The Senate Armed Forces Committee has released its Inquiry into the Role and Oversight of Private Security Contractors in Afghanistan [89-page pdf]. One of the key findings of the year-long investigation, as reported by The Hill is that a number of contractors "funneled money from their Pentagon contracts to warlords and strongmen linked to murder, kidnapping and bribery." Contractors, most of whom are Afghans, also paid off Taliban supporters and others who had attacked NATO forces. In one instance in early 2010, a U.S. Marine was killed by private security forces.
The report generated 12 conclusions. Among them:
Conclusion 1: “The proliferation of private security personnel in Afghanistan is inconsistent with the counterinsurgency strategy.” ...
Conclusion 2: “Afghan warlords and strongmen operating as force providers to private security contractors have acted against U.S. and Afghan government interests.” ...
Conclusion 3: U.S. government contracts for private security services are undermining the Afghan government's ability to retain members o f the Afghan National Security Forces by recruiting men with Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police experience and by offering higher pay. ...
Conclusion 4: “Failures to adequately vet, train and supervise armed security personnel have been widespread among Department of Defense private security contractors, posing grave risks to U.S. and coalition troops as well as to Afghan civilians.” ...
Conclusion 5: Private security contractors operating under Department of Defense contracts have failed to adequately vet their armed personnel. |
In addition, contractors have failed to complete required training of their personnel and have exhibited "dangerous deficiencies in performance." The Pentagon has contracted with companies without previous experience in providing security, failed to address serious contractor deficiencies, shown little insight into the operations of security contractors and failed to enforce its own policies for accountability of these contractors.
Roxana Tiron at The Hill wrote:
Levin said on Thursday that his panel’s report underscores the need to “shut off the spigot” of U.S. money going into the “pockets of warlords.” ...
During the contract period with the U.S. Air Force, one of the warlords who provided security forces for ArmorGroup killed another warlord in a shootout at a bazaar, according to the report. A third warlord working with ArmorGroup was killed in a U.S.-Afghan military raid on a Taliban meeting at his home. ...
Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in Afghanistan, earlier this month issued guidance on the use of contractors “that made it clear that all corrective actions, including terminating contracts and suspending and disbarring contractors, will be on the table,” Levin said.
Levin did not indicate that he would seek any legislative fixes. |
There are at least 26,000 private security employees in Afghanistan, most of them Afghan, with 90 percent of them operating under U.S. contracts. Under orders from President Hamid Karzai every security firm in the country is supposed to be out of business by year's end. But with less than three months to go, the process is barely under way.
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2009
When Nancy Pelosi said that Gen. McChrystal should report his recommendations up the chain of command, not lobby in press conferences, the National Republican Congressional Committee responded that:
[T]axpayers can only hope McChrystal is able to put her in her place.
When Al Franken's amendment saying that defense contractors could not prevent their employees from pursuing legal action for workplace sexual assault or discrimination passed with bipartisan support, the National Republican Senatorial Committee said:
This misleading, partisan attack makes clear yet again just how out of touch Democrats in Washington are with the serious issues facing average Americans.
To summarize the Republican position: As women, we are not "average Americans," and gang rape is not a "serious" issue. As women, no matter how powerful we become on our own merits, the Republican establishment will still be hoping for a man to come along and put us in our place. |