Feral Jundi

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Industry Talk: Karzai’s Decree Regarding PSC’s And The Buzz On The Forums

Filed under: Afghanistan,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Matt @ 12:55 AM

     This is a translation that I wanted to put up just so folks have something to reference. But what is really cool is all the buzz on the forums about this one.  Lots of opinions all over the place.

     The photo below is a mystery.  I have no clue if these guys were PSC’s or not.  But what the photo symbolizes is all the years that good men like them spent putting their lives on the line for Karzai. Do you think he even thanked them for their protective services? –Matt

Edit: 08/23/2010 – Tim wrote up a great post on the subject, and has a better translation of the decree.  Check it out here.

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Karzai

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, center, is surrounded by heavily armed bodyguards as he arrives for a groundbreaking ceremony in Parwan, some 34 miles, 55kms north of Kabul, Monday, March 14, 2005. Karzai was surrounded by dozens of US security personnel as he attended a ceremony of groundbreaking for a road linking the Panjshir Valley to Parwan in the district of Bayan. (AP Photo/Shah Marai, Pool)

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President Karzai’s decree regarding PSCs in Afghanistan:

For tackling corruption and ensuring security of our citizens and prevention of security irregularities as well as exploitation of arms and military equipment and uniforms by the security companies which has caused some tragic incidents, after some thorough and legal review I am approving the annulment of foreign and national security companies within four months as per the following conditions.

The members of security companies who can meet the military recruitment conditions of provided that they meet the conditions they can join the police forces with or without their registered arms or weapons. And the Interior Ministry is obliged to annul it within four months from today.

For foreign companies who are registered with IM, if they agree, then the IM, Def Min and NDS will buy their weapons and the resident visas of the foreign members will be cancelled. If the companies do not agree to sell their arms their resident visas will be cancelled and they can leave the country with their arms.

Those companies who are not registered with IM their arms will be confiscated.

Embassies or diplomatic offices, NGOs who are operating in Kabul and provinces can still use their own security personnel within their premises. They should not be visible outside their premises. The number and conditions for this will be spelled out by the IM. The MOI’s must take charge of the external security of embassies,NGOs in Kabul and other provinces.

It is the MOI’s task to implement this decree.

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(You must sign up to read a few of these forum discussions)

SOCNET Forum discussion here.

Tactical Forum discussion here.

Lightfighter Forum discussion here.

Secure Aspects Forum discussion here.

Close Protection World Forum discussion here.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Industry Talk: Suicide Attack Hits Hart Security Guest House In Kabul, Kills Two Drivers

Filed under: Afghanistan,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Matt @ 12:00 PM

     Another attack and this time it sounds like two local national drivers were killed. Rest in peace to the fallen. Now I doubt this has anything to do with Crazy Karzai’s recent drive to ban PSC’s, but it certainly helps his cause when the Taliban attack PSC’s.  Obviously this is a sign that the Taliban and company feel that contractors like this or medical workers and NGO’s, are threats and they are legitimate targets. PSC’s are heavily involved with reconstruction and aid projects, which directly equates to winning popular support of the people. Take out these forces, and services and projects being administered decreases. Is this what Karzai wants, because I know this is what the Taliban want. –Matt

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Suicide attack hits Western security company in Kabul

August 10, 2010

KABUL — Two Taliban suicide bombers blew themselves up at the entrance of a Western private security company’s house in central Kabul on Tuesday, killing two drivers, Afghan police and witnesses said.

The attack came as President Hamid Karzai’s spokesman said all international and domestic private security firms would be dissolved in a bid to transfer capacity to the weaker Afghan police and army.

Head of police criminal investigations in the Afghan capital said the two civilians killed were drivers for international security contractors Hart.

“There were two suicide bombers who detonated themselves at the entrance. Two drivers were killed and a security guard was injured,” police chief Sayed Abdul Ghafar Sayedzada told reporters.

A senior representative of the London-based company told AFP there had been an incident in the vicinity of their villa, but had no details.

(more…)

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Industry Talk: Obama Administration Steers Lucrative No-Bid Contract For Afghan Work To Dem Donor

Filed under: Afghanistan,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , , — Matt @ 12:10 AM

   How come this does not surprise me? For years, the media was slamming President Bush and his administration for this practice, and now here we have the Obama Administration doing the same thing? Didn’t President Obama run on a campaign saying he would not do this?

