Warlord
05-22-2013, 05:50 AM
U.S. aid rules have themselves become a source of corruption, Osmani says. Too many private contractors skim off the top as they subcontract a job out, a practice that the Afghan government itself would not permit, he says. Beyond that, "nobody has the right [in the Afghan government] to monitor international community projects," and yet international auditors are often too leery of going to insecure areas. So little monitoring occurs. And in some cases U.S.-built projects appear to be following the pattern in Iraq. Osmani cited a case in which the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, John Sopko, criticized a $73 million contract given by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to DynCorp International for a shoddily built Afghan National Army base in Kunduz Province. "They didn't allow the [Afghan] government to go out and supervise the project!" Osmani said.
The finger-pointing on both sides suggests a long-married couple—10 years of geopolitical marriage in this case—who are fed up with each other but can't bear the idea of divorce. And the mood is getting testier. In a recent report, Sopko accused the Afghan government of "targeting American contractors with unjust taxes and intimidation." Zakhilwal says the allegations are false. Even in the case of Afghanistan's biggest economic weakness, the heroin trade, Afghan officials say the corruption is far greater outside Afghanistan than inside. "From 2002 to 2009, $420 billion to $460 billion was made by international dealers [out of Afghanistan], while $18 billion made by the Afghan mafia," says Ghani, citing a report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. "The illegal economy is totally integrated into globalization: with credit and transport."
http://www.nationaljournal.com/nationalsecurity/which-is-more-corrupt-afghanistan-or-america-20130521
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Dyncorp appear to also seem to offer sex slave boys as part of their services when building army bases:
Foreign contractors hired Afghan 'dancing boys', WikiLeaks cable reveals
Thursday 2 December 2010
...
There is a long tradition of young boys dressing up as girls and dancing for men in Afghanistan, an activity that sometimes crosses the line into child abuse with Afghans keeping boys as possessions.
Although rarely discussed or criticised in Afghanistan, it is conceivable that the involvement of foreigners could have turned into a major public scandal. Atmar himself warned about public anger towards contractors, who he said "do not have many friends" and said they needed far greater oversight.
He also said tighter control was needed over Afghan employees of such companies as well.
"He was convinced that the Kunduz incident, and other events where mentors had obtained drugs, could not have happened without Afghan participation," the cable said.
Two Afghan policemen and nine other Afghans were arrested as part of investigations into a crime described by Atmar as "purchasing a service from a child", which the cable said was against both sharia law and the civil code.
He insisted that a journalist looking into the incident should be told that the story would endanger lives, and that the US should try to quash the story. But US diplomats cautioned against an "overreaction" and said that approaching the journalist involved would only make the story worse.
"A widely-anticipated newspaper article on the Kunduz scandal has not appeared but, if there is too much noise that may prompt the journalist to publish," the cable said.
The strategy appeared to work when an article was published in July by the Washington Post about the incident, which made little of the affair, saying it was an incident of "questionable management oversight" in which foreign DynCorp workers "hired a teenage boy to perform a tribal dance at a company farewell party".
In fact, the episode was causing palpitations at the top of government, including in the presidential palace.
The cable records: "Atmar said that President Karzai had told him that his (Atmar's) 'prestige' was in play in management of the Kunduz DynCorp matter and another recent event in which Blackwater contractors mistakenly killed several Afghan citizens. The President had asked him 'Where is the justice?'"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/02/foreign-contractors-hired-dancing-boys
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I see Washington Post covered up and downplayed the original scandal of foreign contractors hiring sex slave boys. Ezra Klein and the progressives must be so proud of their newspaper.
The finger-pointing on both sides suggests a long-married couple—10 years of geopolitical marriage in this case—who are fed up with each other but can't bear the idea of divorce. And the mood is getting testier. In a recent report, Sopko accused the Afghan government of "targeting American contractors with unjust taxes and intimidation." Zakhilwal says the allegations are false. Even in the case of Afghanistan's biggest economic weakness, the heroin trade, Afghan officials say the corruption is far greater outside Afghanistan than inside. "From 2002 to 2009, $420 billion to $460 billion was made by international dealers [out of Afghanistan], while $18 billion made by the Afghan mafia," says Ghani, citing a report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. "The illegal economy is totally integrated into globalization: with credit and transport."
http://www.nationaljournal.com/nationalsecurity/which-is-more-corrupt-afghanistan-or-america-20130521
-
Dyncorp appear to also seem to offer sex slave boys as part of their services when building army bases:
Foreign contractors hired Afghan 'dancing boys', WikiLeaks cable reveals
Thursday 2 December 2010
...
There is a long tradition of young boys dressing up as girls and dancing for men in Afghanistan, an activity that sometimes crosses the line into child abuse with Afghans keeping boys as possessions.
Although rarely discussed or criticised in Afghanistan, it is conceivable that the involvement of foreigners could have turned into a major public scandal. Atmar himself warned about public anger towards contractors, who he said "do not have many friends" and said they needed far greater oversight.
He also said tighter control was needed over Afghan employees of such companies as well.
"He was convinced that the Kunduz incident, and other events where mentors had obtained drugs, could not have happened without Afghan participation," the cable said.
Two Afghan policemen and nine other Afghans were arrested as part of investigations into a crime described by Atmar as "purchasing a service from a child", which the cable said was against both sharia law and the civil code.
He insisted that a journalist looking into the incident should be told that the story would endanger lives, and that the US should try to quash the story. But US diplomats cautioned against an "overreaction" and said that approaching the journalist involved would only make the story worse.
"A widely-anticipated newspaper article on the Kunduz scandal has not appeared but, if there is too much noise that may prompt the journalist to publish," the cable said.
The strategy appeared to work when an article was published in July by the Washington Post about the incident, which made little of the affair, saying it was an incident of "questionable management oversight" in which foreign DynCorp workers "hired a teenage boy to perform a tribal dance at a company farewell party".
In fact, the episode was causing palpitations at the top of government, including in the presidential palace.
The cable records: "Atmar said that President Karzai had told him that his (Atmar's) 'prestige' was in play in management of the Kunduz DynCorp matter and another recent event in which Blackwater contractors mistakenly killed several Afghan citizens. The President had asked him 'Where is the justice?'"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/02/foreign-contractors-hired-dancing-boys
-
I see Washington Post covered up and downplayed the original scandal of foreign contractors hiring sex slave boys. Ezra Klein and the progressives must be so proud of their newspaper.