Karzai seeks list of aid projects needing pvt guards

The Afghan president asked yesterday for a list of national aid projects that need protection by private security guards, potentially signalling his wish to reach a compromise over the status of security companies in Afghanistan and safeguard foreign aid projects worth billions of dollars.
President Hamid Karzai spent the day meeting with his ministers and top-level foreign diplomats as they tried to hammer out a compromise between his aim of disbanding private security companies by the end of the year and protecting foreign-funded aid projects threatened by insurgent attacks.
"The list of the big projects and their security needs should be given to the Afghan government and the Afghan government will assess and make a decision," Karzai said in a statement. "These talks will continue."
It's unclear whether the proposal will be accepted by those in the international community who have called for an across-the-board exemption for companies working on internationally funded development projects until Afghan security forces are more capable of taking over security.
The idea of an infamously corrupt government sorting through a list of big-money aid projects and deciding which gets to stay and which gets to go may not sit well with the international community.
Many contractors and aid groups have said they will have to shut down or suspend projects if they are not exempted as they won't be able to insure their workers if they're guarded by the notoriously corrupt and poorly trained Afghan police. The ban has also alarmed diplomats, who say winning hearts and minds requires that reconstruction and aid projects follow military successes against the Taliban.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called Karzai on Saturday and suggested an extension to the looming Dec. 17 deadline. That would allow the government to steadily phase out private security companies without disrupting the work of contractors who employ private guards to protect their workers, projects and facilities.