Pentagon Throws Contractor Under Bus: Why?
The Associated Press has obtained a classified Pentagon document, which details an intelligence-gathering mission headed by a DOD contractor. The report calls for the man’s investigation because the Pentagon claims his team “went too far in gathering human intelligence”.
The gathered intelligence was used in counterinsurgency efforts, and involved several retired CIA, special operations veterans, and subcontractors.
The Pentagon seems to be making the charge that retired Army officer Michael Furlong’s “Information Operations Capstone” amounted to a “violation of executive orders”. Assistant Secretary for Intelligence Oversight, Michael Decker and others at the DOD have concluded that Capstone amounted to an illegal spying ring of private military contractors. Furlong denies the charges and says he has not been shown the document so that he can answer the charges. The information gathered during this operation was used to target militants in Afghanistan and Iraq- Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, to name two groups.
There were supposed to be more elements of nation-building than were performed, according to the report. Since the war is not yet over in either country- there are, as yet, no peace treaties, after all- why are military intelligence contractors being forced to perform any nation-building activities right now? What kind of political pressure is causing the Pentagon to allow these documents to be leaked to the press, and why are they throwing Michael Furlong under the bus?
Could it be linked to the pedophilic practice known as bacha baz? This is the term used in Afghanistan for the practice of older men taking young boys from ages 9 to 15 as lovers. It is a common and open practice in Afghan society. Social Scientist AnnaMaria Cardinalli told SFGate.com’s Joel Brinkley in August of this year that she was hired by the DOD to study this disgusting phenomenon. She told the paper that roughly half the men of the Pashtun tribe in Kandahar Province were proudly bacha baz. The term means literally, “boy player”. They hold weekly dance parties where the boys dress as girls, and put bells on their feet. While they dance, the men throw money at them and take them home for sex. Hamid Karzai, Afghan President, is of the Pashtun tribe, from a small village outside Kandahar.
He has 6 brothers; people close to him reported to Ms. Cardinalli that at least one, possibly two of Karzai’s brothers were bacha baz .The Pashtun tribe has been historically the most important tribe in Afghanistan, and for centuries most of the country’s rulers have been Pashtun.
The disgusting practice results, say some leading sociologists, from perversion of Islamic Law. Women, because of menstruation, are seen as unclean, and because a man is not allowed to even look at an unrelated woman until after proposing marriage, women are more easily subverted, because of their unapproachable status in society.
Homosexuality is outlawed as well, but the men shrug that off, claiming that it is not homosexual to be bacha baz, because they aren’t in love with the boys. This is sick, filthy and disgusting. Our soldiers are forced to be maimed, killed, and to fight for pedophiles who despise women and Western culture and civilization.
A Defense contractor who has done his job, gathered needed intelligence to stop insurgents, target the Taliban and Al-Qaeda and save American and NATO Forces’ lives, is being thrown under the bus by the Pentagon. Why? To save a country full of boy players? Or is Karzai hiding another secret worth bags of money?
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Potential compromise offered on Afghan private security ban
By Robert Brodsky rbrodsky@govexec.com October 25, 2010
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has refused to back down on his pledge to disband all private security contractors operating in the country, but signaled during a weekend meeting that he could be open to a potential compromise.
Karzai told foreign representatives, including Gen. David Petraeus, the head of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, to provide the Afghan government with a list of major projects that need protection, along with their security requirements, so that “appropriate measures” could be taken. It was not immediately clear if those measures would include an exemption for providing private security, and if so, how such a decision would be made.
In mid-August, Karzai issued an order to remove all private security contractors from Afghanistan by Dec. 17, citing incidents of violence and questionable behavior by foreign guards. Afghanistan’s police and security forces — many of whom have been described as poorly trained and corrupt — would provide protection. Security firms working at foreign embassies and military bases would be exempt from removal.
U.S. officials said they share Karzai’s goal, but argued his time frame is overly ambitious and could disrupt ongoing development projects.
