Today’s Christian Science Monitor tells the story of Afghan bounty hunters who receive substantial reward monies for tracking down and capturing Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters. Here’s a sample:

The most lucrative catch by far – worth $80,000 to his small army – came late last year when the Hazara commander arranged through a local Taliban source to have Mullah Wasiq, the militia’s deputy intelligence chief, over to dinner.

Also invited were four US Special Forces and three men in plain clothes that the commander now says he is sure were CIA.

Mullah Wasiq and a close associate brought 15 bodyguards for what quickly evolved into a roundtable discussion. As the conversation progressed, Qasmi offered the Taliban officials ‘amnesty’ in exchange for their cooperation as “counterintelligence officers.”

There had been some suggestion that Mullah Wasiq might be interested in the deal, Qasmi says. But when his American minders gave the nod, he knew that the time had come to act.

His men moved in for the snatch. Entering through several low-set windows in the commander’s home, Hazara fighters quickly disarmed the Taliban officials, who were in one room eating while their guards were next door drinking tea.

In exchange for turning the men in, Qasmi claims he received $80,000 in cash from his American friends. With the money, he bought two used pickup trucks, supplies, and food.

The moral: never stop to drink tea in the middle of a ground war in Asia…

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