Report: US Contractors Hired Iranian Spies, Taliban, Warlords To Guard US Troops In Afghanistan
Senate Investigators Say Chaotic Security Contracts Pose 'Grave Risk' To US Troops
By MATTHEW COLE
Oct. 7, 2010 --
A scathing Senate report says US contractors in Afghanistan have hired warlords, "thugs," Taliban commanders and even Iranian spies to provide security at vulnerable US military outposts in Afghanistan. The report, published by the Senate Armed Services Committee, says lax oversight and "systemic failures" have led to "grave risks' to US forces, including instances where contractors have employed Afghan subcontractors who were "linked to murder, kidnapping and bribery, as well as Taliban and anti-coalition activities." The chairman of the committee, Sen. Carl Levin, D.-Michigan, said the report was evidence that the US needs to reduce its reliance on contractors. "We need to shut off the spigot of US dollars flowing into the pockets of warlords and power brokers who act contrary to our interests," said Sen. Levin. The committee reviewed roughly 125 unclassified Department of Defense security contracts between 2007 and 2009, and found that there are some 26,000 private security contractors operating in Afghanistan, the majority of whom are Afghan nationals. The review found "systemic failures" of the military oversight for contracts, including the hiring of what Levin called "many too many" security contractors who had been improperly vetted, improperly trained or were not provided weapons.
In some cases, companies were awarded contracts though they had no ability to provide the services needed. In those cases, companies then quickly hired local nationals without proper vetting or security checks. The chaotic system left US facilities and personnel vulnerable to attack. The report found that some Afghan security guards simply walked off their posts at remote forward operating bases.
8 comments:
Epaminondas,
Just how dumb are our leaders?
I decided the same thing a while back. I've kept my mouth shut because ... well, I don't really know why.
Just how dumb are our leaders?
New Obama security adviser clashed with military...
National security adviser Gen. James Jones is stepping down. Obama will announce that Jones will be replaced by his top deputy, Tom Donilon. Tom Donilon was a registered lobbyist from 1999 through 2005, and his sole client was Fannie Mae. His brother is a counselor to Biden, and his wife is Jill Biden’s chief of staff. Obama’s circle is very very small, as most dictators circles are.
I actually thought Obama would have the great moron Brennan replace Jones.
However a Fannie Mae expert does have a certain comical duende!
The war in Af'stan was won in November 2001 when the allies took Kabul. Bush's moronic plan to occupy the country in order to bring democracy to low-IQ tribalistic death-cultists has managed to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. And Obama's escalation of the war has been a complete--and completely predictable--failure as well. LEAVE NOW.
"The war in Af'stan was won in November 2001"
Factually, galactically incorrect.
Sure it's correct, so long as the original war aims were realistic and coherent (which they weren't):
1. Kill or drive out al Qaida.
2. Destroy the terrorist camps.
3. Overthrow the Taliban.
Done, done and done by mid-November 2001.
Instead, the Bush administration decided that we would stick around and impose liberal democracy and constitutional government on a bunch of dirt-poor, thoroughly corrupt, inherently violent and medieval barbarians who hated each other almost as much as they hated all foreigners.
By now, we were assured by the neocon brainiacs in charge of this fiasco, Afghanistan would be a pro-American and pro-Western ally and a bastion of liberty, prosperity and moderate Islam, a shining example for its neighbors and the rest of the Muslim world. So how's that been working out?
Drive out?
Does nothing.
Just ask them in Madrid.London.
With Zawalhiri and OBL, the Red Mosque, AQIM, Yemen, the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan the idea that taking of the Taliban, and Arab fighter in afghanistan even if THAT had been achieved and (where is Mullah Omar?) it was not, it a self delusion.
This IS a world war. The enemy does not need 350 divisions to kill civilized society.
Nor is the RECOGNITION of this biter truth the figment of some neocon braniac's dream.
Just as Africa, Italy, Burma, and China were all parts of a greater whole from 1939-45, there IS NO ESCAPE into either appeasement OR isolation from mass murderers.
Not in the safety of Vermillion SD, Billings, Macon, or the Black Hills, nor in the galactically mistaken idea that the USA CAN, under any set of circumstances MIND IT'S OWN BUSINESS in this world.
I don't care if we win either by the way the British did in Malaya in the late 40's to early 50's or the way we did in 1865, or 1945, as long as they die.
The idea there is ANY OTHER EXIT is IMHO, absurd.
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