The Washington Post reported last week that U.S.-backed development firms have begun shutting down or suspending multimillion-dollar projects because of the ban.
“We don’t think it’s had an impact at this time, and we certainly do not want to see development projects that are important to Afghanistan’s future affected by this decree,” State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said on Friday.
Many firms working for the U.S. Agency for International Development already have submitted contingency plans outlining how they will to respond to the order, according to Stan Soloway, president of the Professional Services Council, a contractor trade association with member companies operating in Afghanistan.
Hamid Karzai’s crackdown on private security puts $1bn Afghan aid at risk
John Boone in Kabul Guardian UK
More than a billion dollars worth of aid projects in Afghanistan will have to be cancelled by the end of the month if Hamid Karzai persists with his demand that all private security companies should be disbanded by the end of the year, according to figures seen by the Guardian.
Foreign contractors insist on private security companies to protect their staff, and warn that the presidential decree, first issued in August, will put workers in jeopardy.
Now figures presented by companies running aid projects to the US Embassy in Kabul show that the proposed revolution to the country’s security industry will “severely handicap the counter-insurgency strategy” in the country and “put in jeopardy substantial humanitarian and development efforts”.
The report, collated by Overseas Security Advisory Council, a group representing the private sector but which works under the auspices of the US State Department, offers the best available guess of the effect on development work by 59 organisations that work on US funded projects, including massive road-building programmes and agricultural support.
The estimates suggest that of a total of $5.1bn worth of US aid earmarked for spending by the 59 companies, 18 projects worth $1.4bn would have to be shut down, starting at the end of this month.
Four more projects worth $484m would have to be almost completely closed down while other contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars would only continue on a much diminished scale. The figures were presented to the US embassy earlier in the week by the concerned companies.
Karzai has long made clear his opposition to unpopular private security companies. He announced in November that they should be disbanded by late 2011, saying that only the Afghan army and police should have the right to carry weapons.
But there is widespread scepticism about his motives for suddenly bringing forward the deadline.
“He needed something to get leverage on us after we started beating him up on [the need to end government] corruption,” said one US official. “Security companies is perfect because he knows we can’t function without them.”
Other western diplomats have argued the decision was more a sign of the president’s chaotic style of decision-making that is largely unchecked by a strong civil service capable of querying policy decisions.
The US and the Nato International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) have publicly endorsed the president’s desire to rid the country of security companies, but believe he is trying to implement it far too quickly and have been frantically lobbying for concessions.
A senior ISAF officer said that it would “take years” to fully withdraw private security guards from Afghanistan.
“There is only so many police and they are already needed somewhere else,” he said. “The people doing the job today are paid a much higher salary than the government can afford. I don’t think they are the ones hanging out for that job.”
David Petraeus, the commander of ISAF, has personally warned Karzai of the debilitating effect the move would have on the aid effort.
So far the lobbying has prompted Karzai to exempt companies that guard embassies, military installations and “depots used by foreign forces”. But the large number of foreign aid contractors who insist on providing armed guards for their expat staff have not been exempted.
On Sunday Karzai’s office remained defiant, publishing a statement that called for all other private security firms to be “considered as a serious threat against national security and Afghanistan’s sovereignty and shall, with no exception, go through the disbandment process”.
“The government needs to understand that time is running out,” said one manager from a major implementing partner.
“On 1 November all these companies will have to issue termination letters to local and international staff because it will take time to wind down projects and bring assets out of the country.”
There are signs the government may consider allowing companies to remain operating on a case by case basis. Today the interior ministry asked all private security companies to provide reasons why they should continue to exist – a move described as “absurd” by one contractor. Read the original article here
Taliban leaders said to be in Afghanistan peace talks
By Dexter Filkins the New York Times
KABUL, Afghanistan — Extensive, face-to-face discussions with Taliban commanders from the highest levels of leadership, who are secretly leaving sanctuaries in Pakistan with the help of NATO troops, appear to represent the most substantive effort to date to negotiate an end to the 9-year-old war in Afghanistan, which began with a U.S.-led campaign to overthrow the Taliban after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The discussions, some of which have taken place in Kabul, are unfolding between the inner circle of President Hamid Karzai and members of the Quetta shura, the leadership group that oversees the Taliban war effort inside Afghanistan.
