[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15776]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       CORRUPTION IN AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Colorado (Mr. Coffman) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COFFMAN of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, this year I pushed for and 
received a congressional investigation into the Dawood National 
Military Hospital in Afghanistan based on allegations that senior 
Afghan medical personnel sold U.S. military medical supplies and that 
Afghan soldiers and police were dying in the facility from untreated 
wounds and malnutrition because their families couldn't come up with 
the necessary bribes to pay the hospital staff for their care.
  The Afghan surgeon general, General Ahmad Zia Yaftali, was complicit 
in the corruption. U.S. Army Lieutenant General William Caldwell was 
instrumental in covering it up by not only delaying an investigation 
but by limiting the scope of it when it did occur. Neither General 
Caldwell nor General Yaftali have been disciplined for their conduct.
  Last week I was in Afghanistan and I visited the hospital. I left 
Afghanistan confirming my belief that the greatest threat to the future 
of Afghanistan is not the Taliban but the pervasive corruption that 
permeates every level of Afghan governance and the lack of leadership 
by the United States in confronting it.

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