US Pays Afghan Warlords Taliban for Protection: Troop Supplies Delivered by Warlords

In a U.S. House report titled Extortion and Corruption Along the U.S. Supply Chain in Afghanistan, we learn the U.S. pays warlords for "protection. Worse, they have complete access to the supplies delivered to our troops in battle. It is another story of unintended consequences. See a video below.

U.S. House of Representatives 

The report makes clear that millions and millions of taxpayer monies are going to the wrong side of the war in Afghanistan.  Also clear is that Congress requires the DOD to provide oversight of the Host Nation Trucking contract, and they have not done so. Not only can Congress not control their own spending, they can't control the DOD either.

From Eyeblast: The DOD signed a $2.1 billion Host Nation Trucking (HNT) contract. These trucks get the food and supplies to our troops - 200 bases in Afghanistan. The report shows 7 areas of corruption. Here are snippets:

1) Security for the U.S. Supply Chain is Principally Provided by Warlords.
The principal private security subcontractors on the HNT contract are warlords, strongmen, commanders, and militia leaders who compete with the Afghan central government for power and authority. Providing “protection” services for the U.S. supply chain empowers these warlords with money, legitimacy, and a raison d’etre for their private armies.


2) The Highway Warlords Run a Protection Racket
The HNT contractors and their trucking subcontractors in Afghanistan pay tens of millions of dollars annually to local warlords across Afghanistan in exchange for “protection” for HNT supply convoys to support U.S. troops. Although the warlords do provide guards and coordinate security, the contractors have little choice but to use them in what amounts to a vast protection racket. [If you don't pay, your convoys are under attack]


3) Protection Payments for Safe Passage Are a Significant Potential Source of Funding for the Taliban
Within the HNT contractor community, many believe that the highway warlords who provide security in turn make protection payments to insurgents to coordinate safe passage. This belief is evidenced in numerous documents, incident reports, and e-mails that refer to attempts at Taliban extortion along the road.


4) Unaccountable Supply Chain Security Contractors Fuel CorruptionHNT contractors and their private security providers report widespread corruption by Afghan officials and frequent government extortion along the road. The largest private security provider for HNT trucks complained that it had to pay $1,000 to $10,000 in monthly bribes to nearly every Afghan governor, police chief, and local military unit whose territory the company passed.


5) Unaccountable Supply Chain Security Contractors Undermine U.S. Counterinsurgency Strategy
[Outsourcing provides the DOD opportunities for focusing on the mission at hand, but has unintended consequences]


6) The Department of Defense Lacks Effective Oversight of Its Supply Chain and Private Security Contractors in Afghanistan
The Department of Defense has little to no visibility into what happens to the trucks carrying U.S. supplies between the time they leave the gate to the time they arrive at their destination. Despite serious concerns regarding operations, no military managers have ever observed truck operations on the road or met with key security providers.


[Congress requires oversight] The Department of Defense is grossly out of compliance with applicable regulations and has no visibility into the operations of the private security companies that are subcontractors on the HNT contract.


7) HNT Contractors Warned the Department of Defense About Protection Payments for Safe Passage to No Avail
DOD knows some of their contractors are being forced to pay protection] While military officials acknowledged receiving the warnings, these concerns were never appropriately addressed.

See a link to the actual report (pdf) from the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Rep. John F. Tierney is chair of the committee, at Eyeblast Blog.


US Pays Protection Money to Warlords and Taliban (video)

Robert J. Halderman is David Letterman CBS Blackmailer? Robert Joe Halderman Arrested

Robert J. Halderman is the man to who allegedly attempted to blackmail David Letterman for, as Letterman said, having sex with female employees. Halderman is a producer for CBS 48 Hours. He has been arrested in New York City and charged with Grand Larceny. See update 10-5-09 10-6-09, including new Sarah Palin apology.

