Contractors behaving badly mean headaches for US

Headaches for U.S. as contractors behave badly
U.S. contractors have sought to improve their reputation through Advocacy Groups such as the Professional Services Council and the International Stability Operations Association, both based in Washington. In Geneva last month, more than 50 companies that work in war zones signed an international code of conduct to improve openness and accountability. Ignacio Balderas, Triple Canopy's Chief Executive Officer, said his company will push to ensure the code gains worldwide acceptance "and becomes a...

Booze, drugs and hookers: Hundreds of offenses by Afghan contractors uncovered
At two in the morning on Sept. 9, 2005, five DynCorp International Security Guards assigned to Afghan President Hamid Karzai's protective detail returned to their compound drunk, with a Prostitute in tow. Less than a week later, three of these same guards got drunk again, this time in the VIP lounge of the Kabul airport while awaiting a flight to Thailand. "They had been intoxicated, loud and obnoxious," according to an internal company report of the incident, which noted that Afghanistan's depu...

West hasn't adequately armed Afghan forces, Karzai spokesman says
Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan — A day after 14 Afghan Police officers and Soldiers were killed in a pair of attacks by Insurgents, President Hamid Karzai's spokesman said Monday that the West has not provided Afghan security forces with adequate weaponry. The spokesman, Waheed Omar, also offered veiled criticism of President Obama's assessment of the War Effort, parts of which were made public last week. Get dispatches from Times correspondents around the globe delivered to your inb...

WikiLeaks: US tapped Delhi Police officers
New Delhi: Wikileaks, the Whistleblower website, has thrown up more embarrassing details claiming that US Embassy officials befriended Delhi Police officers to gain intelligence inputs. According to a diplomatic cable sent from the US Embassy in New Delhi in April 2006, American Embassy officials had tapped an anti-terror Special Cell official of Delhi Police to gather information regarding investigations into Terrorism related cases, bypassing the official route. Government sources say Union Ho...

West hasn't adequately armed Afghanistan forces, Karzai spokesman says
Source: LA Times A day after 14 Afghan Police and Soldiers were killed in a pair of attacks by Insurgents, President Hamid Karzai's spokesman said Monday that the West has not provided Afghan security forces with adequate weaponry. The spokesman, Waheed Omer, also offered veiled criticism of President Barack Obama's assessment of the War Effort, parts of which were made public last week. Omer also suggested that the West's massive Military effort, which began nearly a decade ago, needed to be ba...

Foreign troop toll in Afghanistan in 2010 nears 700
Kabul (Reuters) - The number of foreign Troops killed in Afghanistan in 2010 neared 700 with two more confirmed on Saturday, by far the deadliest year of the war underscoring the renewed focus on when international forces will leave. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said one of its Troops was killed by a Roadside Bomb in southern Afghanistan, the heartland of the Taliban, and another in an attack by Insurgents in the volatile east. It gave no other details, including their n...

Afghan soldiers killed in attacks
Afghan Soldiers run for cover as a bomb explodes during a gun battle on the outskirts of Kabul. Photograph: Altaf Qadri/AP Taliban Militants killed at least 10 members of the Afghan army today in two co-ordinated attacks on the country's fledgling security forces. In Kabul, two Suicide Bombers ambushed an army bus on the eastern outskirts. Officials said they opened fire before one of Suicide bomber's vests detonated when he was shot, causing one of the buses to catch fire. The other militan...

Taliban kills 8 in twin attacks targeting Afghan security forces
Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan and Dubai, UAE — Insurgents took aim Sunday at Afghanistan's security forces, ambushing an army bus in the capital, Kabul, and storming an army recruitment center in the north of the country. At least eight Afghan Soldiers and police were killed in the two attacks. The Afghan Police and army are considered key to the West's exit strategy, which calls for the nation's forces to take over security responsibilities across the country in the next three year...

