Harry Cassin
Publisher and Editor
Andy Spalding
Senior Editor
Jessica Tillipman
Senior Editor
Bill Steinman
Senior Editor
Richard L. Cassin
Editor at Large
Elizabeth K. Spahn
Editor Emeritus
Cody Worthington
Contributing Editor
Julie DiMauro
Contributing Editor
Thomas Fox
Contributing Editor
Marc Alain Bohn
Contributing Editor
Bill Waite
Contributing Editor
Shruti J. Shah
Contributing Editor
Russell A. Stamets
Contributing Editor
Richard Bistrong
Contributing Editor
Eric Carlson
Contributing Editor
War is not only hell, it’s corrupt too.
Of the bottom ten countries on Transparency International’s 2010 Corruption Perception Index, six have active wars, insurrections, or major civil disturbances.
Included are Burundi, Chad, Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Myanmar, and bottom-dweller Somalia.… Continue Reading
Anti-corruption NGO Integrity Watch Afghanistan said its latest survey shows that bribery in the country has doubled since 2007 and now costs Afghans about $1 billion a year.
One in seven Afghan adults pay bribes directly, and two thirds said their household was deprived of at least one public service due to corruption.… Continue Reading
A U.K.-funded anti-corruption court in Afghanistan this week sentenced the manager of a British company that guards the British embassy in Kabul to two years in prison for bribery.
Bill Shaw, a 28-year British army veteran who retired as a major and was awarded the MBE, will be sent next week to one of the country’s most notorious jails, Pul-e-Charkhi, according to reports from the Guardian and others.… Continue Reading
There’s no way to measure how much corruption the U.S exports to other countries. But sometimes events reveal what may be happening. The latest case is Kyrgyzstan and a revolution triggered largely by public disgust with so much sleaze.… Continue Reading
Corruption may have been a cause of the night club fire last week in the Russian city of Perm that killed 113 people. Alexander Fridman, an entertainment producer there, told the Christian Science Monitor, “Fire inspectors found violations of the regulations a year ago, yet they didn’t come back to check whether corrections were made.… Continue Reading
Kim Barker’s “Letter from Kabul” in the November 30, 2009 edition of Foreign Affairs (here) confirms what a lot of people have feared: That the Taliban are doing more to fight corruption in Afghanistan than the elected government.… Continue Reading
The lawsu
it examining how three African rulers and their families managed to acquire dozens of luxury homes, cars and other assets in France has been stopped. A Paris magistrate had ordered the investigation in May at the request of Transparency International.… Continue Reading
A Russian lawyer who fought against the alleged $230 million looting of a foreign-owned investment fund by police officials, bankers, judges and lawyers has died in a Moscow jail after being held a year without trial.… Continue Reading
If you haven’t seen (or heard) last week’s episode of Bill Moyers’ Journal on PBS called LBJ’s Path To War, it’s something special. The hour-long program consists almost entirely of excerpts from President Johnson’s recorded phone calls with advisors and congressional leaders.… Continue Reading
We’ve talked before about corruption in Afghanistan. In debating what to do there, some argue that Iraq was just as corrupt, yet the surge still worked. Was Iraq just as corrupt?… Continue Reading
Corruption, of all things, may be the deciding factor in Washington’s debate about troop deployment and military strategy in Afghanistan. The Christian Science Monitor said last week: “The concern is that the Afghan government has become so rotted with corruption that it cannot consolidate the gains the U.S.… Continue Reading
