Oops! US gives $360 million to Taliban, other enemies.
Excerpt: A careful audit of combat support and reconstruction contracts reveals that at least $360 million in US tax dollars has gone to fund the Taliban and terrorist operations in Afghanistan. Corrupt contractors and subcontractors are responsible for the diversion of funds which have surely resulted in harm to soldiers and civilians throughout the region. The losses demonstrate one of the challenges the US faces in Afghanistan, specifically, rampant corruption. Private Afghan corporations are providing many support services to the US and NATO forces and are collecting payments from the military for their services. However, the audit has revealed monies flowing to nonexistent entities, and into the hands of corrupt officials and terrorists. The review was started last year by a special task force organized by Gen. David Petraeus. The task force was asked to look into the connections that many Afghan companies had with subcontractors and criminals. The investigation revealed a process they refer to as, "reverse money laundering" in which legitimate payments are paid to contractors and diverted to subcontractors who in turn, garnish the funds and give money to terrorists or other "malign actors" as the US military refers to them. ... Congress is examining the problem. Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass. explained, " When war becomes good business for the insurgents, it is all the more difficult to convince them to lay down their arms." For its part, the military is working harder to ban companies who violate the terms of their contracts, have corrupt ties, or patronize terrorist networks. Success is crucial, the US cannot win a conflict when it's paying the enemy to fight. Read more here: http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=42441&utm_source=catholic.org%2Fhomepage&utm_medium=banner&utm_content=latest%2Bnews While I think the article is interesting and plausible, I wouldn't consider the source before considering this concrete. It would have been nice to post some links to the source. Anyway, none of this would be a problem if we left Afghanistan. J - Ninety percent of politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation. - Henry Kissinger Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel. - John Quinton ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:341688 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
