
Watchdog: U.S. Paid for 'World's Most Expensive' Gas Station in Afghanistan - vinhboy
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/11/02/453979013/watchdog-u-s-paid-for-worlds-most-expensive-gas-station-in-afghanistan
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spuiszis
Also related, Vice has been covering this for awhile now and had a great piece
on HBO (er, well-produced piece). Another example of the horrible spending:
contractors spent $300 million to build a power plant to power Kabul, but this
plant is not being used because the cost to run the plant is too
expensive...so they import electricity from Kazakhstan and China (4:00
mark)[0]. We also purchased $700 million of new Russian airplanes and
helicopters for the Afghan Air Force that they can't fly (7:20 mark)[0].

[0][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CvWJVtEkUE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CvWJVtEkUE)
[1][https://news.vice.com/article/the-us-just-cant-stop-
blowing-...](https://news.vice.com/article/the-us-just-cant-stop-blowing-
billions-in-afghanistan) [2][https://news.vice.com/article/us-aid-to-
afghanistan-has-larg...](https://news.vice.com/article/us-aid-to-afghanistan-
has-largely-been-wasted-and-stolen-report-says)

~~~
zdean
This has been standard practice for projects in Afghanistan since the start of
the war. It unfolds something like this:

U.S. gov'nt wants a new well built in some remote village and ask for bids.
Western companies bid and win the contract...let's say for $10,000 (not an
unrealistic number). The western company sub's out the project to a local
company...usually a joint western/local setup for let's say $1000. The sub
sub's it out to some local team for let's say $100. The local team hires some
guy to go to the next village over and take a picture of an existing well for
$10 as proof that the well was built and submits that picture all the way up
the line of contractors. The western gov'nt accepts this as proof b/c no one
wants to go out into the "hostile" villages to see if the well was actually
built.

This has been going on for nearly 15 years now on projects small and grand.
It's common knowledge among anyone from there, with relatives there, who has
worked there, etc. The information is not new or hard to uncover. It is simply
not news worthy in western media.

~~~
pkaeding
After reading Confessions of an Economic Hit Man[1], by John Perkins, it
sounds like this has been standard practice since _at least_ the cold war.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_Man)

------
leesalminen
A related article from the OP is "Watchdog: $7 Billion U.S. Effort Doesn't
Dent Afghan Poppy Production" (2014) [0]

I hadn't heard of this, but it is unfortunately not surprising. Less
surprising than the world's most expensive gas station.

So much apathy...

[0] [http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-
way/2014/10/21/357839094/...](http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-
way/2014/10/21/357839094/watchdog-7-billion-u-s-effort-doesnt-dent-afghan-
poppy-production)

~~~
Scoundreller
Letsee, If Methadone/suboxone treatment costs $4k/year, that would have paid
for 1.75 million patient-years of therapy. And employed a lot of US health
care workers. And prevented who knows how much crime, child neglect, missed
work...

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tomschlick
What sucks is that in the end this will be swept under the rug and no one will
be held accountable for lining their own pockets.

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binarray2000
DoD... isn't that the department for which then Secretary (Donald Rumsfeld)
admitted "According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in
transactions"? Interestingly, he announced that, along with the "War on
Waste", on Sept. 10, 2001. [1]

[1] [http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-war-on-
waste/](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-war-on-waste/)

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akilism
Another one for the record books!!!

