Funding those that kill our troops by billybobjoe

Excellent reporting as usual by Joe on his Youtube Channel, The Sludge Report 2, previously The Sludge Report, which was preceded by Billybobjoe, that were both taken off of Youtube because of the subject matter in Joes articles. The elite don't like being exposed to the light of day and are known to break out in a Neo Conservative rash when unable to cover up facts.

His credibility is often questioned, especially by those that don't think for themselves or those with inflated ego's that will not allow for the idea that our over inflated system might not be serving the common folks.

Joe mentioned the source, Aram Roston of The Nation Magazine, and it doesn't take much Googling to verify what he is talking about. Joe, is a US veteran, he did his duty as a member of our armed forces, and since then, has been responsible for countless lives in the civilian airline industry as a pilot, with hundreds of passengers on board each single day, for last the 26 years.

The Nation

By Aram Roston November 11, 2009

On October 29, 2001, while the Taliban's rule over Afghanistan was under assault, the regime's ambassador in Islamabad gave a chaotic press conference in front of several dozen reporters sitting on the grass. On the Taliban diplomat's right sat his interpreter, Ahmad Rateb Popal, a man with an imposing presence. Like the ambassador, Popal wore a black turban, and he had a huge bushy beard. He had a black patch over his right eye socket, a prosthetic left arm and a deformed right hand, the result of injuries from an explosives mishap during an old operation against the Soviets in Kabul.

But Popal was more than just a former mujahedeen. In 1988, a year before the Soviets fled Afghanistan, Popal had been charged in the United States with conspiring to import more than a kilo of heroin. Court records show he was released from prison in 1997.

Flash forward to 2009, and Afghanistan is ruled by Popal's cousin President Hamid Karzai. Popal has cut his huge beard down to a neatly trimmed one and has become an immensely wealthy businessman, along with his brother Rashid Popal, who in a separate case pleaded guilty to a heroin charge in 1996 in Brooklyn. The Popal brothers control the huge Watan Group in Afghanistan, a consortium engaged in telecommunications, logistics and, most important, security. Watan Risk Management, the Popals' private military arm, is one of the few dozen private security companies in Afghanistan. One of Watan's enterprises, key to the war effort, is protecting convoys of Afghan trucks heading from Kabul to Kandahar, carrying American supplies.

Welcome to the wartime contracting bazaar in Afghanistan. It is a virtual carnival of improbable characters and shady connections, with former CIA officials and ex-military officers joining hands with former Taliban and mujahedeen to collect US government funds in the name of the war effort.

The rest of the story



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