· President Karzai wants to shut down all private security companies in order to free up billions
· Private security companies have long been a source of tension in the country. Some Afghan companies operated as private militias for warlords and many, along with some American companies, have been plagued by accusations of corruption, illegal use of weapons and reckless use of force resulting in civilian deaths and injuries.
· replacing the private companies with his country’s forces is an important step toward Afghan sovereignty.
· NATO, the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development are setting up a task force that could grow to more than 170 people to advise and help train the guard force
· The Pentagon will also be asking Congress to reallocate $35 million to $40 million in funds designated for security in Afghanistan to pay for the task force, a senior NATO official said.
· Of 166 essential criteria only about 1/3 were met
· “has no money available to procure necessary supplies and equipment”; its training center is not teaching leadership skills and cannot generate enough guards to meet the forecasted demand; and the ministry has failed to provide the seed money
· running out of time, as the force needs to be finalized by march
The information presented above is extremely important and relevant to the IR community. This is looking even further into Afghanistan's border security issues which has become an international issue. This also goes into the severe corruption issues that Afghanistan has, putting the people of the country in danger. This also raises the issues of the training of the guards because there are such insufficient funds and trainers to keep the Afghan security forces up and running.
