CIA COUNTERFEITERS AIF AFGHAN REBELS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706940008-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 13, 2012
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: May 4, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706940008-1
WASHINGTON POST
4 May 1987
Int PUIE
ARTICLE APPEARED
JACK ANDERSON and DALE VAN ATM ,firmulmmima
CIA Counterfeiters Aid Afghan Rebels
Occasionally, the Central Intelligence Agency
does something right. At least that's our
verdict on its ultra-secret program to
counterfeit millions of dollars in Afghan money.
The CIA has been churning out the counterfeit
"afghanis"?as the denomination is known in
Soviet-occupied Afghanistan?for several years, It
began with the acquisition of an excellent set of
plates that produces bills without blemish.
Why money? To provide the determined Afghan
rebels and their friends in Afghan villages with the
wherewithal to buy food, clothing and other basic
necessities. It's the CIA's way of combating the
Soviets' "depopulation strategy," which seeks to
murder or drive out any Afghan who doesn't
support the puppet regime.
The estimated population of Afghanistan when
the Soviets invaded at the end of .1979 was 15
million. Fully one-third of t* number no longer
live in the country. One million have been killed in
the fighting; most of the rest are in burgeoning
refugee camps along the Afghan border in western
Pakistan.
The Soviet strategy has been obvious to the
Afghan mujaheddin. Villages the Soviets cannot
control and those whose residents are suspected of
aiding the rebels are brutalized. Crops are
destroyed, suspected mujaheddin informants are
tortured and executed. Sometimes, the Soviets
resort to indiscriminately strafing such villages
from helicopter gunships. And, too often, Soviet
troops have marched in and massacred every man,
woman and child in the village.
Meanwhile, areas the Soviets control are made
livable. Markets for food and other goods thrive
there. Soviets even help cultivate the crops. It is in
these areas that the CIA's counterfeit money has
been put to good use.
"We're using the Russians' own supply system
against them," gloated one CIA source. "We don't
just provide this money to buy food for the rebels
and 'friendlies' from these approved markets?we
also encourage the mujaheddin to use the afghani
money to corrupt the Soviet soldiers. Buy
ammunition from them. Buy clothing and food from
Soviet quartermasters. Get that money
circulating."
The mujaheddin have been delighted with the
program. As usual, though, a fair amount of graft
goes on when the CIA's bogus bills arrive in
Pakistan. Since not even the Afghans themselves
can tell the difference, these bills are sold for their
full value in Peshawar and Quetta, the two gateway
cities used by the mujaheddin as headquarters for
strikes inside nearby Afghanistan.
Another source familiar with the program said
that CIA analysts realized that if the Soviets
succeeded in making areas friendly to the
mujaheddin inhospitable, the rebels would
eventually lay down their arms.
That's why, he said, the Soviets have been
"strafing fields at planting time, planting a few
mines in other fields and leaving toys for children
that blow up when they're picked up."
And so the caravans of cash continue to make the
long journey through forbidding mountain passes
into the villages, as much a weapon in this war as
those loaded with arms and ammunition.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706940008-1