$360M Lost To Insurgents/Criminals In A-stan

[Richard]

With 'friends' like these...

Richard

$360M Lost To Insurgents/Criminals In A-stan
AP, 16 Aug 2011

After examining hundreds of combat support and reconstruction contracts in Afghanistan, the U.S military estimates $360 million in U.S. tax dollars has ended up in the hands of people the American-led coalition has spent nearly a decade battling: the Taliban, criminals, and power brokers with ties to both.

The losses underscore the challenges the U.S. and its international partners face in overcoming corruption in Afghanistan. A central part of the Obama administration's strategy has been to award U.S.-financed contracts to Afghan businesses to help improve quality of life and stoke the country's economy.

But until a special task force assembled by Gen. David Petraeus began its investigation last year, the coalition had little visibility into the connections many Afghan companies and their vast network of subcontractors had with insurgents and criminals - groups military officials call "malign actors."

In a murky process known as "reverse money laundering," payments from the U.S. pass through companies hired by the military for transportation, construction, power projects, fuel and other services to businesses and individuals with ties to the insurgency or criminal networks, according to interviews and task force documents obtained by the AP.

"Funds begin as clean monies," according to one document, then "either through direct payments or through the flow of funds in the subcontractor network, the monies become tainted."

The conclusions by Task Force 2010 represent the most definitive assessment of how U.S. military spending and aid to Afghanistan has been diverted to the enemy or stolen. Only a small percentage of the $360 million has been garnered by the Taliban and insurgent groups, said a senior U.S. military official in Kabul. The bulk of the money was lost to profiteering, bribery and extortion by criminals and power brokers, said the official, who declined to provide a specific breakdown.

The official requested anonymity to discuss the task force's ongoing investigation into the movement of U.S. contract money in Afghanistan. The documents obtained by AP were prepared earlier this year and provide an overview of the task force's work.

Overall, the $360 million represents a fraction of the $31 billion in active U.S. contracts that the task force reviewed. But insurgents rely on crude weaponry and require little money to operate. And the illicit gains buttress what the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, referred to in a June report as a "nexus between criminal enterprises, insurgent networks and corrupt political elites" in Afghanistan.

More than half the losses flowed through a large transportation contract called Host Nation Trucking, the official said. Eight companies served as prime contractors and hired a web of nearly three dozen subcontractors for vehicles and convoy security to ship huge amounts of food, water, fuel and ammunition to American troops stationed at bases across Afghanistan.

The Defense Department announced Monday that it had selected 20 separate contractors for a new transportation contract potentially worth $983.5 million to replace Host Nation Trucking. Officials said the new arrangement will reduce the reliance on subcontractors and diminish the risk of money being lost. Under the new National Afghan Trucking Services contract, the military will be able to choose from a deeper pool of companies competing against one another to offer the best price to move supplies. The new arrangement also gives the U.S. more flexibility in determining whether security is needed for supply convoys and who should provide it, according to a description of the contract.

The Pentagon did not provide the names of the 20 companies picked due to worries that larger contractors who weren't selected might try and coerce them into a takeover, the senior defense official said. None of the eight prime contractors affiliated with the Host Nation Trucking contract are part of the new arrangement, the official added.

HEB International Logistics of Dubai, a Host Nation Trucking prime contractor, "made payments directly to malign actors," one of the task force documents reads. In 2009 and 2010, an HEB subcontractor identified in the document only as "Rohullah" received $1.7 million in payments. A congressional report issued last year said Rohullah - whose name is spelled Ruhallah in that report - is a warlord who controlled the convoy security business along the highway between Kabul and Kandahar, the two largest cities in Afghanistan.

Half a dozen attempts to reach officials at HEB's offices in Dubai by telephone were unsuccessful due to calls being transferred and lines going dead. It is also the holy month of Ramadan when many employees work shortened days and offices close early.

The congressional report said Rohullah's hundreds of heavily armed guards operated a protection racket, charging contractors moving U.S. military supplies along the highway as much as $1,500 a vehicle. Failure to pay virtually guaranteed a convoy of being attacked by Rohullah's forces, said the report, "Warlord Inc." Rohullah's guards regularly fought with the Taliban, but investigators believe Rohullah moved money to the Taliban when it was in his interest to do so.

Both Rohullah and the security company he was affiliated with, Watan Risk Management, denied ever making payments to the insurgents, according to the report. But in December, the U.S. placed Watan in "proposed debarment status," which prevented it from signing new contracts or renewing existing contracts. Watan challenged the decision in federal court. Two weeks ago, Watan and U.S. officials signed an agreement that states the company may not bid on any mobile security contracts for the next three years. The ban does not affect other companies controlled by Watan's owners.

