AFGHANISTAN: Training Cops Not To Be Robbers

[rodeodance]

very revealing article-pass around. We are up against this in Iraq also.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39877

AFGHANISTAN: Training Cops Not To Be Robbers
By Fawzia Sheikh*

Credit:IRIN

On Afghan highways police may be complicit with the Taliban

ZABUL, Nov 1 (IPS) - In a mud-walled village on the outskirts of the provincial capital of Qalat, police checkpoint commander Abdul Rasool complains he is tired of his country's six-year war and longs for peace.

Despite Rasool's appeal, he represents what the U.S. military thinks is wrong with Afghanistan's police, a force wracked by corruption that was long neglected as the army took front and centre in securing the nation's borders and fighting the insurgency.

Standing nearby, U.S. army Capt. Dave Perry points out that trucks are being "destroyed" close to the checkpoint the Afghan commander supervises. Perry mentors the Afghan police and is the project officer for a checkpoint consolidation plan which aims to clean up police crime in southern Afghanistan's Zabul province.

.......

The U.S. is investing billions of dollars in police facilities, police districts, border-control facilities and army garrisons as part of its plan to stand up the Afghan police, Maj. Gen. Cone, head of Afghan security forces' training, said.