Your Security Contractor Oversight in One Brief Exchange

Sen. George Lemieux (R-Fla.) wants to know which official at U.S. Central Command or anywhere else in the chain of command is “ultimately responsible for [ensuring] these contracts are being performed the way they’re supposed to.” Sensibly, he asked retired Col. Bradley Wakefield, a top former officer at Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, the command responsible for overseeing the training of Afghan security forces.

Wakefield’s reply? “Sir, I do not know that.”

Who’d he report to? “The commanding general of CSTC-A.” And if he wanted to follow up on a specific contractor’s performance? Not his responsibility.