Afghan troops shoot rebels dead to end siege
Troops shot dead rebels at an army recruitment centre in northern Afghanistan Sunday to end a day-long seige following two attacks by Militants that killed at least 13 security personnel. The gunbattle between Insurgents and security forces in Kunduz erupted after four Militants armed with guns and Suicide vests attacked the centre early Sunday, killing eight security personnel, officials said. Two of the attackers were killed by security forces as the other pair occupied the facility throughout...

Afghan Army Training Slowly Working
Like this Story? Share it: A gun battle raged for hours in Kabul and Kunduz, Afghanistan, amid mounting pressure for Afghan Troops to step up. Terry McCarthy reports on the latest details in the efforts to train Afghan Police forces. A United States Marine teaches an Afghan Army soldier how to strip down his weapon. (CBS) Some recent scenes from the War in Afghanistan as Obama's deadline to begin withdrawing Troops nears. Learn about the people, economy and history. (CBS) At least 13 people wer...

The War Against Israel
[Editor's note: Below is the transcript -- and video -- of a distinguished panel discussing the threat that Israel faces at David Horowitz's Restoration Weekend in Palm Beach, Nov. 18-21.] The first words I offer of this important serious panel are simply celebration of Israel — its history, its meaning, its presence, its Democracy, its gifts to the world, its humanitarianism, and its moral and Military alliance with the United States.  Nevertheless, unfortunately, we gather this Sab...

US Consulate assists in case of slain American woman
US consular officials are providing assistance in the case of an American tourist who was found slain in Israel, the State Department said Monday. Israeli police said Sunday they found the body of a missing US tourist, apparently stabbed to death, and were investigating whether she was the target of a politically-motivated attack. US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters in Washington that the US Embassy in Tel Aviv "has identified the deceased US citizen as Kristine Luken, ...

Shocking Cables Show That Bibi Manipulates Iran Threat
In January 1969, the labor attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Israel sent a report classified “confidential” to the State Department. In it, she passed on the inside information on Israel’s ruling Labor Party that she’d gained by having an over-the-hill politician named Golda Meir over for dinner. Meir had said that then-Prime Minister Levi Eshkol would run for re-election that fall. “The tone of her remarks indicated that any other possibility was too ridiculous t...

Venezuela risks consequences in ambassador row: U.S.
WASHINGTON | Mon Dec 20, 2010 3:43pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Venezuela moved on Monday to formally block the new U.S. ambassador to Caracas from taking up his post, a step that will have consequences for already strained relations, the U.S. State Department said. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Venezuela's acting Foreign Minister had informed the U.S. Embassy that President Hugo Chavez' government had withdrawn approval for the new ambassador, Larry Palmer, whose appointment i...

US medical aid for Saudi king puts succession in spotlight - Scotsman.com
Saudi Arabia's ailing King Abdullah flew to the United States yesterday for medical treatment, while a frail Crown Prince Sultan hurriedly returned from abroad to govern the world's largest oil exporter in the interim. • King Abdullah, left, bids farewell to Prince Nayef as the former departs for medical treatment in the USPicture: AP The kingdom is keen to show its international allies there will be no power vacuum as Health Problems beset its octogenarian rulers, but the question of wheth...

Missing person found in Pakistan
The Norwegian citizen Ehsan Arjemandi, who wanished without trace a year ago while travelling in Pakstan, is still alive in a jail in Pakistan, Norwegian public broadcaster NRK reports. NRK's reporter Atta Ansari has travelled around in Pakistan for some time, trying to look into the disappearance of the Norwegian citizen. Several witnesses said alreay in August last year that Arjemandi was abducted by people said to belong to the Pakistani secret police. Up to now, both the police and the&...

The Saudi Succession Threat
Posted by Ryan Mauro on Dec 21st, 2010 and filed under FrontPage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. Ryan Mauro is the founder of WorldThreats.com, National Security Advisor to the Christian Action Network, and an Intelligence Analyst with the Asymmetric Warfare and Intelligence Center. Saudi Arabia has been a part-time ally of the U.S., crushing Al-Qaeda Terrorists trying to overthrow th...

