A crooked alliance in the war on terror?

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.

The “Ganci” air base has its roots post-9/11. Named after Peter Ganci, a New York City firefighter who lost his life in the World Trade Center attacks, the base hosts tankers and other planes, and operates as a transfer facility for troops. The United States needs it because last year the Uzbekistan government closed the American base in its country.

Even before the base opened, Akaev was a complex figure, seen alternatively as a reformer and as a dictator. He became president in 1990, in the former Soviet Republic, and was reelected in 2000 in a landslide vote that the State Department said was “marred by serious irregularities.”

But after 9/11, and after he permitted the air base to open, he became a close U.S. ally.

‘A brilliant man’
He was invited to the White House and photographed with President Bush on Sept. 23, 2002. The two leaders sealed their partnership during the meeting, calling for transparent open government, democracy, as well as “reducing corruption, and enhancing the Kyrgyz Republic's strong record on economic reform.”

Three years later, Akaev’s family was accused of siphoning massive amounts of money out of Kyrgyzstan. The FBI report obtained by NBC News says that “an international law enforcement investigation is underway targeting as many as 175 entities associated with the Akaev organization.” The report cites allegations of a “vast amount of potential criminal activities.” The trail, according to the FBI, even led to the U.S., where the Akaev family was connected to one American “known to have formed over 6,000 U.S. shell companies for organized crime factions, weapons and drug traffickers and cyber criminals.”

American attorney Scott Horton was in Kyrgyzstan during the base negotiations, and knew Akaev.

“He was an academic, a brilliant man,” says Horton. “But we began to see a dark side about Askar Akaev. He and his family and his extended clan mates decided to take advantage of their position of power for personal financial gain.”  

Dollar figures
Noted economist Anders Aslund knew President Akaev personally, and prepared annual economic reviews of Kyrgyzstan for the United Nations Development Program. He says the scale of corruption by Akaev’s family was massive.

“One can say that half a billion to $1 billion was probably what the family amassed," says Aslund.

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