Karzai renews opposition to security firms after meeting

[maddezmom]

Source: WaPo

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN - The confrontation between President Hamid Karzai and the NATO coalition over the fate of private security companies accelerated Monday as Karzai lashed out again about the damaging role the guards play in Afghanistan.

Karzai has come under intense pressure to back down from his intention to bar private guards from protecting development projects in Afghanistan, including a call from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, as U.S. officials have warned that the ban could shut down billions of dollars in programs and put thousands of Afghans out of work.

Behind the scenes, foreign diplomats have been working furiously to forge some face-saving compromise that would allow Karzai to phase out the private security companies over time while not jeopardizing a key component of NATO's counterinsurgency strategy.

In recent days, Karzai has remained defiant in his commitment to phasing out these companies, while at the same time opening the door for possible compromise by suggesting that projects needing private security could be approved on a case-by-case basis. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. and NATO commander here; Karzai; and other senior officials were involved in an unusually tense meeting over the issue Sunday in Kabul, according to Western diplomats.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/25/AR2010102505371.html