Afghans trying to shake down the US government

"Afghan officials allege that U.S. contractors hired to transport equipment failed to turn in documentation for billions of dollars in equipment shipped into the country since the 2010 troop “surge.” This month, Karzai’s cabinet came up with the $70 million fine, citing at least 70,000 cases in which the United States failed to process the necessary customs paperwork. “How do we collect the fines for these violations?” Najibullah Wardak, the director general of the Afghan Customs Department, said in an interview Wednesday. “The only way is to stop all trucks from crossing the border. What else can we do?”"  Washpost

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This is a standard "shake down" technique practised across the region from Morocco to Bangla Desh.  It is a common thing for governments to try to charge customs duty on everything foreign military forces or aid organizations bring into a country.

The fact that this is "coming to a head" in Afghanistan is an indication that the flow of cash money is drying up.

The US government should not pay a dime's worth of fines in this scam.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/flow-of-us-military-gear-across-afghan-borders-halts-amid-dispute/2013/07/17/3c1fa7cc-ef07-11e2-bed3-b9b6fe264871_story.html

 

 

Comments

[William R. Cumming]

What does the headline of the post mean "trying'? Long ago succeeded.

How about a guessing game as to where the Karzai brothers have salted their skim from the USA's longest war?

[The Twisted Genius]

Time to ask the Taliban or whatever warlord wants to control this area what their customs duty would be and go with the lowest bidder. The sooner we're out, the better off we'll all be... except for the grifters, theirs and ours.

[no one]

Get the troops out now and leave Karzai on his own. This is a good opportunity to send a message to current and future "partners" around the world.

[Charles I]

You still have a lot of equipment to repatriate.

Canada is caught in some kind of imbroglio still stranding 375 shipping containers in Kandahar and one must assume an insufficient greasing of a critical skid is a factor.

Man they saw us coming from the get go.

[mbrenner]

Through the perpetual Washington policy haze, a conscientious observor can discern the essential element of its strategy for Afghanistan.It is to have in place a legitimate, accountable, competent and honest government that could keep the Taliban and related bad guys at bay. Inshallah! (translation: manana - without the sense of urgency).

Chances of success? I recall the tale of the missionary who took on the mandate to convert the Papua New Guinea highlanders in the late 1940s shortly after their first contact with the outside world. Encountering an old friend at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore while on leave, he was met with the question of how the mission was going. "Well," he answered, "change is modest and slow. But now on Fridays they only eat fishermen."

No offense toward the highlanders intended. They were one of the 4 peoples on earth who began settled agriculture, and at present they number highly educated administrators, pilots, and more than a few people who qualify for surveillance by the NSA. Their occasional ritual cannibalism in the past also indicates that they followed an organic diet from the outset.

[walrus]

The Afghan tribes that control the passes have been extracting "customs duty" for millennia from passing trade.

The British refused to keep up payments to the Ghilzais who controlled the Khyber in Eighteen Forty something. This did not end well for the British when the Ghilzais took their revenge.

If the money isn't paid and we decide to force the issue, I wonder if we will see the return of attacks on convoys if we persist with repatriation South and East?

Charles 1, Canada is not alone in having gear to get out, the Australian handling our stuff is an acquaintance and their well being is a concern to me.

[Matthew]

TTG: But wouldn't that require some of our Princelings to admit a failure? Or a mistake?

Not going to happen. Case in point: Watch McCain going after General Dempsey on Syria. See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/18/john-mccain-martin-dempsey_n_3618224.html?ref=topbar

General Dempsey's competence, it seems, is a problem. Maybe he--and not Senator McCain--should have had his picture taken next with these guys. See http://www.theamericanconservative.com/john-mccains-islamist-photo-op-demonstrates-the-problem-with-material-support/

[SAC Brat]

To paraphrase Daniel Dravot, "She ain't a war, she's a going concern!"

Milo Minderbinder was a piker.

[jerseycityjoan]

Leave

Leave

Leave

As soon as possible.

I say this with much regret and heartache.

As I have said before, God only knows what the thieve who have stolen billions from First World countries will do when they only have some NGOs and their own poor as dirt countrymen to extort.

But nothing we can do now can change that.

Leave leave leave

Subtract any excess charges from future payments for their security.

[At The Virginia Capes]

Tell 'em to put it on our tab...
We'll settle the bill when we give them the aid monies.

[Tigershark]

Tell the Afgans to F themselves. Blow it all up, thus providing a stimulus program to the USA to build new stuff. The only sort of stimulus program the Republicans will vote for.

[Medicine Man]

I feel for the guys who fought this war.