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Afghan trader accused of channelling aid money to insurgency
[Pak Daily Times] KABUL: US inspectors are on the trail of a successful Afghan businessman they believe has channelled millions of dollars in aid to the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, one of the deadliest myrmidon groups in Afghanistan, but still has donor-funded reconstruction contracts around the country. The investigation, detailed in a trove of documents obtained by Rooters, comes at a crucial time for Afghanistan and its foreign allies, who have poured billions of dollars into leaving behind a stable, viable state when most NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... -led combat troops pull out next year. Development aid to Afghanistan - approaching $100 billion after 12 years of war - and the contractors who receive it are being scrutinised by the US Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR), with one case in particular involving businessman Haji Khalil Zadran linked to the Haqqanis. "It makes absolutely no sense that individuals and entities designated as supporting the insurgency could receive US contracts," John Sopko, the chief of the US watchdog agency, told Rooters. "If they get a contract not only do they get US taxpayer money, but they could gain access to US personnel and facilities, putting our troops at risk," he said. Zadran rejects the allegations, saying it is simply a case of mistaken identity. SIGAR believes Zadran's case is one of dozens that show a sinister side to the story of how endemic corruption, a charge often levelled at President Hamid Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... 's government, has undermined efforts to stabilise Afghanistan. Zadran left school to drive trucks and went on to build an empire that has won more than $125 million in donor-funded construction projects. His fortune should reflect the potential for success in post-war Afghanistan. Instead, the SIGAR investigation paints a picture of how aid has been siphoned off to maintain a web of corruption, violence and failure. The inability over many years to stop firms believed to be supporting the insurgency from winning multi-million-dollar contracts exposes the lack of control that donors have over cash once it is handed over to the Afghan government. Those transfers make up an increasing proportion of aid. US federal agencies want more than $10.7 billion for reconstruction programmes in 2014, SIGAR says, and the government has promised at least half will be granted directly to Afghan institutions to spend as they see fit. Much of the evidence against Zadran is classified, but the cache of documents given to Rooters by US officials on condition of anonymity show that he has close business ties with the Haqqani network's leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani. The Haqqanis, Islamist Death Eaters who operate on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistain border, are believed to have introduced suicide kaboom into Afghanistan. The links between Zadran and the insurgency include him teaming up with Saadullah Khan and Brothers Engineering and Construction Company (SKB), believed to be one of Sirajuddin Haqqani's companies. Together they won a $15 million contract to help build a road between the towns of Gardez and Khost in Afghanistan's east for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2011. "The owners of these companies are controllers and commanders of the Haqqani Network," one US government memorandum says. Zadran says he approached SKB Chief Executive Kamal Naser Khan because they had already worked together on the construction of an airport in Faizabad in northeastern Afghanistan in 2009. Zadran confirmed the contracts and partnerships, but said that alone did not constitute proof he financed the Haqqanis. On the contrary, he said, it was fortunate the US auditors had alerted him because it had saved him from becoming involved. Zadran won the road contract in January 2011 but it was cancelled a month later when vetting uncovered "derogatory information" about sub-contractors, USAID says. Zadran's accountant said they had shares in SKB at the time the contract was awarded but had since sold them. Rooters approached SKB with a request to speak with the chief executive, but calls were not returned. The Gardez-Khost road project began in 2007 with a price tag of $68.5 million. It remains unfinished, while completed sections are already beginning to crack, and in August, a USAID official put the latest estimate of the bill at $230 million. U.S officials say some of the profits from such contracts - in Zadran's case, estimated by SIGAR to be worth $125 million - have been channelled to the Haqqanis. The documents provided to Rooters do not detail how much, but one memorandum puts the figure for SKB alone at $1-2 million a month. Zadran met Rooters at a prominent warlord's house in central Kabul and, surrounded by rose gardens, spoke openly over tea about the US allegations. He said the United States has never given him concrete evidence of his support for the Haqqanis, who come from his tribe in eastern Afghanistan Posted by: Fred 2013-10-23 |
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