Afghan leaders have also held discussions with leaders of the Haqqani network, considered to be one of the most hard-line guerrilla factions fighting here; and members of the Peshawar shura, whose fighters are based in eastern Afghanistan.
The Taliban leaders coming into Afghanistan for talks have left their havens in Pakistan on the explicit assurance that they will not be attacked or arrested by NATO forces, Afghans familiar with the talks say. Many top Taliban leaders reside in Pakistan, where they are believed to enjoy some official protection.
In at least one case, Taliban leaders crossed the border and boarded a NATO aircraft bound for Kabul, according to an Afghan with knowledge of the talks. In other cases, NATO troops have secured roads to allow Taliban officials to reach Afghan- and NATO-controlled areas so they can take part in discussions. Most of the discussions have taken place outside Kabul, according to the Afghan official. Please read the entire article here
Linda Norgrove, An aid worker’s courageous success
By Trudy Rubin at the Philadelphia Inquirer
Inquirer Opinion Columnist
There’s an ongoing investigation into whether Linda was accidentally killed by her American rescuers, and the debate over whether she could have been freed through negotiations rather than military action. I may have more to say about this later, but that’s not what I want to write about now.
I think it’s more important that people know about Linda’s commitment and courage, and why the project she directed produced results while so many Western aid projects fail.
I traveled to Jalalabad to visit Linda’s program, which was run by the U.S.-based contractor DAI and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, because I’d heard it was totally focused on Afghans. At the time, Linda was deputy director, preparing to take the reins of the $150 million program to improve Afghan agriculture.
There were only two expatriates on the project (and only one after Linda took over) directing 200 Afghan staff, including engineers, architects, and agronomists. Linda lived in a rented Afghan villa, a two-story home with a walled garden, as is common in Afghan cities. Dressed like an ordinary Afghan woman, she traveled in a car without extensive security or a military escort.
Yes, this was risky. But living outside protected compounds and military bases allowed Linda to establish relationships with village elders, who in turn protected the projects. As her colleague Jonathan Greenham noted, “Arriving with several Humvees is not the best way to drink tea with folks.”
I saw the results of these relationships. As we stood by the Shamshapoor bridge outside Jalalabad, Afghan elders explained that a previous bridge had been washed away because a foreign contractor didn’t know the river could rise five feet in a few hours. Read more here
Afghan Plane Crash Killed 8 Crew Members
Six Filipinos, one Indian national and a Kenyan were killed on Tuesday when a cargo plane crashed outside Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, the Afghan army said on Wednesday.
The US-based company operating the aircraft, National Air Cargo, said the civilian cargo transport plane was en route from the US Bagram Air Base to Kabul when it hit a mountain 20-30 km (15-20 miles) east of Kabul.
Dozens of Afghan soldiers from a nearby base were deployed to scour the crash site while others provided security. Remains of the plane could be seen from a distance with black smoke still smouldering from the mountain face where aircraft crashed.
Rescuers were carrying remains of the crew in body bags, walking long distance to reach the army ambulances.
The plane had been operating in Afghanistan for about one month, ferrying logistic support for the NATO-led troops from Bagram airbase to the southeastern province of Paktika, according to Afghan army Colonel Abdul Wase.
“I saw it from the base, the plane was burning for several hours last night,” Abdul Hakeem, a soldier at the site, said. The plane appeared to have caught fire before it crashed, he said.
The cause of the crash was still under investigation, civilian aviation authority said.
Nato contractors ‘attacking own vehicles’ in Pakistan
Nato supply convoys travelling through Pakistan to Afghanistan have regularly come under attack in the past, but following Pakistan’s decision to block their route through the Khyber Pass, they now face an even bigger security threat.
