Observers say Americans appear to be working alongside Taliban in Afghanistan-Scotsman

10/4/10, "Taleban's Shadow government 'can go anywhere, kill anyone,'" The Scotsman, by J. Starkey in Kabul

"Most of Haij Kiftan's toes were broken and his feet were badly swollen from the beating when he hobbled home from a Taleban prison.

His crime was encouraging people to vote and, in many ways, he is lucky to be alive. Despite the record numbers of US and British troops in Helmand, the Taleban are running a shadow government, seemingly in plain sight.

They levy taxes, arrest criminals and hold court.

• If the taxes aren't paid the Taleban burn or confiscate farmers' crops. If the criminals - or civil complainants - can't come to court, there are mobile courts which can come to them.

Brutal corporal punishments are often meted out on the spot. Small prison terms are handled locally, in the courthouse-come-jail, while long-term convicts are transferred to a dedicated prison in the far north of the province.

"If the district level Taleban can't settle it, it goes to the provincial level.

If the provincial mullahs can't find a solution it goes to Pakistan," said a councillor from central Helmand.

• Together with a senator and a government official from Lashkar Gah, they relayed Haji Kiftan's ordeal at a meeting with The Scotsman in a bullet-scarred apartment block in Kabul. All three asked not to be named for fear of reprisals from the Taleban and the government.

"The people are like sheep without a shepherd. Dogs attack us from all sides," said the councillor.

Nato wants to win in Afghanistan by protecting ordinary people from the insurgents, but the Taleban is so strong in Helmand that all three men openly questioned whether British and US troops had in fact been helping the militants instead of fighting them.

• It is a conspiracy theory this reporter has heard repeatedly for more than two years.

"The Taleban can go anywhere they want. They can kill anyone they like," said the senator. The government official admitted he paid tax on land he owns in Nawa district. "If I didn't pay they would just take my wheat," he said.

• Haji Kiftan's ordeal began on a bright September morning when two armed men came to his home in Zarghun Kalay, around 150 metres from a checkpoint manned by British soldiers and Afghan National Police.
  
• The men's Kalashnikovs were hidden under large cotton shawls.

"If Haji Kiftan knew the government would support him he could have arrested the two men at his house," said the councillor. "But he had no support. He had to go with them."

• All three climbed on to a small Chinese motorbike, with Haji Kiftan sandwiched between the gunmen, and they rode to a nearby farmhouse.

"They had to ride past the military post," said the councillor. "They were just 50 metres away and the Taleban told Haji Kiftan not to shout out. They told him to wave.

• So, he waved and the soldiers waved back."

Taleban shadow police chief, Mohammad Shah Masafir, found Haji Kiftan guilty of collaborating with the government and held him captive for two days.

It was unusually lenient. When the shadow district governor, Mullah Naseri, heard about Kiftan's arrest

• he ordered him to be beaten and held for an extra two days.

Even so, "he was lucky not to be killed", said the senator."

.
via Lucianne.com

.