Zalmay Khalilzad, former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, is being investigated by the U.S. for money laundering. We know this because an Austrian blogger found documents about it in a garbage can in Vienna.
Zalmay Khalilzad, a former United States ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the United Nations, is under investigation by the Justice Department for possible tax evasion and money laundering, an Austrian magazine reported on Monday.
The case, reported to involve the transfer of $1.4 million, apparently came to light after a blogger discovered documents from the Austrian state prosecutors’ office and a Vienna court in a garbage dump in Vienna between March and August. The blogger published several of the papers he found on his website recently.
The Austrian weekly newsmagazine Profil reported that the cache of papers included a document from the Justice Department, citing its investigation of Mr. Khalilzad, 63, concerning accounts belonging to Mr. Khalilzad’s wife, the social scientist and author Cheryl Benard.
Former Envoy Reported Facing a Federal Inquiry, New York Times
Austrian authorities have frozen the bank accounts of
Cheryl Benard, Khalizad's wife. No charges have been brought.
The U.S. Justice Department in May 2013 asked Austrian authorities for records regarding the Viennese bank accounts of Khalilzad's wife, Cheryl Benard, according to a statement by Khalilzad's U.S. lawyer, Robert B. Buehler. Austrian authorities then froze the accounts.
Ex-US diplomat Khalilzad contests financial probe, Associated Press
In an email response to questions from the Los Angeles Times, Khalilzad said the Justice Department asked Austrian authorities for records about a transfer of funds from one of his U.S. bank accounts to an account in Vienna belonging to his wife. The funds were used to purchase an apartment for his family in Vienna, he said.
Austria freezes bank accounts of wife of ex-diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad, Reuters
Khalilzad has been a figure in Afghan/American politics, going back to the Carter and Reagan administration support of the Afghan anti-Soviet mujahideen. He is a member of the
Project for the New American Century.
As the Bush administration's special envoy to Afghanistan, Khalilzad helped broker the 2003 constitutional loya jirga, where Afghanistan had effectively been given over to the warlords.
Center: Abdul Rabb al-Rasul Sayyaf speaking on television during Afghanistan’s constitutional loya jirga, December 2003. Left: Zalmay Kahlilzad lurking behind him.
Committee memberships at the jirga had been manipulated, putting a warlord in charge of each. This served as an intimidation and a control. Malalai Joya, a delegate from Farah Province, rose to speak against this. In line with committees serving an interest group, with each committee to make proposals, all the warlords should have been sat at one table.
Why do you not take all these criminals to one committee so that we see what they want for this nation. These were those who turned our country into the nucleus of national and international wars. They were the most anti-women people in the society who wanted to [makes pause] who brought our country to this state and they intend to do the same again. I believe that it is a mistake to test those already being tested. They should be taken to national and international court. If they are forgiven by our people, the bare-footed Afghan people, our history will never forgive them. They are all recorded in the history of our country.
Text of Malalai Joya's Historical Speech in the Loya Jirga
Yesterday, Abdullah Abdullah gave a speech on television. He rejected the results of the internationally supervised vote audit, would like the results of the audit not to be announced, and would like himself to be declared winner of the election instead.
The presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah once more brought Afghanistan’s troubled electoral process to the brink on Monday, insisting that he had won the disputed vote and vowing to reject any government formed on the basis of it.
An audit of 100 percent of the ballots cast in the June runoff election is expected to conclude this week, and nearly all observers expect Mr. Abdullah’s opponent, Ashraf Ghani, to be declared the winner.
Afghan Candidate Vows to Reject Disputed Vote, New York Times
With election results to be announced soon, both the United States and the United Nations have recently been stressing the Unity Government or power-sharing aspect of the U.S.-negotiated election deal.
President Obama called the two rival presidential candidates in Afghanistan over the weekend, urging both men to swiftly reach a power-sharing deal to bring stability to the country.
A White House statement Sunday said Obama told Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani that a national unity government would encourage international support for Afghanistan.
Obama phones Afghanistan presidential candidates to urge power-sharing deal, Washington Post
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has urged Afghanistan’s two presidential candidates, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani, to conclude an agreement on a government of national unity, according to a United Nations statement issued Tuesday.
Ban Ki-Moon stressed “that this is a pivotal moment for Afghanistan, and that genuine partnership will be required in tackling Afghanistan's many challenges.”
“Both parties share a real responsibility to guide Afghanistan to a peaceful and more prosperous future. Given the scale of the challenges, this can only be done jointly,” the UN Secretary General added.
UN Secretary General Urges Afghanistan Presidential Candidates to Form Unity Government, RIA Novosti
Today is the anniversary of the assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud, shortly before September 11th, and now a national holiday. Observances in the loya jirga tent were chaotic and divisive.
Chaos erupted in the Loya Jirga tent on Tuesday during the 13th anniversary of the martyrdom of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the national hero and Northern Alliance commander.
Disorder in the tent accelerated after Hazrat Sebghatullah Mujadidi, Jihadi leader and former head of the Senate, took stage. Mujadidi, who has endorsed presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, left the stage, without delivering a speech as disorder prevailed.
