Making money in Afghanistan: Still risky business

The limits of Karzai's power are on display at Ariana, the flagship airline. The carrier has long been a honey pot for Kabul's powerful, one of the few cash cows in government ownership. But Afghanistan's long years as a pariah state starved Ariana of skills, parts, and management, turning the carrier into a deathtrap. After liberation the airline was hijacked by warlords as the spoils of victory. Ariana pilots tell alarming stories of midnight gun- and drug-running, their services demanded at gunpoint. Flights were rarely logged, and the airline didn't produce financial statements for years. "We have been one of the most corrupt institutions in a very corrupt country," Ariana president Mohammed Atash told FORTUNE in June.