在阿富汗与塔利班作战中致死伤的美士兵和家属控告美政府承包商向塔利班交“保护费”致美士兵死伤
被题目绕晕了吗？
是不是想大喊一声：禁止“套娃”？
事实是，这个令人费解又心惊的逻辑在大洋彼岸成立了。
据彭博社和《华尔街日报》12月27日报道，从2009年到2017年在阿富汗死亡或受伤的143名美军士兵和员工的家属以原告身份于周五在华盛顿地方法院对多家美国政府承包商发起诉讼，指控多家美国承包商与国际承包商在参与阿富汗重建项目时向塔利班“交保护费”。
而这些钱，又被塔利班用于攻击美国士兵和雇员。
A U.S. soldier holds the national flag ahead of a handover ceremony at Leatherneck Camp in Lashkar Gah in the Afghan province of Helmand, April 29, 2017. /AFP Photo
More than 100 Gold Star families have sued several major defense contractors in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for allegedly paying protection money to the Taliban while building projects in Afghanistan – thereby funding the Taliban's insurgency efforts that killed or wounded thousands of Americans in the Asian country.
The lawsuit was filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by the families of 143 U.S. troops and contract workers killed or wounded in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2017.
这份起诉基于保密证人、公司内部文件、解密政府情报和国会证词透露的信息，指控称被告公司为了保护自己的商业利益，通过当地分包商向塔利班支付保护费。
多家参与阿富汗重建项目的公司多次通过当地分包单位付钱给塔利班，这些分包单位有的直接转账给塔利班，有的甚至雇佣塔利班成员担任警卫。
File Photo of Taliban militants in Afghanistan / CCTV
According to the lawsuit, the Taliban in 2005 began systematically approaching international businesses operating in Afghanistan, and extorted protection money.
"Defendants paid the Taliban to leave them alone. The payments saved Defendants money: It was cheaper to buy off the Taliban than it would have been to invest in the security necessary to mitigate the terrorists' threats," the suit alleged.
诉讼涉及多家承包美国政府项目的承包商，其中就包括美国国际开发署(USAID)最大的两家承包商——DAI Global LLC和路易斯•伯杰集团(Louis Berger Group)，它们在2007年至2009年期间为阿富汗发展的工程提供了大约10亿美元的援助，当时美国国际开发署在阿富汗的一半合同都由这两家公司承包。
The companies in the suit include several top contractors working for the U.S. government. Two of the companies collected some $1 billion in funds in just two years from the United States Agency for International Development, according to the suit.
U.S. troops patrol at an Afghan National Army (ANA) Base in Logar province, Afghanistan, August 7, 2018.
自2001年起，美国已在阿富汗与塔利班进行了长达18年的战争，至今仍未结束。
在这些公司向塔利班支付高额“保护费”的同时，根据美国国会的调查记录显示，有超过10万名美国士兵在阿富汗国境内与塔利班作战。
It alleges that as much as 40% of the funds for major projects was paid to insurgents while 100,000 American troops were fighting the Taliban, congressional investigations have documented.
近十多年来，美国政府一直在公开声明中反对向塔利班组织付款的做法。美国国会通过的反恐法明确规定，为塔利班提供物质支持是违法的。
For more than a decade, US officials have opposed the practice of making payments to warlords and other corrupt groups. The U.S. has warned defense contractors that protection payments are against the law.
The site of a Taliban car bomb detonated at the entrance of a police station in Kabul, August 7, 2019. /VCG Photo
但这条禁令似乎收效不佳。
2009年，时任美国务卿希拉里在参议院外交委员会听证时指出，“保护费”正是塔利班的主要收入来源之一。
However, in 2009, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told lawmakers that the "protection money" was "one of the major sources of funding for the Taliban."
截至目前，被告的几家公司均未对指控做出回应。