Afghanistan : Making a killing

LA Times : Four men with the U.S. firm once known as Blackwater are said to be under investigation in the deaths of two Afghans. A U.S. report found serious fault with private security firms in Afghanistan.

Kabul : Residents say the U.S. contractors opened fire without provocation after one of their vehicles tipped over in a traffic accident. The driver of a Toyota said the Americans ordered him to stop, then told him to move on. When the driver began pulling away the Americans started shooting. A passenger in the car was killed and a man walking about 200 yards away was shot in the head. No weapons were found in the Toyota, or on the bystander. A lawyer representing the four contractors said the company [Xe] falsely accused the men of drinking alcohol that night.

The U.S. spent between $6 billion and $10 billion on security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2003 through 2007 alone, according to Congress. In all, there are more than 71,000 security contractors or guards, armed and unarmed, in Afghanistan.

Since February, oversight of security contractors in Afghanistan has been entrusted not to Congress or the Pentagon, but to a British-owned private contractor, Aegis.
The company was hired by the American government after the U.S. military said it lacked the manpower and expertise to monitor security contractors.

The US military says it lacks the manpower and expertise to monitor its mercenaries ...
.
h/t Pogge via B'n R.
.

And now - your late night mid-holiday spectacularly unpopular Afghanistan news dump

Defence Minister Peter MacKay announced today in Afghanistan that "Canada may well stay in Afghanistan beyond its 2011 military mandate" blah blah blah "subject to the will of the people" blah blah.
By "people" I presume he is referring to Steve, Iggy, and Obama.
You're shocked, I'm sure.

The G&M reports that "Defence Construction Canada wants to buy 400 more beds at the Kandahar Air Field by next year, at a cost of $5-million, with an option to build 400 more."

I guess we're intending to open the world's largest B&B over there after 2011.

MacKay also announced that we're giving up that whole taking and holding territory thing in favour of closing down outposts and redeploying inside Kandahar City. Likewise in Kabul, foreign embassies are being relocated to a diplomatic quarter to be built next to Kabul airport. With Afghan authorities claiming that 140 civilians were killed by U.S fighter planes this month in southwest Afghanistan, bunkering down inside Baghdad-style Green Zones is probably a good idea.
.
Say, I'll bet now that Obama has put Cheney's torturer in charge of Afghanistan, things will brighten right up over there.

Btw, if you've ever wanted a job that entails driving around drunk with your buddies and some loaded weapons, crashing your vehicle, and then firing on oncoming cars and killing people allegedly, you could do no better than to forward your resumé to Blackwater/Xe/Paravant/Whatever in Afghanistan.
.