The U.S military estimates $360 million in U.S. tax dollars has ended up in the hands of the Taliban, criminals, and power brokers with ties to both. The money was awarded to Afghan businesses in a central Obama administration policy that finances business contracts to boost the economy.
These losses, which end up directly funding groups U.S. forces have been battling against for a decade, are the latest in a series of reports about large amounts of U.S. aid to Afghanistan being diverted to insurgents and corrupt parties. Last year, it was found that $3 billion in diverted U.S. aid and logistics dollars had been smuggled out of Kabul International Airport to financial safe havens or laundered to private ventures abroad. Similarly, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Democratic majority staff concluded in June that U.S. nation-building efforts were fueling corruption, distorting local economies, and did not provide sustainable results.
In this case, investigated by the U.S. military, funds were diverted through a murky process known as “reverse money laundering,” where payments from the U.S. pass through companies hired by the military for transportation, construction, power projects, fuel and other services to groups with ties to the insurgency or criminal networks.
More than half the losses flowed through a large transportation contract called Host Nation Trucking, under which eight companies and nearly three dozen subcontractors provided transportation services. The Defense Department announced Monday that it had selected 20 separate contractors to replace Host Nation Trucking, but many are skeptical such waste will be put to an end.
US government is in love with corruption because the US government is corrupt as any regime in Afghanistan or Pakistan or for that matter Saudis or UAE is.., is a combination of who needs to work for who and who can embezzle more then who. Look, $17 billion dollars of Iraqis money been vanished while in hands of US government, $53 billion of Libyan money is almost lost.., in hands of verity of banking institutions’ in USA.., Obama and his gang of five from Chicago give the American peoples money to Banks who started the world economic problems to save them.., telling people.., screw you.., German and French government helping its banks in Spain.., Italy, Greece and elsewhere giving the peoples money away to save these banks.., what is happening in US and EU economy in comparison to Afghanistan is peanuts in what these government been given away or those who is stealing the peoples money. But then again.., Ben S. Bernanke is going to print more dollars where it says ”This note is legal tender” and ”in god we trust” which in reality and translating the words means that there is no value but there is lots of ”tender” and help you people ”god”. This is capitalism corruption at its best.
Darn those Taliban- I KNEW someone was siphoning off the taxpayer dollars I was going to illegally invest in stocks for those US companies who make internationally-condemned cluster bombs.
Does this mean Uncle Sam is a "terrorist" since He provides material aid to "terrorists"?
What gets me is that we never read about the USG/US military actually stopping the flow of monwy through their hands. When they "discovered" that the corrupt regime in Kabul were sending Billions of $$$$ out of the country, we never heard that those sending the money were prosecuted (or executed – it is a war zone, yes?) or that the money was retrieved – I bet we have more lawyers than they do…
And when all these stories of money going missing or like this story, money being siphoned to the taliban or other insurgents, we never hear of it being stopped – just a change of "contractor" and a skepticism that it probably wouldn't fix the problem.
Is it the case that, in reality, the USG is intentionally paying the "insurgents" to give us a reason to stay there? Would they be so crass and craven to do that? The WOT will surely be perpetual if that is the case.
no criminals, no war, gotta pay them
One day someone is going to forget which group they paid or didn't pay, or forget if they paid them to attack us or not to attack us, and the result isn't going to be pretty. And exactly who talks to whom when someone along the line wants a raise in pay?
We pay our farmers in the US to raise or not raise certain crops; why shouldn't the same principle work on the battlefield?
And, more importantly, to what agency does a regular US citizen apply in order to board this tax dollar gravy train? I'll glady take a few hundred a month (I'm not greedy) to not cause any civil disturbances or not go into farming. C'mon, Washington- you're getting a bargain here!
How else can we continue this perpetual war for the benefit of MIC?
Seems like the only thing knows how to do is squander taxpayer dollars and, as of late, they're doing it with much more gusto and an a more accelerated rate than normal.
I can't decide whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. After all the Taliban are merely defending their homeland and let's face it the odds are stacked against them with the super technological and material advantage that US has. This gives them a bit of a fair break in this unjustified invasion/war.