Headaches for U.S. as contractors behave badly

Contractors behaving badly mean headaches for US
WASHINGTON—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 repor...

Afghan government disbands private security firms
KABUL, Afghanistan - The Afghan government is determined to shut down all private security companies operating in the country and has already disbanded 57 such firms, the Interior Ministry official in charge of the process said Tuesday. President Hamid Karzai issued a decree in August ordering all private security companies to be disbanded by Dec. 17, but a shortage of qualified police led to a deadline extension in several cases, such as for companies protecting development and aid projec...

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...

Afghan government disbands private security firms
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Afghan government is determined to shut down all private security companies operating in the country and has already disbanded 57 such firms, the Interior Ministry official in charge of the process said Tuesday. President Hamid Karzai issued a decree in August ordering all private security companies to be disbanded by Dec. 17, but a shortage of qualified police led to a deadline extension in several cases, such as for companies protecting development and aid p...

Afghanistan Strategy Review - No Change to Public Version
White House Press Secretary Robert GibbsRobert Gibbs, revealed yesterday that there would be no change to the policy of the Afghan War Strategy. President Obama announced his strategy at West Point Military Academy in November 2009. The strategy called for a transition phase for handover to Afghan Security Forces starting in 2011. A recent summit in Lisbon, Portugal called for handover to Afghan Security Forces by 2014, depending on conditions on the ground. NATO stated that this will not be an ...

U.S. Military Seeks to Expand Raids in Pakistan
WASHINGTON — Senior American Military commanders in Afghanistan are pushing for an expanded campaign of Special Operations ground Raids across the border into Pakistan’s Tribal Areas, a risky strategy reflecting the growing frustration with Pakistan’s efforts to root out Militants there. The proposal, described by American officials in Washington and Afghanistan, would escalate Military activities inside Pakistan, where the movement of American forces has been largely prohibit...

Afghan civilian casualties up 20 percent: U.N. report
By Jonathon Burch Kabul | Tue Dec 21, 2010 9:05am EST Kabul (Reuters) - Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan rose by 20 percent in the first 10 months of this year compared with 2009, the United Nations said, with more than three-quarters killed or wounded as a result of insurgent attacks. In a quarterly report on Afghanistan this month, the United Nations said there were 6,215 civilian casualties from conflict-related incidents, including 2,412 Deaths and 3,803 injuries, between January and th...

NATO service member killed in southern Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan - NATO says one of its service members has been killed following a roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan. The Military coalition said the attack occurred Tuesday. It provided no further details. More than 690 NATO service members have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year, according to a tally by The Associated Press. That makes this the deadliest year for international forces in the almost 10-year-old war. The international coalition has been pouring Troops int...

NATO Denies U.S. Military Is Pushing for Pakistan Raids
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 By Patrick Quinn, Associated Press Kabul, Afghanistan (AP) - The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan on Tuesday denied reports that American forces are pushing to expand Special Operations Raids into Tribal Areas of neighboring Pakistan where Islamist Militants are known to find refuge. NATO's deputy chief of communications, U.S. Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, said there was no truth to a report published in The New York Times. Citing unnamed American officials in Washing...

Afghan civilian casualties up 20 percent: U.N. report
Kabul (Reuters) - Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan rose by 20 percent in the first 10 months of this year compared with 2009, the United Nations said, with more than three-quarters killed or wounded as a result of insurgent attacks. In a quarterly report on Afghanistan this month, the United Nations said there were 6,215 civilian casualties from conflict-related incidents, including 2,412 Deaths and 3,803 injuries, between January and the end of October this year. The Taliban and other insurg...

U.S. military seeks expanded raids into Pakistan
WASHINGTON — Senior American Military commanders in Afghanistan are pushing for an expanded campaign of Special Operations ground Raids across the border into Pakistan’s Tribal Areas, a risky strategy reflecting the growing frustration with Pakistan’s efforts to root out Militants there. The proposal, described by American officials in Washington and Afghanistan, would escalate Military activities inside Pakistan, where the movement of American forces has been largely prohibit...

U.S. Military Seeks to Expand Raids in Pakistan
WASHINGTON — Senior American Military commanders in Afghanistan are pushing for an expanded campaign of Special Operations ground Raids across the border into Pakistan’s Tribal Areas, a risky strategy reflecting the growing frustration with Pakistan’s efforts to root out Militants there. The proposal, described by American officials in Washington and Afghanistan, would escalate Military activities inside Pakistan, where the movement of American forces has been largely prohibit...

