US Contractors Accused of Funding Taliban Attacks Against American Troops

[dixiegrrrrl]

Last edited Sat Dec 28, 2019, 04:12 PM - Edit history (1)

The entire article is a must read.....



WASHINGTON (CN) — Nearly 400 people who were either wounded while serving in the U.S. military in Afghanistan or are family members of service members who died in the conflict sued a group of companies on Friday they say helped fund attacks against Americans by making protection payments to the Taliban.

“Defendants supported the Taliban for a simple reason: Defendants were all large Western companies with lucrative businesses in post-9/11 Afghanistan, and they all paid the Taliban to refrain from attacking their business interests,” the 288-page complaint filed in federal court in Washington, D.C. on Friday states. “Those protection payments aided and abetted terrorism by directly funding an al-Qaeda-backed Taliban insurgency that killed and injured thousands of Americans.”

Relying on confidential witnesses, internal documents and publicly available information from journalists, government watchdogs and congressional hearings, the complaint alleges companies that worked in war-torn Afghanistan commonly acceded to the Taliban’s mob-style demands for payment in exchange for the guarantee that their businesses interests would not be attacked.

One unnamed American executive who worked in Afghanistan is quoted in the complaint as saying “We don’t need any security if the payments are made. Nobody f—s with us.”

The payments allegedly climbed as high as 40% of the value of the company’s project and were often facilitated through subcontractors. The subcontractors, such as private security firms that were known to pay off the Taliban, would sometimes send money through Afghanistan’s traditional money transfer network, which can be hard to trace. Other times, the companies would simply hire Taliban operatives to work as guards.
https://www.courthousenews.com/us-contractors-accused-of-funding-taliban-attacks-against-american-troops/

[guillaumeb]

1. Recommended.

For big business leaders, there is no patriotism, there is only the bottom line.

[tblue37]

2. A LOT of your post is just duplicated text. Maybe delete the repetitions? nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. thank you blue.......

Corrected it......

[tblue37]

21. Thanks. nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. An important point in the story is

“Defendants decided that buying off the terrorists was the most efficient way to operate their businesses while managing their own security risks – even though doing so jeopardized other American lives,” the complaint states.

The payments allegedly climbed as high as 40% of the value of the company’s project and were often facilitated through subcontractors. The subcontractors, such as private security firms that were known to pay off the Taliban, would sometimes send money through Afghanistan’s traditional money transfer network, which can be hard to trace. Other times, the companies would simply hire Taliban operatives to work as guards.

Just like Iraq, it was always about the $$$$$$$.....

Just watch, trump will walk away and leave the country to Putin, while Erik Prince and his subcontractor buddies will continue to make money as mercenaries.

[underpants]

4. Milo would be proud

https://miro.medium.com/max/1838/1*vBVEJtq44VVVMpEkl-HI8g.png

[Wounded Bear]

5. GMTA....Milo Minderbinder has returned...

assuming he ever really left, that is. But he was playing underground for a while.

[CaptYossarian]

14. Great. Now I'll have even more missions. I always hated that guy.

[Brother Buzz]

27. DUzy worthy!

[CousinIT]

6. They'll get Americans killed to keep their goddamned profits from taxpayer money flowing.

This the epitome of all that's wrong with capitalism and particularly the military industrial complex part of it.

[stopdiggin]

7. interesting article. and an interesting case.

I suspect this will prove challenging. Not from lack of merit, but from the complicity of so many players. "Subcontractors" were not in that country without the blessing and full approval of the U.S. government (I'm assuming). Does that mean the U.S. can account for all of their dealings and actions? Of course not. At the same time -- graft and corruption are well know quantities in the field. To claim otherwise is ....

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. Some of the contracts came from USAID funding.

People all along the chain have been turning a blind eye to the issue.

Meanwhile, more troops have died, a couple of Americans most recently.

[Scalded Nun]

10. There should never be contracting of defense, period.

Speaking as a veteran (disabled as well), if the mission/position is important enough to exist then put uniformed bodies in the slot(s). Contracting out of defense activities does absolutely nothing to enhance our defense posture. It shovels (many times bulldozes) dollars out the door that only enriches the MIC and friends of MIC.

[OhNo-Really]

18. I'm guessing it's companies providing services like food ie Halliburton, not mercenaries

[dixiegrrrrl]

20. " enriches the MIC and friends of MIC."

And of course they make wars more frequent, have to showannual increased profit/sales goals, because the shareholders, don't ya know.

[Takket]

11. incredible...........

we hear from all these companies that we can't afford to pay people a living wage, or give parents leave for newborns.... and yet somehow they can pay a 40% overheard to the TALIBAN on projects in afghanistan but to keep their projects going and still make money.

What bullshit

[dchill]

12. "It's just business."

[OhNo-Really]

19. But businesses are people now so

What is the punishment for war graft or helping to finance the enemy in a war zone?

[Duppers]

13. This sounds like the T word to me.

No?

[CaptYossarian]

15. T would be Mr. Orange.

Erik Prince is Mr. Black(water)--son of Milo.

[UpInArms]

16. How nice

We paid those companies ... they paid they taliban

Our guys died or were maimed ...

Lovely scam they have going on, isn’t it?

[OhNo-Really]

17. Omg. Reality finally exceeded my heavy duty skepticism. Unfettered Greed is a cancer!

Even I couldn’t muster up such detached sociopathic pursuits for profit.

How far left do we need to go to end unregulated greed?

[dixiegrrrrl]

22. I have a fantasy that keeps me sort of calm

I picture all the ways the greedy piggies will get their just deserts when they come face to face with the results of global warming and can't buy their way out.

It will happen, sooner than they realize.

Example :Those New Zealand hide-ways costs billions, but New Zealand now is being threatened by the same drought
which has so horribly damaged Australia.

[OhNo-Really]

23. A true future, sadly. But Greed buries all concern for progeny or so it seems

Last edited Sat Dec 28, 2019, 07:12 PM - Edit history (1)

Sadly, the innocent will suffer, too. I take refuge in believing in reincarnation ie Karma. Be good and kind.

I wrote this in 1999. Like I mentioned, a life-long hard core skeptic maybe cynical, too ☺️

URBAN SPRAWL - MOTHER NATURE'S RAPE

While urban sprawl
mauls Mother Nature's wonder.

The greedy capitalists' sins,
profit and gain,
reign while Chaos grins.

Slowly sowing the seeds of destruction
with a manic push for production;
lulled into carnal security,
too blind to see.

In the end, many will have profited
their temporary gain,
then watch helplessly
their desperate childrens' pain.

Wondering when they could have saved
their tiny ones
from dying of thirst
or a belly full of hunger.

A man will trade his mansion on high
for food and water so his child won't die.

Nothing will escape the planet-wide mistake of

Mother Nature's rape!

copyright 1999

[XRubicon]

24. Can you image if during WWII Boeing or Lockheed paid the Germans or Japanese?

Not to attack their factories.

We used to not fight wars this way with contractors providing services the military traditionally supplied to itself- for a lot less I'll add.

Disgusting.

[Bayard]

25. These contractors are paid ungodly amounts of money

Much, much more than our regular military would be paid. Big-time kickbacks for hiring them.

[Wellstone ruled]

26. Nice to see the truth surface.

Money and Ego's travel in the same direction and not in the Interest of the Nation and people they were hired to represent.

Iraq and Afghanistan Policy is being run by the Group of Corporate Mercenary Armies. Follow the money.