America’s security apparatus has mixed views on corruption. While program officers at USAID and the State Department Bureau of Narcotics and Law Enforcement sponsor programs abroad to fight corruption, Cabinet officials and parts of the Pentagon and intelligence community often turn a blind eye, supporting “their” corrupt politicians, or funding programs in such a way that the procurement process itself leads to corruption. . . . The U.S. does not buy real security when it supports corrupt, non-democratic governments – even when it develops a close working relationship with them. Instead, it keeps one hand on the lid of a pot that is boiling over, while turning up the flame. Eventually, it will blow.
— From The corruption connection by Rachel Kleinfeld in The Hill (July 24, 2013).
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