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...

Karzai to open Afghan parliament by January 20: lawmaker
By Jonathon Burch Kabul | Mon Dec 20, 2010 3:31am EST Kabul (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has promised to inaugurate parliament by January 20, a prominent lawmaker said on Monday, more than four months after a legislative election marked by widespread Fraud. The election had degenerated into a debacle even before the voting on September 18. Losing Candidates staged street Protests and tension rose over reports the Attorney General's office had asked for the vote to be annulled. Al...

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...

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...

Debt settlement's hidden traps
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Many companies that charge big upfront fees to consumers drowning in Debt are skirting new federal rules that ban abusive debt-settlement practices, according to consumer advocates and government officials. Federal Trade Commission rules that took effect this fall ban debt-fixers engaging in telemarketing from misrepresenting their services, such as swearing to cut your Debt in half if they can't, and charging fees before services are delivered. Email Print Comment W...

WikiLeaks: Afghan drug lords hoard drugs
Published: Dec. 21, 2010 at 10:49 AM Heroin addicts smoke the drug in a part of the Old City in downtown Herat, Afghanistan on August 13, 2009. The poppy fields of Afghanistan are the source of most of the world's heroin supply and the source of the Taliban's power and money. The Afghan Presidential Election is on August 20. UPI/Mohammad Kheirkhah Kabul, Afghanistan, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- The U.N. drug czar told NATO that Afghan Insurgents withheld thousands of tons of heroin to control str...

Mark Wahlberg visits troops in Afghanistan
More than 100 anxious service members waited in line to meet and take photos with actor Mark Wahlberg during his visit at Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan, Dec. 19. Wahlberg shook hands and took pictures with the Troops, while thanking them for their service. CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan - Actor Mark Wahlberg visited service members of 1st Marine Logistics Group (Forward) at Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan, Dec. 19. During Wahlberg’s visit, he shook hands and took pictures with service m...

Biden: Well be totally out of Afghanistan in 2014
Joe Biden appeared on Meet the Press on Sunday to discuss the War in Afghanistan, among other issues, and left the Wall Street Journal wondering whether the Obama Administration supports its own announced policies.  While Barack Obama has spent the last year since the surge insisting that troop reductions will depend on circumstances on the ground, Biden announced that the US would pull out entirely no later than 2014: We’ve supported President Obama’s Afghan surge, but sometimes ...

NATO denies US military pushing for Pakistan raids
KABUL, Afghanistan — The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan on Tuesday denied reports that American forces are pushing to expand Special Operations Raids into Tribal Areas of neighboring Pakistan where Islamist Militants are known to find refuge. NATO’s deputy chief of communications, U.S. Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, said there was no truth to a report published in The New York Times [NYT]. Citing unnamed American officials in Washington, the Times reported on its website late Monday tha...

Afghan civilian casualties up 20 percent: U.N. report
By Jonathon Burch Kabul | Tue Dec 21, 2010 9:05am EST Kabul (Reuters) - Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan rose by 20 percent in the first 10 months of this year compared with 2009, the United Nations said, with more than three-quarters killed or wounded as a result of insurgent attacks. In a quarterly report on Afghanistan this month, the United Nations said there were 6,215 civilian casualties from conflict-related incidents, including 2,412 Deaths and 3,803 injuries, between January and th...

Gay Troops Seek to Re-Enlist
Air Force Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach has flown on dozens of combat missions over Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo as an F-15E Strike Eagle weapons officer. His commanders have called him a "war hero," "superstar" and "#1 officer/aviator." More Video ...

David Isenberg: Jack Bauer Beats Blackwater
Who knew that we will needed Jack Bauer, he of the famed Counter Terrorist Unit on the 24 TV show, to fight Blackwater as it prepares to set off a nuclear device? I certainly didn't. Well okay, not Blackwater, exactly. And fortunately, it appears that it doesn't have the capability, at least for now. Still, after all the years of covering private security contractors, and watching them be depicted as the newest villains in popular culture, the idea that private Military contractors (PMC) poten...

Former Blackwater, Xe, Bought By Investment Group
RALEIGH, N.C. — An investment group with ties to the founder of the company formerly known as Blackwater announced Friday that it has bought the security firm, which was heavily criticized for its contractors' actions in Iraq. USTC Holdings said in a statement that the acquisition of the company now called Xe Services includes its training facility in North Carolina. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. But the statement said owner and founder Erik Prince will no longer have an equity stake...