[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12860]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         BANKROLLING THE ENEMY?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, a gentleman from my district, Will Bennett 
of Santa Rosa, recently wrote a letter to the editor of the Santa Rosa 
Press Democrat and made an excellent point. He noted that Afghan 
President Hamid Karzai had said of the Taliban, ``They are not the 
enemy. They are the sons of this land.'' As Mr. Bennett points out, 
then who is the enemy? ``Is this a pretend war,'' he asks.
  How can we possibly win a war in which our chief ally doesn't share 
our vision of who is the enemy? But then you realize that maybe the 
U.S. approach to the Taliban is closer to Karzai's than we'd be 
comfortable admitting. Because in certain respects we're treating them 
more like a vendor than like an enemy. It turns out our own contracting 
practices in Afghanistan may actually be putting money in the hands of 
the very Taliban insurgents we're trying to drive from the country--the 
very people who are killing our troops, the very organization that 
provided safe haven for al Qaeda to plot 9/11.
  My distinguished colleague from Massachusetts (Mr. Tierney) and his 
Government Oversight Subcommittee recently completed a shocking report 
based on a 6-month investigation, which provides the details. At a 
cost, Madam Speaker, of more than $2 billion, the Pentagon outsources 
the responsibility for shipping supplies to U.S. troops. And the 
contractor, unburdened by any meaningful government oversight, has been 
paying off a shadowy cabal of warlords, strongmen, and corrupt 
officials in order to guarantee security on Afghan roads.
  The evidence is strong that the highway warlords are, in turn, paying 
protection money to the Taliban, who control many of the routes. Mr. 
Tierney calls this, ``Warlord, Inc.: Extortion and Corruption Along the 
U.S. Supply Chain in Afghanistan.'' And perhaps most disturbing of all, 
Madam Speaker, is the Department of Defense apparently has long been 
aware of this and hasn't done a thing about it.
  As Mr. Tierney points out, at a time when communities here at home 
are crying out for investment in schools, hospitals, and other 
infrastructure, it's galling to think that American taxpayer dollars 
are supporting the kind of thuggery in Afghanistan that is quite 
possibly endangering our troops. It's bad enough, Madam Speaker, that 
the American people are being asked to pay for our failed war. Now it 
appears that they're being asked to pay for the wrong side.
  Madam Speaker, we simply cannot sustain a counterterrorism strategy 
that has us doing business, however indirectly, with the terrorists 
themselves. It's illogical and it's unconscionable. This is just one 
more piece of evidence that this war is failing the American people, 
undermining instead of advancing our national security objectives. It's 
time for a radical change in our policy. It's time to bring our troops 
home.

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