Saturday, March 12, 2011
Despite demands from President Hamid Karzai that all private security contractors should leave his country by January 2011, the U.S. had no qualms about expanding the number of private guards in Afghanistan during 2010.
As of December 31, there were 18,919 private security contractors working in Afghanistan, the highest number since the Department of Defense began keeping track in September 2007. Since June 2009, the number of armed contractors in Afghanistan more than tripled.
An additional 8,327 private security personnel work for the U.S. in Iraq. As the State Department takes over from the Defense Department in Iraq, this number is expected to increase by about 3,000.
In Afghanistan, 95% of the U.S.-employed private security contractors are Afghans. This same pattern does not exist in Iraq, where only 1% of private security contractors are Iraqis.
-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky
The Department of Defense’s Use of Private Security Contractors in Afghanistan and Iraq: Background, Analysis, and Options for Congress (by Moshe Schwartz, Congressional Research Service) (pdf)
All Security Contractors Out of Afghanistan? There’s a Loophole (by Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky, AllGov)
Karzai Family Inc. in Afghanistan (by David Wallechinsky and Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
Comments