Gratitude.
“Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.” — Qur’an 9:29
We recently saw that a jihad-martyrdom suicide bomber lived off Swedish student aid. And as British jihadist Anjem Choudary said: “The normal situation is to take money from the kuffar. You work, give us the money, Allahu akbar.” But those are just individuals. Karzai has them all beat: he is raking it in for his entire gang, a.k.a. the “Afghan government.”
“Afghanistan’s thanks for U.S. generosity: Karzai’s regime issues harsh exit levies,” by Phillip Swarts for The Washington Times, July 18 (thanks to Joe):
So much for thanks: As the U.S. accelerates its exit from a decadelong, $100 billion reconstruction effort in Afghanistan, American generosity is getting an unwelcome penalty in the form of taxes and fees imposed by President Hamid Karzai’s government on U.S. contractors supporting the rebuilding effort.
Everything from exiting military equipment and food for troops to new federal contract dollars are facing levies, customs fees and fines “” a wave of taxation estimated to slice $1 billion or more off the top of aid that was supposed to go to the Afghan people. Instead, it’s going into the coffers of the Karzai government.
America’s top watchdog in the country said in a recent report that the taxes are legally questionable but that U.S. officials have had little success pushing back, setting up an unnecessarily expensive end to U.S. military operations in Afghanistan.
“Congress”s appropriations for the Afghanistan reconstruction effort are intended to build Afghan security forces, improve governance and foster economic development in Afghanistan,” the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction wrote in a warning letter to congressional appropriators June 28. But “a substantial portion of these funds are being spent not to achieve these important goals, but, rather, to pay the cost of doing business in Afghanistan.”
For nickel-and-diming U.S. efforts to rebuild and defend its country, the Afghan government and its American reconstruction supervisors win this week’s Golden Hammer, an award given by The Washington Times to highlight egregious examples of wasted tax dollars.
Wave of confusion
The wave of taxation has created confusion among American officials, resulting in even more financial penalties, the inspector general says.
“In addition to levying nearly a billion dollars in business taxes on companies supporting U.S. government efforts in Afghanistan “” most of which we believe are improper based on applicable international agreements “” the Afghan government is assessing hundreds of millions of dollars in additional fines, fees, and penalties, some of which are also improper, on many of these same companies,” the watchdog wrote….