White House Considering Employing Private Contractors To Fight The War In Afghanistan

USA Today: Trump White House weighs unprecedented plan to privatize much of the war in Afghanistan

The White House is actively considering a bold plan to turn over a big chunk of the U.S. war in Afghanistan to private contractors in an effort to turn the tide in a stalemated war, according to the former head of a security firm pushing the project.

Under the proposal, 5,500 private contractors, primarily former Special Operations troops, would advise Afghan combat forces. The plan also includes a 90-plane private air force that would provide air support in the nearly 16-year-old war against Taliban insurgents, Erik Prince, founder of the Blackwater security firm, told USA TODAY.

The unprecedented proposal comes as the U.S.-backed Afghan military faces a stalemate in the war and growing frustration by President Trump about the lack of progress in the war.

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WNU Editor: I understand that contractors have been used (and are being used) in Afghanistan. But this is an expansion that I have trouble accepting.

More News On The White House Considering Employing Private Contractors To Fight The War In Afghanistan

White House is considering plan to privatize Afghanistan presence: Report -- Washington Examiner
Blackwater founder says contractors in Afghanistan wouldn't be mercenaries -- CBS
The Trump administration is considering handing the Afghanistan war off to 5,500 private contractors -- The Week
Ex-Blackwater chief wants private army to take over US military effort in Afghanistan: report -- Express Tribune
Erik Prince’s private air force in Afghanistan faces many legal hurdles -- Navy Times
Erik Prince offers private military force in Afghanistan -- Financial Times
The Bad Faith Case for Contractors in Afghanistan: There is no silver bullet. -- Max Boot, Commentary

Russia Has its Own Version Of Blackwater

Photos apparently captured by IS fighters appear to show Russian mercenaries

SKY News: Revealed: Russia's 'Secret Syria Mercenaries'

Sky News speaks to men who claim they were trained and flown on Russian military planes to assist troops loyal to Bashar al Assad.

If Russia is a nation at war, the Kremlin has always been careful to frame its campaign in Syria as an aerial operation.

Other than a limited number of 'instructors and military advisers', Russian officials have repeatedly stated that they do not need to put 'boots on the ground'.

The Russian narrative of low-cost conflict has been seriously challenged however by a group of young Russian men who claim that their country's involvement in Syria is far more extensive - and more costly - than anyone in President Putin's administration is prepared to admit.

These individuals told Sky News that they were recruited by a highly secretive private military company called 'Wagner' and flown to Syria aboard Russian military transport planes.

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WNU Editor: Russian social media is filled with stories of these men (and most of it is negative). But there are many who are still signing up.

Keeping U.S. Troops In Afghanistan Will Mean Billions For The Contractors

Kate Brannen, Foreign Policy: Cashing In on the Decision to Keep U.S. Troops in Afghanistan

Why Obama dropping his promise to end America's longest war is going to give contractors billions of dollars.

In August, the nation’s top military officer came to President Barack Obama and bluntly asked him to break a promise to bring the last American troops home from Afghanistan by the time the president left office.

Obama had been repeating the vow for years, but Gen. Martin Dempsey, then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the United States needed to keep at least 5,000 troops in Afghanistan beyond 2016 to ensure that the Islamic State didn’t take root there and to prevent al Qaeda from moving back into the country. In July, the Pentagon discovered that the terrorist group responsible for the 9/11 attacks had been running a pair of large training camps in southern Afghanistan, including one that covered nearly 30 square miles.

The president, anxious to prevent Afghanistan from turning into another Iraq, told Dempsey that he was willing to consider the troop request. First, though, he wanted the general to tell him the “no kidding” cost of keeping U.S. forces there — including what the Pentagon would pay the thousands of contractors needed to house, feed, and support U.S. military personnel. Wisened after years of overseeing two wars, Obama didn’t want to let the additional cost of contractors escape him, particularly since the military rarely includes it in its proposals. The exchange was first reported by the Washington Post. The White House declined to comment on the president’s decision-making.

WNU Editor: ovder the years the story of contractors working in Afghanistan has not changed as this 2009 WSJ post reveals .... Afghanistan Contractors Outnumber Troops (WSJ). Sighhh .... it is always about the money.