By Riaz Sohail BBC News, Karachi
Hundreds of tankers and trucks have been left stranded on highways and depots across Pakistan, with little or no security.
Taliban militants have regularly been targeting the convoys, even when they are heavily protected.
But many believe it is not just the militants who pose a security threat to the convoys.
The owners of oil tankers being used to supply fuel to Nato in Afghanistan say some of the attacks on their convoys are suspicious.
They say there is evidence to suggest that bombs have been planted in many of vehicles by the “Nato contractors” – individuals or companies who have been contracted by Nato to supply fuel and goods to forces in Afghanistan.
The contractors subsequently hire the transporters who then carry the goods.
Selling fuel
Dost Mohammad, an oil tanker owner from Nowshera district, said a Nato contractor had recently been caught trying to plant a bomb in an oil tanker.
“This happened in the area of Paiyee, when he was putting the bomb under the vehicle.”
“At that time, a few men also opened fire on the tankers. The deputy later told the police that he had been told to plant the bomb by the contractor.”
Dost Mohammad said the contractor had apparently sold off the fuel first.
“Only 2,000 litres from the original 50,000 litres had been left in the tanker to cover up the crime,” he said.
Dost Mohammad said it is a win-win situation for the contractors.
“If an old vehicle is burnt, Nato gives them money for a new vehicle. In addition, they receive compensation for all the fuel lost as well.” Read the entire story here
Three killed in attack on Nato tankers
According to witnesses, gunmen opened fire on the tankers parked in a large compound along the GT Road outside the Defence Housing Authority’s Phase II.
The compound is owned by Taj Afridi, a Nato supply contractor.
More than 20 tankers caught fire after the attack but the gunmen escaped.
The injured were taken to the district headquarters hospital.
Traffic on the GT Road was suspended and fire-fighters and rescue workers were struggling to control the fire till early in the morning.
Thick smoke engulfed the area and flames could be seen from places miles away.
The government has shut down the Torkham border crossing for Nato supplies in protest against the death of three soldiers in a Nato attack three days back.
However, a supply route through Balochistan is open.
NATO supply truck to Afghanistan blocked
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 30 (UPI) — A NATO supply truck was blocked from entering Afghanistan after Pakistani officials said a NATO airstrike killed three soldiers, the military said Thursday.
A senior military official said the action was to protest Thursday’s airstrike and other recent military actions in Pakistan, The Washington Post reported. Pakistani leaders said they believe the strikes were carried out to force the Pakistani army to conduct operations against al-Qaida and Afghan insurgents based in the mountainous tribal area of North Waziristan, the official said.
“There is no justification for these attacks and they must come to an end with immediate effect,” the military official said.
A security official said the NATO airstrike early Thursday hit a border post in Khurram Agency in Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, killing three soldiers and wounding three others.
Pakistani leaders Monday protested what they said were NATO helicopters using Pakistani airspace to attack insurgents inside the country, saying it violated the U.N. mandate requiring coalition forces in Afghanistan end their operations at the border, the Post reported. NATO said helicopter strikes killed more than 30 militants inside Pakistan after Afghan forces were attacked from the Pakistani side of the border.
A Pakistani security official said Thursday NATO “should not have violated and breached Pakistani sovereignty.”
Contractors killled: NATO Forces mistakenly killed two Private Security Contractors
Al Jazeerah Central and South Asia Saturday August 28, 2010
Meanwhile on Saturday, the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force said its forces had mistakenly killed two private security contractors after one of its patrols came under fire from fighters in Wardak province, west of the capital, Kabul.
A car approached the patrol on a highway in the Maidan Shahr district of Wardak on Friday and men could be seen shooting out of the vehicle’s windows, Isaf said in a statement.
The patrol fired on the vehicle, killing two people inside later identified as private security contractors.
