U.S. Watchdog: Afghanistan on the Brink of Blacklisting --- Afghan elections, U.S. efforts to fight corruption are central to the war-torn country's fate, special inspector general says. -- World powers are on the brink of blacklisting Afghanistan, further isolating the war-torn country and torpedoing its chances of ever joining the global marketplace, a top U.S. watchdog official said Thursday. -- “At the end of this year, America’s longest war will come to an end,” said John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction. “The ongoing drawdown of U.S. troops will leave, at most, a few thousand for training and quick-response sanctions. The reconstruction mission, however, is far from over.” -- Sopko heads a powerful organization established by Congress, known as SIGAR, to oversee the reconstruction in Afghanistan that runs simultaneously to the war and diplomatic efforts there. He points to the pernicious problem of corruption rooted in the Afghan system of government, propped up by the NATO countries involved in the fight. --- He faults the U.S. government for not having any unified plan for fighting this corruption, which he says has led to three key issues as the U.S. plans its withdrawal this year: whether the Afghan security can last without U.S. support, whether Afghanistan can hold free and fair elections this spring and restore the public faith in the local government, and whether the U.S. and Afghanistan can agree on a post-2014 military plan. -- “Allowing corruption to continue unabated will likely jeopardize every gain we have made over the last 12 years,” Sopko said Thursday in remarks at D.C.-based think tank the Atlantic Council. “In other words, rampant corruption may be the spoiler for all three issues.” -- The Financial Action Task Force, an international body that sets standards for fighting corruption, downgraded its score for Afghanistan in February. It stated that the fledgling government was not making sufficient progress in stopping issues such as money laundering and terrorist financing. -- Sopko says this could spell disaster if left unchecked. -- “If there is no sign of improvement, experts cautioned me that Afghanistan will be blacklisted,” he said. “A blacklisting could be devastating to Afghanistan’s financial sector and the overall economy.” -- Any country, particularly one in Afghanistan’s stage of development, requires foreign investment to make economic progress. Without overseas confidence to invest in Afghanistan, Sopko said, it essentially remains a welfare state leaning heavily on the U.S. government for financial support. - More, Paul D. Shinkman, usnews - at: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/03/21/us-watchdog-afghanistan-on-the-brink-of-blacklisting