Taleban tax: allied supply convoys pay their enemies for

[spindrifter]

safe passage

From The Times
December 12, 2008

The West is indirectly funding the insurgency in Afghanistan thanks to a system of payoffs to Taleban commanders who charge protection money to allow convoys of military supplies to reach Nato bases in the south of the country.

Contracts to supply British bases and those of other Western forces with fuel, supplies and equipment are held by multinational companies.

However, the business of moving supplies from the Pakistani port of Karachi to British, US and other military contingents in the country is largely subcontracted to local trucking companies. These must run the gauntlet of the increasingly dangerous roads south of Kabul in convoys protected by hired gunmen from Afghan security companies.

The Times has learnt that it is in the outsourcing of convoys that payoffs amounting to millions of pounds, including money from British taxpayers, are given to the Taleban.

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5327683.ece

[BeFree]

1. Well

They could be hauling Opium back to Karachi and for that they would need to be protected.

Mefigures that the Taliban get money coming and going. Hell, it is their land.

[rgbecker]

2. Just picture what you'd be doing if say the Russians occupied America.

Killing all the local evangelicals or whatever they thought was the thing to do. Read "the places in between" by Rory Stuart.

[spindrifter]

3. Actually, I have read Stewart's book and I

was in Afghanistan a year ago and keep in touch with friends there. It's Prince of the Marshes, Stewart's other book, that is more to the point of the posting.