McLatchy's Landay: US Officials Complicit And Involved In Afghan Corruption

By Steve Hynd

George Kenny at Electric Politics recently interviewed Jonathan Landay, the national security and intelligence correspondent for McClatchy newspapers about Afghanistan, events there and what should be done next. In the course of a wide-ranging hour long interview in which he deals knowledgeably with many of the issues surrounding the occupation of Afghanistan and regional issues arising from that, Landay gave his opinions about what's happening and what should or could happen next.

Landay makes the point that the "unprecedented" corruption in Afghanistan is endemic, probably the single greatest factor in why we're failing to accomplish anything and precipitated primarily by lax control of large amounts of money pumped into the country because of the occupation (but not filtering down). Related to that, though he didn't provide details, Landay says plainly in the last minutes of the interview that he believes U.S. officials -- not U.S. contractors, but officials -- are complicit and involved in the corruption.

It's something I've suggested in the past. That someone as serious and credentialled as Landay is now saying it lets serious reporters begin to start investigating more deeply. It's the first pure trace of "blood in the water" on what should be a truly massive story. Which officials, how wide and how high? Uniformed as well as civilian? Are there any names that were in the same position to make corrupt profits in Iraq?