031300z TF 3 Fury reports Illegal Taxing of jingle trucks investigation IVO Stogun checkpoint, Zurmat District

On 03 March 2008 at approximately 1300 hours, while working with —— —— —————, ANCOP ETT Team Chief, we received information from an Afghan truck driver that he had just been required to pay a bribe to a Zormat ANP patrolman at Stogan Check Point in Zormat District in order to pass through the check point. I had my interpretor take the driver's statement and translate it into english, read the statement back to the driver and had him sign and thumb print the statement. —— ————— and I ask the driver if he would follow us back to Stogan Checkpoint and identify the patrolman he paid the bribe to and he agreed. We drove to Stogan Checkpoint where approximatley six trucks were lined up waiting to pass through the checkpoint. I had one of my interpretors ask each driver waiting in line to exit their vehicles and asked them if they had been required to pay any amount of money to pass through the checkpoint. All six drivers stated that they had been required to pay various amounts of money to pass through. —— ————— contacted MAJ Hussain, the ANCOP Chief of Police in Zormat, informed him of the situation and requested he come to Stogan Checkpoint.

While waiting for MAJ Hussain, I asked the seven patrolmen we detained to sit and relax while we sorted through a problem without ever mentioning why they were being detained. Three of the patrolman responded by saying that they had only taken money from the truck drivers to buy fuel for their generator.

When MAJ Hussain arrived, he was accompanied by CPT ————, Operations Officer for the Zormat AUP. MAJ Hussain took written statements from the seven truck drivers claiming they were required to pay a bribe to pass through the checkpoint as they identified the patrolmen that they had paid the bribe to and stated how much money each was required to pay. He then had his ANCOP search the person of each of the seven patrolmen being detained and found cash that was suspected to have been paid as a bribe on one or more of the patrolmen. MAJ Hussain collected the statements and cash, arrested the seven suspected patrolmen and returned to the Zormat Police District Center, and lodged the seven suspects in the detention cells. —— ————— and I contacted —— ——— ————— and —— ——— ————— to notify them of what had occurred.

—— ————— contacted —— ————— and I the next morning to notify us that special investigator from Paktia Provincial Headquarters were coming to Zormat to investigate. On 05 March 2008, after the ANCOP / Zormat AUP TOA had occurred and MAJ Hussain and the ANCOP had departed Zormat, the special investigators were preparing to go back to Gardez, —— ————— asked them what action they were going to take in the Stogan Checkpoint Police Corruption investigation. They stated that they could take no action due to having no evidence. At that time, —— ————— contact MAJ Hussain by phone and asked him what he had done with the truck driver witness statements. MAJ Hussain stated that he had turned the witness statements over to the Zormat AUP Detention Officer when he handed over custody of the suspected patrolment to him. When the Detention Officer was asked what he had done with the witness statements, he claimed he never received them.