1 / 10 Countless Dollars Literally Taking Flight

<em>The Wall Street Journal</em> <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704638504575318850772872776.html" target="_hplink">reported</a> in June that more than $3 billion in cash has been openly flown out of Kabul International Airport in the past three years -- “packed into suitcases, piled onto pallets and loaded into airplanes.” Only so much of that could be drug money. The bulk, presumably, was skimmed from U.S. aid and logistics spending. And that’s just what people are declaring. The <em>Journal</em> calculated the $3 billion figure based on Afghan customs records, noting: “More declared cash flies out of Kabul each year than the Afghan government collects in tax and customs revenue nationwide.” The actual amount of money flown out of the country is, of course, higher. As the <em>Journal</em> noted: “One courier alone carried $2.3 billion between the second half of 2008 and the end of 2009, said a senior U.S. official, citing other documents that are in the possession of investigators.” The <em>New York Times</em> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/world/asia/26kabul.html?_r=1&emc=na&pagewanted=all" target="_hplink">reported</a> in August 2010: The flow of capital out of Afghanistan is so large that it makes up a substantial portion of Afghanistan’s gross domestic product. In an interview, a United Arab Emirates customs official said it received about $1 billion from Afghanistan in 2009. But the American official said the amount might be closer to $2.5 billion.