Italian Army Paid Bribes To The Taliban To Prevent Attacks

Today, the UK's Times newspaper has published a story alleging that senior Afghan government and Taliban officials have confirmed to them that the Italian Army has been paying cash directly to the Taliban, across Afghanistan, as protection to prevent attacks on their troops. Many UK news sources have picked up on this story, and some of the continental European press are asking big questions - particularly the French - but here in Ireland it is getting surprisingly little front-page press coverage. Which is possibly an indicator as to how the World's media will treat this revelation, by putting little importance on it and swiftly sweeping it under the carpet. This is just the way it flows in this highly illegal and excruciatingly immoral War On Terror, but we should see this revelation by The Times for what it really is; another sign that this 'war' is not all it seems to be, and that all of the warring factions have closer ties than they would lead us to believe. And they operate in this manner because they ALL have a vested interest in keeping this conflict ongoing.

October.16.2009 - George Valentine Corr, Blatant News Editor
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MODERN-DAY ITALIAN MILITARY
Italy has 300,000 active military personnel, with just over 100,000 in the army. It's total military budget is the seventh largest in the World, and the country's elected leaders generally go along with whatever international war games the White House offers up. As a sign of commitment, there are currently 16,000 US troops stationed in bases in Italy. After the United Kingdom and the United States, by 2006 - the last solid figures available - Italy had the third largest amount of overseas-based troops on official 'peacekeeping' duties worldwide, with the army deployed to Afghanistan, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Lebanon. At that point they had played a leading role in both the Iraqi & Afghan invasion forces, and there were thousands of Italian troops fighting alongside the US and UK in both countries.

ITALIAN ARMY IN AFGHANISTAN
They have taken all of their troops out of Iraq a couple of years ago, but this year Italy was the first country to send extra troops into Afghanistan, after an international call from Barack Obama for more soldier numbers for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). The Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, organised a top-up of 800 extra troops this past summer, for the US-led surge, to add to the 2,000 which were already stationed in the country. It is believed that 500 of those extra troops will be home by Christmas, which will leave 2,300 Italian Troops on Afghan soil at the turn of the year. Operation Enduring Freedom - as the Afghan invasion and occupation is known officially - has claimed the lives of a total of 22 Italian soldiers. 14 were killed in action, 1 died later from a combat wound, 5 perished in accidents, and two passed away by natural causes (illness and heart attack). These deaths have caused much debate in Italy, with opinions split on whether the Italian soldiers actually have any place whatsoever in this war.

PROTECTION PAYMENTS ALLEGATIONS BY THE TIMES
The details are still a little sketchy, with some more revelations possibly in the pipeline, but what we can gather is that the Italian military paid different local factions of the Taliban, in different parts of Afghanistan, to not attack their troops. According to The Times... "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 Surobi area, east of Kabul, were not attacked by local insurgents". This deal was a two-way street, which meant that the Italian's could not attack the Taliban factions it was paying off. And they call that a war? I'm not sure about you guys, but would you not do everything in your power to win a war against a passionate enemy? That's how I envisage a hard-fought war. Staying alive and getting rid of the enemy would be much more important than securing my long-term financial security. Because that would not matter if I was dead! And if I loose, I die. This kind of thinking would seem to be the logical train of thought, but nothing is logical in this War On Terror which George W Bush & co. kicked off.

THE FRENCH ARE NOT HAPPY
A serious backlash to this breaking story is erupting across France, because the deaths of ten of their troops is being blamed squarely on the deal between the Italian Army and the Taliban. It is being alleged that the ten French soldiers - part of a 3,000 strong French force in Afghanistan - who were killed in Surobi District in August 2008, died because they failed to be informed of the local deal between the Italian forces, which they had just taken over from, and the local Taliban factions. When the Italians pulled out and the payments stopped, the Taliban decided to make a big point, unaware of the withdrawal, and they launched an operation with a massive group of fighters ambushing a group of 100 mostly French coalition troops. This incident became known as the Uzbin Valley Ambush, and the 10 deaths represent about a quarter of the total French fatalities, in Afghanistan, since 2001.

INITIAL RESPONSE FROM ITALY & FRANCE
The Italian defence minister, Ignazio La Russa, has answered the allegations of payments to the Taliban by his forces as being "absolute rubbish", but other members of the government have not totally ruled this out. The French response has been passionate, and questioning. They are in shock. In a strange coincidence, yesterday President Nicolas Sarkozy announced in a Le Figaro interview (French language) that his country will not be sending any more troops to Afghanistan, and I presume that particular message will be much stronger after today's bribery revelations by The Times. We will surely hear more about the payments, and the consequences of those payments, over the coming week or two, but the important thing is that we see this clearly.

WHAT DO THESE ALLEGATIONS REALLY MEAN?
Some of the leaders of this 'war' would rather buy & sell each other than fight each other. This is not a real war, with clear opposing sides, but an arrangement which many parties are benefitting from. Kudos to The Times for breaking this very important storyline, but I just wonder how many of the mainstream media will push for more insight and investigation into the arrangements though. I'd imagine it will disappear from the headlines in a matter of weeks, if not days, but it shouldn't. This is one of the most blatant examples of population manipulation which we have been exposed to in recent years, considering the Italian media were treating their public to a concoction of fear and warmongering regarding the safety of their troops and the general situation in Afghanistan, whilst the soldiers - for the most part - were under no risk of serious attack. There was nothing to actually worry about for most of the Italian soldiers' mothers, many of whom probably endured many sleepless and worrisome nights. I'm sure the Nazi's used to call that 'Propaganda'.

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