Bush hired blackwater..Obama hired the taliban for protection..LOL!!!

Military security contracts aided Taliban, Senate inquiry finds
Millions of dollars, and sometimes sensitive information, have flowed to militants via Afghans hired to provide security at military bases in Afghanistan, a Senate report says.


Reporting from Washington — Defense Department security contracts in Afghanistan have funneled millions of dollars to local powerbrokers, some with ties to the Taliban and who carried out killings, bribery and kidnappings, a congressional investigation has found.

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters at a news conference Thursday that a yearlong inquiry has uncovered "significant evidence that some security contractors even worked against our coalition forces, creating the very threat that they are hired to prevent."

The Senate inquiry is the latest investigation of millions of dollars suspected of going astray in the war effort. Last week, an audit by the inspector general of the U.S. Agency for International Development found a U.S.-funded development project near Jalalabad, in northern Afghanistan, may have inadvertently paid millions to militants for security.

In one case detailed in the Senate report, an Afghan named Reza Khan, described by the committee as a "warlord" who was supplying armed guards at a NATO air base in Herat province, was killed when U.S. forces raided his house in 2008 after receiving intelligence that Taliban commanders were meeting there.

The U.S. raid was denounced at the time by Afghan officials, including President Hamid Karzai, and led then- President George W. Bush to call Karzai and apologize for causing civilian casualties. But the committee said a U.S. military investigation concluded that "22 anti-coalition militia" were among the 55 Afghans killed in the raid, including Khan and seven air base guards.

As U.S. troop levels have gone up in Afghanistan over the last two years, the number of armed security guards under contract with the Defense Department has risen sharply, from about 1,000 in 2007 to more than 16,000 this year; most of them are Afghans. The total number of private security personnel in Afghanistan is about 26,000 — larger than a U.S. Army division.