Investigators probing US money flow to insurgents

[David]

AP


WASHINGTON – Criminal investigators are examining allegations that Afghan security firms have been extorting as much as $4 million a week from contractors paid with U.S. tax dollars and then funneling the spoils to warlords and the Taliban.

If the allegations are true, the U.S. would be unintentionally financing the enemy and undermining international efforts to stabilize the country.

The payments reportedly end up in insurgent hands through a $2.1 billion Pentagon contract to transport food, water, fuel and ammunition to American troops stationed at bases across Afghanistan. To ensure safe passage through dangerous areas, the trucking companies make payments to local security firms with ties to the Taliban or warlords who control the roads. If the payments aren't made, the convoys will be attacked, according to a U.S. military document detailing the allegations being examined by investigators.

The document says the companies hired under the Afghan Host Nation Trucking contract may be paying between $2 million and $4 million a week to insurgent groups.

Chris Grey, a spokesman for the Army Criminal Investigation Command at Fort Belvoir, Va., confirmed Monday that the inquiry is under way. But he said he would not provide details in order "to protect the integrity of the ongoing case."

One of the security firms under scrutiny is Watan Risk Management, one of the largest security providers in Afghanistan. Watan representatives allegedly negotiate or dictate the price for security in a given area, according to the document, and also issue warnings to trucking companies that are late in paying or refuse to do so.

A woman who answered the telephone at Watan's office in Kabul said the company would have no comment and hung up.

A congressional subcommittee chaired by Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass., has also been investigating the extortion allegations and is holding a hearing Tuesday on its findings.

In a statement previewing the hearing, Tierney said the trucking contract is a critical component of the effort to keep more than 200 U.S. military combat outposts throughout the country stocked. Supplies are typically shipped through Pakistan to Bagram Airfield, the U.S. military's main hub in Afghanistan, and then on to the outlying bases.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said Monday that Tierney's investigation may have jeopardized the military's inquiry. Issa, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said several witnesses who spoke to congressional investigators are now not cooperating with the Pentagon's criminal probe. He did not explain why.

Bribes and kickbacks are often part of the business environment in Afghanistan.

At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in December, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton acknowledged the long, rugged supply lines to landlocked Afghanistan through Pakistan's port city of Karachi offer numerous opportunities for fraud and corruption that pad the Taliban's accounts.