US Pays Tens Of Millions To Warlords, Insurgents And The Taliban

WaPo reports that the US is paying millions of dollars in protection money that we know is winding up in the hands of the Taliban, insurgents, and warlords in Afghanistan.

The security arrangements, part of a $2.16 billion transport contract, violate laws on the use of private contractors, as well as Defense Department regulations, and “dramatically undermine” larger U.S. objectives of curtailing corruption and strengthening effective governance in Afghanistan, a report released late Monday said.

The report describes a Defense Department that is well aware that some of the money paid to contractors winds up in the hands of warlords and insurgents. Military logisticians on the ground are focused on getting supplies where they are needed and have “virtually no understanding of how security is actually provided” for the local truck convoys that transport more than 70 percent of all goods and materials used by U.S. troops. Alarms raised by prime trucking contractors were met by the military “with indifference and inaction,” the report said.

Trucks deliver materials needed by the military on roads controlled by warlords.

The report found no direct evidence of payoffs to the Taliban, but one trucking program manager estimated that $1.6 million to $2 million per week goes to the insurgents.

But one trucking contractor says the Taliban is paid not to cause trouble for the convoys.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.