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But, but-- the source is impeccable: a Russian news agency. For what reason would Russia ever seek to make America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan look as humiliating as possible?
And, do I really have to be the one to pull this reference:
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Tightwad!
Wouldn’t splurge the 25 million for a Mil-26.
There were probably a bunch of great discounts for cash buyers at HKAIA if he’d bothered his ass to look.
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The €500 bills may be phased out, but there are other high-value notes, like the 1000 Swiss Franc note.
It may be a little out of date, but it’s an interesting list:
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It was really hard to watch Poe Dameron’s moral downfall in that movie. I know he’d already committed an act of mutiny against his Resistance commanders by that point, but seeing him descend further into becoming a murderous mercenary was still a bit of a disappointment.
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Aren’t off-shore bank accounts easier to deal with?
Sure, if you need to wire funds around to other white-collar villains with easy access to banks. But we’re talking about a country where 90% of the population makes less than $2 per day and that is largely isolated from the global economy. If your routines expenses involve zillions of small bribes or moderate payoffs to some warlords or black market arms dealers, then having your money stored electronically off-shore doesn’t really help. You might even prefer to keep your cash in small bills.
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Has he never heard of bearer bonds? Could have fit in a briefcase.
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He didn’t trust Bitcoin?
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Too bad that he’ll never be at an American airport, within reach of civil assets forfeiture. (Normally that only applies to the little people, but someone might make an exception in his case.)
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enriching himself first, caring about his country second if at all.`
yeah trump, and then there’s Afghan’s president.
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A single phone call from a country asking another country can easily freeze your bank account.
A single thumbdrive worn around your neck is easier to get out of an country than a helicopter filled with paper cash.
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And by propping up people like this with military force the perfect soil for the taliban was created 
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At the same moment this kleptocrat was fleeing with his ill-gotten gains, there are chin-strokers at neoCon think tanks in the Beltway wondering how on Earth the project to bring democracy to Afghanistan could have failed so quickly and spectacularly.
But he (and his $169 million) found a happy home in Dubai after the United Arab Emirates allowed him to reside there “on humanitarian grounds.”
Which translates to at least $60-million already gone from what he got out with, now lining the pockets of the various scumbags who run the UAE (“cost of doing business, dontchknow”).
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That money could pay the salaries of religious police for years to come.
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Maybe this pilfered money is just a red herring?
So much more also went into the pockets of other bad actors. You know, rich white folks in the US, ones with driveways so long you can’t even see their houses from the street.
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Now I’ve got Bruce Cockburn’s “If I Had a Rocket Launcher” playing in my head.
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Fair enough.
Also, I’m trying to think of how much space 196 million dollars would take up. It’s going to be in $100 bills, so a million dollars is about the size of a briefcase. I’d think 196 of them would require a very large helicopter, and more than four cars.
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Seriously, you’re going to trust Russian state media without supporting evidence?
(Not that I don’t believe he’s corrupt, but you’d think he’d be smart enough to have it squirreled away somewhere.)
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