November 3, 2008 — A Confidential Cable From the US Embassy
Ambassador James F. Moriarty sat in the US Embassy in Dhaka and typed a cable to the Secretary of State in Washington. The subject line was clinical: “VISAS DONKEY CORRUPTION 212(F) (RAHMAN, TARIQUE).” The content was devastating.
Moriarty was requesting that the United States ban Tarique Rahman — son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, then-acting chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party — from entering the United States under Presidential Proclamation 7750, which allows the president to deny entry to foreign officials involved in “egregious political corruption.”
The cable, classified CONFIDENTIAL, would not become public for years. When it did — released by WikiLeaks — it confirmed what Bangladeshis had whispered for a decade: the United States government itself considered Tarique Rahman a kleptocrat whose corruption had stunted an entire nation’s growth.
“Symbol of Kleptocratic Government and Violent Politics”
The Ambassador’s language was unambiguous. Not diplomatic hedging. Not carefully hedged diplomatic parlance. Direct, specific, and damning:
“Tarique Rahman, the notorious and widely feared son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.”
“Notorious for flagrantly and frequently demanding bribes in connection with government procurement actions and appointments to political office.”
“Tarique is a symbol of kleptocratic government and violent politics in Bangladesh.”
“Tarique reportedly has accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit wealth.”
This was not an opposition politician making accusations. This was the United States Ambassador to Bangladesh — a senior representative of Bangladesh’s largest diplomatic partner — writing to the Secretary of State with the full authority of the US government behind his assessment.
The Specific Cases: How Tarique Made His Millions
The cable did not deal in generalities. It named names, companies, and dollar amounts — the kind of specificity that only comes from intelligence sources, FBI cooperation, and documented financial trails.
1. Siemens Bribery: Tarique received approximately 2% commission on ALL Siemens deals in Bangladesh, paid in US dollars. The US Department of Justice’s Asset Forfeiture unit and the FBI pursued this case — meaning American law enforcement was actively investigating the son of a former prime minister of Bangladesh for international bribery.
2. Harbin Company (China): The Chinese firm paid $750,000 to Tarique. The money was transported to Singapore for deposit into a Citibank account. This was not a domestic kickback — this was international money laundering through the global banking system, involving a Chinese company, a Bangladeshi politician’s son, and an American bank.
3. Monem Construction: Paid $450,000 in bribes to Tarique for government contracts. Another international company, another six-figure payment, another procurement process corrupted at the source.
4. The Kabir Murder Cover-Up: Tarique accepted 210 million taka (approximately $3.1 million) to thwart the prosecution of a murder case. Sanvir Sobhan, son of the Bashundara Group chairman, was accused of killing Humayun Kabir. Tarique took the money and used his political power to obstruct justice — turning a murder investigation into a transaction.
5. Zia Orphanage Trust: Tarique looted 20 million taka from an orphanage fund. Money meant for the care of parentless children was diverted to land purchases and BNP election campaigns. The orphanage trust case would later become one of the few corruption cases that resulted in an actual conviction — before the Great Acquittal erased it.
6. Al Amin Construction: Tarique threatened the company’s owner with closure unless paid $150,000. This was not subtle influence — this was outright extortion, using the power of the state as a weapon against private business.
The Economic Cost: 2% GDP Growth Lost Every Year
The cable contained a number that should haunt every Bangladeshi:
“Corruption has lowered Bangladesh’s growth rate by two percent per year.”
Two percent per year. Over BNP’s five-year rule (2001–2006), that compounds to approximately 10% of GDP that Bangladesh never earned. Roads never built. Schools never opened. Hospitals never equipped. Lives never saved.
This was not an abstract statistic. It was a measurable body count — the children who died of preventable diseases because health budgets were looted, the farmers who couldn’t get their crops to market because infrastructure funds were stolen, the businesses that never started because the cost of doing business included a bribe to Hawa Bhaban.
