A year-long military-led investigation has concluded that US taxpayer money has been indirectly funneled to the Taliban under a $2.16 billion transportation contract that the United States has funded in part to promote Afghan businesses.
The unreleased investigation provides seemingly definitive evidence that corruption puts US transportation money into enemy hands, a finding consistent with previous inquiries carried out by Congress, other federal agencies, and the military. Yet US and Afghan efforts to address the problem have been slow and ineffective, and all eight of the trucking firms involved in the work remain on the US payroll. In March, the Pentagon extended the contract for six months.
According to a summary of the investigation results, compiled in May and reviewed by The Washington Post, the military found “documented, credible evidence . . . of involvement in a criminal enterprise or support for the enemy’’ by four of the eight prime contractors. Investigators also cited cases of profiteering, money laundering, and kickbacks to Afghan power brokers, government officials, and police officers. Six of the companies were found to have been associated with “fraudulent paperwork and behavior.’’
“This goes beyond our comprehension,’’ said Representative John Tierney, a Massachusetts Democrat, who was chairman of a House oversight subcommittee that charged last summer that the military was, in effect, supporting a vast protection racket that paid insurgents and corrupt middlemen to ensure safe passage of the convoys that move US supplies across Afghanistan.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2011/07/25/study_confirms_us_funds_in_afghanistan_diverted_to_taliban/
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