Private U.S. Contractors Are Returning To Iraq

A U.S. soldier performs a radio check during a patrol in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad (Reuters/Saad Shalash)

As U.S. Troops Return To Iraq, More Private Contractors Follow -- Reuters

(Reuters) - The U.S. government is preparing to boost the number of private contractors in Iraq as part of President Barack Obama's growing effort to beat back Islamic State militants threatening the Baghdad government, a senior U.S. official said.

How many contractors will deploy to Iraq - beyond the roughly 1,800 now working there for the U.S. State Department - will depend in part, the official said, on how widely dispersed U.S. troops advising Iraqi security forces are, and how far they are from U.S. diplomatic facilities.

Still, the preparations to increase the number of contractors - who can be responsible for everything from security to vehicle repair and food service - underscores Obama's growing commitment in Iraq. When U.S. troops and diplomats venture into war zones, contractors tend to follow, doing jobs once handled by the military itself.

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More News On The Return Of U.S. Contractors To Iraq

US to send more private contractors to Iraq -- Al Jazeera
More private contractors following US troops to Iraq -- Press TV
Miss Blackwater Yet? U.S. Private Mercenaries Back in Iraq -- Sputnik
Instead of Boots on the Ground, US Seeks Iraq Contractors -- Military.com/Stars and Stripes
America's paid boots on the ground -- The Week

My Comment: This was all predicted 4 months ago .... As troops head back to Iraq as ‘advisers,’ more contractors can’t be far behind (Washington Post) .... and even 10 months ago .... Role of U.S. Contractors Grows as Iraq Fights Insurgents (Wall Street Journal) and here .... Contractors flood into Iraq to give Al-Qaeda a run for the money (RT).

Update: Here is a sobering statistic on how dangerous life has been for contractors in war zones .... from The Week ....

.... About as many contractors working for the U.S. have been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq as U.S. troops, but those deaths generally are ignored in assessing the cost of the wars. As of October 2014, 6,838 troops had been killed in the two conflicts, while the estimated number of contractors killed was some 6,800. Tens of thousands of additional contractors have been injured, with some losing limbs or suffering other permanent disabilities.

How Did An Afghan Company With Ties To The Taliban Gain Access To A NATO Airbase?

U.S. soldiers move in a tactical formation during a partnered patrol in Madi Khel village in Khowst province, Afghanistan, Oct. 20, 2013. U.S. Army photo by Maj. Kamil Sztalkoper

Shady Afghan Company Tied To Taliban Gains Access To NATO Airbase -- Washington Times

An Afghan company with ties to the Taliban gained access to a detention facility located on a NATO airbase because of poor U.S. government communication and inaction by the U.S. Army, according to the U.S. special inspector general in Afghanistan.

The Department of Commerce had flagged the Zurmat Group and its subsidiaries in April 2012 because of their involvement in providing components for roadside bombs against U.S. and coalition forces. In September 2012, U.S. Central Command identified Zurmat and its subsidiaries as actively supporting an insurgency and restricted the company from receiving any Pentagon contracts in the region.

However, that information was not passed on to a contractor tasked with building a courthouse on NATO's Bagram Air Base at the Parwan Justice Center complex. The contractor, CLC Construction, hired Zurmat to perform testing on the courthouse and allowed the company access to the facility in November 2012.

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More News Of An Afghan Company With Ties To The Taliban Gaining Access To A NATO Airbase

Afghan Companies With Insurgent Ties Still Receive U.S. Contracts -- New York Times
Watchdog: Contractor suspected of helping insurgents briefly engaged on coalition project -- Stars and Stripes
Afghan companies with insurgent ties pose challenge for US. -- Economic Times
IG: Contractor Aided Insurgency, Accessed Coalition Facility -- TRNS
Contractor Supporting Insurgents in Afghanistan Granted Access to Coalition Facilities -- Weekly Standard

My Comment: This is a classic case of the "left hand" not knowing what the "right hand" is doing.