Why the US Acted
Ambassador Moriarty’s recommendation was not a symbolic gesture. Presidential Proclamation 7750, signed by President George W. Bush in 2004, specifically targets foreign officials whose corruption has “serious adverse effects” on the United States — including the theft of US-funded assistance, the facilitation of terrorist operations, and the undermining of democratic institutions.
The cable made the case on all three grounds. Tarique’s corruption had diverted US-funded development assistance. His facilitation of extrajudicial killings through RAB and his links to the HuJI network that carried out the August 21 grenade attack demonstrated that his corruption had created “potent ground for terrorists to gain a foothold in Bangladesh.” And his systematic destruction of independent institutions — the judiciary, the press, the electoral commission — had undermined the democratic process itself.
The Ambassador’s final assessment was blunt:
“In short, much of what is wrong in Bangladesh can be blamed on Tarique and his cronies.”
“His flagrant disregard for the rule of law has provided potent ground for terrorists to gain a foothold in Bangladesh.”
The Visa Ban That Followed
The US eventually acted on Moriarty’s recommendation. Tarique Rahman was banned from entering the United States — a ban that remains in effect as of 2026. He has not set foot on American soil since.
The visa ban was not a trivial diplomatic gesture. It meant that the acting chairman of Bangladesh’s largest political party — a man who aspires to lead the country — is officially classified by the US government as too corrupt to be allowed through an American airport. It means that every time BNP raises Tarique as its future prime ministerial candidate, they are raising a man that America’s own diplomatic and law enforcement apparatus has documented as a kleptocrat.
The BNP Response: Deny, Delay, Attack
BNP’s response to the WikiLeaks cable followed the party’s standard playbook: deny the facts, attack the source, and wait for the news cycle to move on.
Senior BNP leaders claimed the cable was “fabricated” or “taken out of context.” They pointed out that WikiLeaks releases were unauthorized and therefore unreliable. They demanded “proof” beyond the Ambassador’s own words — as if a CONFIDENTIAL diplomatic cable from the US Ambassador to the Secretary of State, backed by FBI investigations, were somehow less credible than a BNP press release.
The denial strategy worked domestically, where BNP’s media allies buried the story. Internationally, however, the cable’s impact was permanent. Every subsequent US-Bangladesh diplomatic discussion about governance, corruption, and rule of law would be shadowed by the Ambassador’s assessment.
Why This Cable Matters Now
The 08DHAKA1143 cable is not a historical artifact. It is a living document with direct relevance to Bangladesh’s current political situation.
Tarique Rahman — the same man the US Ambassador described as a “symbol of kleptocratic government” — now effectively runs BNP from exile in London. He is the party’s acting chairman and its prime ministerial candidate. The corruption documented in the cable — the Siemens bribes, the Harbin money laundering, the murder-for-hire, the orphanage looting — has never been addressed through the Bangladeshi justice system. Every conviction was overturned. Every case was dismissed or reversed.
The US government’s assessment stands uncorrected and unchallenged by any court. The FBI investigation, the DOJ Asset Forfeiture case, the Citibank money trail in Singapore — all of this remains in the international record.
When BNP tells the Bangladeshi people that Tarique Rahman is a reformer, a new-generation leader, a victim of political persecution — remember that the US Ambassador to Bangladesh, writing in a classified cable to the Secretary of State, described him as “notorious and widely feared,” a man who “flagrantly and frequently demanded bribes,” and a “symbol of kleptocratic government.”
That is not an opposition attack ad. That is the United States of America’s own diplomatic assessment.
Sources
- WikiLeaks Cable 08DHAKA1143: US Embassy Dhaka to Secretary of State, November 3, 2008 — “VISAS DONKEY CORRUPTION 212(F) (RAHMAN, TARIQUE)”
- Presidential Proclamation 7750: Suspension of Entry as Immigrants or Nonimmigrants of Persons Engaged in or Benefiting from Corruption (2004)
- Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (2001–2005): Bangladesh ranked #1 most corrupt
- US Department of Justice: Siemens AG Foreign Corrupt Practices Act settlement (2008)
- Wikipedia: Tarique Rahman
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