“It is believed that the private security contractors were returning fire against the same insurgents who had just previously attacked the coalition vehicle, and had increased their speed to break contact,” Isaf said.
Poor security is one of the main concerns for Afghans before parliamentary elections on September 18, a milestone after fraud-marred presidential polls last year and with Barack Obama, the US president, planning a strategy review in December Original here
Afghan Police Recruit Shot Dead After Killing Three Spanish Trainers
Afghan security forces have been deployed to quell rioting in the northwestern province of Badghis after a deadly gun battle between a local police recruit and his Spanish instructors.
The Spanish government has confirmed that two Spanish police officers and their Spanish interpreter were killed when a rogue police recruit opened fire on them at a provincial-reconstruction team (PRT) police training center in Badghis’s provincial capital of Qalay-e Naw.
Abdul Ghani Saberi, the deputy governor of Badghis Province, told RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan that the rioting broke out after Spanish troops shot dead the Afghan trainee during the altercation.
Saberi said the police “usually train inside the Spanish PRT. One police driver, whose name was Ghullam Sakhi, carried a gun with him into the compound.” After arguing with Spanish troops who told him not to bring a gun inside the compound, “he started shooting at the Spanish soldiers — killing three of them.”
Saberi said provincial authorities think the recruit might have had ties with the Taliban and intentionally tried to carry a gun into the PRT compound to attack troops in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
Saberi said the authorities suspect Taliban militants who are active in the area may have infiltrated the police force to carry out the initial attack.
“We think there was a plot behind this incident,” Saberi said. “We think the Taliban could be behind this because they are the enemies of the Afghan country and such plots are usually organized by the enemies of stability and peace in Afghanistan.”
Riot At Compound, Provincial Headquarters
RFE/RL’s correspondent in the area, Sharafuddin Stanakzai, reported that angry demonstrators tried to storm the PRT compound after the initial shooting incident.
He said that demonstrators on the scene said they broke through the compound’s outer perimeter and set fire to part of the base.
One witness told RFE/RL that Spanish troops fired on rioters who were storming the base, injuring several of them.
However, the Spanish government denied that demonstrators tried to storm the base. Spanish officials said the demonstrators wanted the body of the slain Afghan and that an Afghan judge was allowed to enter the PRT compound in order to authorize the handover of the remains.
There was no immediate confirmation by Afghan or NATO officials about witness claims that the PRT base was infiltrated or that there were more casualties there.
However, Saberi confirmed that hundreds of demonstrators later marched on the provincial government’s headquarters in Qalay-e Naw — smashing several windows of the building and forcing local authorities to call for the deployment of troops from the Afghan National Army and national police.
Abdullah Kheradmand Durani, head of the central government’s film department in Badghis Province, spoke to RFE/RL from outside the government building early in the afternoon on August 25 as the demonstrators surrounded it.
“People are gathered at the government building and I am standing among them. They have just arrived at the governor’s office. They’ve broken the windows,” Durani said.
“The governor is not inside. It looks now like the government is unable to control these people.”
However, Saberi later told RFE/RL that police and army troops were in control of the situation at the provincial administration building.
Recruits Turning On Teachers
The shooting incident that ignited the demonstrations is the latest in a series of attacks by Afghan police recruits. There have been several other recent deadly attacks by police recruits against their foreign trainers in Afghanistan.
Today’s violence has raised concerns about the possible infiltration of Afghan security forces by militants as the government in Kabul tries to bolster the size of its own security forces and phase out the use of private security contractors in the country.
NATO officials say Afghanistan will need to recruit 141,000 new soldiers and police officers in the next year to meet the security needs of the country and replace U.S. and NATO-led forces who plan to start leaving Afghanistan in mid 2011. Read the original story here
Afghan gov’t: 4 months to disband security firms
Associated Press Update Original Story last post
KABUL, Afghanistan — A spokesman for the Afghan president says Hamid Karzai will order all private security companies in the country disbanded within four months.