Party Time In A War Zone

Cell-phone video provided to ABC News by whistleblowers appears to show U.S. security contractors in Afghanistan getting drunk and using drugs. (ABC News)

Exclusive: Video Shows Drunk, Stoned US Security Contractors -- ABC News

Cellphone video recorded earlier this year at an operations center of a U.S. security contractor in Kabul, Afghanistan appears to show key personnel staggeringly drunk or high on narcotics, in what former employees say was a pattern of outrageous behavior that put American lives at risk and went undetected by U.S. military officials who are supposed to oversee such contractors.

The video, provided to ABC News by two former employees, is scheduled to be broadcast in a report this evening on "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" and "Nightline."

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My Comment: Depressing .... but not surprising.

More Contractors Than Soldiers Are Dying In Afghanistan

Contractors from the United States and other countries were wounded in an attack last year in Logar Province, Afghanistan. Umit Bektas/Reuters

Risks Of Afghan War Shift From Soldiers To Contractors -- New York Times

KABUL, Afghanistan — Even dying is being outsourced here.

This is a war where traditional military jobs, from mess hall cooks to base guards and convoy drivers, have increasingly been shifted to the private sector. Many American generals and diplomats have private contractors for their personal bodyguards. And along with the risks have come the consequences: More civilian contractors working for American companies than American soldiers died in Afghanistan last year for the first time during the war.

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My Comment: The stats that struck me from this report are the following ....

.... Last year, at least 430 employees of American contractors were reported killed in Afghanistan: 386 working for the Defense Department, 43 for the United States Agency for International Development and one for the State Department, according to data provided by the American Embassy in Kabul and publicly available in part from the United States Department of Labor.

By comparison, 418 American soldiers died in Afghanistan last year, according to Defense Department statistics compiled by icasualties.org, an independent organization that monitors war deaths.

430 contractors .... 418 American soldiers.

Bottom line .... the Afghan war is far more bloodier than what they are telling us.

Worst Examples Of Waste In The Iraq And Afghan Wars

Worst Examples of Taxpayer Money Wasted in Iraq and Afghanistan -- AllGov

When the U.S. government wasted somewhere between $30 billion and $60 billion on contracts for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, it did so in a variety of ways.

For example, the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) in 2005 hired Supreme Foodservice of Switzerland to ship “vitally needed” food to bases in Afghanistan. Among the $4.2 billion billed to the Pentagon were hundreds of millions of dollars in possible overcharges for providing “premium airlift” of fresh fruits and vegetables from the United Arab Emirates, among other things. Still, the company got a two-year extension on its contract, while Robert Dail, the Army general who was in command of the DLA contract became president of the company’s U.S. division four months after he retired from the Army.

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My Comment: From combat to commerce .... where is the motivation to end these wars?

Is Human Trafficking Occurring On U.S. Military Bases Abroad?

The Invisible Army -- The New Yorker

For foreign workers on U.S. bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, war can be hell.

ABSTRACT: A REPORTER AT LARGE about the recruitment and treatment of foreign workers employed as support staff on American military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. Tells about Vinnie Tuivaga and Lydia Qeraniu, two women from Fiji who were recruited in 2007 by a local firm called Meridian Services Agency, which promised them jobs in Dubai. Once they reached Dubai, however, they were told that they were actually bound for jobs on U.S. military bases in Iraq. Lydia and Vinnie were unwitting recruits for the Pentagon’s invisible army: more than seventy thousand cooks, cleaners, construction workers, fast-food clerks, electricians, and beauticians from the world’s poorest countries who service U.S. military logistics contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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My Comment: You have to be a subscriber to get the entire story .... but the abstract says it all. For foreign workers on U.S. bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, questions of abuse and mistreatment are being raised.

U.S. Projects In War Zones Are Not Sustainable

U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Samuel Toso talks with Mullah Fida Mohammed in Deh Afghanan village, Afghanistan, May 27, 2011. Toso is assigned to Provincial Reconstruction Team Zabul, Arghandab detachment. Members visited the village to discuss local governance with elders. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson

U.S. Projects In War Zones Are Unsustainable, Study Finds -- Washington Post

Billions of dollars worth of U.S.-funded reconstruction projects in Afghanistan and Iraq could fall into disrepair over the next few years because inadequate provisions have been made to pay for their ongoing operations and maintenance, according to a report to be released Friday by a bipartisan legislative commission.

The Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan says it “sees no indication” that the Pentagon, the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development are “effectively taking sustainability risks into account when devising new projects or programs.”

