Revealed: Afghan chief accused of campaign of terror is on US payroll

[kpete]

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/revealed-afghan-chief-accused-of-campaign-of-terror-is-

Revealed: Afghan chief accused of campaign of terror is on US payroll

Witnesses back leaked UN reports detailing claims of rape and murder against feared Tajik warlord

By Julius Cavendish

Friday, 18 March 2011


An Afghan warlord backed by US special forces faces persistent allegations that he launched a two-year spate of violence involving burglary, rape and murder of civilians, desecration of mosques and mutilation of corpses. Yet, despite repeated warnings about the atrocities Commander Azizullah is alleged to have committed, he has remained on the payroll of the US military as an "Afghan security guard", a select band of mercenaries described by some as "the most effective fighting formation in Afghanistan".

Interviews with religious leaders, tribal elders, villagers, contractors and Western and Afghan officials all pointed to a reign of terror in which they believe 31-year-old Azizullah, a ethnic Tajik, targeted Pashtun civilians while fighting the Taliban. Although individual allegations, all from ethnic Pashtuns, might be inaccurate, malicious or motivated by envy of Azizullah's close and lucrative links to US special forces, taken together they come from sources belonging to a range of tribes and from several areas. The testimony also tallied with several independent reports documenting the allegations against Azizullah and seen by The Independent, including two confidential reports compiled by UN officials and circulated to Nato personnel last year.

A Nato spokesman said that its own investigation of Azizullah turned up nothing. "There was a derogatory report via UN channels last summer, but when we tried to research it, there was really little information to substantiate what were essentially claims," said Lieutenant-Colonel John Dorrian, chief of operations at Nato's public affairs unit in Kabul. "As a matter of due diligence, we subsequently tried to backtrack to the origin of the claim, but nothing credible could be found."

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/revealed-afghan-chief-accused-of-campaign-of-terror-is-on-us-payroll-2245369.html

[Angry Dragon]

1. SURPRISE!! SURPRISE!! SURPRISE!!

[xchrom]

2. recommend

[Octafish]

3. Doesn't matter what ''side'' he's on...

...as long as he's good for business -- the war business. That industry is about all the USA makes anymore.

[chill_wind]

4. +1000

[Mnemosyne]

9. We're #1! Sickening isn't it? k&r n/t

[Aerows]

5. Most of them are on our payroll

I sincerely hope no one is surprised by this. I was for the war in Afghanistan until I learned that we are paying the very people that are attacking us. It's a money pit to provide profits for the MIC.

I'm concerned about us getting involved in Libya for the same reason - we don't need another money hole.

It's just as bad in Pakistan - we are paying the same people that are committing acts of terrorism. It really shouldn't shock anyone that we end up killing people related to the people in leadership positions there, since in many cases, they profit by keeping it going.

[indimuse]

6. well of course..

who knew? la la laaa

[ixion]

7. al Qaida was a creation of the CIA during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan

they're ALL on the US payroll.

[formercia]

8. I was there.

At first it was a joint op with the Saudis against Yemen. Bi Laden is a Yemeni. They lost 26 men in the op and this motivated Bin Laden to go to Afghanistan.

[ixion]

10. Uh, you may have been there, but your statement is incorrect.

Osama bin Laden was NOT Yemeni. He was from a weatlthy Saudi family. In fact, one of his demands was that the US pull out of Saudi Arabia, not Yemen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osama_bin_Laden

And he was in Afghanistan at the time of the Soviet occupation.

[formercia]

11. The Bin Laden family are northern Yemenis

the Op was in late 1981, before he went to Afghanistan.

[notadmblnd]

12. Well of course they want to keep it going, there's no money in the peace business