U.S. security firm’s Pakistan role questioned

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan | A firm providing security for U.S. diplomats in Pakistan was equipped with sophisticated weaponry that appears more suited to Special Forces commandos, raising questions about its real role in a country facing a serious terrorist threat.

Two police raids last month on Inter-Risk - a subcontractor for the big U.S. firm DynCorp International - turned up dozens of unlicensed weapons including 61 assault rifles, police officials told The Washington Times.

Islamabad Police Senior Superintendent Tahir Alam said police also briefly detained the head of the security firm, retired Capt. Syed Ali Jaffer Zaidi, a veteran of more than a decade in the special forces of the Pakistani army.

The raids appear to have exposed mixed signals within the Pakistani government and the lack of trust that continues to plague U.S. relations with Pakistan, an on-and-off ally in the war against Islamic extremism.

Police took action against Inter-Risk six months after U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W. Patterson wrote a letter to Interior Minister Rehman Malik asking for licenses for normally prohibited high-caliber weapons.

A copy of the two-page letter, dated March 30, was obtained by The Times. It notes that “security concerns have greatly diminished our ability to administer and expand the programs we would like to expand.” It referred to Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province on the border with Afghanistan, as a “special challenge.”

Ms. Patterson went on to say that “extraordinary measures” were needed in a “complex environment” and that the U.S. Embassy had signed a “commercial contract with DynCorp International and its Pakistani subcontractors Inter-Risk and Speed Flo Filters Industries to provide specialized security support.”

Based on this, she said, she asked the Interior Ministry to provide licenses for high-caliber weapons “to operate in the territorial limits of Pakistan and as soon as possible.”

It is not surprising that the U.S. would want extra firepower in a country where dozens have been killed in suicide bombings. Five employees of the U.N. World Food Program died Monday in Islamabad in the latest such attack.

However, a senior Pakistani defense official, who has knowledge of the situation but was not authorized to speak on the record about it, said there has been “extraordinary concern among government officials and the people of Pakistan regarding DynCorp, as well as other U.S. security operations firms in our country.”

“If the U.S. government or [nongovernmental organizations] use the security provided by DynCorp or its subcontractor Inter-Risk, then they must comply with Pakistani law,” the official said.

“They were not in possession of the licenses required for the weapons. First, they have to officially notify the government before they enter the country and the Pakistan government has to be on board - getting the appropriate permission takes a few weeks. Things go terribly wrong when you try to short cut the process.”

The “secrecy leads only to suspicions,” said the official, who added there is concern that security groups are being used to infiltrate former or current “U.S. special forces personnel or CIA operatives into the country without the knowledge of the Pakistan government.”

The Pakistani intelligence agency, the ISI, also objected earlier this year to the issuance of visas for 50 DynCorp personnel, according to Pakistani media reports, which said the visas were issued anyway.

“If anybody is here, they have to declare it,” the Pakistani official said. “We expect people to respect our rules, just as we respect the rules and regulations whenever we enter the U.S.”

Story Continues →