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Karzai Bans Private Security Firms
Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has given private security firms working in Afghanistan four months to end their operations.
Karzai has repeatedly called for the banning of private security companies in Afghanistan. (Gallo/Getty) Karzai has repeatedly called for banning private security companies, saying they undermine government security forces.
"Today the president is going to issue a four-month deadline for the dissolution of private security companies," Waheed Omer, Karzai's spokesman, said on Monday.
Omer gave notice last week that the president intended to act over private security firms, calling it "a serious programme that the government of Afghanistan will execute".
"It's not about regulating the activities of private security companies, it's about their presence, it's about the way they function in Afghanistan ... all the problems they have created," Omer said.
US support
Omer said more than 50 private security companies, roughly half of them Afghan and the other half international, employ 30,000 to 40,000 armed personnel in Afghanistan.
He said Karzai had spoken to his Western backers as well as leaders of the US and Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) who contract the companies, to safeguard many aspects of their work, including supply convoys.
The US military responded on Monday saying it supported the plan and was tightening oversight of its own armed contractors in the meantime.
"Certainly we understand President Karzai's statements that he is determined to dissolve private security companies," Brigadier General Margaret Boor, head of a new task force to better regulate and oversee private security operations, said.
"We are committed to partnering with the government in meeting that intent," she said.
Security concerns
However, Boor declined to give a timeline, saying private security contractors can only be phased out as the security situation improves.
That could be a long time given worsening security in recent months in areas of northern and central Afghanistan that had previously been relatively safe.
About 26,000 armed security contractors work with the US government in Afghanistan, including 19,000 with the US military, Boor said.
The majority of military contractors protect convoys, though some also provide base security, Major Joel Harper, a spokesman for Nato forces, said.
Karzai has said such responsibilities should fall to either enlisted military or police, though it is unclear how soon Afghan forces would be ready to take on additional jobs.
Boor said private contractors were needed right now to keep development projects and military operations running.
"Since the Afghan army and the Afghan police are not quite at the stages of capability and capacity to provide all the security that is needed, private security companies are filling a gap,'' Boor said.
In Afghanistan, contractors have been in the spotlight on several occasions.
In February, US senate investigators said the contractor formerly known as Blackwater hired violent drug users to help train the Afghan army and declared "sidearms for everyone'', even though employees were not authorised to carry weapons.
The allegations came as part of an investigation into the 2009 shooting deaths of two Afghan civilians by employees of the company, now known as Xe.
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18 Comments so far
Show AllSmart move by Karzai. I'll bet Washington plans on having a long talk with Karzai about how things are. Plan B - Send Hillary with a pallet of cash. Plan C - Karzai has outlived his usefulness and can easily be replaced.
Private security firms are the advance party of swine that will in the end turn and tear US all to pieces.
And in the US 854,000 people have top-secret security clearances in 1271 government agencies and 1931 private companies. Does anyone serious believe that the private security companies are more interested in security than they are in profits. Guess why they are growing by leaps and bounds and authorize top-secret security clearances to their new hires.
Oir taxes are going to these private companies. As we have SF all over the world. Why does the US get do undermine legitimate elections, but if another country has people in the US they are called terrorists? Who is the biggest terrorist on this dying planet?
I agree with the other poster of Karzis future. Death or bribe?
We are !! We will pay for what we are doing too. Why do you think the Hollywood movies always show the end of the world with us as the reason ? Shame on us...
Private security sounds like something they use at a rock concert, not a war. I have been sickened by these private companies in both of these stupid wars. So much corruption and all those millions of dollars both spent and stolen by these selfmade mercenaries. Since when does an Army need private police to guard them ? I always thought an Army was the strongest force there was. In history you don't hear about such private companies fighting wars...the Army fights wars. I also think it is terrible that our soldiers get paid nothing compared to the private guys ,and that we the tax payers have to pay there out of control paychecks. If those idiots want to go to a dangerous place to work, then that is on them. We have an Army we pay, we should not be paying these hotdog people. I hate those men that want to be big killers, with big guns, well you know what they say....big truck, little.....
eensy, weensey, teensey.....not even viagra can help!
"The US military responded on Monday saying it supported the plan and was tightening oversight of its own armed contractors in the meantime."---
We'll be good.
No nothing will change; private contractors are not going anywhere!
"However, Boor declined to give a timeline, saying private security contractors can only be phased out as the security situation improves."
Right: go in, cause a major disturbance just short of a civil war, then say crap like, "Sure we'll leave, as soon as the situation becomes more stable."
Straight out of the Mafia Handbook, including brash arrogance in the description of the situation that everyone knows is b.s.
But then, you have to expect certain similarities among various organized crime syndicates.
Is Boor being boorish?
When I was a boy (I am now 59) I found an old textbook of my father's on his bookshelf entitled "Travels in Afghanistan." It was a personal account of a Standard Oil geologist who walked through the country over a several month period in 1937, looking for promising geology for oil deposits. I still have the book. When he was in certain parts of the country, especially the mountainous areas north of the Helmond River, he often had to disguise himself to prevent being killed for being an infidel. The geography itself was the most difficult I had ever read about with narrow, rugged canyons, wild raging rivers and rugged, barren mountains. The climate was extreme, with unbearable heat in the summer and almost no potable water, and arctic cold in the winter with heavy snows that blocked the extremely difficult passes. Afghanistan seemed like the hell hole of Planet Earth. That has not changed. When I first heard from a neighbor that George W. Bush was sending our military into that hell hole I just shook my head and said, "They have really lost their minds now. Don't they know anything about geography? Look what happened to the Russians in Afghanistan!"
Having spent about six months traveling through much of Afghanistan before the USA started supporting a foundamentalist rebellion I can tell you Afghanistan was one of the better nations of the 26 nations I have traveled.
Potable water was a problem. Mountains are mountains and deserts are always deserts.
The Afghan people were wiser than most shallow USAan's and the land had more liberty and ethics than the USA.
Today USA's soul is in hell and the USA is bringing hell to more than one nation.
Great! Now we need him to boot out the terrorist outfit StormTroopersRus.
Using the unpreparedness of the Afghan Army as an excuse is dissembling because obviously the USA military and the Afghan police could easily pick up the slack.
After the four months are over Karzai should put a bounty on private contractor's heads.
Five buck a piece seems a fair price and the Taliban could delivery them by the sack full.
Those Mercenaries would run like the Devil was behind them.
Problem solved.....
White settlers in the USA used this tactic on the Native American Indians and look at how few there are today.
Pat Murphy
My sympathies are with Karzai. The widespread use of private contractors is an abomination. They have caused great grief for Afghans and Iraqis, and reflect very badly on the USA. Another Bush practice that should never have been allowed in the first place.
"private contractors" in the "security" realm have a long history within the USA predating BushCo by @130 years. mostly utilized by corporations and governments to crush the emerging union movement.
I don't often agree with Hamid Karzai, but he's "right on" with this decree! But why not 2 months instead of 4? The next move after that should be for him to expel the U.S. troops (oh, excuse me: the "coalition" troops)by the end of the year. It's time for our nation to do the right thing, and leave the Afghans alone!
peacekeepertwo:About us development Aid, USAID has been known to waste large sums of US Taxpayers money. There is no oversight. It would be good for the American tax Payer, If all these NGO's, and military contractors like X'e or BlackWater were to loose there Contracts. The argument in favor of keeping these Contractors in Afghanistan until the Security situation improves is rediculas. If the target is gone, the shooting will end.