Spokesman Waheed Omar says the decree is expected later Monday. It will both set the deadline and detail a process through which the companies should cease operations.
Omar spoke at a press conference in the capital and declined to give further details until the decree was released.
Afghan Government Sets Deadline for Private Security Firms
A spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai says the Afghan leader is giving private security firms four months to cease operations in the country.
Waheed Omar told reporters that Mr. Karzai plans to issue the deadline later on Monday.
More than 50 international and Afghan security firms operate in Afghanistan, employing at least 30,000 people.
President Karzai has said the companies undermine the work of Afghan security forces by creating a parallel security structure.
Omar says greater regulation of the security companies will not solve the problem posed by the firms presence and “the way they function.”
NATO officials said dissolving the companies would be possible once the Afghan army and police are capable of providing the security that private companies currently offer, including protecting officials, troops and supply convoys.
Afghanistan: Private Insecurity Spray and Pray
By Kevin Sites — Special to GlobalPost
Published: August 11, 2010 06:39 ET in Asia
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — When a commercial convoy hauling supplies for U.S. and NATO bases came under attack from Taliban insurgents in the western Zhari district of Afghanistan, the Afghan private security contractors hired to protect it responded by taking turns firing light machine guns from the hip — for almost three hours.
The barrage of rounds was shot so indiscriminately — U.S. soldiers derisively referred to it as the “spray and pray” method — that they were just as likely to hit innocent civilians, or their own men, as they were the Taliban.
If this kind of undisciplined response were the exception, U.S. and NATO commanders might not be so concerned. But it is such a regular occurrence, they say, that allowing it to continue could undermine the counterinsurgency strategy here, which puts civilian protection above almost all else.
Civilian deaths threaten support for the U.S.-led war both in Afghanistan and in the United States — and they are on the rise. A U.N. report released Tuesday said civilian casualties had increased by 31 percent in the last six months. And a major offensive in the southern province of Kandahar that is just beginning is almost certain to lead to more civilian casualties.
The exact number of civilian deaths in Afghanistan, like most war zones, has never been clear. NGOs, mutilateral groups, the U.S. military and the Afghan government have all given different estimates. The classified military documents released last month by WikiLeaks indicated the toll might be higher than the U.S. military has so far reported. And GlobalPost’s own investigations on the front lines in Afghanistan, including in Taliban-controlled territory, reveal that some civilian casualties, sometimes numbering in the dozens, often go totally unreported.
2nd US sailor’s body recovered in Afghanistan
Navy spokesman Lt. Justin Cole said that McNeley and Newlove are in Afghanistan as “individual augmentees,” which was defined as personnel who are “pulled from their regular commands to take on supplemental missions with NATO Training Mission Afghanistan in Kabul.” No further information was provided by Cole regarding their exact jobs.
Update at USNavySeals.com
Confirmed killed is 30-year-old Hull Maintenance Technician 2nd Class Justin McNeley of Wheatridge, Colorado, who is from the Assault Craft Unit 1 based in San Diego. He is believed to have been killed after the armored sport utility vehicle that he and Culinary Specialist 3rd Class Jarod Newlove were riding in was attacked. His body has been recovered by NATO troops after a massive search.
McNeley’s companion, Jarod Newlove, is a reservist, 25 years old, and is from Renton, Washington. He has officially been listed as “Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown.” He is believed to have been captured by the Taliban.
Navy spokesman Lt. Justin Cole said that McNeley and Newlove are in Afghanistan as “individual augmentees,” which was defined as personnel who are “pulled from their regular commands to take on supplemental missions with NATO Training Mission Afghanistan in Kabul.” No further information was provided by Cole regarding their exact jobs.
NATO officials refused to explain why the two deceased service members were in such a dangerous part of Afghanistan
By AMIR SHAH and DEB RIECHMANN, Associated PressA second U.S. Navy sailor who went missing in a dangerous part of eastern Afghanistan was found dead and his body recovered, a senior U.S. military official and Afghan officials said Thursday.
