L’Italia non avrebbe dovuto agire in segreto, ma ha fatto bene a pagare i talebani + Vari

Afghanistan, Italia, potenze

L’Italia non avrebbe dovuto agire in segreto, ma ha fatto bene a pagare i talebani

+ Gli italiani hanno comperato i talebani in tutto l’Afghanistan, dicono degli ufficiali

Gli USA ammettono di aver incalzato gli italiani sui pagamenti ai talebani

●    Da Herat nell’Ovest a Sarobi nell’Est Afghanistan, le forze italiane sono state risparmiate dagli scontri sanguinosi affrontati quotidianamente dai britannici grazie a bustarelle segrete di decine di migliaia di dollari pagate da agenti dei servizi italiani a comandanti talebani e signori della guerra locali, che hanno messo a rischio la vita dei loro alleati.

o   la vicenda è confermata da un comandante talebano e da due alti funzionari afghani che erano a conoscenza di tale pratica degli italiani in altre aree del paese,

o   negata da Roma (ministro Difesa Ignazio La Russa, primo ministro Berlusconi, ex primo ministro Prodi). La Russa: l’atteggiamento di benevolenza verso gli Italiani in Afghanistan non ha nulla a che fare con supposte bustarelle, ma dipende dal “comportamento dei nostri militari, che è molto diverso da quello di altri contingenti”.

o   La Russa ha confermato che il governo USA aveva aperto la questione dei pagamenti ai ribelli, non come protesta ma come “richiesta non ufficiale di informazioni”. Gli Usa hanno ammesso che di averne discusso l’anno scorso, secondo Times nella forma di protesta.

o   Il ministro francese della Difesa, Hervé Morin: “l’idea che un esercito possa pagare i ribelli talebani perché non lo attacchino sarebbe una violazione della dottrina militare stabilita”; aggiunge: “non ho motivo di mettere in dubbio quanto dichiarato dal governo italiano.

o   Il pagamento di denaro in cambio di un accordo di mutua non belligeranza è stato rivelato dopo la morte di 10 soldati francesi nell’agosto 2008:

o   le forze francesi subentrarono a quelle italiane a Sarobi, senza sapere dell’accordo italiani-talebani, e quindi sottovalutando i pericoli nell’area. Nei mesi precedenti gli italiani avevano avuto solo una vittima, il sottotenente Francesco Pizzullo.

o   Anche il Canada ha dovuto negare rapporti secondo cui i suoi soldati pagavano i nemici a kandahar, sud Afghanistan: “dato il numero di vittime da noi subite, se così fosse il patto non sarebbe rispettato”.

o   Tesi: Questo non dimostra che gli italiani sono perfidi codardi, ma solo che la struttura di comando e di controllo dei 42 paesi che forniscono decine di migliaia di soldati alla Nato è in Afghanistan è un grande casino.

o   La missione in Afghanistan è destinata a fallire finché tutti i paesi che vi partecipano non sottometteranno le loro truppe al comando della direzione Nato di Kabul; se non lo faranno ci saranno altri disastri stile Sarobi.

●    Quello che gli italiani facevano a Sarobi ed Herat era esattamente ciò che da mesi il comandante americano Nato, McChrystal, andava consigliando come parte integrante di una strategia anti-insorgenza:

o   operare in modo da minimizzare perdite o danni, e se questo significa comperare elementi delle forze nemiche anziché bombardarli, tanto meglio.

●    Gli italiani non dovevano agire in segreto, dovevano imparare la lezione dall’esperienza di Mogadiscio che rompere le fila con gli alleati è stupido e pericoloso.

o   A Mogadiscio strinsero accordi locali e furono presi con le mani nel sacco dalla CIA mentre informavano il signore della guerra Mohammed Farrah Aidid sulle operazioni americane per arrestarlo; in seguito al loro avvertimento morirono più di 70 persone, tra cui 4 giornalisti stranieri, e Aidid fuggì.

–    L’anno scorso agenti britannici hanno cercato di comperare un passaggio sicuro attraverso campi di battaglia per un grosso convoglio che portava una nuova turbina a Kajaki, nella provincia di Helmand, i talebani non hanno accettato; i britannici sono riusciti ugualmente con una manovra segreta.

–   Se l’accordo fosse riuscito avrebbe salvato vite umane e dimostrato che per raggiungere i propri obiettivi le forze straniere erano disposte ad accordi in valuta forte, e non solo ricorrendo alla violenza.

