US cash ‘fed Afghanistan’s corruption,’ former President Karzai says

Former President Hamid Karzai has argued that Washington helped fuel corruption in Afghanistan by spending hundreds of millions of dollars over the past two decades without accountability. Karzai responded to findings from a trove of newly published documents that successive US administrations misled the public about the war in Afghanistan.

The documents describe Karzai, Afghanistan’s president for 14 years, as having headed a government that “self-organized into a kleptocracy.” Karzai has denied wrongdoing but hasn’t denied involvement in corruption by officials in his government.

In an interview with AP on Tuesday, Karzai said the US spent hundreds of millions of dollars in its war on terror, with the money flowing to contractors and private security firms, and that this fostered corruption.

“What could we do? It was US money coming here and used by them and used for means that did not help Afghanistan,” he said.