US PULLS OUT KARZAI'S MILITARY BODYGUARDS

Special Forces Who Foiled Assassination Attempt On Afghan Leader Replaced
By Private Security Guards

He is the most vulnerable head of state in the world - Hamid Karzai, the
President of Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda would like to kill him. Rival warlords
want him dead. In the internecine politics of Afghanistan, even some of his
friends would probably like to see him out of the way.

Karzai survived an assassination attempt in the southern city of Kandahar
in September when a gunman opened fire on his car.

That attack, one of a number on his life, was foiled by his United States
military bodyguards.

But now the special forces men who saved Karzai's life have been quietly
replaced by security guards from one of America's most controversial
private military corporations, DynCorp.

On Friday the State Department confirmed the use of a private security
detail managed by officers of its Diplomatic Security Service.

On the day it emerged that DynCorp had taken over most of the close
protection duties for Karzai, the Vice-President and Defence Minister,
Mohammad Qasim Fahim, survived an attempt on his life in Kabul by al- Qaeda.

According to Afghan security officers in Kabul yesterday, the original
target of the assassination attempt had been Karzai.

Karzai's absence until recently in the US scuppered that plan, and al-
Qaeda had turned its attention to the Vice-President. This revelation is
certain to raise concern over security arrangements for key figures in
Afghanistan's fledgling government, including Karzai, whom President George
Bush has vowed to support.

Officials at the State Department insisted to The Observer last week that
Karzai would receive the same high level of protection from the Diplomatic
Security Service-led detail - with its DynCorp security personnel.

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.

In 2001 an employee of the company contracted to work on Plan Colombia, the
drugs eradication plan instigated by President Bill Clinton, was accused of
trying to smuggle a heroin derivative into the US, although the company
insisted that it had carried out its own investigation and found no
wrongdoing. Critics of the increasingly widespread use by the Department of
Defense and the State Department of private corporations such as DynCorp
are most concerned about the lack of accountability of the privatised
operations being conducted in support of US policy.

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.'