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Update: Commission questions long-term success of int'l projects -- Washington Business Journal

My Comment: Throwing money and resources at a problem rarely succeeds if the culture and environment are not compatible with what the aid is suppose to accomplish. In Afghanistan .... a culture of corruption, tribalism, and a long history of abusing foreign aid will result in a catastrophe and a total waste of money when Western forces and their aid managers leave. In fact .... I am more than willing to claim that even if one trillion dollars is dedicated to Afghanistan right now .... when you go back 10 years from now .... nothing would have changed.

More Waste Revealed From The Wars In Iraq And Afghanistan

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, center, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, left, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Robert F. Hale, undersecretary of defense (comptroller) testify at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the department's 2012 budget request in Washington, D.C., Feb. 17, 2011. DOD photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley

Report: Billions Lost On Contracts In Iraq And Afghanistan -- CNN

Washington (CNN) -- A new report blasts the U.S. government for wasting tens of billions of dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan by relying too much on contractors and doing too little to monitor their performance.

The interim report from the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan points out that contractors in the war zones sometimes have exceeded the number of military personnel. Numbering 200,000, contractors now roughly match the military force.

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More News On Waste In Iraq And Afghanistan

Study says US wasted billions in Iraq, Afghanistan -- AFP
US wasted billions in Iraq and Afghanistan, says report -- RFI
Wartime contracting commission details years of waste -- Government Executive
US oversight of war-zone contractors labeled weak -- Bloomerbg Businessweek
Commission Concerned with Contingency Contracting -- Project on Government Oversight

My Comment: With so much money 'sloshing around' .... who has any motivation to stop these wars and conflicts?

U.S. Oversight Of War-Zone Contractors Called Weak

Private security guards pose on a Baghdad rooftop in September 2007. Radio Free Europe

US Oversight Of War-Zone Contractors Labeled Weak -- Stars And Stripes/AP

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama pledged nearly two years ago to fix the broken system of awarding and managing federal contracts. But a new report paints a grim picture of the government's reliance on the private sector for support in war zones and urges a series of reforms to prevent more U.S. tax dollars from being wasted.

The Commission on Wartime Contracting concluded that the use of hired hands has become a "default option," pointing to the estimated $177 billion spent since 2001 on contractors in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to a draft of the report expected to be released Thursday.

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My Comment: now that is what I call an understatement.

Dogs Of War: Bleeding Heart Contractors

From UPI:

WASHINGTON, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- Where are the future markets for private security contractors? In recent years, thanks to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, their clients have been primarily governments or contractors doing reconstruction work. By definition, such clients are officious and bureaucratic but are organizationally and culturally familiar, if only because most security contractors once served in those very same governments' military establishments. For many contractors it is just another day working for Uncle Sam, albeit with better pay and less Mickey Mouse rigmarole to contend with.

But the Iraq security bubble, valued at $6 billion to $22 billion in 2005, won't last forever, and the future may find contractors working for a very different kind of client, namely bleeding heart humanitarians. An article published this year in Security Dialogue journal by Christopher Spearin, chairman of the department of security and international affairs at the Canadian Forces College, finds that contractors increasingly look to humanitarianism as a future market opportunity.

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My Comment: People will do anything for money .... why not humanitarian aid.

Obama Urged To Review Use Of Private Firms In War

Last year, swearing in before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Capitol Hill, Blackwater USA Chief Executive Erik Prince testified about security contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Photo: Reuters / Larry Downing) Photo taken from Truthout.

From The Guardian:

WASHINGTON, Nov 14 (Reuters) - The Obama administration should move away from using private contractors in active battle areas in Iraq and Afghanistan and dramatically step up oversight, a Washington think tank urged on Friday.

The U.S. military has long used private contractors in fighting its wars, but Washington's reliance on non-uniformed civilians has sharply increased over the past five years, the New America Foundation said in a new report.

It said the ratio of military personnel to private contractors is now around one to one, and some experts believed there are more contractors than troops in Iraq, compared to 50 to one during the 1991 Gulf War, according to the report.

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My Comment: Contractors are used because of the cost benefits .... if they were to expensive, they would have been gone a long time ago.