News ● U.S. House of Representatives 

National Security Oversight Subcommittee

Congressman John Tierney, Chairman

 June 18, 2010

Kathryn Prael, 202-226-8613

                (c) 202-641-1387

Are U.S. Taxpayer Dollars Funding Afghan Warlords?

­­Chairman Tierney to Hold Hearing on Investigation of Extortion and Corruption along the U.S. Supply Chain in Afghanistan

Washington, DC -- On Tuesday, June 22, 2010, at 2:00 p.m. in 2154 Rayburn, Chairman John F. Tierney’s (D-MA) Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs will conduct a hearing on allegations that Afghan warlords and insurgents are extorting protection payments from the American contractors who transport goods and materials to U.S. troops throughout Afghanistan.

At the hearing, entitled “Investigation of Protection Payments for Safe Passage along the Afghan Supply Chain,” Chairman Tierney will release a majority staff report that is the culmination of a six-month Subcommittee investigation into the Department of Defense’s (DoD) $2.16 billion Afghan Host Nation Trucking (HNT) contract, which is funded by taxpayer dollars and delivers more than 70 percent of the food, water, ammunition, weapons, and fuel to more than 200 U.S. military forward operating bases and combat outposts throughout the country.

WITNESSES:

First Panel

·         Gary Motsek, Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Program Support, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology & Logistics, Department of Defense

·         Lieutenant General William Phillips, Principal Military Deputy to the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology, U.S. Army

·         Brigadier General John Nicholson, Director of the Pakistan/Afghanistan Coordination Cell, The Joint Staff, Department of Defense

Second Panel

·         Moshe Schwartz, Specialist in Defense Acquisition, Congressional Research Service

·         Carl Forsberg, Research Analyst, Institute for the Study of War

·         Colonel T.X. Hammes, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University

·         S. Frederick Starr, Ph.D., The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University

WHEN:           Tuesday, June 22, 2010

                        2:00 p.m.: Majority staff conducts briefing on new report

                        2:30 p.m.: Hearing begins

                        Media Availability will take place between the first and second panel  

WHERE:         2154 Rayburn House Office Building