Yesterday, the Taliban successfully killed at least 18 U.S. servicemembers and Afghan civilians a suicide car-bomb attack. Today, less successfully, Taliban forces attacked the nearby Bagram Air Field, an extremely secure and massive base. They didn’t make it beyond the outer perimeter — where, it’s worth noting, civilian trucks More…
The leak I got yesterday from Kandahar expressing skepticism that counterinsurgency can bring the nine-year war in Afghanistan to a successful conclusion has inspired another one. This time, a former CIA counterterrorism operative who has served on the ground in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq agreed to pass along a More…
In February 2004, Ubrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi was charged with conspiring with al Qaeda in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere to attack and murder civilians and destroy property. The government claimed that al Qosi was an armed guard and driver for Osama bin Laden going back More…
Former employees of ArmorGroup, the private security company that holds a State Department contract to protect the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, unveiled new allegations against the besieged contractor a week after photographic evidence emerged of its guards engaged in physical and sexual harassment. In a press conference revolving around an More…
James Gordon, the former director of operations for the North American branch of ArmorGroup — the State Department contractor accused of physical and sexual harassment while hired to protect the U.S. embassy in Kabul — plans to file a wrongful termination lawsuit against the company, according to a press More…
The AP in Kabul reports that the U.S. Embassy there has cashiered eight of the ArmorGroup security contractors accused of “lewd behavior and sexual misconduct,” as well as ArmorGroup’s in-country management team.
This smells more like crisis management than accountability. For one thing, as the Project on Government More…
It’s still unclear exactly when the State Department’s inspector general began its inquiry into department contractor ArmorGroup’s apparent physical and sexual harrasment at the U.S. embassy in Kabul. Spokesman Ian Kelly said yesterday that the department has known about the latest allegations from the much-criticized company for “ten More…
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly came out of the box yesterday with a strong statement. The State Department takes the allegations of impropriety on the part of ArmorGroup, the security company State hired to protect the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, so seriously that the Office of the Inspector General More…
More from Center for American Progress’ Brian Katulis, who’s in Kabul to monitor Wednesday‘s Thursday’s Afghanistan election for Democracy International. He writes on Foreign Policy’s AfPak Channel:
In addition to the potential for more pre-election attacks by the Taliban, speculation abounds about the possibility for post-election
There’s a haunting paragraph in Nancy Youssef’s dispatch from Kabul today. She writes about the influx of U.S. diplomats and other civilians to Kabul — generally considered a Good Thing, even if their activities may be less necessary in the capitol than in the provinces but whatever — and More…
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