Nation & World Briefly Aug. 17

Task force estimates $360 million in contract money lost to Taliban

WASHINGTON (AP) - After examining hundreds of combat support and reconstruction contracts in Afghanistan, the U.S military estimates $360 million in U.S. tax dollars has ended up in the hands of people the American-led coalition has spent nearly a decade battling: the Taliban, criminals, and power brokers with ties to both.

The losses underscore the challenges the U.S. and its international partners face in overcoming corruption in Afghanistan. A central part of the Obama administration's strategy has been to award U.S.-financed contracts to Afghan businesses to help improve quality of life and stoke the country's economy.

But until a special task force assembled by Gen. David Petraeus began its investigation last year, the coalition had little visibility into the connections many Afghan companies and their vast network of subcontractors had with insurgents and criminals - groups military officials call "malign actors."

In a murky process known as "reverse money laundering," payments from the U.S. pass through companies hired by the military for transportation, construction, power projects, fuel and other services to businesses and individuals with ties to the insurgency or criminal networks, according to interviews and task force documents obtained by the AP.

"Funds begin as clean monies," according to one document, then "either through direct payments or through the flow of funds in the subcontractor network, the monies become tainted."

Police say alert neighbor chased down suspected New Mexico kidnapper

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - The pair of 911 calls came in quick succession from a New Mexico mobile home park. On one, a frantic 12-year-old says her little sister is missing. On the other is the wife of the man who would be credited with saving the 6-year-old from every parent's nightmare.

"We are outside of my mom's house here," Martha Diaz told the dispatcher. "We heard a man going, 'Hey, hey let her go. Let her go.' So we turn around ...

"The man came running to us and said, 'They stole a little girl."'

Phillip Garcia, 29, had snatched the girl moments earlier on Monday afternoon in Albuquerque, taking her away in a blue van, police said. Diaz's husband, Antonio Diaz Chacon, gave chase.

Garcia tried lose him but ended up crashing into a telephone pole a few miles away, police said.