The family of Petty Officer 3rd Class Jarod Newlove, a 25-year-old from the Seattle area, had been notified of his death, the U.S. military official said on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to disclose the information.
Newlove and Petty Officer 2nd Class Justin McNeley went missing last Friday in Logar province. NATO recovered the body of McNeley — a 30-year-old father of two from Wheatridge, Colorado — in the area Sunday.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press in Kabul on Thursday that two days ago the Taliban left the “body of a dead American soldier for the U.S. forces” to recover. The Taliban said McNeley was killed in a firefight and insurgents had captured Newlove. Mujahid offered no explanation for Newlove’s death.
NATO officials have not offered an explanation as to why the two service members were in such a dangerous part of eastern Afghanistan.
The sailors were instructors at a counterinsurgency school for Afghan security forces, according to senior military officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case. The school was headquartered in Kabul and had classrooms outside the capital, but they were never assigned anywhere near where McNeley’s body was recovered, officials said.
The chief of police of Logar province, Gen. Mustafa Mosseini, said coalition troops removed Newlove’s body about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. An anti-terrorism official in Logar province, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the case, also said coalition forces had recovered a body.
Mosseini said he believed the body washed downstream after rains Tuesday night.
He noted in the past several days, the Taliban were being pressured by coalition forces in the area.
“The security was being tightened,” Mosseini said. “Searches continued from both air and the ground. Militants were moving into Pakistan.”
Mohammad Rahim Amin, the local government chief in Baraki Barak district, also said coalition forces recovered a body about 5:30 p.m. and flew it by helicopter to a coalition base in Logar province, about 40 miles (60 kilometers) away.
“The coalition told our criminal police director of the district that the body belonged to the foreign soldier they were looking for,” Amin said.
WikiLeaks war logs show unreported plight of contractors
The WikiLeaks war logs show in sometimes gruesome detail how Afghan contractors working for the Defense Department have borne much of the worst violence of the nine-year war.
Salon recently reported that 260 private security contractors — virtually all of them Afghan — were killed in action in a 10-month period. But the WikiLeaks war logs document previously unreported violence against other types of contractors too — those who do construction and drive trucks and serve food and perform all the other work that makes the war possible.
In September 2006, in a remote area northeast of Kandahar, troops found a decapitated body on the side of the road, with the knife “presumed to be used to decapitate him … still there,” along with a letter. “The letter states that he was a contractor working for the US at Nawa and that he was murdered because he was helping the US,” the log says. The log ends with “nothing further to report.”
The gruesome incident was never publicly reported by the Pentagon and thus did not appear in the media, according to a Nexis search.
Here’s another incident from 2008 — one of dozens that was never reported. This one occurred in western Afghanistan and two contractors had their legs blown off:
At 0810 local time on 24 Sep, an vehicle was struck by an IED, 3 [civilian contractors] were injured during the incident, 2 have lost their legs and remain in a critical condition in Herat hospital and 1 is in stable condition.
Overseas Civilian Contractors
CIVILIAN CONTRACTOR CASUALTIES
THE BEST KEPT SECRET OF THE WARS
At Least 59 Civilian Contractor Deaths Filed on in Second Quarter of 2012
At Least 49 Civilian Contractor Deaths Filed on in First Quarter of 2012
At Least 418 Civilian Contractor Deaths in 2011
Our Fallen Contractors Memorial
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A United Nations Mine Action Employee has filed a lawsuit against
for negligence after stepping on a landmine resulting in an immediate below the knee amputation in an area previously cleared by and certified clear of landmines by Ronco Consulting.
The United Nations board of inquiry found that Ronco failed to find the mine that injured Mr Fartham as well as three other mines.
The complaint states that Ronco Consulting, acting through it’s agents and/or employee’s, breached it’s professional duty of care to Fantham and did not exercise the reasonable care and skill expected of professional mine clearance companies.
Ronco Settles Negligence Lawsuit with UN Mine Action Employee
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