Robert "Joe" Halderman

The 51-year-old Robert "Joe" Halderman allegedly asked for $2 million, and if he didn't get it, Halderman threatened to write a screenplay about Letterman and his alleged bad behavior over the years. Joe Halderman's CBS "team" were nominated for a 2008 Emmy. He is a long-time CBS employee and is currently on suspension from the network. The photo above is from Joe Halderman's Facebook page.

According to this report, Halderman had sex with one of the women Letterman "had sex" with. That person is said to be Stephanie Burkett. Ms. Burkett is still employed with the Letterman Show.

The affair happened a long time ago, before his son Harry was born, and before he got married, but he was living with his wife to be at the time.

Letterman felt "menaced" by the extortion. He said he worried about "the women" and his "family" and his "job." I remember that Sarah and Todd Palin also wanted to protect their family when Letterman was maligning their daughters - for laughs. David Letterman righteously protects his "own" woman - but others of the wrong political persuasion are mere fodder for late night humor - no matter their age.

Letterman famously once said, "I'm just trying to make a smudge on the collective unconscious." "Smudge" is defined as dirt or a smear, a blemish, a blur, smut or a soiled spot. Halderman was trying to do a little smudging and get paid for it, as does Letterman.

The Late Night host was apparently a single man when these events took place. It is interesting to ponder who, among the non-capitalists in Hollywood or New York would finance, produce and direct a screenplay portraying David Letterman's escapades. Really, who did Halderman think would join him in this venture?

Robert J. Halderman Allegedly Extorts David Letterman 

Update 10-5-09:

A "secret" bedroom above the Ed Sullivan Theater was the place where David Letterman had "sex with some of the women who work on this shows," according to this report in the New York Daily News. This is a staffer telling this story, and it is not Stephanie Birkitt, the staffer you might have suspected. This is Holly Hester, who said she was madly in love with Letterman at the time and would have married him.

Speculations are that Holly Hester is the same Holly Hester who is now a successful producer, possibly living in Sebastapol, California. If this is the same Hester, she has worked on Grace Under Fire, Drew Carey and Ellen.

Who would guess this????

A longtime assistant said he had the ability to cast a spell on the ladies.
"I don't think women ever get over Dave," Laurie Diamond told London's Daily Telegraph.

Birkitt (34) - click here to see photo has not issued a public statement about her affair with both Letterman and Halderman (the Halderman relationship evidently ended recently.

A "Late Show" office worker in 1997, Birkitt quickly developed a role as Letterman's Girl Friday. She went on to appear in several skits as his comic foil. Behind the scenes, their relationship became intimate, sources said.

"The creepy relationship that Letterman maintained with Stephanie was obvious and not normal," an insider said. "She was able to do anything and everything ... It was pretty well known that Stephanie was the one that Letterman was having fun with."

The spell-casting Letterman apologized to his wife, Regina Lasko Letterman, and said she has been "horribly hurt by my behavior." Lasko gave birth to Letterman's son in November 2003. They married in March 2009 in a Montana courthouse.. They began dating in 1986. The approximately two-year Letterman-Birkitt affair ended in 2003 before Letterman's son was born. Lasko is a former Letterman staffer.

Update 10-6-09:

Letterman apologized again last night to Sarah Palin and her family for the comments he made about one of Palin's daughters last June - or maybe two of Palin's daughters. In June, 14-year-old Willow Palin attended a Yankee's game with her father, Todd. Letterman said, on his show that the Palin "daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez." Palin's pregnant 18-year-old daughter, Bristol Palin, was not at the Yankee game. Letterman did everything he could to make his on-air apology a non-apology. You can read it here.

Last night, in light of his own indiscretions against the mother of his son, and his son, he said this:

...once again I'd like to apologize to the former Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. I'm terribly, terribly sorry. So there we go," he added to cheers from the crowd.

In June Palin's spokesperson responded to Letterman's assault on the Palin family: it would be wise to "keep Willow away from David Letterman."