Karzai Says Corrupt Private Security Firms Are Undermining Afghanistan War
Afghan President Hamid Karzai renewed his demand that private security firms in Iraq disband by year's end, saying they are a source of corruption that's undermining support for the war against the Taliban insurgency.
The firms are "running a parallel security structure to the Afghan government," they are "looting and stealing from the Afghan people" and "some of them turn into terrorist groups at nighttime," Karzai said on ABC's "This Week" program.
"Why would an Afghan young man come to the police if he can get a job in a security firm, have a lot of leeway and without any discipline," Karzai said. The better-paid private security forces must be disbanded in order for the Afghan police force to be built up, he said.
The U.S. and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are in an offensive to try to push the Taliban out of Kandahar Province in southern Afghanistan. The U.S. plans to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan by July 2011, according to a timetable set by President Barack Obama. General David Petraeus, commander of the 142,000 U.S. and NATO troops in the region, said Aug. 15 that deadline may change based on military conditions.
Karzai last week told private security companies in Afghanistan to disband within four months, turning their operations over to Afghan forces. The U.S. State Department said that would create challenges in the war against Taliban insurgents.
Almost 17,000 armed guards from both Afghan and foreign companies protect bases, convoys and personnel of NATO's International Security Assistance Force, a Defense Department report said in May. Others protect offices and residences for foreign embassies, companies and international aid groups.
U.S. security companies working in Afghanistan include DynCorp International Inc., based in Falls Church, Virginia, and acquired this year by Cerberus Capital Management LP, as well as Moyock, North Carolina-based Xe Services LLC, formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide.
To contact the reporters on this story: Alan Bjerga in Washington at abjerga@bloomberg.net.
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