–   Il casino:

o   a Helmand solo 9000 soldati sono tecnicamente sotto il comando di McChrystal tramite il quartier generale di Kandahar, in realtà i vari brigadieri britannici hanno risposto contemporaneamente al comando britannico in GB, mentre erano sotto il comando della gestione civile, designata da White Hall, della squadra di ricostruzione di Helmand.

o   I 10 000 marines americani rispondo ai comandi negli USA più di quanto fanno al proprio generale sul campo; altri 30 000 soldati USA nell’Est non sono sotto il comando Nato.

o   Etc. per latri paesi …

Italy should not have acted in secret but was right to pay the Taleban

–   From Herat in the west of Afghanistan to Sarobi in the east, Italian forces have been cocooned from the sort of bloody realities faced by British troops every day by secret bribes paid by Italian intelligence agents, which have jeopardised the lives of their allies.

–   The controversial payments to armed groups in Afghanistan do not, however, show that the Italians are perfidious cowards; rather, that the whole Nato operation in Afghanistan is an almighty mess.

–   The Italians should not have been acting in secret. They should have learnt from their experiences in Mogadishu — where they cut local deals and were caught red-handed (by the CIA) tipping off the warlord general Mohammed Farrah Aidid about American operations to arrest him — that breaking ranks with their allies is stupid and dangerous.

–   More than 70 people, including four foreign journalists, were killed and Aidid escaped after one alleged tip-off, according to American military sources.

–   But what they were doing in Sarobi and Herat is the sort of thing that the Nato commander, the American General Stanley McChrystal, has been saying for months should be an integral part of the whole counter-insurgency strategy. Back in June he told the Senate Armed Forces Committee in Washington that “our willingness to operate in ways that minimise casualties or damage — even when doing so makes our task more difficult — is essential to our credibility”.

–   If that means that we can buy off elements of the enemy forces, rather than bomb them (at catastrophic risk to Afghan civilians), so much the better. Buying off enemies in Afghanistan is boxing clever.

–   Last year British agents explored the possibility of buying safe passage for the massive convoy that was to carry a new turbine to the Kajaki dam in Helmand province through the bloodiest battlefields in Afghanistan.

–   Local warlords refused the offer and the turbine was delivered without loss of life by a brilliant secret manoeuvre through the desert. But if they had agreed to the deal, would it have been so disgraceful? No — it could have saved lives, and shown that foreign forces in Afghanistan were prepared to deal in the attractive currency of hard cash, not just with violence, to achieve their objectives.

–   The Italian revelations show that the command and control structure of the 42 countries providing tens of thousands of troops to Nato is what the Army calls a “bugger’s muddle”. Italy did not tell Nato what it was up to in Sarobi, but Rome is not the only capital interfering from afar.

–   In Helmand, just over 9,000 British troops are technically under General McChrystal’s command via the southern regional headquarters in Kandahar. In reality, successive British brigadiers have simultaneously answered to Britain’s Joint Permanent Headquarters in Northwood while also, technically, falling under the political command of a Whitehall-appointed civilian running the Helmand provincial reconstruction team.

–   The 10,000 US Marines answer to their headquarters in the US more than they do to their own general on the ground. Another 30,000 American troops operating in the east are not under Nato command at all.

–   Other nations all have similar cross-cutting loyalties that are laid over dozens of caveats about how their troops can or cannot be used. The Germans, for example, are not allowed into combat zones on foot without a wheeled ambulance; other nations are not allowed to fight at all.

General McChrystal is hoping to persuade President Obama to agree to a huge surge of as many as 40,000 more troops and Nato countries have been coming under pressure to provide more soldiers. But the mission in Afghanistan will be doomed until all contributing nations put their troops unequivocably under the command of Nato’s leadership in Kabul.

Failure to do so will inevitably lead to more Sarobi-style disasters — and General McChrystal’s hopes of fighting a “smarter” war will be dashed in their infancy.

? Sam Kiley is the author of Desperate Glory – at War in Helmand with Britain’s 16 Air Assault Brigade

Italians bribed the Taleban all over Afghanistan, say officials

–   A Taleban commander and two senior Afghan officials confirmed yesterday that Italian forces paid protection money to prevent attacks on their troops.

–   After furious denials in Rome of a Times report that the Italian authorities had paid the bribes, the Afghans gave further details of the practice.

–   Mohammed Ishmayel, a Taleban commander, said that a deal was struck last year so that Italian forces in the Sarobi area, east of Kabul, were not attacked by local insurgents.

–   The payment of protection money was revealed after the death of ten French soldiers in August 2008 at the hands of large Taleban force in Sarobi. French forces had taken over the district from Italian troops, but were unaware of secret Italian payments to local commanders to stop attacks on their forces and consequently misjudged local threat levels.

–   Mr Ishmayel said that under the deal it was agreed that “neither side should attack one another. That is why we were informed at that time, that we should not attack the Nato troops.” The insurgents were not informed when the Italian forces left the area and assumed they had broken the deal. Afghan officials also said they were aware of the practice by Italian forces in other areas of Afghanistan.

–   A senior Afghan government official told The Times that US special forces killed a Taleban leader in western Herat province a week ago. He was said to be one of the commanders who received money from the Italian Government. A senior Afghan army officer also repeated the allegation, adding that agreements had been made in both Sarobi and Herat.

–   The report prompted the French Opposition to demand an urgent explanation to parliament, describing the details as “very serious”. The Defence Ministry said that it was aware of “rumours” that linked bribery to the ambush but claimed that the reports had no basis.

–   In Rome, Ignazio La Russa, the Defence Minister, insisted the allegations were “absolute rubbish”. He said: “I had been minister for a short time [in the summer of 2008], I’ve never received news from the secret services of payment to the chiefs of the Taleban.”

–   The minister added that a benevolent attitude toward the Italians who serve in Afghanistan had nothing to do with alleged bribes, but was due, instead, to “the behaviour of our military, which is very different compared to that of other contingents”.

–   A statement released by the office of Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, also denied the claims. “The Berlusconi Government has never authorised nor has it allowed any form of payment toward members of the Taleban insurgency,” it said.

Neither, the statement continued, did it know of any such payment by the previous Government.

–   Mr Berlusconi was elected for a third non-consecutive term in April 2008, replacing the centre-left Government headed by Romano Prodi.

–   The statement pointed out that in the first half of last year the Italian contingent suffered “several attacks”, including in the Sarobi district where one soldier, Francesco Pezzulo, was killed in February 2008.

–   The US Embassy in Rome declined to confirm or to deny the report that US officials issued a démarche, an official complaint, to the Italian Government over alleged payments to insurgents in June 2008.

A spokesman said that the embassy “does not comment on internal diplomatic conversations that may or may not have occurred”.

–   The Italian Defence Ministry confirmed on Wednesday that the US Government had raised the issue of payments to insurgents, but said that it was not a formal protest, but rather an “informal request for information” about such payments.

●    Mr Prodi also denied knowledge of the alleged payments to local insurgents.

He told The Times: “This is the first time I have ever heard such accusations and I can say that there is no base for them. I know absolutely nothing of this.”

Fabio Evangelisti, of the opposition Italy of Values party, said: “The details of the case, charged by The Times, appear per se to be serious and worthy of maximum attention and assessment by our Government. The ready denials of Ministers La Russa and Rotondi are not sufficient to dissipate the doubts and insinuations about our military operations.”

From Times Online

October 17, 2009

United States admits tackling Italians over payments to the Taleban

–   The US Government acknowledged for the first time yesterday that payment of protection money to the Taleban by Italian forces in Afghanistan was discussed by American officials and their Italian counterparts last year.

–   A senior US official confirmed, two days after The Times reported that Italian authorities had paid the bribes, that “the issue [of payments] was raised with the Italians”.

–   The official would neither confirm nor deny that the representation to Silvio Berlusconi’s Government was in the form of a démarche or diplomatic protest, but Nato officials have told The Times that such a complaint was made by the US in Rome last year.

–   The payment of Italian protection money was revealed after the deaths of ten French soldiers in August 2008 at the hands of a large Taleban force in Sarobi, east of Kabul. French forces had taken over the district from Italian troops, but were unaware of the secret Italian payments to local commanders to stop attacks on their forces, and misjudged threat levels.

The day after The Times report, a Taleban commander and two senior Afghan officials also said that Italian forces had struck deals to prevent attacks on their troops.

–   Bruce Riedel, who headed President Obama’s Afghanistan policy review this year but is no longer inside the Administration, told The Times that he heard allegations of the Italian payments during a trip to Paris in the last week of September. A businessman with close ties to the French Government told him that the Italians had been paying the Taleban “but had forgotten to tell us [the French]”, Mr Riedel said.

Rome has angrily denied the report. “The Berlusconi Government has never authorised nor has it allowed any form of payment toward members of the Taleban insurgency,” said a statement by the office of the Italian Prime Minister.

Ignazio La Russa, Italy’s Defence Minister, insisted that the allegations were “absolute rubbish”. The French Opposition, however, has demanded an urgent explanation to Parliament, describing the details as “very serious”.

●    Yesterday Hervé Morin, the French Defence Minister, said the idea that an army might pay Taleban insurgents not to attack them would breach established military doctrine. He added: “I have no reason to question the word of the Italian Government.”

–   Canada has also been forced to deny reports that its soldiers paid the enemy in Afghanistan to keep the peace. A foreign wire service quoted an Afghan Army source as saying that Canadian soldiers in Kandahar province, in the Taleban-strong south, had made payments to insurgents.

“I haven’t heard of any type of payment that would be done by our troops in order to remain protected,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Chris Lemay, a spokesman with the Canadian Expeditionary Forces Command. “With the number of casualties we’ve been getting, had we paid these guys they wouldn’t be holding up their end of the bargain.”

Afghanistan : l’Italie dément avoir rémunéré des talibans

LEMONDE.FR avec AFP | 15.10.09 | 06h50 • Mis à jour le 15.10.09 | 11h55

–   Les dix soldats français tués dans une embuscade en Afghanistan près de Kaboul en 2008 avaient mal évalué le risque de leur mission

–   parce que les Italiens ne les avaient pas avertis qu’ils payaient les talibans pour maintenir la paix dans la région, selon The Times de jeudi 15 octobre. Rome a démenti en milieu de matinée. Selon le quotidien britannique, les services secrets italiens avaient versé des dizaines de milliers de dollars aux commandants talibans et aux seigneurs de guerre locaux pour maintenir en paix la région de Saroubi, dont les militaires italiens avaient la responsabilité avant d’être remplacés par les Français.

–   Les soldats français étaient déployés depuis à peine un mois quand dix d’entre eux ont été tués en août 2008 dans une des embuscades les plus meurtrières tendues par les insurgés contre des forces de pays membres de l’OTAN. Selon The Times, les responsables militaires occidentaux étaient au courant des paiements mais les troupes françaises nouvellement arrivées n’en avaient pas été informées.

–   Les forces italiennes qu’elles remplaçaient n’avaient subi qu’un mort au combat dans les mois précédents et les troupes françaises ont fait une "évaluation incorrecte des risques aux conséquences catastrophiques" dans la zone parce qu’elles ignoraient les paiements effectués, affirme le quotidien. Cela explique, ajoute-t-il, qu’elles étaient relativement peu équipées et qu’aucune couverture aérienne n’avait été prévue quand elles ont été prises dans une embuscade par cent soixante-dix insurgés lourdement armés.

"TOTALEMENT INFONDÉ"

–   Le gouvernement italien a qualifié jeudi de "totalement infondées" les informations du Times. Dans un communiqué, le Palais Chigi (siège de la présidence du Conseil) indique : "Le gouvernement Berlusconi n’a jamais autorisé ni consenti aucune forme de paiement d’argent aux membres de l’insurrection talibane en Afghanistan, et n’a pas connaissance d’initiatives de ce type du gouvernement précédent".

–   "Il suffit de rappeler que dans la première moitié de l’année 2008, les contingents italiens déployés en Afghanistan ont subi de nombreuses attaques, dont une spécifiquement dans la zone du district de Saroubi, le 13 février 2008, qui a coûté la vie au sous-lieutenant Francesco Pezzulo", poursuit-il. Avec trois mille deux cent cinquante soldats, le contingent italien est le sixième plus important au sein des troupes internationales déployées en Afghanistan.

Un porte-parole de l’OTAN a déclaré jeudi n’être "pas au courant" de ces informations de presse. "Ce n’est pas une pratique de contre-insurrection. (…) Mais le gouvernement afghan peut parfois faire des arrangements locaux. Si c’est pratiqué, c’est plus par le gouvernement afghan que par les forces internationales", a déclaré le porte-parole de la Force internationale d’assistance à la sécurité (ISAF) de l’OTAN en Afghanistan, le général Eric Tremblay. Plusieurs sources militaires ayant requis l’anonymat avaient déjà évoqué ce genre de pratiques, notamment chez les soldats canadiens stationnés dans la province de Kandahar (sud) mais aussi dans d’autres régions et par des militaires d’autres pays.