This week’s lesson on how to win the Afghanistan War: Don’t hire friends of the enemy to guard your bases.

 

A lengthy review of Department of Defense security contracts by the Senate Armed Services Committee found that the U.S. had hired Afghan guards who had ties to the Taliban, and in some cases were Iranian intelligence agents. Other problems stemmed from the fact that some local private security worked for warlords linked to murder, kidnapping and bribery.

 

In one case, American forces attacked a house where a Taliban leader was holding a meeting, only to find out the leader was the nephew of an Afghan security contractor who also owned the home.

 

Senate investigators uncovered “squandered resources and dangerous failures in contractor performance, including untrained guards, insufficient and unserviceable weapons, unmanned posts, and other shortcomings that directly affect the safety of U.S. military personnel,” states the report.

 

Among the conclusions in the bipartisan report:

·         Afghan warlords and strongmen operating as force providers to private security contractors have acted against U.S. and Afghan government interests.

·         U.S. government contracts for private security services are undermining the Afghan government's ability to retain members of the Afghan National Security Forces by recruiting men with Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police experience and by offering higher pay.

·         The Department of Defense contracted with companies in Afghanistan that appear to have had no prior experience providing security services.

·         The Department of Defense has little insight into the operations of private security providers hired as subcontractors by DOD prime contractors.

 

Altogether, the U.S. has more than 26,000 private armed security personnel working in Afghanistan, almost all of whom are local citizens.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

Senate Report: Mismanaged U.S. Contractor Money Aids Enemy in Afghanistan (by Karen DeYoung, Washington Post)

Afghans Linked to the Taliban Guard U.S. Bases (by James Risen, New York Times)

Inquiry into the Role and Oversight of Private Security Contractors in Afghanistan (U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee) (pdf)

Afghan Warlords Gain U.S. Funding by Rebranding as “Private Security Companies” (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)