Inspector General: Army Endangered Troops With Poor Screening of Afghan Translators

US Ignored Own Screening Requirements Ahead of Surge in Insider Attacks

by Jason Ditz, January 11, 2013

The enormous surge in “green-on-blue” attacks against NATO occupation forces has brought renewed focus to the stringent “screening” requirements for Afghan troops and contractors linked that come in contact with them.

But as the US continues to fault the Afghan government for not keeping up with its assorted rules and regulations, a report from the Pentagon’s Inspector General shows that the US Army didn’t do so either, in many cases skipping the screening of Afghan translators during the 2009-10 surge.

US Army Intelligence downplays the seriousness of the report, saying that “corrective action” was taken immediately after the report in 2010, and insisting that all translators have since been perfectly screened.

As insider attacks have grown, the Pentagon has ordered the Afghan military to re-screen its entire military, accusing them of improperly doing so in the first place. As with the US hiring of translators, the Afghan military is so desperate to recruit in the face of mass desertions, they often overlook the requirements on individual recruits to get the numbers up.

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