Secondo il quotidiano britannico, i servizi davano tangenti per pacificare la regione
Secca la smentita di Palazzo Chigi: “Non è mai successo” Afghanistan, “L’Italia pagava i Taliban”. Il governo: “Denunciamo il Times” Il ministro La Russa annuncia azioni legali. “Tutta spazzatura, offende i nostri morti e i nostri militari” L’accusa: “Quei pagamenti contribuirono alla morte di 10 francesi: pensavano fosse una zona tranquilla”
LONDRA – Arrivano accuse pesanti dal Times di Londra in edicola questa mattina. Il giornale britannico accusa i servizi segreti italiani e il governo Berlusconi di aver pagato delle “mazzette” ai capi taliban in Afghanistan per evitare attacchi terroristici alla base di Surobi, 65 chilometri a est di Kabul.
Immediata è stata la risposta di Palazzo Chigi, che ha smentito seccamente le accusano: “In relazione un quanto pubblicato oggi dal quotidiano britannico Il Time circa l'impegno italiano in Afghanistan-si legge in una nota-si precisa che il governo Berlusconi non ha mai autorizzato né consentito alcuna forma di pagamento di somme di denaro in favore di membri dell'insorgenza di matrice talebana in Aghanistan, né ha cognizione di simili iniziative attuate dal precedente governo.” L’accusa del Times. Secondo il Times , i pagamenti clandestini degli 007 italiani contribuirono alla morte di 10 soldati francesi coinvolti in un attentato il 18 agosto 2008 alla base di Surobi, dove erano subentrati agli italiani un mese prima. Il giornale londinese afferma che gli italiani tennero nascosta la storia dei pagamenti ai francesi, i quali però, vedendo che i colleghi italiani si muovevano con una certa tranquillità, non presero particolari precauzioni. La mancata conoscenza dei pagamenti li avrebbe indotti in errore, portandoli “ad una valutazione errata dei possibili pericoli e quindi alla catastrofe che ne è seguita”. Il quotidiano britannico sostiene di aver appreso queste informazioni da “fonti militari occidentali”. Le somme, si legge nell’articolo, ammontavano a “decine di migliaia di dollari”, che gli italiani “versavano regolarmente ai singoli comandanti nella zona di operazione delle loro truppe”. Secondo il Times, gli americani “sapevano” e avevano manifestato il loro dissenso al governo italiano. In particolare, l’ambasciatore statunitense a Roma, Donald Spogli, avrebbe esposto le proprie lamentele al governo Berlusconi proprio poche settimane prima dell’attacco al contingente francese.
La reazione di Palazzo Chigi. “Accuse infondate”, risponde Palazzo Chigi. “A riprova di ciò – recita la nota – è sufficiente ricordare che soltanto nella prima metà dell’anno 2008 i contingenti italiani schierati in Afghanistan hanno subito numerosi attacchi e, specificamente nell’area del distretto di Surobi, il 13 febbraio 2008, nel corso di uno di questi è rimasto ucciso il Sottotenente Francesco Pezzulo”. “Si esclude altresì – conclude palazzo Chigi – che l’Ambasciatore degli Stati Uniti a Roma abbia, all’inizio del mese di giugno 2008, inoltrato al Governo italiano un formale reclamo da parte del suo Paese in relazione ad ipotetici pagamenti in favore dell’insorgenza talebana”.
La risposta di La Russa. “Ancora una volta il giornale londinese raccoglie spazzatura”: questo il commento del ministro della Difesa Ignazio La Russa. “Le informazioni date oggi dal Times con parole nemmeno di probabillità ma di certezza sono assolutamente spazzatura e come tali vanno considerate”, ha precisato il ministro, che ha annunciato l’intenzione del governo italiano di procedere per vie legali. “Ho dato incarico al mio capo di Gabinetto di procedere ad affidare ai legali il compito di denunciare il Times: questa è la mia valutazione”.
“La notizia in base alla quale pagavamo i talebani per non essere attaccati – ha proseguito il ministro La Russa – è offensiva per i nostri morti e per i nostri militari. Nessun organo dello Stato ha mai operato come dice il Times. E per questo ritengo odioso che un giornale che sta operando con un sentimento di antiitalianità abbia dato una notizia senza verificarla. Non fa onore alla testata”.
Dall’Afghanistan Koofi difende l’Italia. “Non è possibile, non è vero”: ha commentato Fawzia Koofi, vice presidente della Wolesi Jirga, la camera bassa del Parlamento afghano. “In Afghanistan – ha precisato la Koofi in un colloquio con Adnkronos International – circolano molte accuse tra le forze Nato, con i Paesi che puntano il dito uno contro l’altro. Solitamente si tratta di accuse prive di fondamento”. Poi l’invito alla cautela: “in un momento delicato per l’Afghanistan, in cui si devono ancora conoscere i risultati definitivi delle elezioni presidenziali del 20 agosto, non è il caso che all’interno della comunità internazionale si inizi con un meccanismo di accuse uno contro l’altro”. “Simili atteggiamenti – ha proseguito – non contribuiscono a migliorare la situazione”.
