Walter Pincus writes in The Washington Post about Bagram’s expansion:

Bagram has become a central location for holding detainees picked up in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Similar to its activities in Iraq, the U.S. military has begun hiring intelligence contractors, many with military experience, to screen those captured to determine whether they should be held as enemy combatants. This month, the military advertised for an “Islamic religious specialist” to support “counterinsurgency and information operations” in the Bagram prison.

That person’s job would be to “deliver Islamic religious services for enemy combatants detained” with the facility and also “act as a linguist/interpreter in emergency situations,” according to the statement of work attached to the contract solicitation.

I hope the military, or their contractor, reads Task Force 134’s Strategic Communication Plan…

For our purposes as the counterinsurgent force, we will consider it an absolute imperative that our actions are fully congruent with the ideals that we promote. There can be no “gap” between what we say and what we do.

Beyond reading the plan, will they follow the requirement of working by, with,and through locally legitimate and trusted resources?

See also:

• General Doug Stone’s exit interview (former TF 134 commander)
• Battle of the Minds, interviewing General Doug Stone
• Andrew Woods’ article on General Stone in the Financial Times and see Andrew’s follow up at Slate.