Battered by the scandals surrounding security failures in Benghazi and allegations of criminal activity by diplomats, the State Department is taking over the sensitive process by which background checks are given to locals hired to work at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, the largest and most expensive diplomatic post in the world. The process is […]
For every U.S. service member serving in Afghanistan, there are 1.6 Defense contractors on the ground (and on the payroll) in supporting roles. Contractors make up 62 percent of the force there -- 108,000 versus 65,700 troops, watchdog agency reports reveal. The Congressional Research Service, in a May 17 report obtained by Steven Aftergood of […]
The purpose of the Afghanistan Transportation Network (ATN) is to provide commercial transportation alternatives in the Afghanistan Combined Joint Operations Area (CJOA) while promoting counterinsurgency (COIN) objectives. The overarching ATN plan is to make operations, expansion and partnering decisions in close coordination with US military commanders to ensure the ATN supports their regional COIN objectives. […]
The State Department is pushing a new initiative to ensure contractors and others serving in the department’s diplomatic security corps in Afghanistan and Israel are not abusing opiates, amphetamines, steroids, cocaine and other hard drugs. Recent weeks saw the department solicit bids from private companies to carry out “random and nonrandom substance testing” on a […]
The recipient of the largest government services contract in U.S. history has told military officials it will take another 13 years and half a billion dollars to finish off its work stemming from the Iraq war. This assessment from KBR Inc., which won the $38 billion deal from the U.S. Army way back in 2001, […]