Karzai corruption even taints the Taliban leadership !

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/9206940/Taliban-paid-protection-money-by-Afghan-government.html

Taliban paid 'protection money' by Afghan government

The Taliban leadership has arrested its former top military chief and two senior commanders over claims that they accepted they "vast sums" of cash and properties from the Afghan government.

Leading analysts said their arrests have created a climate of paranoia within the Taliban movement Photo: JULIAN SIMMONDS

The money was allegedly paid to the Taliban commanders to protect Kabul and Nato supply convoys.

Mullah Ismail, who until last year was the head of the Taliban's ruling Military Commission and remains one of its most powerful members, was arrested earlier this month along with Mullah Ahad Agha, an insurgent commander in Ismail's Zabul province, and Mullah Ghulam Hassan, a former intelligence minister and commander in Ghazni province.

Their arrests have sent shock waves throughout the Taliban's senior leadership amid militant fears that the corruption which has tainted the Karzai government is now dividing their own ranks.

Leading analysts said their arrests have created a climate of paranoia within the Taliban movement and suspicion that recent talks between representatives of their leader, Mullah Omar, and the United States in Doha may have been influenced by these payments.

A 2010 Congressional investigation into Pentagon contracts worth more than $2 billion to supply American troops in Afghanistan found much of the money had been paid to Taliban commanders in bribes for protection.

The three military leaders are widely believed to have accepted payments in exchange for holding meetings with Afghanistan's High Peace Council, but senior analysts said the controversy centres on Taliban corruption.

Michael Semple, a leading expert on the Taliban and former deputy EU representative in Afghanistan, said the arrests will make the movement's leadership more wary of returning to talks with the Americans and other western mediators.

"The Taliban has been shaken by finding that the former head of its Military Commission received unauthorised funds from Kabul. The commander's apparent success in pocketing large sums of money and acquiring property sounds like a protection scam, with the leadership upset that the resources did not go into their coffers," he said.

"It illustrates the huge challenge that any movement has in maintaining discipline and honesty during a protracted and clandestine struggle when there is a lot of money sloshing around. It has made the Taliban strangely nervous – because it was something out of their control. Not directly impacted on Doha but will make them more paranoid," he added.

Mullah Ismail had been moved aside as leader of the Taliban's Military Commission in favour of Abdul Qayyum Zakir last year in a reorganisation.

His declining influence was highlighted last August when he was kidnapped and beaten up by another commander, Baz Mohammad, in a dispute over funding.

The movement's military leadership was forced to intervene to settle the dispute, which caused resentment among supporters in the powerful Noorzai Pashtun tribe.