Glad to see this: Canada Denies Bribing Taliban in Efforts to Bring Stability to Kandahar
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5i8GteG0T5HdjlTS50le8Wzs-9vHQ
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Allegations that Canada and its NATO allies have been paying the Taliban for peace in parts of Afghanistan were denied and denounced as enemy propaganda Friday by both military officials and the federal government.
A report that cited an unnamed Western military official saying Canadian soldiers tried to buy off insurgents in Kandahar is "totally baseless," said Maj. Mario Couture, a spokesman for Task Force Kandahar. "Canadians are not involved in any way, shape or form with payments to Taliban," Couture said.
The Agence France-Presse story claimed several NATO countries, with the U.S. and Britain as notable exceptions, made payments to the Taliban in order to pacify territory under their control. The report named Germany and Canada in particular. It also referenced an earlier report in the Times of London that said Italian forces had been giving money to the Taliban in exchange for peace in the areas it was patrolling near Kabul.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay, speaking in St. John's, described the allegations as likely little more than "Taliban propaganda." "This suggestion that we're bribing the Taliban not to engage in military - or I would call them terrorist attacks - clearly isn't working," he said."We've had 131 casualties. So, that sad reality seems to put to lie what the Taliban are saying."
While NATO has strenuously denied knowledge of any such payments, it did acknowledge that the Afghan government has at times struck agreements with militants on its own initiative. Canadian efforts to secure areas of Kandahar have also included payments to Afghans who have at times sided with insurgents.
But Couture stresses such payments are either compensation for taking part in structured disarmament programs or part of recent counter-insurgency tactics to provide work for potential Taliban recruits. "We're using work as a weapon against the Taliban," he said. "It's not money that we distribute... for no reason. This is hard-earned money."
The approach reflects an emerging consensus in military thinking that considers the Taliban a factional group, comprised of fighters with varying degrees of loyalty to its hardline Islamist cause. What money is distributed by Canadian soldiers is aimed at separating hard-core insurgents from so-called "soft Taliban" - fair-weather fighters whose loyalties shift with the wind and who might be willing to plant IEDs for as little as US$50.
"It's not true that all of those people shooting at us are insurgents," Lt. Col. Joe Paul, the outgoing commander of Canada's battle group in Afghanistan, said recently." Some are drug dealers, some are part-time Talibans, some are hard-core Talibans."
The hazy demarcation line of what constitutes an insurgent means security in many areas of Afghanistan is the product of an unstable patchwork of arrangements between government officials, international troops and influential local figures.Canadian soldiers have suffered from the tenuousness of such arrangements in the past.
The Afghan government had in 2008 reached an understanding with a militia in the Arghandab district, west of Kandahar city, often patrolled by Canadian troops.But the deal had apparently collapsed by the end of that year, when two separate IED incidents over an eight-day span killed six soldiers.
At the same time, Canadian military officials have struck several successful arrangements with private security contractors to provide perimeter security at forward operating bases as well as the Provincial Reconstruction Team headquarters in the heart of Kandahar city, freeing more soldiers for patrols and other operations.
As Canada prepares to scale down its presence in Afghanistan by 2011, security will increasingly depend on uneasy alliances underpinned by material interests.The incoming battle group commander, Lt. Col. Jerome Walsh, has indicated a willingness to explore using local militias to provide security where Canadian troops are unable to maintain a presence." That is an option that is being examined, but it must work within the greater security framework," he said earlier this week.
