Afghans Are Fed Up With (private US) Security Firm (feels like occupation)

[papau]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mercs27sep27.story
Afghans Are Fed Up With Security Firm(feels like occupation)
Residents of a Kabul neighborhood say they feel they are under occupation as DynCorp barricades a street and conducts searches.
By Hamida Ghafour
Special to The Times

September 27, 2004

KABUL, Afghanistan — The entrance to Khailmohmad Safi's garage is blocked by about 200 sandbags, and a few feet away, behind 8-foot-high concrete barriers, several heavily armed men talk into their radios and peer out into the street.

The setting looks like the gateway to a military base. Instead, it is a street in the middle of one of the capital's most affluent neighborhoods. The road contains the residential compound of the DynCorp security firm.<snip>

"I feel like we are under an occupation," Safi said. "This is a residential area, and we are civilians. I'm worried we will be hit by a rocket. We had visiting guests come but when they saw the Americans with guns they became so scared they turned around and left."

<snip>But attitudes may be changing, in part because of the security issue and the behavior of some employees of the private security firms. The problem has reached the point that the U.S. Embassy is forming a committee to address the issue of Afghan perceptions of Americans, a Western official said.

Heated debates abound in teashops and bazaars about security contractors — many of whom drive aggressively, block off streets without notification, wear military fatigues and wraparound shades and appear to randomly point weapons at residents on congested streets.
<snip>

[el_gato]

1. kick

[papau]

2. Thanks for the Kick - another topic that will not be on NBC News!

:-(