[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 7417-7418]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               AFGHAN SECURITY FORCES STANDARDS AMENDMENT

  Mr. SALAZAR. Madam President, I would 1ike to speak a little bit 
about amendment No. 454, which was adopted unanimously by the Senate 
last night. I appreciate and thank Senators Cochran and Byrd for the 
time they have spent working with me on this amendment. I also note and 
appreciate the work of Senators McConnell and Leahy on this matter. 
Their staff members, Paul Grove and Tim Rieser, were very helpful.
  It is clear that success in Iraq and Afghanistan is dependent on how 
well and how fast we train security forces and police there. It is also 
clear that the faster and better we train these forces, the sooner our 
troops can come home.
  This amendment is designed to ensure that the training in 
Afghanistan--for which this bill dedicates more than $600 million, 
including $44.5 million which is to be available only for the 
establishment of a pilot program to train

[[Page 7418]]

local Afghan police forces--is handled well and is handled in an 
accountable fashion.
  We have seen what happens when training is rushed or when 
accountability is ignored. The Haitian National Police, for which we 
spent hundreds of millions of dollars training in the 1990s, is all but 
disbanded. We are all familiar with the stories of mismanagement of 
police training in the Balkans. And just last week, Secretary Rumsfeld 
took an emergency trip to Baghdad to try to salvage some of the 
training we have done there as Shiite political leaders threaten to 
purge Sunni officials from the forces.
  This amendment is meant to ensure that training in Afghanistan 
benefits from lessons learned and the mistakes of the past. It adds 
commonsense provisions to the $660 million appropriated for police and 
counternarcotics programs in Afghanistan. We need to take this step 
because the challenges we face in training a capable security and 
police force in Afghanistan are perhaps even more daunting than in 
Iraq.
  First, Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of poppy, the raw 
material for heroine. It produces 80 percent of the world's heroine 
and, according to the United Nations, is currently producing 
dramatically more than it did under the control of the Taliban. Keep in 
mind that heroine use not only fuels crime throughout Europe and in the 
United States, but it funds terrorist organizations and is responsible 
for the looming AIDS crisis throughout eastern Europe.
  Second, there are already several countries and organizations 
training forces in Afghanistan, including for the vitally important 
effort of counternarcotics. In fact, this difficult task of building a 
capable law enforcement system in that formerly ruler-less country is 
divided among the United States, Italy, Great Britain and several 
different international organizations.
  And third, the way the administration has structured this program 
lends itself to confusion and competition among American agencies. The 
funding in the bill goes to the Department of Defense, but much of the 
police training will be handled by the State Department.
  This amendment is an effort to make sure we can get the 
accountability our taxpayers deserve as well as the success that our 
national security demands.
  I recognize good training will not be easy. I also understand that in 
post-conflict societies, it is often difficult to find good personnel. 
But I also recognize that we simply have to get better at how we train 
other people to take over security in their own countries.
  The stress on our Armed Forces demands no less. The challenges facing 
U.S. taxpayers demand no less. And success in post-conflict societies 
demands no less.
  Before coming to the U.S. Senate, I had the honor of serving our 
great State of Colorado as attorney general. In that job, I made 
homeland security my highest priority.
  One of the responsibilities I had as attorney general was being 
chairman of the Peace Officers Standards and Training Board, POST. 
Given all that our police officers and their families give for us and 
for our State, the least I could do was to fight for additional 
training and support resources.
  In 2003, we did that, and in exchange we asked for greater 
accountability. We did that, too, and the result has been a better 
trained and more accountable police force, not to mention a safer 
Colorado.
  It has worked in Colorado and across this country. I believe with the 
adoption of this amendment we can start to make it happen in our police 
training overseas as well.
  Madam President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SALAZAR. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________