FAA contractors may have caused travel meltdown, Buttigieg orders review

Report condemns US funding of Taliban

Scandal

08/10 18:01 CET


The Taliban in Afghanistan are receiving money from the US government because recruitment of private security personnel is not being vetted enough.

A report by America’s Senate Armed Services Committee has revealed that some contractors are funnelling money to Afghan warlords.

The Chair of the committee, Carl Levin, said “failures to adequately vet, train and supervise armed security personnel have been wide spread.”

He added that “posed grave risks to US and coalition troops as well as Afghan civilians.”

The report found some contractors were linked to “murder, kidnapping, bribery and anti-coalition activities.”

Others gave money directly to the Taliban to buy weapons to use against US troops.

It recommended immediate steps be taken to improve the vetting of security personnel.

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Defense Contracting in Afghanistan at Record High

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September 1st, 2009 by Steven Aftergood

There are more Department of Defense contractors in Afghanistan today than there are uniformed U.S. military personnel, according to a new report from the Congressional Research Service. Not only that, the ratio of contractors to troops in Afghanistan is higher than in any prior military engagement in U.S. history.

“As of March 2009, there were 68,197 DOD contractors in Afghanistan, compared to 52,300 uniformed personnel. Contractors made up 57% of DOD’s workforce in Afghanistan. This apparently represented the highest recorded percentage of contractors used by DOD in any conflict in the history of the United States,” the CRS report (pdf) said. A copy of the report was obtained by Secrecy News.

At a time when the deployment of U.S. forces in Afghanistan may be increased (or reduced), the CRS report casts a detailed and fairly nuanced spotlight on the role of defense contractors there. The report notes, for example, that more than 75% of the DoD contractor personnel in Afghanistan are local nationals. Only about 15% are U.S. citizens.

Contractors provide essential logistical, translation and other services, while offering increased flexibility. But they also pose management challenges in monitoring performance and preventing fraud. In the worst cases, “abuses and crimes committed by armed private security contractors and interrogators against local nationals may have undermined U.S. efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the CRS report noted. See “Department of Defense Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan: Background and Analysis,” August 13, 2009.

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Source: http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2009/09/afghan_contracting.html

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