By

21st Century Wire says…

The CIA will claim that this is simply an unintended consequence, but is that really the case? You decide.

Back in 2010, Afghan officials came to an agreement to free one of their diplomats that had been captured and was being held hostage by al Qaeda. The deal involved the exchange of the diplomat for $5 million.

Afghan officials were able to make use of covert funds, which were quite literally bags of cash, the CIA was delivering directly to the Presidential Palace in Kabul, in their attempt to seek and maintain influence. $1 Million worth of this covert cash was siphoned off to the ransom fund. The remaining $4 million was ‘provided from other countries’.

With Saudi Arabia funding al Qaeda in Yemen, was it possible their ‘terrorism funds’ were tapped into to make up the deficit?



Bin Laden and al Zawahiri: Terror masterminds or useful idiots?

The ideas presented above suggest that al Qaeda getting the CIA’s money was done without their knowledge and was an unintended consequence of funneling cash-for-influence into Kabul. This is certainly how Washington would prefer to characterise it. However, another analytical option also exists: money laundering.

It is entirely possible that the CIA knew exactly what this money was going to be used for. Would they not have had the entire Presidential Palace under constant surveillance? Surely, the CIA would want to know that their cash was indeed buying the influence they so desired. It is also ridiculous to think that the agency would not have known about the situation with the Afghan diplomat; they are paid to know such things.

Therefore, could the CIA have been laundering money to al Qaeda? Sending cash to the Afghan government would probably qualify as at least somewhat legal, meaning it would be possible to claim ignorance when it comes to that cash was finding its way to al Qaeda – “How could we possibly know they would use it like that?!” In the previous paragraph we just laid out exactly how that would be possible.



Langley, VA is home to the Central Intelligence Agency.

Were any of these kidnappings a set-up, and were double agents part of the cell receiving the ransom money? Were the funds used to finance terrorism which led to the deaths of Americans? How do we attempt to lay blame when such a complex web of ties and backhand deals are going on?

We would recommend you check out this post from October of last year to come to an understanding of exactly how similar organised crime money laundering occurs – in plain sight.

Find out more about how CIA cash ended up in the coffers of al Qaeda here.



READ MORE CIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire CIA Files