Open source confirmation (sort of) of what Ken says
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Ken White
We, the British, the Spanish, the Italians AND the French have all paid for quiet from time to time according to several who have been or are there. I suspect there's more to it than meets the eye -- and I'd also bet there's a domestic political angle for surfacing it at this time...
Interesting you should mention this - just spotted this in a French wire service story:
Quote:
.... according to a number of Western and Afghan officers, all speaking on condition of anonymity, the politically sensitive practice is fairly widespread among NATO forces in Afghanistan.
One Western military source told of payments made by Canadian soldiers stationed in the violent southern province of Kandahar, while another officer spoke of similar practices by the German army in northern Kunduz.
"I can tell you that lots of countries under the NATO umbrella operating out in rural parts of Afghanistan do pay the militants for not attacking them," the senior Afghan official said.
He added that it "seems to be the practice with military forces from some NATO countries, excluding the US forces under NATO, the British forces and the whole coalition forces" under the US-led "Operation Enduring Freedom".
"I think more than 50 percent of NATO forces deployed in rural Afghanistan have such deals or at least have struck such deals" to ensure peace, the official said.
He said he did not want to say precisely how many but one Western officer said: "As it's not very positive and not officially recognised, it's never spoken about openly. It's a bit shameful.
"Consequently, it's sometimes not communicated properly between the old unit and the new unit that comes in to relieve them," which may have happened between the Italians and the French ....
I note the original story from the Times also attributes "Western military officials" - wonder what part of the West we're talking about....
Something else from Italy's Foreign Mininster....
....to help draw the eye away, perhaps, via The Times online (bolding mine):
Quote:
Mr Frattini said it was untrue that Italians paid off the Taleban and failed to inform the French, but “there is certainly a problem of how to co-ordinate the allies in Afghanistan”.
Since the invasion of Afghanistan, 22 Italian troops have been killed, six in one attack in Kabul last month. There are nearly 3,000 Italians serving in Afghanistan. He said that when the Berlusconi Government came to office in May last year, it abolished most of the caveats under which Italian troops operated. However, it remained the case that when asked to enter a combat zone, Italian forces had six hours in which to decide whether or not to go in.
It was willing to abolish this caveat so that troops could be dispatched immediately, but up-to-the-minute intelligence was vital, Mr Frattini said. “If we are asked to go to, say, part of the province of Kandahar to take part in fighting, we naturally want to know what is the intelligence on the area. Unfortunately there is no such co-ordination.”
Italian officials deny that they are barred from intelligence sharing because the Government is considered too close to non-Nato countries such as Russia and Libya. Mr Berlusconi makes a private visit to Moscow and St Petersburg this week to celebrate the birthday of Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister.
Mr Frattini said the problem was that intelligence was “the only resource not put at the disposal of everyone”. He said that in Herat, which is under Italian and Spanish command, there was excellent co-ordination with Spanish forces, “but if I want to leave Herat to go to Kandahar it is another matter”.
More grist for the mill...
CDEF Journal "Doctrine" - The Commitment of French Land Forces in Afghanistan