Just seconds after presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah took stage, reminding the public to honor Massoud's martyrdom and not mix it with election politics. This is while Abdullah had stressed on the issue at a press conference in Kabul on Monday also.
"As I said yesterday, we must not dishonor today by mixing it with politics," Abdullah stressed in attempts to calm the audience.
The commemoration event was attended by President Hamid Karzai, the two presidential candidates and other prominent political figures like Mujadidi, Abdul Rab Rasoul Sayyaf and Younus Qanooni.
Chaos in the Loya Jirga Tent During Massoud Day, Tolo News
After Karzai spoke Tuesday, former president Sibghatullah Mojadidi, a Ghani supporter, walked onto the stage to speak. But the heavily pro-Abdullah crowd began jeering and taunting him. Abdullah urged his supporters to remain calm, but the ruckus continued, and Karzai abruptly left the auditorium. Mojadidi also left the stage.
Afghanistan’s Karzai calls for candidates Abdullah, Ghani to put aside differences, Washington Post
Gangs of armed men patrolling the streets of Kabul raise memories of the 1990s civil war.
Hundreds of men — many carrying assault rifles or knives — arrived in Kabul to honor anti-Taliban commander Ahmed Shah Massoud, who was assassinated by suspected al-Qaeda operatives two days before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. They paraded around the city in trucks and cars plastered with posters of Massoud and Abdullah, at times firing bullets in the air.
Celebratory gunfire is common in Afghanistan, but the sight of heavily armed men patrolling Kabul streets is likely to exacerbate concerns about armed conflict if Abdullah and Ghani fail to agree on a new government.
Afghanistan’s Karzai calls for candidates Abdullah, Ghani to put aside differences, Washington Post
Seven men have been sentenced to death, in the rape and armed assault on women returning from a wedding party in Paghman district near Kabul. The trial has been heavily covered on television.
Afghanistan has handed the death penalty to seven men for raping and robbing a group of women returning from a wedding, in a rare case of sexual assault that has shaken the capital and raised concerns over public security at a time of transition.
Police said a large group of men, some dressed in police uniforms, and with assault rifles, stopped a convoy of cars in which the women were travelling along with their families in the district of Paghman, just outside Kabul, last month.
They dragged four women out of the cars in the middle of the night and raped them in the field near the main road. One of them was pregnant. The victims were also beaten and their jewellery and mobile phones stolen.
Afghanistan court sentences seven men to death for gang-rape, Reuters
The court heard the men, wearing police uniforms and armed with guns, had stopped a convoy of cars in the early hours of August 23.
They dragged the four women out of the vehicles, robbed them, beat them up and then raped them. One of the victims was reported to be pregnant.
"We went to Paghman with our families. On the way back, they took us, one of them put his gun on my head, the other one took all our jewellery, and the rest started what you already know," one victim told the court.
Afghans sentenced to death over gang-rape, Al-Jazeera
Human Rights Watch points out that the trial, conducted very quickly, lacked due process, and featured political interference.
An Afghan court’s conviction of seven men for a gang rape was wholly undermined by numerous due process violations and political interference, Human Rights Watch said today. The court of appeals should competently, impartially, and independently conduct judicial review of the September 6, 2014 trial and the resulting death sentences.
A Kabul primary court convicted all seven suspects of armed robbery and zina (sex outside of marriage) against four women returning from a wedding in Paghman district, outside of Kabul, on August 23. From the beginning, the case was marked by serious flaws, in the police investigation and in a trial that violated international due process standards as well as protections under Afghan law and the constitution. These included alleged coerced confessions and inadequate time to prepare a defense.
...
Kabul police photos show that, with journalists watching, the rape victims identified the suspects in a lineup that included only the seven suspects. The use of a “show up,” a lineup identification process that includes only the alleged perpetrators in front of the media may improperly pressure a victim to make identification.
Afghanistan: Gang Rape Trial Badly Flawed, Human Rights Watch
Despite questions about the speedy convictions and the lack of rape charges, some Afghans find the verdict to be a long-delayed step toward the implementation of the Elimination of Violence Against Women law, which makes rape a crime. The 2009 law has not been properly enforced, activists say, and last year was the subject of a contentious debate in parliament, with some lawmakers calling unsuccessfully for its protections to be repealed or rolled back.
“This spectacle can't change the fact that in the vast majority of rape cases -- where there is usually a single victim, and often a rapist the woman or girl knows -- the government's response is complete disinterest or, even worse, prosecution of the victim for adultery,” Barr said.
Case raises questions about Afghanistan's response to sex crimes, Los Angeles Times
The rape, by armed faction, in Paghman district, brings memories of the civil war days as well.
News of a gang rape rattled the Afghan capital, stirring up fears of a return to lawlessness amid a prolonged political crisis that is threatening to to plunge the country into civil war.
Police in Afghanistan Arrest 6 Men Accused in Gang Rape, Wall Street Journal