Taliban Has Infiltrated Afghan Police, Ex-U.K. Soldier Says

[tekisui]

Source: Bloomberg

Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- The Afghan police force has been infiltrated “at every level” by the Taliban, a retired British soldier who mentored police in Afghanistan said.

“The policemen are influenced either ideologically or financially,” former Captain Doug Beattie said in a telephone interview today. “They are not Taliban sleeper cells. They are radicalized once they are in the job.”

While Afghanistan’s Army works well, its police organization “is not a credible force,” said Beattie, who was in Helmand province in 2006 to 2008 and is author of “Task Force Helmand: A Soldier’s Story of Life, Death and Combat” (Simon & Schuster UK, 368 pages, 17.99 pounds ($29.84)). Police recruits are neither vetted nor paid enough, and have a miserable life, he said.

The U.K. Ministry of Defence released today the identities of five soldiers killed at an Afghan police base on Nov. 3 by a Taliban gunman who had infiltrated the force. Six other soldiers were seriously wounded in the shooting in the Nad-e’Ali district of Helmand province.

The soldiers were living and working in the compound as part of a strategy to train and mentor Afghan national police and army officers so that they can function on their own and U.K. forces can return home.

The incident has brought Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s strategy of “Afghanization” into public focus and reignited a debate about whether the 9,000-strong British force should stay in the country. Another stated aim is to prevent the use of Afghanistan as a training ground for terrorists who aim to take lives in the West.

more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=alxTSUyZU0yM

[Mari333]

1. reason #978 to get our asses out of there

there are so many more I cannot list them all here.
we need to leave. now.

[jonnyblitz]

2. but what about the oppressed women who need rescuing??11

:sarcasm: seriously, i get so sick of the uninformed war apologists who think our "puppets" over there (karzai and gang) are any better on womens issues than the taliban. :crazy:

[Mari333]

3. I think people are finally waking up to the reality there versus the propaganda

at least I hope so.

[jonnyblitz]

4. not on DU, I see this excuse to remain there posted here

often. DU war apologists seem ignorant to the specifics, they are just blindly supporting whatever they think Obama wants.

[Mari333]

6. yes I have seen it too

the same excuse used for Bush. Odd isnt it. making excuses merely to support your candidate. wearing blinders to support your candidate.

[derby378]

5. I'm beginning to think RAWA needs to regroup and get armed

This isn't going to end well, I fear...