CNN "American Morning" - Transcript

Interview

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CHETRY: Well, it's a billion-dollar question -- how are U.S. contractors spending your tax dollars in Afghanistan? Right now, Congress is looking into reports that among other things money went to pay off local war lords and even went in some cases to the Taliban.

Joining me now to talk about this is Massachusetts Congressman John Tierney. He is leading the inquiry, the chairman of the House national security and foreign affairs subcommittee. Congressman Tierney, thanks for being with us this morning.

REP. JOHN TIERNEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Good morning. How are you?

CHETRY: Great.

There's been some very interesting reporting on this, and I know that you guys are trying to track the money trail here. The situation seems to be that in some cases essentially in Afghanistan, contractors are paying people off so that they can get supplies through, vital and necessary supplies like water, gas, food to the troops. What do we know about how much is being spent, and who some of this money may be going to?

TIERNEY: Well, the host nation trucking company that have the contracts to move the goods get about $1.2 billion. They use some of that to pay subcontractors who provide security. We're concerned that maybe hundreds of millions of dollars of that is going to insurgents or other groups for protection-type money.

CHETRY: So this is one of the trucking companies, the $2.2 billion trucking contract that they have, and concerns that it went to pay off the warlords and in some cases possibly to pay off the Taliban. How do you realistically, from Washington, begin to keep track of that amount of money in an area so far away with a lot of dubious exchanges that have to take place?

TIERNEY: Well, there are eight companies, actually, that host trucking nation companies. Some from the United States and some from Afghanistan, some from Dubai. We can track the paperwork from the United States back. We have made trips to Afghanistan when necessary, we'll have staff over there interviewing people and following that up. We've had a number of whistleblowers who came forward to give us information. But, of course, people like Aram Roston who wrote an article for "The Nation," I think one of the first to get into the subject, they have valuable information as well.

CHETRY: And, in fact, you mentioned it's - let me bring you one of the quotes for our audience this morning about what "The Nation" article said, and let's put it up on the screen. Aram writing, "In this grotesque carnival, the U.S. military's contractors are forced to pay insurgents to protect American supply routes. It is an accepted fact that the U.S. government funds the very forces American troops are fighting."

This system of corruption in Afghanistan, Congressman, seemed so entrenched. How do you begin to make inroads?

TIERNEY: Well, that's what we have to find out. We have to first find out whether these facts are true, whether the assertions are accurate or not and then we have to find out why this is allowed to continue. This ought not to be the United States' policy for sure, but we have to find out what the alternatives are and why we're not moving in that direction.

We'll track all this down by going right to the source and having the interviews on that, tracking the paperwork, doing whatever is necessary to determine exactly what's happening and why if this is in fact occurring, why it's occurring, who made those decisions and what ought to be done about it.

CHETRY: One CEO of one of the contractors says he knows why it's occurring. He says that it really shouldn't be a surprise, because without U.S. or NATO providing security for these convoys, there's really no other option. Is this perhaps a necessary evil of getting business done in Afghanistan?

TIERNEY: I would hope not, I think not. We do outsource way too much in the military and other places in our government. We followed up a lot of sources but there are other ways that this can be done. And obviously the millions and millions of dollars could be spent on having a protective force that legitimately takes care of these highways and passages on that basis.

So there are decisions being made, conscious decisions being made. We have to determine what they are and set them on the right path. We don't need to be fueling the corruption...

CHETRY: Right.

TIERNEY: That we're trying to get rid of for a good counterinsurgency policy and we certainly don't need the United States' taxpayers' money going to the hands of insurgents and Taliban and coming back against our men and women that we're sending over there. This is not appropriate. It's not right and we got to get to the bottom of it.

CHETRY: You mentioned the possibility of bringing on a force, would you be talking about a military, a U.S. military presence?

TIERNEY: Well, in other conflicts that's obviously what we've done. We've used the military to protect military supplies. This is a military situation over there, and you know, to contract everything out, particularly to contractors who may not be doing the job appropriately or who are feeding the fire in political corruption, is certainly not the way to go about it.

CHETRY: All right. But many would say where do you get these guys? We're fighting two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan right now, two active wars. We have people going through repeated deployments over and over again. I mean, we're stretched thin. So how could we possibly bring more troops into this?

TIERNEY: Well, these are decisions that you make or ought to make to determine whether or not you ought to be involved in these conflicts and the way in which you prosecute them. And I think that sometimes when you start relying on contractors to move in this direction, it stops you from making the difficult choices that you have to make.

CHETRY: Yes. Well, certainly a lot to get to the bottom of and I know that your subcommittee is taking this issue up.

Congressman John Tierney from Massachusetts, great to speak with you this morning, thanks.

TIERNEY: Thank you. Nice to talk to you.

ROBERTS: Well, tomorrow night, our Christine Romans has got a Saturday night special on, it's called "IN GOD WE TRUST." She's going to be looking at some very interesting issues across the country, including the potential to repeal some old laws that are keeping stores closed on Sunday. Christine gives us a sneak peak of her series, coming up next.

It's 35 and a half minutes after the hour.

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