Report: Afghan militants have mafia-like financing (profiting from war)

SF Gate / AP ^ | August 1, 2012 | SEBASTIAN ABBOT

[ExxonPatrolUs]

ISLAMABAD (AP) — One of the deadliest militant groups in Afghanistan, the Haqqani network, has developed a sophisticated, "mafia"-style financing operation that relies on extortion, kidnapping, smuggling and ties to legitimate businesses, according to a new report by a U.S.-based think tank.

The report by the Combating Terrorism Center in West Point, N.Y., suggests the system has become so lucrative that maintaining it could be as much of a goal for the group as driving foreign forces out of Afghanistan. That could complicate U.S. efforts to negotiate an end to the war since much of the network's cash flow is dependent on instability and lawlessness bred by the conflict.

"Life at war has become lucrative — even if highly risky — while an end to the fighting would almost certainly produce a decline in wealth and power," said the report, which was released Tuesday and was based on archival records, documents captured in Afghanistan and interviews with Western, Afghan and Pakistani officials, as well as locals in areas where the Haqqani network operates.

The U.S. has identified the Haqqani network, allied with al-Qaida and the Taliban, as one of its most potent enemies in Afghanistan, partly because of its record of carrying out high-profile attacks on the capital Kabul. The leaders of the group are based in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal area, having fled there from their homeland in eastern Afghanistan following the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

The U.S. has repeatedly demanded that Pakistan prevent Haqqani fighters from using North Waziristan as a base to attack troops in Afghanistan, but Islamabad has refused, saying it is stretched too thin fighting domestic militants.