Military security contracts aided Taliban, Senate inquiry finds

Defense Department security contracts in Afghanistan have funneled millions of dollars to local powerbrokers, some with ties to the Taliban and who carried out killings, bribery and kidnappings, a congressional investigation has found.

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters at a news conference Thursday that a yearlong inquiry has uncovered “significant evidence that some security contractors even worked against our coalition forces, creating the very threat that they are hired to prevent.”

The Senate inquiry is the latest investigation of millions of dollars suspected of going astray in the war effort. Last week, an audit by the inspector general of the U.S. Agency for International Development found a U.S.-funded development project near Jalalabad, in northern Afghanistan, may have inadvertently paid millions to militants for security.

In one case detailed in the Senate report, an Afghan named Reza Khan, described by the committee as a “warlord” who was supplying armed guards at a NATO air base in Herat province, was killed when U.S. forces raided his house in 2008 after receiving intelligence that Taliban commanders were meeting there.

The U.S. raid was denounced at the time by Afghan officials, including President Hamid Karzai, and led then- President George W. Bush to call Karzai and apologize for causing civilian casualties. But the committee said a U.S. military investigation concluded that “22 anti-coalition militia” were among the 55 Afghans killed in the raid, including Khan and seven air base guards.

As U.S. troop levels have gone up in Afghanistan over the last two years, the number of armed security guards under contract with the Defense Department has risen sharply, from about 1,000 in 2007 to more than 16,000 this year; most of them are Afghans. The total number of private security personnel in Afghanistan is about 26,000 — larger than a U.S. Army division.

The Armed Services Committee investigation examined more than 125 Defense Department contracts totaling more than $100 million that were signed from 2007 to 2009 with Afghan firms, as well as with Western companies that hired Afghans as security guards.

The committee said it found very few audits and little scrutiny from the Defense Department into whether the firms were complying with the terms of the contracts.

The committee found many instances in which guards were ill-equipped and were not trained in the use of firearms the report says.

Other incidents cited in the report include one in February when a Marine lance corporal was killed after an Afghan security guard employed at a U.S. base opened fire on his squad while it was on dawn patrol. Marines later told investigators that the Afghan guards were “high on opium” when the shooting occurred.

The report also says that EOD Technology Inc., a security company headquartered in Tennessee, relied on Afghans with possible links to Taliban militants to supply guards as part of a Defense Department contract to protect a training center for Afghan police in the town of Adraskan, in Herat.

The Afghans used by the company included Haji Dawoud, whom EODT described as a “well-known tribal leader” from one of the villages where the company drew most of its guard forces.

But the committee investigation cites a military intelligence report that describes Dawoud as “one of the village’s Taliban.” Some personnel hired by EODT had previously been fired by another security contractor, ArmorGroup, based in Britain, for passing sensitive security information to a Taliban-linked warlord, the committee found.

EODT also employed an Afghan named Mirza Khan, known as “Commander Blue,” who was a “person of influence in Adraskan,” the report says. Khan is a former police officer with ties to the government of Iran, according to the report.

In a statement, EODT noted that its contract required using Afghan guards from the Adraskan area and said the company’s contract cleared a Defense audit in 2008.

In some cases, the investigation found, Afghan security contractors were providing information to the Taliban about security arrangements at NATO facilities.

General David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has issued new guidelines on contracting by the military. Karzai, meanwhile, has threatened to expel private security companies.

david.cloud@latimes.com