Nato approved measures to prevent attacks on foreign personnel day before alleged Leon Panetta attack

Under the new measures agreed by alliance leaders, counterintelligence
officers will be embedded within the Afghan army and its training schools to
spot those behaving suspiciously.

Random drugs tests will be conducted and more effort will be made to pay
security forces on time and give them regular leave.

“The plan will strengthen security measures, revise and improve the vetting,
screening and monitoring of Afghan forces and crucially improve cultural
awareness on both sides … to bridge the gap that can tragically lead to
violence,” said Nato spokeswoman Oana Lungescu.

Camp Bastion, situated in the Helmand desert north west of Lashkar Gah, is the
biggest British base in Afghanistan. Along with its neighbouring American
Camp Leatherneck, the sprawling complex of runways, tents and shipping
containers is home to more than 20,000 personnel and acts as a military
transport hub for the whole of south western Afghanistan.

Like other foreign bases in the country, it needs an army of Afghan employees
to carry out jobs such as laundry, cleaning and running shops.

Afghans working on foreign military bases face tight security whenever they
enter. New employees have biometric data taken to be checked against a
database of insurgents and criminals and are frisked each time they enter.

Local employees are either forbidden to enter many areas, or must be
accompanied by an escort.

However such security measures apparently failed on Wednesday to spot an
Afghan intent on trying to attack Leon Panetta.

Fears of infiltration have already led to the temporary withdrawal of hundreds
of foreign advisers from the government ministries where they are supposed
to work.

They were removed from their posts after two American military advisers were
shot dead by an Afghan driver as they worked in a high security joint
command centre in the ministry of interior.

Advisers have begun to resume their posts, but often with more stringent
security rules, including extra bodyguards and reduced hours.

Meanwhile it was disclosed that the American staff sergeant accused of
Sunday’s massacre in Kandahar district was caught on a surveillance video
that showed him walking up to his base, laying down his weapon and raising
his arms in surrender.

An Afghan official who had seen the footage taken from an overhead blimp that
films the area around the base, shows a soldier in a US uniform approaching
the south gate of the base with a traditional Afghan shawl hiding the weapon
in his hand.

The official told the Associated Press that he removed the shawl and laid his
weapon on the ground and raised his arms in surrender.

On Wednesday night, the Pentagon revealed that the soldier – who is yet to be
named -had been flown out of Afghanistan. A US official said that the
Commander of US and Afghan forces in Afghanistan, General John Allen, had
made the decision to fly the soldier based on a legal recommendation.

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