WikiLeaks reveals US worries over Allen Stanford
US Diplomats were worried about Allen Stanford's business dealings three years before his financial empire collapsed, according to Wikileaks. The Guardian, which has been publishing details of the cables, said the US Embassy in Barbados raised the issue in a cable dated May 3, 2006 after the ambassador attended a breakfast meeting with Stanford and Barbados' Prime Minister. The disclosure potentially raises fresh questions about the wisdom of the England and Wales Cricket Board to sign a...

Leaked cables reveal Allen Stanford concerns
US Diplomats expressed concern about the business dealings of Allen Stanford three years before the collapse of his financial empire amid allegations of Fraud, according the latest leaked Embassy cables posted on the Wikileaks website. The Guardian, which has been publishing details of the cables, said the US Embassy in Barbados raised the issue in a cable dated May 3 2006 after the ambassador attended a breakfast meeting with Stanford and Barbados' Prime Minister. The disclosure potentially r...

US suspected Stanford before ECB
Allen Stanford in 2008, before his fall from grace and arrest by the FBI. Photograph: Daniel Hambury/PA More than two years before he touched down in a Helicopter at Lord's cricket ground bearing $20m, US Diplomats were so concerned about rumours of "Bribery, Money-laundering and political manipulation" surrounding Allen Stanford that they avoided contacting him or being photographed with him. The extent of the widespread concern among Embassy staff in Bridgetown, Barbados, where Stanford in...

WikiLeaks CableGate: December 20, Day 23
Check and update this page often for the latest news and views on the Wikileaks saga, as well as our special report. DECEMBER 20, DAY 23 [CBS/AP] A storage facility housing Yemen's radioactive material was unsecured for up to a week after its lone guard was removed and its Surveillance camera was broken, a secret U.S. State Department cable released by Wikileaks revealed Monday. The message, dated Jan. 9, relates the worries of a Yemeni official, whose name was removed, about the unguarded s...

WikiLeaks cables: Tanzania official investigating BAE 'fears for his life'
Source: Guardian UK Prosecutor Edward Hoseah voiced safety fears over inquiry into 'dirty deal' involving sale of radar system to government The Tanzanian prosecutor investigating worldwide misconduct by BAE, Britain's biggest arms company, confided to US Diplomats that "his life may be in danger" and senior politicians in his small African country were "untouchable". A leaked account of what the head of Tanzania's anti-corruption bureau, Edward Hoseah, termed the "dirty deal" by BAE to sell Tan...

Afghanistan guardedly backs U.S. review
By Sayed Salahuddin Kabul | Mon Dec 20, 2010 9:48am EST Kabul (Reuters) - Washington has failed to address many of Afghanistan's concerns, including Civilian Casualties and the need for Reconciliation talks with the Taliban, in its war strategy review, the Afghan president's office said on Monday. A five-page summary of the non-classified sections of the two-month review was released last Thursday, but Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who was not mentioned at all in the public documents, has ye...

Afghan parliament to convene Jan. 20
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan President Hamid Karzai's spokesman says parliament will convene on Jan. 20, more than four months after Fraud-tainted Elections. Waheed Omar said Monday the 249-seat parliament will be inaugurated after a winter break. The vote was on Sept. 18 and results were ratified by the Independent Election Commission on Nov. 24. The elections were plagued by irregularities and Voter Intimidation. Election officials discarded 1.3 million ballots — nearly a quarter of...

Investigator: Billions in aid wasted in Afghanistan
Of that sum, some $29 billion has gone to building up Afghanistan's nascent security forces, many of whose members cannot read and are just learning to shoot. Another $16 billion has gone to trying to develop this poor country, where life expectancy is just 45 years and only 28 percent of people are literate, and to strengthening governance, said Fields, a retired Marine Corps major general. Experts believe it will take years to build an effective government that can provide basic services in Af...