   Although I am not too shocked by this stuff, because as we can see within the last year, Obama has been highly dependent on contractors for his war effort. He needs us, as much as he needs his military, in order to make his war plans successful before elections come up.  Not to mention that if he wants to have a long term commitment in Haiti, then that is going to impact his plans for Afghanistan and Iraq as well. And guess who will make up the difference in the meantime?-Matt

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Obama Administration Steers Lucrative No-Bid Contract for Afghan Work to Dem Donor

January 25, 2010

By James Rosen

The Obama administration this month awarded a $25 million federal contract for work in Afghanistan to a company owned by a prominent Democratic campaign contributor without entertaining competitive bids, Fox News has learned.

Sunday: U.S. Army soldiers patrol inside Pech Valley, Kunar province, in northeastern Afghanistan. Private consultants Checchi & Company won a no-bid contract from the Obama administration to ‘train the next generation of legal professionals’ in Afghanistan. (AP)

Despite President Obama’s long history of criticizing the Bush administration for “sweetheart deals” with favored contractors, the Obama administration this month awarded a $25 million federal contract for work in Afghanistan to a company owned by a Democratic campaign contributor without entertaining competitive bids, Fox News has learned.

The contract, awarded on Jan. 4 to Checchi & Company Consulting, Inc., a Washington-based firm owned by economist and Democratic donor Vincent V. Checchi, will pay the firm $24,673,427 to provide “rule of law stabilization services” in war-torn Afghanistan.

(more…)

Monday, September 28, 2009

Africa: FP Interview’s Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire

Filed under: Africa — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 11:37 AM

   Boy, I wish Elizabeth would have had the gumption to actually discuss the concept of R2P, and the work of UNWG.  Or talk about AFRICAP and how PMC’s and PSC’s could actually be the solution for some of these manpower issues.  I kept reading the transcripts below thinking that this is where the line of questioning should logically go, but it did not.

   If the good General is reading this, perhaps you wouldn’t mind doing an interview with PMH to discuss these things? And how cool would that be to get Eeben Barlow, Doug Brooks, and David Isenberg all on the line as well, and actually discuss the concepts? Now that would be a party. lol –Matt

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Interview: Lt. Gen. Roméo Dallaire

The general who tried to stop the Rwandan genocide warns FP that the line has blurred between peacekeeping and counterinsurgency. It’s a cautionary tale for the age of Afghanistan and Iraq. Are the world’s militaries up to the task?

BY ELIZABETH DICKINSON | SEPTEMBER 21, 2009

There are few who can say they have been as close to stopping genocide as retired Lt. Gen Roméo Dallaire, the Canadian commander of the United Nations peacekeeping forces in Rwanda in 1994. Long before the killing began, Dallaire sounded a warning call. Then, he begged for reinforcements and a mandate to use force — neither of which he got — as his troops fatefully watched hundreds of thousands of Rwandans slaughtered. “You should spit in my face,” says the character based on Dallaire in the 2004 film Hotel Rwanda. “[The West is] not going to stop the slaughter.” The world did little then, and so in real life, Dallaire has spent much of his last decade and a half reminding the world not to let the same happen again.

(more…)

Friday, August 14, 2009

Africa: U.S. Boots On Congo Ground

Filed under: Africa,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , , , — Matt @ 2:02 AM

    This is a joke, right?  I get the impression that Mr. O’Hanlon, like many journalists and authors out there, has completely written out of the dialogue any mention of PMC’s.  It’s as if they have all committed to the idea that security contractors are a bad idea, and that somehow a reworking of the military structure will solve the problems of manpower issues for these types of missions.

    I have news for you guys, kids these days are smart, and a program like this is still the military and it is still serving in a war zone.  How is that different, other than calling it something different?

   Further more, once you put these ‘safe and sane’ troops on the ground in the Congo, and they are confronted with a force of rebels that see an opportunity to go kinetic on this new style western force, what will these forces answer back with?  Will this new peace force answer rebel bullets and bombs, with high velocity love letters and flower bombs?  This kind of thinking is dangerous and idiotic to say the least, and I am highly skeptical.

   Perhaps Mr. O’Hanlon should get some shared reality, and talk to Eeben Barlow of Executive Outcomes about what is required in these countries if we really care to keep some kind of peace?

(more…)

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