Afghanistan banksters, even more corrupt, incompetent and cronyistic than America's, demand their own US taxpayer-funded bailout

From:
Come Home America
(Antiwar.com) -- by Justin Raimondo --

If we don’t bail out the Kabul Bank – the notoriously corrupt institution run by Mahmoud Karzai, brother of the Afghan "president," which has handed out millions in "loans" to Karzai’s cronies – will the terrorists have won? Well, yes, according to Mahmoud, who demands that America "do something," i.e. hand over lots of cash.

Khalil Frozi, another Karzai crony, and one of the two largest shareholders, said a "revolution" would occur unless the US Treasury department acted to guarantee that "everyone gets their money."

Hey, a revolution might not be such a bad idea, as far as Afghanistan is concerned: with the Karzai government swept away, that would at least take care of half the nation’s problems.

Sparked by the announcement that the bank was being "reorganized," with the chairman, Mr. Frozi, as well as chief financial officer Sherkhan Farnood ousted, Kabul Bank is threatened by a classic bank run, with throngs of depositors lining up and demanding their money. It appears that the two former bank officers and their friends – Afghan government officials, for the most part – basically looted the bank, investing in Dubai real estate which has plummeted in value. They were handing out loans like candy to political insiders, such as Haseen Fahim, brother of the vice president.

With Afghans clamoring to get their money out of the bank, and soldiers, teachers, and government personnel worried that they might not be getting paid – a key task handled by the bank – the entire economic infrastructure set up in the wake of the Taliban’s fall is in danger of collapsing. Oh, but don’t worry, says President Karzai: "We’ve got enough cash to support the bank. Even if the whole financial system in Afghanistan collapses, we have enough money to support it."

Of course they have enough money to support the corruption and outright thievery at the core of the Afghan banking "system" – courtesy of the US taxpayer.

Sensitive to the politics of bank bailouts, which have had such enormous repercussions here in the US, American officials deny they have any plans to open up the cash spigot and save Kabul Bank, but the reality is that they don’t have to take any special measures: the Karzai gang has already held us up for billions, and can with confidence expect many billions more. Think of it as our Afghan "stimulus."

When will this madness end? With over a hundred US banks closed since January, and 829 more in danger of failure, why is one penny of our tax dollars going to prop up the make-believe "Bank of Kabul," whose demise would be a blessing to the country if not to its depositors? When are we going to stop "nation-building" in Afghanistan, and start rebuilding our own nation?...MORE...LINK