September 20, 2002	Friday	Rajab 12, 1423

WASHINGTON, Sept 19: The US State Department on Wednesday said diplomatic security officers were in Kabul to size up the task of protecting Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who survived an assassination bid earlier this month.

Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) are working out the transition from the team of US special forces currently shadowing the Afghan leader, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

Agents will assess Karzai’s needs and could decide to bring in private contractors from some tasks.

“There are various aspects to this job, some of which our agents are very good at and trained to do.

“There are other specialized parts of this that are more like almost military activities, for which we might use some contractors,” said Boucher.

“There are also physical security upgrades that need to be done. The alarms, barriers, access control procedures, things like that,” he said.

Diplomatic Security Services is a civilian law enforcement and security service which typically operates in a situation where the rule of law is in place.

“That’s not necessarily the situation in Afghanistan, so we need to bring on necessary specialists in order to do the job properly, and that would require the use of contractors,” Boucher said.

US media reports have said that the US military will continue to provide what one official in Kabul called the “outer ring of security” for Karzai and would supply intelligence and logistical support to the DSS bodyguards.

US agencies are also expected to train a new force of Afghan bodyguards.

Bullets passed within inches of Karzai in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar in the assassination bid on September 5 blamed on the country’s former Taliban regime.

Karzai plays a crucial role in the US backed bid to bring democracy and stability to Afghanistan, following its ouster of the Taliban and its “guest” the al-Qaeda network, which Washington blames for the September 11 attacks.

ISAF expansion: Afghanistan’s foreign minister onWednesday admitted his country’s hopes for an expansion of its foreign security force were unlikely to be realized any time soon, after talks with senior US officials.

Abdullah Abdullah said however he was confident that Kabul’s arguments for a larger International Security Assistance Force were now better understood in Washington, which has recently sent conflicting signals on the issue.

He spoke a day after meeting Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, and after details emerged of a State Department report which cited prohibitive logistical and command burdens inherent in enlarging the force.

“Our expectations, our demand in that regard, is better understood here in Washington and elsewhere,” Abdullah said at a briefing at Radio Liberty/Radio Free Asia.—AFP