"They do give us bags of money. Yes, yes they do. It’s all the same. So let’s not make this an issue," Afghan President Hamid Karzai admitted today, confirming a report in Saturday's New York Times revealing that Iran supplies a top Karzai aide with bags of cash.

The Times alleged that the Iranian government funneled between $1 million and $2 million to Karzai's chief-of-staff, Umar Daudzai, in plastic bags every other month. The story quoted a NATO official as saying that Iran is aggressively trying to undermine U.S. influence in Afghanistan.

The CIA's station chief in Afghanistan has become a crucial part of the relationship between Hamid Karzai and the Obama administration. His code name is "Spider" and he has known Karzai for more than a decade, according to intelligence correspondent at The Wall Street Journal, Siobhan Gorman. Karzai and Spider met prior to 9/11 when CIA was in the region trying to hunt down Osama bin Laden.

Since General David Petraeus took over command of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan more than a month ago, one of his top priorities has been rooting out corruption there. He has intensified efforts to uncover bribery in the Afghan government and watch the workings of U.S. contracting practices. Last week, he was joined in his efforts by Congressman Edolphus Towns, the chair of the House Oversight Committee. The New York Democrat just returned from a trip to Afghanistan where he visited with Petraeus to investigate waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars.

In one the first tests of his military command in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus is pushing the Obama administration to add top leaders of a feared Pakistani insurgent group to the State Department’s list of designated terrorists. The Haqqani network is an insurgent group notorious for suicide attacks, car bombings and kidnappings. But designating the group as a terrorist organization could complicate things for Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has been working with the group to reach a political settlement with the network.

Marcus Mabry, international business editor for our partner The New York Times, and Jonathan Marcus, diplomatic correspondent for the BBC, take a look at the week ahead as President Barack Obama continues his trip through Asia, making stops in China and South Korea. They also examine what's ahead this week for health care reform, the start of Hamid Karzai's second term as president of Afghanistan, and the Republican Governors Association's annual conference.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai will remain in office for another term after his main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, pulled out of a scheduled runoff election. We talk with Tony Karon, senior editor at Time, for a look at what this means for the U.S. relationship with Karzai and the larger strategy for the war in Afghanistan.