Pubdate: Sun, 24 Nov 2002
Source: Observer, The (UK)
Copyright: 2002 The Observer
Contact:  http://www.observer.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/315
Author: Peter Beaumont

US PULLS OUT KARZAI'S MILITARY BODYGUARDS

Special Forces Who Foiled Assassination Attempt On Afghan Leader Replaced 
By Private Security Guards

He is the most vulnerable head of state in the world - Hamid Karzai, the 
President of Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda would like to kill him. Rival warlords 
want him dead. In the internecine politics of Afghanistan, even some of his 
friends would probably like to see him out of the way.

Karzai survived an assassination attempt in the southern city of Kandahar 
in September when a gunman opened fire on his car.

That attack, one of a number on his life, was foiled by his United States 
military bodyguards.

But now the special forces men who saved Karzai's life have been quietly 
replaced by security guards from one of America's most controversial 
private military corporations, DynCorp.

On Friday the State Department confirmed the use of a private security 
detail managed by officers of its Diplomatic Security Service.

On the day it emerged that DynCorp had taken over most of the close 
protection duties for Karzai, the Vice-President and Defence Minister, 
Mohammad Qasim Fahim, survived an attempt on his life in Kabul by al- Qaeda.

According to Afghan security officers in Kabul yesterday, the original 
target of the assassination attempt had been Karzai.

Karzai's absence until recently in the US scuppered that plan, and al- 
Qaeda had turned its attention to the Vice-President. This revelation is 
certain to raise concern over security arrangements for key figures in 
Afghanistan's fledgling government, including Karzai, whom President George 
Bush has vowed to support.

Officials at the State Department insisted to The Observer last week that 
Karzai would receive the same high level of protection from the Diplomatic 
Security Service-led detail - with its DynCorp security personnel.

DynCorp has been involved in a series of recent high-profile scandals. A 
substantial financial backer of Bush's election campaign, the company 
employs almost 25,000 staff, many of them former US military personnel, 
working in areas from security to aircraft maintenance.

While much of DynCorp's work is of a non-controversial nature, it has 
become embroiled in a series of damaging allegations involving personnel in 
sensitive missions overseas.

DynCorp personnel contracted to the United Nations police service in Bosnia 
were implicated in buying and selling prostitutes, including a girl as 
young as 12. Several DynCorp employees were also accused of videotaping the 
rape of one of the women.

When a fellow DynCorp employee blew the whistle on the sex ring, she was 
dismissed by the company for drawing attention to their misbehaviour, 
according to the ruling of a British industrial tribunal earlier this year.

According to a recent article in New Republic magazine, DynCorp staff 
allegedly contracted to the CIA were involved in the accidental shooting 
down of a plane carrying US missionaries in Peru which had wrongly been 
identified as a drug smuggling aircraft.

In 2001 an employee of the company contracted to work on Plan Colombia, the 
drugs eradication plan instigated by President Bill Clinton, was accused of 
trying to smuggle a heroin derivative into the US, although the company 
insisted that it had carried out its own investigation and found no 
wrongdoing. Critics of the increasingly widespread use by the Department of 
Defense and the State Department of private corporations such as DynCorp 
are most concerned about the lack of accountability of the privatised 
operations being conducted in support of US policy.

Defending the decision to remove Karzai's special forces bodyguard, a 
spokesman for the Department of Defense said the decision to recall the US 
troops had been intended to take place around the time of the assassination 
attempt in September, but that the switchover had been put off because of 
the incident.

DynCorp refused to comment, telling The Observer it had been 'gagged' over 
talking about the Afghan deal.

It was left to the State Department to offer a rationale. 'Responsibility 
for Mr Karzai's security was handed over earlier this month to the 
Diplomatic Security Service,' said an official, speaking anonymously. 
'DynCorp personnel are involved in the detail that is being managed by the 
Diplomatic Security Service officials who have long experience in providing 
this kind of protection.'
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