Oversight of U.S. Efforts to Train and Equip Police and Enhance the Justice Sector in Afghanistan

On June 18, 2008, the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs held an oversight hearing into U.S. efforts to train and equip Afghan police and to strengthen the Afghan justice system.

Despite the vital nature of these efforts to a stable and insurgent-free Afghanistan (the International Crisis Group, for example, noted, “[p]olicing goes to the very heart of state building…. A trusted law enforcement institution would assist nearly everything that needs to be achieved in [Afghanistan]”), the record to date has been disappointing.

The hearing featured the public release of the Government Accountability Office’s in-depth, on-the-ground assessment of U.S. efforts to develop Afghan National Security Forces, including the Afghan National Police. The Subcommittee also heard from – and questioned – key officials from the three central U.S. departments taking the lead in improving the Afghan justice sector – the Defense, State, and Justice Departments.

Witness List

(Panel 1)

Mr. Charles Michael Johnson, Jr., Director, International Affairs and Trade, U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Mr. Frank Ward, Deputy Assistant Inspector General for Inspections, U.S. Department of State.

(Panel 2)

Maj. Gen. Bobby Wilkes (Ret.), Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South Asia, Office of the Secretary of Defense, U.S. Department of Defense.

Ambassador David T. Johnson, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.

Mr. Mark Ward, Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator, Asia Bureau, U.S. Agency for International Development.

Mr. Bruce Swartz, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice.