Sunday, September 5, 2010

Taliban paid bounties for kills by Iranian sources - The Sunday Times of London


The knowledge detailed in this news report from The Sunday London Times that Iran is funding the Taliban in such an open and obvious manner is unsettling. Either our present Leadership (Military & White House) are planning an over arching strike on Afghanistan based Iranian Spy networks, hopefully also hastening the downfall of the present Iranian government, thereby ending this funding of the Taliban OR they are so hapless they have not a G-D clue as to what to do, which means we have placed our defense in the hands of a White House that couldn't fight it's way out of a bar-fight, let alone a serious global conflict. If the latter is the issue, it amounts to dereliction of duty by those who are charged with our defense. If the former is being planned, then let it begin sooner rather than later and end the lives of these soulless bastards killing innocents & our soldiers.

The inference here is not regarding our military fighting men & women, who are both valiant & excellent at their chosen profession, but rather the Leadership at the top in the 5-sided Wind Tunnel across the Potomac and the Doofus Empty Suit-in-Charge who is on perpetual campaign-mode or vacation.....I can't remember which.

I am all for taking the fight to the enemy, to hit them where they stand and make them regret the day they decided to take up arms against us. Once again, I must defer to Sir Winston Churchill, who had more knowledge of what to do in these situations in his weakest moments than the whole of all the idiots in WASH DC have combined. His words are important as the Bastards we are fighting mean us no less harm than Hitler & Tojo did in the 40's...They wish to see us & the rest of the free world subjugated to their will.....

" You ask, What is our policy? I will say; “It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy.”


You ask, What is our aim? I can answer with one word: Victoryvictory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival. "

Sir Winston Churchill

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Taliban paid bounties for kills
Sunday London Times

IRANIAN companies in Kabul are using their offices to covertly finance Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

They are paying bounties of $US1000 ($1090) for killing a US soldier and $US6000 for destroying a military vehicle, a treasurer for the insurgents says.

Afghan intelligence and Taliban sources said at least five front companies, set up in the past six months, provide cash for a network of district Taliban treasurers to pay battlefield expenses and bonuses for killing foreign troops and destroying their vehicles.

The Iranian companies win contracts to supply materials and logistics to Afghans involved in reconstruction. The money often comes in the form of aid from foreign donors.

The profits are transferred through poorly regulated Afghan banks - including the Kabul Bank, which is partly owned by President Hamid Karzai's brother, Mahmood - to Tehran and Dubai.

From these countries, the money returns to Afghanistan through the informal Islamic banking system known as hawala to be dispersed to the Taliban fighters.

"This means the companies involved in funding the insurgency can cover their tracks easily. It makes it harder for us to trace the cashflow," a senior Afghan intelligence officer said.

He said the Iranian companies had been formed with the intention of winning contracts funded by foreign aid so the donors' cash could be channelled into the insurgency.

Western officials believe the network may have been set up by the al-Quds force, an elite branch of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard.

The Iranian embassy in Kabul refused to respond to the claims. But one Taliban treasurer confirmed that Iran was paying bonuses of $US1000 for killing a US soldier and $US6000 for destroying a US military vehicle.

Nobody would have noticed the Taliban treasurer's arrival at an office in Kabul with his assistant in tow: he had dressed in Western clothes and clipped his beard to avoid attracting attention. Directed to a small room furnished with a single table and chair, he was told to wait.

Ten minutes later, he was joined by a smartly suited Iranian businessman carrying a briefcase full of cash.

The treasurer lifted one bundle of notes after another from the case, counting $US18,000 in all. Then he wrapped the money carefully in old clothes and stuffed the bundles into a large sack of flour.

He left the office of the Iranian construction company as unobtrusively as he had come and jumped into a taxi.

After 20 minutes, his assistant emerged into the early August sunshine with the sack, hailing a cab of his own.

The two men met on the outskirts of the capital for their journey home to the neighbouring province of Wardak. There, they handed out the cash to Taliban commanders.

It was the commanders' eagerly awaited reward for killing several Afghan and foreign soldiers when they blew up two local army pick-up trucks and an US armoured vehicle on July 12.

According to the treasurer, he has picked up almost $86,000 in bonuses from the Iranian company in the past six months.

Even larger sums have been collected to pay the wages and expenses of the 200 Taliban fighters in his area: they earn about $245 a month, more than an Afghan police officer or soldier.

The Sunday Times arranged to meet the treasurer through an intermediary with links to the militants. The treasurer, a poor farmer, said he joined the Taliban as a foot soldier four years ago after "seeing the destruction America was bringing to my country". He was taught to read and write last northern winter at a camp near the Iranian city of Isfahan, where he was also trained in basic accountancy.

"It's important for documenting the money," he said. "I have to sign off on all the receipts, and I have to add up how much each fighter deserves after each operation. I also have to communicate in the Iranian language."

The $245 a month paid to each fighter supports their families and covers their living costs and expenses, such as motorcycle fuel and phone cards.

The treasurer moves between his district and Kabul on the orders of the Taliban's provincial governor in Wardak, a shadow of the official post. The shadow governor calls the Iranian company in Kabul and uses code to arrange a time for the money to be picked up.

"I come to Kabul wearing smart clothes. I don't have a beard, I don't wear a turban. I keep a low profile. I have never faced any problems collecting the money," he said.

He parks on the outskirts of the city, takes a taxi to the company offices, where he gives a false name at the gates, and is escorted to the first floor.

"There are lots of computers in the office. It is some kind of construction company. There are about 50 people working at their desks there. Some are Afghans and some are Iranians," he said.

US and British military intelligence have received numerous reports Iran is secretly backing the Taliban fighters. Its support includes supplying components for improvised explosive devices responsible for most of the deaths of NATO soldiers in Afghanistan.

A compendium of military intelligence documents sent to WikiLeaks, the whistleblowers' website, and released in July, contains a good deal of raw intelligence about Iranian support for the insurgents, including claims Taliban delegations have visited Iran to procure weapons, that wounded Taliban fighters are treated at hospitals in Tehran, and that fighters are trained at bases in the eastern Iranian city of Birjand.

In May, The Sunday Times revealed how Taliban militants received military training at camps inside Iran. "Iran's support for the Taliban is incredibly discreet and clandestine," one Western official said last week.

"Their purpose is to bleed America on Afghan soil, to act as a thorn in their side. They are playing a very clever double game."

Iran also supports the Karzai government, funding Islamic schools, television stations and candidates in parliamentary elections due next week.

"Iran is basically hedging its bets to ensure political leverage in Afghanistan once the American forces leave," the official said. "It is supporting both sides while trying to do as much damage to America as possible before NATO leaves."

The relationship is particularly striking because the Sunni-dominated Taliban view Iran's Shia population as heretics.

"We don't care who we get money from," said the Taliban treasurer, who agreed it was a marriage of convenience for both sides. "Iran will never stop funding us, because the Americans are dangerous for them as well. I think the hatred is the same from both us and Iran. The money we get is not dirty. It is for jihad."

The Sunday Times

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