Arming the Taliban....Wye Oaks?!!!

(An excerpt from the Pakistan Asia Times Online via Raw Story)

Syed Saleem Shahzad, Bureau Chief, Pakistan Asia Times Online.
He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com
(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved)

By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - Rich with money they make from Afghanistan's opium trade, the Taliban-led resistance has the funds to finance its struggle against foreign troops in the country, in many cases using the same smuggling routes the drugs take to procure arms on the black market. These routes traverse Iraqi Kurdistan, Turkey, the Central Asian states and Iran.

The Taliban are buying more sophisticated arms, and Russian and Chinese-made surface-to-air missiles in particular are flowing into Afghanistan in increasing numbers, according to people familiar with the resistance who spoke to Asia Times Online.

Obviously this gives an added dimension to the Taliban's fighting capabilities, and in recent months they have succeeded in bringing down several helicopters - the most recent being an attack last month that claimed the lives of 17 Spanish soldiers. In June, 16 US service members aboard a MH-47 helicopter died when their aircraft crashed near the Afghan-Pakistan border. The US military believes the chopper was downed by the resistance.

The Taliban have been less successful in attacks on foreign aircraft using the main bases at Sheendand and Bagram. As one contact told Asia Times Online, the Taliban now have an abundant stock of surface-to-ground missiles, but they are still learning to use them properly.

"A general conduit of the weapons smuggling for Afghanistan is from Iraqi Kurdistan, from where the weapons are transported through Iran to Afghanistan. The SAM missiles of Russian and Chinese origin are available at a cost of US$2,500 each. The main market of these missiles is Afghanistan," a confidante told Asia Times Online on a condition of anonymity. The Taliban already have close links with elements of the Iraqi resistance in terms of tactics and training, so it is logical that they also cooperate over arms.

Asia Times Online has reported in detail on Mullah Mehmood Haq Yar, an expert in guerrilla and urban warfare, (see Revival of the Taliban, April 9) and how Taliban leader Mullah Omar sent him to Iraq before the war. There, he interacted with Islamic groups in northern Iraq before returning to Afghanistan to introduce similar tactics to those of the Iraqi resistance.

According to a report from Reuters news agency, last month al-Arabiya television aired a video purportedly depicting foreign militants in Afghanistan, including Europeans, Arabs and others, preparing to attack US troops and Afghan officials. "

These foreign guys are pretty well-armed," the Reuters report quoted a US paratrooper on patrol in Orgun-E, an area in southeastern Paktika province, as saying. "They have expensive weapons you can't get in this country."

Back to the source. Earlier this year, the Iraqi resistance leaked some documents to the media, including Asia Times Online, which showed correspondence between the Iraqi Ministry of Defense and a US contracting firm by the name of Wye Oak Technology.

The documents detailed correspondence in August of last year relating to the sale of weapons from Saddam Hussein's army for scrap. The list of weapons includes missiles, artillery and light- and medium-size weapons, all of Russian, Chinese or French origin. Though there is no way to confirm the authenticity of the documents, it is widely believed that arms of a similar nature made their way onto the black market, and in particular to Iraqi Kurdistan, from where the Taliban is now sourcing Russian and Chinese-made weapons. ....
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