Da La Repubblica oggi 15 Ott. 2009
Pubblico la versione integrale del Times online (inglese), quello che il giornale londinese chiama, evidenze
Da The Times online Oggi 15 Ott. 2009
What the grieving nation did not know was that in the months before the French soldiers arrived in mid-2008, the Italian secret service had been paying tens of thousands of dollars to Taleban commanders and local warlords to keep the area quiet, The Times has learnt. The clandestine payments, whose existence was hidden from the incoming French forces, were disclosed by Western military officials.
US intelligence officials were flabbergasted when they found out through intercepted telephone conversations that the Italians had also been buying off militants, notably in Herat province in the far west. In June 2008, several weeks before the ambush, the US Ambassador in Rome made a démarche, or diplomatic protest, to the Berlusconi Government over allegations concerning the tactic.
Top of Form
Bottom of Form
Top of Form
Bottom of Form
Top of Form
Bottom of Form
Top of Form
Bottom of Form
However, a number of high-ranking officers in Nato have told The Times that payments were subsequently discovered to have been made in the Sarobi area as well.
Western officials say that because the French knew nothing of the payments they made a catastrophically incorrect threat assessment.
“One cannot be too doctrinaire about these things,” a senior Nato officer in Kabul said. “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.”
On August 18, a month after the Italian force departed, a lightly armed French patrol moved into the mountains north of Sarobi town, in the district of the same name, 65km (40 miles) east of Kabul. They had little reason to suspect that they were walking into the costliest battle for the French in a quarter of a century.
Operating in an arc of territory north and east of the Afghan capital, the French apparently believed that they were serving in a relatively benign district. The Italians they had replaced in July had suffered only one combat death in the previous year. For months the Nato headquarters in Kabul had praised Italian reconstruction projects under way around Sarobi. When an estimated 170 insurgents ambushed the force in the Uzbin Valley the upshot was a disaster. “They took us by surprise,” one French troop commander said after the attack.
A Nato post-operations assessment would sharply criticise the French force for its lack of preparation. “They went in with two platoons [approximately 60 men],” said one senior Nato officer. “They had no heavy weapons, no pre-arranged air support, no artillery support and not enough radios.”
Had it not been for the chance presence of some US special forces in the area who were able to call in air support for them, they would have been in an even worse situation. “The French were carrying just two medium machine guns and 100 rounds of ammunition per man. They were asking for trouble and the insurgents managed to get among them.”
A force from the 8th Marine Parachute Regiment took an hour and a half to reach the French over the mountains. “We couldn’t see the enemy and we didn’t know how many of them there were,” said another French officer. “After 20 minutes we started coming under fire from the rear. We were surrounded.”
The force was trapped until airstrikes forced the insurgents to retreat the next morning. By then ten French soldiers were dead and 21 injured.
The French public were appalled when it emerged that many of the dead had been mutilated by the insurgents— a mixed force including Taleban members and fighters from Hizb e-Islami.
A few weeks later French journalists photographed insurgents carrying French assault rifles and wearing French army flak jackets, helmets and, in one case, a dead soldier’s watch.
Two Western military officials in Kabul confirmed that intelligence briefings after the ambush said that the French troops had believed they were moving through a benign area — one which the Italian military had been keen to show off to the media as a successful example of a “hearts and minds” operation.
Another Nato source confirmed the allegations of Italian money going to insurgents. “The Italian intelligence service made the payments, it wasn’t the Italian Army,” he said. “It was payments of tens of thousands of dollars regularly to individual insurgent commanders. It was to stop Italian casualties that would cause political difficulties at home.”
When six Italian troops were killed in a bombing in Kabul last month it resulted in a national outpouring of grief and demands for troops to be withdrawn. The Nato source added that US intelligence became aware of the payments. “The Italians never acknowledged it, even though there was intercepted telephone traffic on the subject,” said the source. “The démarche was the result. It was not publicised because it would have caused a diplomatic nightmare. We found out about the Sarobi payments later.”
In Kabul a high-ranking Western intelligence source was scathing. “It’s an utter disgrace,” he said. “Nato in Afghanistan is a fragile enough construct without this lot working behind our backs. The Italians have a hell of a lot to answer for.”
Haji Abdul Rahman, a tribal elder from Sarobi, recalled how a benign environment became hostile overnight. “There were no attacks against the Italians. People said the Italians and Taleban had good relations between them.
“When the country [nationality of the forces] changed and the French came there was a big attack on them. We knew the Taleban came to the city and we knew that they didn’t carry out attacks on the Italian troops but we didn’t know why.”
The Italian Defence Ministry referred inquiries to the Prime Minister’s Office. A spokesman said: “The American Ambassador in Rome did not make any formal complaint. He merely asked for information, first from the previous Government and then from the current Government. The allegations were denied and they are totally unfounded.”
Silvio Berlusconi, the Prime Minister, defeated Romano Prodi at elections in April 2008.
The claims are not without precedent. In October 2007 two Italian agents were kidnapped in western Afghanistan; one was killed in a rescue by British special forces. It was later alleged in the Italian press that they had been kidnapped while making payments to the Taleban.