The task force also said contractors engaged in profiteering by forming dummy companies. A task force document shows three tiers of subcontractors below Guzar Mirbacha Kot Transportation, an Afghan-owned trucking company known as GMT. Four of the subcontractors appear on the first and second tiers, collecting $14.2 million in payments.

Basir Mujahid, a GMT representative in Kabul, said top company officials were in Dubai and could not be reached for immediate comment.

Power brokers - a term widely used in Afghanistan - refer to Afghans who leverage their political and business connections to advance their own interests.

Another task force document details the case of a power broker who owned a private security company and was known to supply weapons to the Taliban. The power broker, who is not named in the document, received payments from a contractor doing business with the U.S. Over more than two years, the power broker funneled $8.5 million to the owners of an unlicensed money exchange service used by insurgents, according to the document.

Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass., former chairman of the House oversight panel that investigated the wayward payments, said that the U.S. must stop the diversion of taxpayer dollars to the enemy. "When war becomes good business for the insurgents, it is all the more difficult to convince them to lay down their arms," Tierney said.

U.S. authorities in Afghanistan are screening contractors more carefully to be sure they can handle the work and also are trustworthy, the senior military official said. Authorities also are being more aggressive in barring companies if they violate contract terms or are found to be involved in illicit activities. Since the task force was created last year, the number of debarred Afghan, U.S. and international companies and individuals associated with contracting in Afghanistan has more than doubled - from 31 to 78, the official said.

Petraeus, who recently relinquished command in Afghanistan to become CIA director, told his commanders in a September 2010 memo to keep close watch over contracting dollars and "know those with whom we are contracting." Failing to do so could "unintentionally fuel corruption, finance insurgent organizations, strengthen criminal patronage networks, and undermine our efforts in Afghanistan," he wrote.

Tierney, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform national security subcommittee, said the new trucking contract announced Monday is a welcome step. But he said he is still worried the military still lacks sufficient visibility and accountability over payments. The subcommittee has scheduled a hearing next month to examine the contract and the risks of outsourcing security in a combat zone.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...08-16-15-22-35

[head]

...to businesses and individuals with ties to the insurgency or criminal networks, according to interviews and task force documents obtained by the AP.

Really?

Don't anyone take this as a defense of the way money has been thrown away over there... but if we remove all businesses and individuals with ties to the insurgency and criminal networks, we are left with no one to give any money.

[Guy]

"Instead of dolling out $$$, we should be dolling out tangible goods (cows, sheep, goats, food, cement, equipment, etc.) for payment."

Try running off to a another country carrying all that sh*t.....

Stay safe.

Not only are we loosing money, we seem to be loosing good construction engineers too.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44405572...nd-dead-kabul/

KABUL — The body of a U.S. civilian engineer working for the U.S. Department of Defense has been found in the Afghan capital, NBC News reported on Tuesday.

The man appeared to have been murdered, Reuters reported.

An Afghan intelligence official told NBC that the man left a Kabul military camp in a black Land Cruiser by himself on or around Sept. 2 and had been missing since.

The source said that the suspected abductors used the American's cell phone to call the man's bosses. On their third call they said the man had been killed and his body dumped somewhere in Kabul.

The vehicle and the man's IDs were still missing, according to the source.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) told NBC in Afghanistan that the civilian was working for the U.S. Department of Defense.

Security is tight in Kabul, amid rising violence across other parts of the country, and it is rare for a foreigner to go missing in the capital.

Foreign military bases and diplomatic missions are among the most secure premises in the city, protected with high blast walls and coils of razor wire to ward off attackers.

Foreigners who work on these bases usually travel in convoys or under guard because of the threat of attack and kidnappings, a lucrative business in impoverished Afghanistan.

Scores of locals and foreigners have been abducted in recent years by criminals with financial motives and by Taliban-linked insurgents.

The Taliban struck last month when they raided a British cultural center in Kabul on the 92nd anniversary of Afghanistan's independence from British rule. Nine people were killed during the hours-long assault.

Afghan forces have had responsibility for security in the city since 2008, but there are hundreds of NATO forces stationed in and around the capital, and they are regularly called on to help during complex attacks.

[Guy]

An Afghan intelligence official told NBC that the man left a Kabul military camp in a black Land Cruiser by himself on or around Sept. 2 and had been missing since.

I'll bet he was unarmed also...

Stay safe.