http://www.defencetalk.com/french-killed-after-italy-bribed-taliban-report-22603/


French killed after Italy bribed Taliban: report

ARMY NEWS BY AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ON OCTOBER 15, 2009 AT 6:00 AM



LONDON: Ten French soldiers killed in Afghanistan failed to realise the risks in the area because Italian officials had secretly paid the Taliban to desist from violence, a British newspaper said Thursday.

The Times reported that the Italian secret service had been paying tens of thousands of dollars (euros) to Taliban commanders and local warlords to keep the Sarobi area near Kabul quiet in the months before French forces moved in.

The French had been in charge of the area for just a month when the 10 soldiers were killed in an insurgent ambush in August 2008, in one of the biggest single losses of life for NATO forces in Afghanistan.

The Times said Western military officials had revealed the existence of the payments, but they had been hidden from the incoming French forces at the time.

The Italian forces they had replaced in July had suffered only one combat death in the previous year.
The report said that because the French knew nothing of the bribes they made a "catastrophically incorrect threat assessment" of the area.

It explains why the French troops were relatively lightly armed and insufficiently backed up by air cover when they were ambushed by 170 heavily armed insurgents, it added.

The Taliban and the insurgent Hezb-i-Islami faction claimed responsibility for the attack.
A senior NATO officer in Kabul told the newspaper: "It might well make sense to buy off local groups and use non-violence to keep violence down. But it is madness to do so and not inform your allies."

In October 2007, two Italian agents were kidnapped in western Afghanistan. One was killed during a rescue by British special forces. The Italian press later alleged they had been seized while making payments to the Taliban.

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"The Times said Western military officials had revealed the existence of the payments, but they had been hidden from the incoming French forces at the time".

Berlusconi have some more to answer for...

Thunder Supports Rafale
Photobucket SUCKS.
http://rafale.freeforums.org
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RIP

Shocking if true, the Italians will definitely have a lot of explaining to do.

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Silvio Berlusconi has had allegations of links with the Mafia, bribery, fraud, corruption and false accounting.....So he changed the laws so that the judiciary could not prosecute him effectively. A number of his legal team have been elevated to government office, and the ultimate irony is that Sarkozy is alleged to have worked for him in a legal capacity before he went big time in French politics.

He kept a woman alive even though the courts had passed a ruling that her life support could be terminated. She'd been in a coma for 17 years, but as she was still having her period, Silvio declared that she was "still capable of having babies" and overulled the courts. Politicians are all lying, cheating, nepotistic wh0res. Do not be surprised about anything that he does.


Some great highlights though

Allegations that he was putting the moves on the female head of state of Finland
"anyone who had seen a picture of Halonen must have been aware that he had been joking"

Reasons to invest in Italy
"we have the most beautiful secretaries in the world"

On China
"Read the Black Book of Communism and you will discover that in the communist China of Mao, they did not eat children, but had them boiled to fertilise the fields"

On Mussolini
"had been a benign dictator who did not murder opponents but sent them "on holiday".

Joint press conference when a journo asked Putin an awkward question
Berlusconi intervened with a gesture toward the journalist that imitated a gunman shooting

Two days after Obama was elected
Berlusconi "complimented" Obama on his "suntan"

Yeah pretty shocking if true.

Not the paying of bribes so much but the failure to inform the French forces taking over the area is unforgiveable.

"Yeah pretty shocking if true.

Not the paying of bribes so much but the failure to inform the French forces taking over the area is unforgiveable."




What makes you think the French would have done any different.........

The French and Italians have a long history of paying kidnappers ransom demands..

not really this has been alleged against on the italians before...

if any body recall seeing the "black hawk" documentary on the history channel, the US soldiers that were interviewed made a similar kind of accusation. i,e, the italians were cooperating with somalia milita many times promting them to say whose side they were on...

also the pakistan army's experince was no better, when the ambush took place where 24 paki peace keepers died, pakistan officers radioed the italians for help as they had armour and gunships in the invincity... instead they showed 2 hours late and instead open fired on the paki units that were there.. this incident is documented in the book "The history of Pakistan Army" by Brian Cloughly.

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Pakistan Airforce: The largest distributor of Indian airforce parts in Asia



Pathankot Strike
8 F-86Fs of No 19 Squadron led by Squadron Leader Sajjad Haider struck Pathankot airfield. With carefully positioned dives and selecting each individual aircraft in their protected pens for their strafing attacks, the strike elements completed a textbook operation against Pathankot. Wing Commander M G Tawab, flying one of the two Sabres as tied escorts overhead, counted 14 wrecks burning on the airfield. Among the aircraft destroyed on the ground were nearly all of the IAFs Soviet-supplied Mig-21s till then received, none of which were seen again during the War.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFHlzP69n9c

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I hate to say it but that sounds like something Italians would do. LOL

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My advice is that of the former Soviet Generals of the Afghan war "run while you can, you cannnot defeat the Pashtuns, it is like fighting sand, you can never win"







The people of eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan are called Pashtuns. Their land has been invaded -- but never conquered -- by the soldiers of Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States.

