Afghan Prison Blues

A brother managed to get there in two days, but NDS officers said he was too late. They could no longer just let Mohammad go, they said, because Afghan radio had publicly reported his arrest. Mohammad says they tortured and interrogated him for two weeks before shipping him to NDS headquarters in Kabul. Eventually Mohammad's brother was able to strike a ransom deal: he would deposit $8,000 with a Kabul money-changer, who would release the cash to NDS officers once their prisoner was free. Two months later Mohammad walked out of the NDS detention center and phoned the money-changer, telling him the NDS men could have their $8,000. So far the Taliban's agents have repaid the family for half that amount.

Mohammad is only happy he didn't end up in American hands. Once a prisoner reaches a U.S.-run detention center, there's little hope of a getaway. One rare exception was the escape of Al Qaeda's No. 3 man, the Libyan known as Abu Yahya al-Libi, who broke out of the high-security U.S. lockup at Baghram air base with three other Qaeda prisoners in 2005. No Americans appear to have been involved in the plot, but U.S. government investigators think corrupt Afghan guards may have assisted in the jailbreak. Several former detainees told NEWSWEEK that Afghan police and NDS officers had threatened to turn them over to U.S. forces, largely as a way of extracting bigger bribes and speeding up the payments. Capture by the Afghan National Army is feared for similar reasons; the ANA works closely with U.S. forces and is carefully monitored by them, making bribery difficult.

Former detainees who talked to NEWSWEEK for this story were reluctant at first to discuss their experiences. They worried that exposing the extent of the corruption might draw the authorities' attention, making it tougher for other captured insurgents to bribe their way to freedom. That risk doesn't seem to bother some alumni of the revolving-door jails. An example is Taliban commander Mullah Sorkh Naqaibullah—also known as the Red Mullah—who recently gloated to the BBC that he had just bought his way out of an NDS jail in Kabul. The price, he said, was $15,000. He said it was the third time since 2004 that crooked law enforcers had set him free in exchange for cash. Now he's back home in Helmand province, once again leading a band of insurgents. The Taliban owe an incalculable debt to crooked cops. They would never have gained power the first time without the public's overwhelming disgust at the pre-Taliban regime's rampant corruption and abuses of power. The insurgents' greatest wish is that it might happen again.

With Mark Hosenball in Washington

© 2008