More corruption: U.S. Presses Pentagon Contractors

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Fuel Suppliers to Afghanistan Are Accused of Stonewalling Investigation by Masking Ownership


U.S. Presses Pentagon Contractors
By ALAN CULLISON
JULY 9, 2010

KABUL—U.S. congressional investigators have upped the ante in their confrontation with two top Pentagon contractors who have received billions of dollars supplying fuel to troops in Afghanistan but have refused to reveal their owners.

A congressional oversight committee has accused the contractors of stonewalling its investigation into the company and issued subpoenas ordering top officials of the companies, Red Star Enterprises Ltd. and Mina Corp., to report for questioning later this month.

The standoff between the investigators and contractors comes amid heightened tensions over spending on the nine-year-old war in Afghanistan. Some politicians in Congress are calling for a cutoff in aid until the billions being poured into the war effort is better accounted for.

The committee launched an investigation into Mina Corp. and Red Star in May, after a bloody revolt in Kyrgyzstan toppled that Central Asian republic's authoritarian president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

The new government in Kyrgyzstan accused Red Star and Mina Corp. of an overly cozy relationship with the deposed regime, and said that company officials included the toppled president's son, Maksim Bakiyev, in their business, in order to smooth fuel deliveries to the U.S. air base in Kyrgyzstan, which has been a major hub for supplies into Afghanistan.