Contractors surge to Afghanistan

The military buildup in Afghanistan is stoking a surge of private security contractors despite a string of deadly shootings in Iraq in recent years that has called into question the government’s ability to manage the guns for hire.

In recent online postings, the military has asked private security companies to protect traveling convoys and guard U.S. bases in troubled southern provinces such as Helmand and Kandahar. Also, if truckers hired to transport fuel for the military want protection, they can hire their own armed guards, the military says.

The Bush administration expanded the use of such companies with the onset of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan because it could save the military time and money.

However, the practice lost much of its appeal with Congress after September 2007, when five guards with what was then called Blackwater Worldwide (the company recently changed its name to Xe) opened fire in a crowded Baghdad square and killed 17 Iraqis.

Those killings followed a 2006 incident in which a drunken Blackwater employee fatally shot an Iraqi politician’s bodyguard.

Now, as President Obama plans to send more U.S. personnel to Afghanistan to boost security and diplomatic efforts, more contractors are preparing to deploy, too. Still, questions remain as to how these private forces are managed, when they can use deadly force and what happens if they break the rules.

“We understand the difficulty of providing for the security of the Department of Defense facilities,” wrote Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Dec. 9.

“However, the proposed contract would appear to dramatically expand the use of private security contractors in Afghanistan,” Mr. Levin said, adding that the reliance on contractors in Iraq resulted in “widespread abuses.”

Mr. Levin, Michigan Democrat, wrote to Mr. Gates after The Washington Post reported on the contract bid for armed guards at U.S. bases in southern Afghanistan.

In his letter, he noted the 2009 National Defense Authorization Act, which warns the Defense Department against outsourcing security operations “in uncontrolled or unpredictable high-threat environments.”

Complicating matters is that the armed guards hired in Afghanistan most likely won’t be U.S. citizens. According to Mr. Gates, just nine out of the 3,847 security contractors in Afghanistan have U.S. passports.

Some lawmakers worry that arming non-U.S. citizens to protect American bases or convoys poses a security risk in a country rife with corruption and on the defensive against the militant Taliban.

Mr. Gates defended the practice in his Feb. 17 response to Mr. Levin. “The use of contractor security personnel is vital to supporting the forward-operating bases in certain parts of the country and in continuing our efforts to employ local nationals whenever possible,” the Pentagon chief said.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, agrees.

“If Afghans are qualified to do jobs, we want them to do jobs,” Mr. McCain said.

Story Continues →