U.S. Crackdown on security guards "paralysing Afghanistan'

This is from the Timesonline. No doubt the Karzai govt. wants to favor its own security firms and have them get the gravy instead of ladling it all towards U.S. and U.K. firms. It is interesting that there are so many private security operatives that Afghanistan would be supposedly paralyzed without them. The firms do not seem to win many friends for the occupiers.


Crackdown on guards 'paralysing Afghanistan'
International operations are being threatened by a police crackdown on private security guards, the US has said
Jeremy Page in Kabul
The United States has warned President Karzai of Afghanistan that international military and civilian operations are being paralysed by a police crackdown on private security guards carrying firearms.
William Wood, the US Ambassador to Kabul, met Mr Karzai on Sunday to ask him to intervene in the stand-off between the Interior Ministry and the booming private security industry, The Times has learnt.
The ministry said it was cracking down on unlicensed weapons and illegal security companies, but industry insiders accuse Afghan firms with links to the police - including one owned by Mr Karzai's cousin - of trying to steal their clients.
Afghanistan's security industry has grown from nothing in late 2001, when a US-led invasion toppled the Taleban Government, to a multimillion-dollar business, with 60 companies employing 30,000 people - 10,000 of them foreigners.

Humayun Hamidzada, a spokesman for Mr Karzai, confirmed the meeting with the ambassador and said that the issue would be resolved soon. But he gave no timetable and said that Afghan forces should eventually take over many of the responsibilities of the security industry. “We're working on an interim arrangement in order to allow the legitimate companies to operate,” he told The Times. “There is no double treatment for Afghan and foreign companies. But there has to be Afghan security over the longer term.”
The US Embassy declined to comment, but diplomatic sources fear that the issue could further sour relations between the international community and Mr Karzai, who has criticised British operations in the south and blocked the candidacy of Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon as UN “super-envoy” to Afghanistan.
Mr Wood's meeting came three days after Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, and David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary, made a surprise visit to Kabul to try to mend fences with Mr Karzai.

Karzai: All private security firms must close

From time to time Karzai choses to show some backbone and not just do what the US says to do. Until Nov. 2005 Karzai used to be guarded by US Dyncorp corporation guards. He was strongly advised to get rid of them. They often were aggressive and offensive. Now he is going further and going after all private security firms. Dyncorp is still training the National Police Force. I doubt that they will be let go. There must be quite a few security firms linked up with ISAF and Enduring Freedom. I wonder what will happen with them. I suppose if they are associated with ISAF that will be under the rubric of the UN so they will be OK.

All private security firms must close: Afghanistan
1 day ago

KABUL (AFP) — Authorities in Afghanistan want to close down all private security firms operating in the country, many of them illegally, President Hamid Karzai's office said.

About nine unlicensed companies have already been shut down in a crackdown that has been under way in Kabul for weeks, according to city police.

Under the constitution "only the Afghan government has the right of having and handling weapons, so private companies are against the constitution," the president's spokesman Siamak Hirawi told AFP late Wednesday.

A cabinet meeting Monday argued that the dozens of private security firms were illegal and a source of criminality.

"The session decided that in the long term all private companies should be shut down," he said.

"But for the time being a small number of private companies which can prepare themselves to meet the regulations put in place by the ministry of interior will be allowed temporary licences."

Only a "handful" of such companies would be allowed to operate mainly for the use of international organisations and the United Nations, he said.

"In the long run, when Afghan security forces have the capacity to replace them, they will be replaced by government security personnel, police."

Insecurity in Afghanistan has sharply increased because of a rise in crime and an insurgency led by the extremist Taliban who held power until 2001.

A range of security companies are operating in Afghanistan, from US-based Blackwater to smaller Afghan firm, some of them linked to militias or former warlords.

They guard embassies and other premises or act as bodyguards, while some, like the US-based DynCorp, also train Afghan police.

A report released this month by the Swisspeace research institute said that while about 90 firms could be identified by name, only 35 had registered with the government.

Some are alleged to be involved in extortion, kidnapping and the smuggling of drugs, it said.