Karzai calls for probe of U.S.-backed anti-corruption task force

[maddezmom]

Source: WaPo

By Joshua Partlow and Greg Miller
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, August 5, 2010

MAIMANA, AFGHANISTAN -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai has called for an investigation into a U.S.-backed anti-corruption task force, following the arrest of several senior Afghan officials on graft charges.

The new probe centers on the Major Crimes Task Force, an investigative unit launched last year in which U.S. and British law enforcement officers oversee the work of Afghan police and intelligence officials. The unit played a key role in the arrest last week of Mohammad Zia Saleh, an official in the office of the national security adviser.

Saleh, one of the most senior officials targeted so far by the task force, was taken at night from his home for allegedly asking for a bribe, said Waheed Omar, Karzai's spokesman.

A U.S. law enforcement official said the arrest was based on wiretaps and other evidence that Saleh had been bribed to help block a corruption probe of New Ansari, a Kabul-based financial firm suspected of helping politically connected Afghans transfer millions of dollars out of the country.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/04/AR2010080406923.html?hpid=topnews

[Turborama]

1. Karzai gets worried and panics as the net tightens n/t