CIA Veteran: "Only the Taliban Are Not Corrupt"

[Saif ul Haq]

The CIA is alleged to have been paying an aide to Afghan President Hamid Karzai for information. Former CIA officer Michael Scheuer spoke to SPIEGEL about why fighting corruption in Afghanistan is all but impossible.

SPIEGEL: The CIA is alleged to have paid Mohammed Zia Salehi, an aide to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, for information. Has the CIA damaged the Americans' credibility?




Michael Scheuer: 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. I think any other intelligence agency would be delighted to have someone to give them information about what Karzai is thinking because he's such a dishonest man.

SPIEGEL: The US now has to face accusations that it is financing the very corruption it is promising to fight.


Scheuer: Not really. President Obama knew about this. His intelligence advisors knew about this. If he's smart I'm sure the president would want to have somebody close to Karzai to know what's going on. The US government and other governments are lying when they say that they can clean up corruption and win the war.



SPIEGEL: Is Washington being energetic enough in trying to fight corruption?





Scheuer: 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.

SPIEGEL: Salehi, a high-ranking member of Afghanistan's National Security Council, has allegedly been on the CIA payroll for years. Do you think he will be put on trial?



Scheuer: I would think that there's not going to be a trial. Salehi 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.


Interview conducted by Marc Hujer


Interview with CIA Veteran Michael Scheuer: 'Only the Taliban Are Not Corrupt' - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

[شمله ور خراساني]

i read his books. It is quite interesting to see his angle in all of this.

[Catya Sher]

I was considering reading at least one of them.
Did not know if worth the time or not - would you give them an A, a B, or a C in TRUTH value?

Amazing that one of these people who I believe are frequent commentators on American network TV would make this statement.

Bet it's little or not at all reported in the U.S.

I'm sure there are lots of people they have around Karzai, not just this one.

[شمله ور خراساني]

I was considering reading at least one of them.
Did not know if worth the time or not - would you give them an A, a B, or a C in TRUTH value?

Amazing that one of these people who I believe are frequent commentators on American network TV would make this statement.

Bet it's little or not at all reported in the U.S.

I'm sure there are lots of people they have around Karzai, not just this one.

Hubris is okayish. On the scale of a to c. I would give it a B. If it is all true? No idea. But the other one, from 2005. I didn't like itthat much. I didn't even read the whole book.

[Catya Sher]

I keep seeing that Hubris one in the library. But something stopped me from reading it
I'm glad if it was only a B.
Thanks!

I'll look at the other one some day if I have not much else to do.

I hate getting these books that SOUND enlightening, but turn out somehow to leave you just wondering.
Did you read "The Leaning Tower" or whatever that was called?
The Looming Tower.
It was an engrossing tale. But I knew before I started it that so much was going to be according to all official version that the accuracy would be far less than maybe let's say 30 or 35% at best.
For some reason I hate to write those letters, 911. If I could shrink the text here, I would to make it less visible.

I don't like to ever associate with the mass mentality of fear associated with that catchall abbreviation. So i rarely use that term.

There was a good autobiography though, that I read right before that. It vanished off the shelves, but sounded much more realistic. Can't remember the title but it was about a Moroccan guy and his experiences - supposedly - in Afg.

[شمله ور خراساني]

I keep seeing that Hubris one in the library. But something stopped me from reading it
I'm glad if it was only a B.
Thanks!

I'll look at the other one some day if I have not much else to do.

I hate getting these books that SOUND enlightening, but turn out somehow to leave you just wondering.
Did you read "The Leaning Tower" or whatever that was called?
The Looming Tower.
It was an engrossing tale. But I knew before I started it that so much was going to be according to all official version that the accuracy would be far less than maybe let's say 30 or 35% at best.
For some reason I hate to write those letters, 911. If I could shrink the text here, I would to make it less visible.

I don't like to ever associate with the mass mentality of fear associated with that catchall abbreviation. So i rarely use that term.

There was a good autobiography though, that I read right before that. It vanished off the shelves, but sounded much more realistic. Can't remember the title but it was about a Moroccan guy and his experiences - supposedly - in Afg.

I have the same feeling. I dont read those books written about current situation in Afghanistan too often. I read Ahmed Rashids trash. ANd it was so bad, I was discouraged from reading other similar books.

I do advice you to read giustozzi's books.