U.S. government funds may have gone to Taliban

[sonomak]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Millions of dollars in American taxpayer funds may have been paid to Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan to provide security for a U.S. development project, a government audit has found.

The report, released Thursday by the inspector general of the U.S. Agency for International Development, says subcontractors hired to protect a development project near Jalalabad may have paid more than $5 million to the militants through local authorities. Allegations often have been made about such payments, but the report is a rare investigation by the government into a specific case.

The audit examined payments for security under a $349-million contract awarded to a U.S. contractor, Development Alternatives Inc., for a small-scale infrastructure and community development project. Because the Taliban fighters are entrenched in the area and it is deemed too dangerous to be visited regularly by the contractor, Development Alternatives left it to local subcontractors to negotiate security arrangements.

The report says local authorities often demand a 20% "protection tax" in such circumstances. Under those deals — along the lines of extortionist protection rackets in the U.S. — the Taliban sends security guards with promises that they won't attack the subcontractors or their equipment and won't try to halt the contract work, the report says.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-fg-taliban-payoffs-20101001,0,1379818.story

[Prometheus Bound]

1. I would have tried to negotiate a 15% protection tax. 20's a bit high.

[Poll_Blind]

2. It is like the U.S. government will give money to everyone BUT the U.S. taxpayer.

I swear to shit. Is there no-one the U.S. does not fund? Oh, wait, I'm sure there's some group out there, handing out condom pamphlets in fucking Africa that got turned down because one of the cartoons showing how to put it on depicts a woman with dots for nipples.

No...No money for you! No Titty Law, dontchaknow! Oh, hey, hold on...Taliban on the other line. Gotta go!

And there's a beggar on every street corner from the center of town to almost waaaaaay out where I live.

PB

[PoliticAverse]

6. Perhaps we need to start a lobbying group.

We could call it the American-Taxpayer Public Affairs Committee or ATPAC for short.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[PoliticAverse]

3. How does this differ from what the US Govt was doing in Iraq?

Essentially paying protection money/bribes as part of "the surge".

[Lasher]

10. It's exactly the same. n/t

[sakabatou]

4. *facepalm*

[sakabatou]

5. *facepalm*

[Hubert Flottz]

7. Meanwhile back at the ranch...

School buses drive across bridges that should have been torn down and rebuilt ten years ago.

[Lasher]

11. 1,200 NASA workers to be laid off.

Maybe if they join the Taliban they could keep their jobs.

[corpseratemedia]

9. bribery/corruption better than funding our commons?

no massive profit to ultimately made in funding our infrastructure? taxation? accountability? the culmulative effect of 60 years of propaganda?

[City Lights]

12. FUBAR.

:argh:

[Hell Hath No Fury]

13. Of course they did --

was there any doubt? :shrug: