Afghan Air Force Probed in Drug Running

[Disregard]

The Wall Street Journal has a subscribers' only article about the Afghan Air Force using aircraft to transport drugs. Here's Reuters' take:

http://www.reuters.c...E8270DU20120308

U.S. probes allegations Afghan Air Force involved in drug running

KABUL | Thu Mar 8, 2012 2:59am EST

(Reuters) - U.S. authorities are looking into allegations that some Afghan Air Force (AAF) officials have been using aircraft to transport narcotics and illegal weapons across the country, a U.S. official said on Thursday.

"At this point allegations are being examined," said Lt. Col. Tim Stauffer, spokesman for the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan, which is setting up and financing Afghan security forces, including the Air Force.

"Authorities are trying to determine whether the allegations warrant a full investigation."

The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the allegations, said the U.S. military is also looking into whether the alleged transporting of illegal drugs and weapons is connected to an April incident in which an AAF colonel killed eight U.S. Air Force officers at Kabul Airport.

A U.S. Air Force report about the deaths quoted American officials as saying that the killer was likely involved in moving illegal cargo, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Most of the victims had been taking part in an inquiry into the misuse of AAF aircraft, the newspaper said.

The allegations of drug running come from "credible" Afghan officers inside and outside the AAF and coalition personnel working within the AAF, it added.

The AAF was set up largely with U.S. funds.

The United States poured in a record amount, near $12 billion between October 2010 and September 2011, to train and equip Afghanistan's security forces. Almost as much cash, some $11 billion, is planned for the year through September 2012.

Afghanistan produces 90 percent of the world's opium and the drug trade is often blamed by Western officials for hindering economic development.

The poppy economy in Afghanistan, which provides an income for insurgents in the country blighted by decades of war, has grown significantly in 2011 with soaring prices and expanded cultivation, a U.N. report said late last year.

(Reporting by Michael Georgy; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

Who knew that the Afghanis had C-5s?

[SVFR]

Having seen things first hand, I would be surpirsed if drugs, weapons, and large sums of money were NOT being transpotred on flights without air advisors onboard.

[bucky60k]

"Hey Billy check the cargo..."

[Guest]

This guy PM'd me asking to post this for him.

So is that the new process?

[Majestik Møøse]

So is that the new process?

Why not, that's how the rest of the Air Force works.

[Guest]

Sweet. Gearpig, standby for PMs.

[TAMInated]

[HoHum]

2.

It's the only crop of value in an undeveloped country. Who thought this wasn't going to happen?

Also, WTF is an "illegal weapon" in Afghanistan? Since the DEA is already there, next up for your tax dollars - Afghan BATF!

[Disregard]

Here's the entire WSJ article:

http://online.wsj.co...2415519426.html

Afghan Air Force Probed in Drug Running

By MARIA ABI-HABIB

KABUL—The U.S. is investigating allegations that some officials in the Afghan Air Force, which was established largely with American funds, have been using aircraft to ferry narcotics and illegal weapons around the country, American officials told The Wall Street Journal.

As part of the inquiry, the military also is looking into whether the alleged transporting of illegal drugs and weapons was linked to an April incident in which an AAF colonel gunned down eight U.S. Air Force officers at Kabul Airport. In a 436-page report released by the U.S. Air Force in January about the killings, several American officials are quoted as mentioning that the shooter, Col. Ahmed Gul, was likely involved in the transportation of illicit cargo and wanted to shut down a probe into it.

The April shooting, for which the Taliban claimed responsibility, was the deadliest attack by Afghan troops on coalition personnel in the 10 years of war. The majority of the victims were involved in an early inquiry into the misuse of AAF aircraft. Col. Gul, the Afghan officer who killed them, coordinated AAF's cargo movement.

The probe of alleged drugs and weapons transport is still in its early stages, and Afghan investigators aren't involved in it. The allegations have come from "credible" Afghan officers inside and outside the AAF, the investigators say, and from coalition personnel working with the AAF.

The NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan has provided roughly $20 billion, almost all of it from the U.S., this year and last to build up Afghan forces, with $1.9 billion going to the AAF. Future funding for the Afghan security forces is slated to be discussed at a NATO summit in Chicago in May.

The U.S.-led coalition is looking at specific senior Afghan officials in its current investigation into the misuse of the air force.

The investigating officials say they haven't yet found any proof that Afghan officials met with international drug networks or any other hard proof of likely criminal activity.

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Frank Bryant, a coalition adviser at AAF, spearheaded an initial, informal, investigation after months of watching Afghan "helicopters just disappearing without flight plans," said an American military officer who worked closely with him.

Early last year, Col. Bryant decided to impose U.S. control over the scheduling of Afghan military flights and suggested cutting off fuel to the AAF until it improved transparency about flight destinations and cargo, according to interviews with officials and the U.S. Air Force report on the shooting in April at Kabul International Airport.

That initial probe was cut short on April 27, when Col. Gul burst into a meeting room at the military side of Kabul airport and shot Col. Bryant, seven other U.S. service members and a U.S. contractor. Col. Gul killed himself later that day.

A U.S. Air Force investigation into the shooting, released in January, didn't establish a conclusive motive for the attack, but said Col. Gul, had "self-radicalized," possibly during a stay in Pakistan.

The U.S. Air Force investigation report quotes Col. Gul's friends and family as denying he had become religious, and as saying he had financial problems and a dispute with the U.S. mentors.

A U.S. sergeant major quoted in the report wrote that imposing U.S. control over scheduling flights, something Col. Bryant wanted, "could impact [Col. Gul's] income if he took payments for arranging flight and cargo movements."

Another witness, a U.S. lieutenant colonel, was cited in the report as saying some senior Afghan officials see the AAF aircraft as a source of income.

They "want to continue these nefarious and profitable activities with the billions of dollars worth of aircraft we're buying them and the hundreds of millions we spend every year on maintenance and fuel," he told investigators.

The current probe into alleged drugs and weapons transport continues to look into ramp No. 5. Investigators are also looking into movements at other military airfields used by the AAF, especially those close to northern border areas.

Northern Afghanistan is a major route for the transport of opium and heroin to consumers in Russia and Western Europe. Opium is mostly grown in southern Afghanistan, and is smuggled to the north to be moved on to the rest of the world, Western officials say.

The AAF has 86 aircraft, including 16 C-27 cargo planes, 41 Russian-made Mi-17 transport helicopters and 11 Russian-made Mi-35 helicopter gunships.

Suspicions that some of these aircraft have been used to ferry money, weapons and drugs throughout the country first surfaced in late 2010, Western officials say. Deliveries by the U.S. and others are expected to bring the fleet to 145 aircraft by 2016.

—Yaroslav Trofimov, Habib Khan Totakhil, Ziaulhaq Sultani and Julian E. Barnes contributed to this article.