Levin releases report on private security contractors in Afghanistan

On Friday, the Senate Armed Services Committee released a report on the role of private security contractors operating in Afghanistan.

Michigan Senator Carl Levin is the chair of this committee and he released a statement on Friday to announce the release of the report. In his statement Levin says:

“The committee’s investigation uncovered a significant amount of evidence that a number of security contractors working under Department of Defense contracts and subcontracts funneled U.S. taxpayer dollars to Afghan warlords and strongmen linked to murder, kidnapping, and bribery, as well as to Taliban and anti-Coalition activities. It also revealed wasted resources, dangerous performance failures, and wide gaps in government oversight that allowed such failures to persist.”

The 89 – page report (some of which is blacked out – like most declassified US government documents) also has 12 conclusions, 3 of which are highlighted in Levin’s statement. Those three conclusions are:

• Conclusion 1: “The proliferation of private security personnel in Afghanistan is inconsistent with the counterinsurgency strategy.”
• Conclusion 2: “Afghan warlords and strongmen operating as force providers to private security contractors have acted against U.S. and Afghan government interests.”
• Conclusion 4: “Failures to adequately vet, train and supervise armed security personnel have been widespread among Department of Defense private security contractors, posing grave risks to U.S. and coalition troops as well as to Afghan civilians.”

At the end of his released statement, Senator Levin says, “We need to shut off the spigot of U.S. dollars flowing into the pockets of warlords and powerbrokers who act contrary to our interests and contribute to the corruption that weakens the support of the Afghan people for their government. Our commanders have taken first steps toward identifying abuses and I am hopeful that they will act aggressively to fix the problem.”

What Senator Levin fails to acknowledge is that the warlords he is referring to were some of the same men who the US trained and funded during the counter-Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980’s. Many of these same men are close to or make up part of the Karzai administration, which the US has backed over the past 8 years.

In addition, Levin and the Senate Armed Services Committee do not take ownership for the lack of oversight of how US tax dollars are being used by private security contractors in Afghanistan, especially since most of those Senate members voted for said funds.

Lastly, it should be pointed out that Levin never clarifies what “our interests” are in US occupation of Afghanistan, now in its 10^th year. Maybe the liberal Senator should ask himself if Afghan civilians who are being killed, tortured, detained and terrorized by US soldiers and private security contractor care about US interests in their country.