# Renting Afghan warlords

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Renting Afghan warlords," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/renting-afghan-warlords/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The CIA's opening strategy in Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks — paying the country's warlords in cash rather than trying to buy their loyalty outright, captured in an agency saying that you cannot buy an Afghan warlord but you can certainly rent one.*

- **Period:** From the days immediately after the September 11 attacks
- **Method:** Cash, in bulk, including money thrown from helicopters
- **Agency saying:** You cannot buy an Afghan warlord, but you can certainly rent one
- **Result:** Bought time; filled [Guantanamo Bay](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/guantanamo-bay) with men turned in for bounties

**Renting Afghan warlords** describes the CIA's opening approach in Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks: paying the country's regional commanders in bulk cash for cooperation, on the understanding that the arrangement was a lease rather than a purchase.

## The saying

The agency maxim is that you cannot buy an Afghan warlord but you can certainly rent one — an observation Kiriakou describes as the CIA way, which is to throw massive amounts of money at a problem and hope some of it sticks.[1] In the earliest days of the war money was moved in quantities that made ordinary accounting irrelevant; officers were, in his phrase, literally throwing money out of the side of helicopters.[2] The premise underneath it is the standing operational assumption that intelligence is a cash business and cash is not a problem.[2]

## What it bought

Some of the money stuck, and the arrangement bought the United States time.[1] It did not buy what it was meant to. Instead of warlords capturing senior [al-Qaeda](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/osama-bin-laden) figures and handing them over, [Guantanamo Bay](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/guantanamo-bay) and other sites filled with what Kiriakou calls largely innocent nobodies — men turned in by neighbours for a bounty, or by people settling scores.[3]

## See also

- [Guantanamo Bay](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/guantanamo-bay)
- [General Abdul Rashid Dostum](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/general-dostum)
- [Afghan heroin policy](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/afghan-heroin-policy)
- [CIA cash room](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-cash-room)
- [Agent Payment Mechanics](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/agent-payment-mechanics)

## Sources

1. The Real News Network (2015-05-07), at 17:43. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLYqlR0kP9w&t=1063s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-05-07-the-real-news-network-the-real-news-network/
2. Top Secrets: The CIA Torture Whistleblower John Kiriakou (2025-04-16), at 34:05. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev1ozulvly8&t=2045s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-04-16-the-dr-phil-podcast-top-secrets-the-cia-torture-whistleblower-john-ki/
3. The Real News Network (2015-05-07), at 18:13. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLYqlR0kP9w&t=1093s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-05-07-the-real-news-network-the-real-news-network/

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