The Pashtuns have a tribal code that transcends politics and even religion. It commands them to grant protection to every guest -- and to give fugitives like Mr. bin Laden the right of refuge. It decrees death to invaders. The first British garrison surrendered Kabul in 1842, and 16,000 died at the hands of the Pashtuns in a retreat through Jalalabad to the Khyber Pass. One man survived. The last Soviet general left Afghanistan in 1989, after a nine-year occupation and 15,000 Soviet deaths.

fight of surviving is always harsh, especially if your side is losing.

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"pakistan officers radioed the italians for help as they had armour and gunships in the invincity... instead they showed 2 hours late and instead open fired on the paki units that were there.. this incident is documented in the book "The history of Pakistan Army" by Brian Cloughly."

must have mistook u phuckistanis for somalis






colours of Kaziranga

AFGHANISTAN: CABINET OFFICE, TIMES ACCUSATIONS TOTALLY UNFOUNDED




(AGI) - Rome, 15 Oct. With regard to what has been published by The Times about the Italian involvement in Afghanistan, the Berlusconi government would like to point out that it has never authorised nor allowed any form of payment of money to insurgent groups linked to the Taleban in Afghanistan, nor does it have any knowledge of any previous government doing so. The statement was issued by Palazzo Chigi, the Italian Cabinet Office. Sufficient proof of this, continues the statement, is found in the fact that, in the first half of 2008, Italian forces deployed in Afghanistan suffered a number of attacks and, specifically in the Surobi district, on 13 February 2008, Second Lieutenant Francesco Pezzulo was killed. Despite environmental difficulties, continues the statement, work by the Italian contingent continued in line with the instructions from the government on the basis of pledges undertaken at international level, giving unanimous consensus as part of NATO and by the allies. It is similarly helpful to underline that, as press agencies reported at the time, the Forward Operational Base (FOB) work in the Surobi district was praised and recognised by ISAF and, in particular, by US General David McKiernan, who was at the time commander in chief of the NATO forces in Afghanistan, who highlighted the results achieved by the Italian forces, in particular in the Surobi district. By constructing bridges, wells, schools and giving agricultural assistance, continues the note, this area, which was rural before the arrival of the Italians, has become a model to be followed by ISAF. Likewise, in the period indicated, there were numerous thanks and acknowledgements for the contribution made by Italian Intelligence, recognised as capable of providing an extremely timely information service contextualised for all the ISAF forces. Likewise it is ruled out, continued the note, that, at the beginning of June 2008, the US ambassador in Rome forwarded a formal complaint from the US regarding hypothetical payments to Taleban insurgents.

http://www.agi.it/english-version/italy/elenco-notizie/200910151011-pol-ren0011-art.html





AFGHANISTAN: LA RUSSA, WE WILL SUE THE TIMES, IT'S RUBBISH



(AGI) - Rome, 15 Oct. The information published by The Times today with words not spoken with probability but with certainty are absolute rubbish and will be considered as such. I have instructed my head of Cabinet to instruct lawyers to sue The Times. Well wait to see who has the power to do so, whether it be my ministry or the government, but this is my evaluation. Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa was speaking during a brief press conference at the Cabinet Office during the Council of Ministers. The news that says that we paid the Taleban in order not to be attacked, continued La Russa, is insulting to our dead and to our army. No state body has ever operated in the way reported by The Times. And for this reason I consider it hateful that a newspaper, which is working on an anti-Italian principle, has published news without verifying it. The newspaper is not acting honourably.

http://www.agi.it/english-version/italy/elenco-notizie/200910151228-pol-ren0026-art.html

Whether this story is true or not, we'll probably never know. However, one this is certain and that''s that the French were ill prepared and badly equipped for the task.



When I was young I used to pray for a bike, then I realized that God doesn't work that way, so I stole a bike and prayed for forgiveness.

Yep, we didn't have a single drone at that time ...

Now, obviously it's much better, we have 3 drone, one with a damage structure and nobody want to repair it, and a second missing spare parts for a simple rotax engine .....

If only we had a single tiger in the area at the very begining of the fight.

It's the same story everywhere, needed change only comes after a disaster happened.



When I was young I used to pray for a bike, then I realized that God doesn't work that way, so I stole a bike and prayed for forgiveness.

latest update: the italians are planning to sue the Times....

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Pakistan Airforce: The largest distributor of Indian airforce parts in Asia



Pathankot Strike
8 F-86Fs of No 19 Squadron led by Squadron Leader Sajjad Haider struck Pathankot airfield. With carefully positioned dives and selecting each individual aircraft in their protected pens for their strafing attacks, the strike elements completed a textbook operation against Pathankot. Wing Commander M G Tawab, flying one of the two Sabres as tied escorts overhead, counted 14 wrecks burning on the airfield. Among the aircraft destroyed on the ground were nearly all of the IAFs Soviet-supplied Mig-21s till then received, none of which were seen again during the War.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFHlzP69n9c

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"utalkin2me)
What makes you think the French would have done any different........."

That's THE moronique statement of the year.


"utalkin2me)
The French and Italians have a long history of paying kidnappers ransom demands.."

SHOW us, put your money where your dirtbox is please.



Thunder Supports Rafale
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