it was carried out, instead of his neck, they hung the president by his testicles until death.

aliswe 5y ago
This is not true, which is apparent from the images.
justicezyx 5y ago
What you want to say?

ARandomerDude 5y ago

Afghanistan is a very corrupt place. During the first conversation I ever had with a high-ish ranking man in the Afghan National Army, he asked me if I'd be willing to smuggle American goods off our forward operating base for him to sell on the black market. I was shocked that he would have the nerve to ask, and that he wouldn't blush to do so in an introductory conversation.

bellyfullofbac 5y ago
A good article about it from 2015, and how the corruption helps the insurgency (e.g. the locals would be thinking "Why should I warn the corrupt idiots about that IED targetting their shiny black SUVs?"): https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/01/19/corruption-revolt https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/01/19/corruption-rev... It's a book review of "Thieves of State", which is also a good read. Hah I just scrolled through that article again, and it ends with: In September [2014], the former World Bank official and good-governance expert Ashraf Ghani was sworn in as the new President of Afghanistan, amid widespread allegations of vote-tampering. He has promised to tackle corruption.