The biggest source of corruption in Afghanistan: The United States?

A new report says that the CIA has been sending bags of cash to Hamid Karzai totaling tens of millions of dollars

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai waves to presidential palace workers while walking to his office in 2003.
(Image credit: Reuters/CORBIS)

It's like something out of a mob movie: Suitcases, backpacks, and sometimes plastic shopping bags packed full of cash, delivered discretely to a willing politician.

The purported money-exchangers: The Central Intelligence Agency and Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai. According to a report in The New York Times, Karzai's office in Kabul has been on the receiving end of tens of millions of dollars from the U.S., and is still getting paid to this day.

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Keith Wagstaff is a staff writer at TheWeek.com covering politics and current events. He has previously written for such publications as TIME, Details, VICE, and the Village Voice.