U.S. air base in Kyrgyzstan tied to organized crime; money to ruling family

[dajoki]

A crooked alliance in the war on terror?
FBI report ties former Kyrgyzstan leader, and U.S. ally, to organized crime

By Aram Roston
Producer
NBC News Investigative Unit
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15448018/

Updated: 11:41 a.m. ET Oct 30, 2006

WASHINGTON - An FBI report obtained by NBC News suggests that the ruling family of the remote and mountainous Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan oversaw a vast international criminal network that stretched all the way to a series of shell companies in the United States.

Still, it was Kyrgyz then-President Askar Akaev’s alliance with the U.S. government, and his role in the war on terror, that may raise the most disturbing questions. Akaev, who was deposed in a revolution last year, agreed to let the Pentagon open an air base in his country for operations in Afghanistan.

After that agreement, the U.S. military steered more than $100 million in sub-contracts to the Akaev family’s fuel monopoly, according to U.S. contractors who oversaw the payments and transactions. That windfall to the Akaev family businesses equaled about 5 percent of Kyrgyzstan’s annual gross national product, according to the contractors.

After Akaev fled the country, that air base, called the Manas, or “Ganci” airbase, was at the heart of an immense diplomatic struggle as relations between the U.S. and Kyrgyzstan soured. Kyrgyz officials alleged the U.S. funds going to Akaev’s family should have been going to the state treasury instead.

This summer, after months of wrangling, the U.S. finally announced a deal to pay $150 million over the next year to various Kyrgyz projects, and the Kyrgyz government has agreed to keep the base open.