'Let's not make this an issue,' says Karzai
By Ali Arouzi, NBC News Correspondent
October 25, 2010
KABUL – A clearly irritated President Hamid Karzai responded to a barrage of questions from journalists Monday about a report that his government has been the recipient of large sums of cash from the Iranian government.
"The cash payments are done by various friendly countries to help the president's office and to help dispense assistance in various ways to the employees around here, to people outside," a defensive Karzai said in English. He added, "This is transparent... This is nothing hidden and we are grateful to Iran for the help in this regard."
He went on to say that he has received large bags full of money from the United States as well.
"The United States is doing the same thing. They're providing cash to some of our offices. If you would like to have the details, we'll give you that, too."
In response to a follow-up question about the U.S., Karzai said, "It does give bags of money, yes. Yes, it does. Ma'am it's all the same, so let's not make this an issue."
http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/10/25/5348036-lets-not-make-this-an-issue-says-karzai