British firm 'hired warlords close to Taliban to provide security'

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian

British firm 'hired warlords close to Taliban to provide security'
Report delivered to US senate says American money is making their way into Taliban pockets via private security companies
Ewen MacAskill in Washington
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 7 October 2010 22.00 BST


A damning report into the role of private security companies in Afghanistan, including the multimillion-pound British ArmorGroup, was issued tonight by the US Senate armed services committee.

Much of the focus of the report is on ArmorGroup's contract to provide security at an airbase. The report claims that the company hired Afghan warlords to provide security and that at least one was alleged to have close ties to the Taliban.

According to the report, the company referred to the warlords as Mr Pink and Mr White, characters in the 1992 Quentin Tarantino film Reservoir Dogs.

The report offers a detailed account of a murderous rivalry between the two warlords and how this almost led to guards abandoning their duties at one point.


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/07/armorgroup-warlords-taliban-us

[seafan]

1. Inquiry Finds Guards at U.S. Bases Are Tied to Taliban

Source: NY Times

WASHINGTON — Afghan private security forces with ties to the Taliban, criminal networks and Iranian intelligence have been hired to guard American military bases in Afghanistan, exposing United States soldiers to surprise attack and confounding the fight against insurgents, according to a Senate investigation.

The Pentagon’s oversight of the Afghan guards is virtually nonexistent, allowing local security deals among American military commanders, Western contracting companies and Afghan warlords who are closely connected to the violent insurgency, according to the report by investigators on the staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The United States military has almost no independent information on the Afghans guarding the bases, who are employees of Afghan groups hired as subcontractors by Western firms awarded security contracts by the Pentagon. At one large American airbase in western Afghanistan, military personnel did not even know the names of the leaders of the Afghan groups providing base security, the investigators found. So they used the nicknames that the contractor was using — Mr. White and Mr. Pink from “Reservoir Dogs,” the 1992 gangster movie by Quentin Tarantino. Mr. Pink was later determined to be a “known Taliban” figure, they reported.

In another incident, the United States military bombed a house where it was believed that a Taliban leader was holding a meeting, only to discover later that the house was owned by an Afghan security contractor to the American military, who was meeting with his nephew — the Taliban leader.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/08/world/asia/08contractor.html

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I don't know what to say any more.

[DURHAM D]

2. our tax dollars at work ...

There is too much money in the operation to be able to manage it. Dry up the funds NOW.

[FreakinDJ]

3. "Western contracting companies" - Let the Free Markets work

you can't make up shit this good

[msongs]

4. Petraeus is quite the general isn't he? destroyed supply convoys, "enemies" hired as security nt

[Ichingcarpenter]

8. The Private Afghan Security undermines Afghan Military

The Afghan military pays 1/2 than the private, the US pays for both.
The BBC just reported that this morning. The Afghan military stability is threaten by this practice.

I think private contractors like Blackwater set the standard for this practice in Iraq. I thought that system did the same to our military.

[Ichingcarpenter]

9. BTW... this is the headline story on BBC radio news

Its the first story they cover on world news.

[bemildred]

5. Dang, you could just knock me over with a feather.

Has this sort of thing ever happened before?

[peacebird]

6. Afghan security contractor to the American military, who was meeting with his nephew — the Taliban

leader



:eyes:

[Mike Marble]

7. Fubarred beyond all recognition. FUBAR squared.

This war, that is.

[Ichingcarpenter]

10. kick nominated N?T

[No Elephants]

11. We're paying for Taliban there so we don't have to pay for them here.

[Bragi]

12. Too bad Obama escalated this war, it's all his now /nt