Special forces who foiled assassination attempt [Actually, an Afghan youth foiled the attempt] on Afghan leader replaced by private security guards:
DynCorp has been involved in a series of recent high-profile scandals. A substantial financial backer of Bush’s election campaign, the company employs almost 25,000 staff, many of them former US military personnel, working in areas from security to aircraft maintenance.
While much of DynCorp’s work is of a non-controversial nature, it has become embroiled in a series of damaging allegations involving personnel in sensitive missions overseas.
DynCorp personnel contracted to the United Nations police service in Bosnia were implicated in buying and selling prostitutes, including a girl as young as 12. Several DynCorp employees were also accused of videotaping the rape of one of the women.
When a fellow DynCorp employee blew the whistle on the sex ring, she was dismissed by the company for drawing attention to their misbehaviour, according to the ruling of a British industrial tribunal earlier this year.
According to a recent article in New Republic magazine, DynCorp staff allegedly contracted to the CIA were involved in the accidental shooting down of a plane carrying US missionaries in Peru which had wrongly been identified as a drug smuggling aircraft. …
Defending the decision to remove Karzai’s special forces bodyguard, a spokesman for the Department of Defense said the decision to recall the US troops had been intended to take place around the time of the assassination attempt in September, but that the switchover had been put off because of the incident.
DynCorp refused to comment, telling The Observer it had been ‘gagged’ over talking about the Afghan deal.
It was left to the State Department to offer a rationale. ‘Responsibility for Mr Karzai’s security was handed over earlier this month to the Diplomatic Security Service,’ said an official, speaking anonymously. ‘DynCorp personnel are involved in the detail that is being managed by the Diplomatic Security Service officials who have long experience in providing this kind of protection.’
So, now American tax dollars are going to support the protection of a corrupt Afghan warlord, our friend Karzai, by a corrupt, Bush-election-supporting, murdering, child-raping corporation? I’m proud to be an American, how about you?