The American effort to prepare Afghan security forces to combat widespread opium trafficking after the U.S. withdraws in 2014 has been crippled for over a month after a bureaucratic foul-up left those programs and others around the world unfunded.
The Pentagon shut down the Afghan anti-narcotic programs after the department’s general counsel found that Congress had not properly secured funding for the programs, according to documents obtained by The Washington Examiner.
The decision has jeopardized years of work with Afghans aimed at fighting what is seen as a potentially destabilizing drug problem in the country, said Joseph J. Remenar, the program director for the Counter Narcotics Training Academy. “It doesn’t really help us with the Afghans, who we keep pushing to take responsibility for their own internal problems, that we can’t get our act together,” Remenar said. “We’re pulling the rug out from under them … They really believe that we’re not coming back.”
The Counternarcotics Training Program in Afghanistan, the Afghan National Customs Academy and Afghan Advanced Border Management Academy were halted in late September, officials said. American program managers, trainers, Afghan interpreters, Afghan security officials and all the support staff were sent home.
“Three years of work building personal relationships and establishing infrastructure and teaching programs which were to be handed over to the Afghan trainers (is) all down the toilet,” said Tim Lum, a counternarcotics trainer and retired DEA Special Agent.
The Pentagon halted the programs last month after a review by the Defense Department’s general counsel ordered by Undersecretary Michele Flournoy. The general counsel found that the Pentagon had not secured proper congressional authorizations needed to fund the programs, according to emails obtained by the Examiner. That led Flournoy to order the programs suspended, according to documents.
The Pentagon refused to say how many programs were halted, or to estimate the costs of restarting them, claiming that the information was classified. Officials who asked not to be named said the mistake could end up costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.
“It is outrageous that, one, our commanders are left hanging and troops, guardsmen, and contractors (are) not able to deploy,” said a former senior Defense official familiar with the programs, who said it will cost millions to reinstate some of the programs. “Its more outrageous that the DOD is attempting to hide this inexplicable failure by classifying it. The incident should be investigated and people held to account.”
Army Lt. Col. James Gregory, spokesman for the Defense Department’s counternarcotics division, said, “The bottom line is that the Department of Defense has been working with the House Armed Services Committee and the Senate drug caucus since March to ensure the authorizations.”
Officials inside the Pentagon and Congress have been reluctant to talk on the record about the screw-up, but blame each other.
A senior Pentagon official said Congress “chose not to include those authorizations at the time.” However, a senior congressional official disputed the claim. “No one is forcing the Defense Department not to undertake these activities, so this is an internal decision,” he said. “If there is uncertainty regarding the authorizations it is within the Defense Department, it’s not here.”
But Claude Chaffin, spokesman for the House Armed Services Committee, said the failures are the result of the Senate’s failure to pass the National Defense Authorization Act in a timely matter. “The ultimate resolution is for the Senate to pass the bill soon, and put it on the desk of the president,” Chaffin said.
Sara A. Carter is The Washington Examiner’s national security correspondent. She can be reached at [email protected].
