Private security guards breathed a sigh of relief this week after Hamid Karzai walked back his vow to kick them out of Afghanistan. Except for Michael Hearn.
Hearn is a consultant for Global Strategies Group, a British company with a Defense Department contract to protect "reconstruction and infrastructure development efforts in often hostile environments," projects that include the Kabul airport. He's been arrested by Afghan forces on charges of carrying an unregistered weapon and could serve eight months in prison.
The arrest might augur a new tack for Afghanistan's president, who threatened to get rid of private security companies in August -- something U.S. diplomats considered a gambit to benefit from the unpopularity of the sometimes-lawbending companies. Karzai eased that ban on Monday after NATO diplomats warned him that reconstruction and humanitarian aid companies would leave Afghanistan if they were unprotected. So it's possible that Karzai could allow many of the firms licensed but crack down on individual employees.
There would be some precedent for it. "Over the last year, there seems to be more scrutiny on private security companies, including increasing arrests and fines," a U.S. lawyer who's represented jailed guards told the Washington Post. "There is an argument to be made that the reason for this is to slowly terminate private security companies through guerrilla tactics."
According to the Post, Hearn's arrest came after Afghan authorities inspected Global's armory and found 11 unregistered guns, which the company says were to be used for spare parts. Global would hardly be the only company to have off-the-books weapons in Afghanistan. Last year, a Senate inquiry found that a Blackwater front group called Paravant took hundreds of rifles and pistols from a U.S. military weapons depot without proper authorization, signing for them with the name of South Park's Eric Cartman.
Hearn's detention comes as the State Department is preparing to award a new round of deals for protecting its diplomats as part of a mega-contract called Worldwide Protective Services. So far, EOD Technology has been assigned to guard the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, but a State spokesman told Danger Room earlier this week that no other companies have received so-called task orders for Afghanistan. Those that do had better make sure to account for all their guns.
And they may face other restrictions. The Afghan government says security contractors that remain in Afghanistan will have to abide by an as-yet-unspecified "code of conduct." Supposedly, the next round of detail about the future of contractors in the country will come in a week, when the government plans to release a list of banned firms.
Photo: Wikimedia
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