US State Department cautions private firm guarding Karzai

WASHINGTON, Oct 13 (AFP) - The US State Department said Wednesday it had cautioned a private American firm protecting Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai about the aggressive behaviour of its guards.
DynCorp was deployed by the department since November 2002 to provide bodyguards to the US-backed Karzai, who escaped an assassination bid by the ousted Taliban militia before presidential elections at the weekend.
Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the department had received "reports of aggressive behavior by some of the contractors," including DynCorp, and that "we have addressed that issue.
"We'll continue to raise these issues and address them as necessary," he told reporters, without identifying specific cases.
Boucher was responding to a New York Times article which said the Dyncorp guards, at best, reinforce the stereotype of Americans as "brawny and boorish."
The article was titled, "The Intimidating Face of America" and quoted French defense minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, who recently visited Kabul, as saying the behaviour of the bodyguards "gives a very bad impression."
Boucher explained that providing security for President Karzai was "a difficult" task and within "a very dangerous environment."
He said the department had control over "responsibility and the supervision" of Karzai's security "and we think overall, the security detail out there has done an outstanding job and we appreciate the efforts of everybody involved."
The aggressive nature of the DynCorp guards was also highlighted by the Washington Post after a visit by US Secretary of State Colin Powell to Kabul in March.
Karzai's security detail kept pointing their rifles at members of the media when Powell and the Afghan leader were fielding inquiries from reporters at the presidential palace, the newspaper said.
They also appeared to be pointing the rifles at State Department security detail, the Post said, adding that "Powell's security folks were furious."
The newspaper said it was informed that the department's security staff might file a formal complaint and Boucher said on Wednesday that the matter had been raised at the time with officials in Kabul.
"There were questions raised by our people and the press corps during one of the Secretary's visits about ... the way that some of the contractors were conducting their operations in their protective duty," he said.
"Those issues were discussed on the ground with the contractors."