PERU — U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe is calling for a federal review of Afghan security forces in the wake of the ambush killings of a Maine man and five other soldiers on Nov. 29.

Pfc. Buddy McLain, 24, of Peru and fellow servicemen in the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division were killed by an Afghan border patrol recruit during training exercises.

Snowe, R-Maine, wants to ensure that Afghan security forces are no longer threats to U.S. military and civilian personnel who train and work with such forces.

Citing a 2009 Government Accountability Office document that reviewed methods used by the Department of Defense and the Department of State to screen Afghan National Police officers, Snowe said that as early as 2007, U.S. officials knew information from background checks on many recruits wasn’t available.

“Your report noted that recruits are ‘endorsed by local elders and officials, and … screened by the Ministry of Interior’ under procedures that are sometimes bypassed by recruiters,” Snowe wrote in a letter to Gene L. Dodaro, acting comptroller general of the GAO. The letter was released Thursday.

“According to the New York Times, Afghan soldiers or police officers have turned their weapons on their NATO partners at least six times over the past 13 months,” Snowe wrote.

She sought answers to questions about how Afghan security forces are vetted by the U.S. for potential ties to criminal, insurgent or terrorist organizations.

“The ability of terrorists or insurgents to join Afghan security forces, or to recruit personnel already in those forces, raises significant concerns about ensuring the safety of U.S. personnel who train or work with them,” she wrote. “It also undermines the overall effort to build reliable, trustworthy, and capable security organizations within Afghanistan.”

The GAO report also noted that screening efforts included background checks, “but ‘U.S. officials were unable to provide us with detailed information concerning the number of individuals whose backgrounds had been checked and the results of those checks,’” Snowe said.

The United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan said in the report that it found negative information, “including assertions of involvement in drug trafficking, corruption, and assaults” on nearly 40 percent of 2,464 officers reviewed in late 2007, Snowe wrote.

The U.N. Assistance Mission had also “raised concerns about human rights abuses, ties to insurgent groups, corruption, and involvement in drug trafficking in ‘several hundred’ cases,” she wrote.

In her letter to the GAO, she asked about the challenges to screening, vetting and monitoring efforts, if any, and how have U.S. agencies attempted to address those challenges.

She asked also to what extent the departments of Defense and State modified Afghan security force screening procedures in response to recent attacks on U.S. service members; and what, if any, procedures are in place to protect U.S. personnel during training and operational activities with Afghan security forces.

Due to the matter’s urgency, Snowe asked that Dodaro’s office “give priority staffing consideration” to the issue and to present initial findings to Snowe and her staff early this spring.

McLain’s widow, Chelsea McLain, 20, of Peru, commended Snowe for pressing for an investigation on behalf of her husband and his fellow 101st Airborne soldiers.

“I’m very thankful for her taking it into her own hands to do this, where I don’t have the means to fight,” Chelsea McLain said Thursday. “As long as it doesn’t happen again — that’s what we’re shooting for, that it never happens to anybody else.”

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who sits on the Armed Services Committee, said Thursday that she fully supported Snowe’s request for a GAO investigation.

“The circumstances surrounding the death of Pfc. Buddy McLain are troubling, and I believe it is important to do all we can to help ensure our forces are protected,” Collins said.

U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, D-Maine, who sits on the Veterans Affairs Committee, said Thursday by e-mail that he supported Snowe’s efforts.

“I … applaud Sen. Snowe for initiating it,” Michaud wrote. “It’s critical that we do everything we can to prevent a similar incident from happening again.”

“I am hopeful that the results of this investigation will lead to immediate changes to current policies and procedures and provide a safer environment for our service members conducting these missions,” Michaud wrote.

U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, who sits on the House Armed Services Commitee, also supported Snowe’s request.

“It’s extremely important we do everything (we) can to make sure terrorists and insurgents are not allowed to infiltrate the Afghan National Police or security forces, which we’ve seen leads to horrible consequences for our troops currently serving in Afghanistan,” Pingree said in a prepared statement.

In her initial inquiry to Secretary of the Army John M. McHugh made public on Dec. 2, Snowe said McLain’s death by an Afghan police officer “raised serious questions about the circumstances of his death.”

“As reported in the Lewiston (Maine) Sun Journal, Private McLain expressed to his wife ‘his misgivings about American soldiers training Afghan Border Police’ just a week before his death,” Snowe said.

“His wife also told the Sun Journal, ‘He said he didn’t think it was right to train these people and give them guns,'” Snowe wrote to McHugh. “In addition, I have been told that Private McLain sent correspondence before his death expressing his distrust of the very forces that killed him.”

McHugh responded in a letter dated Dec. 10 — the day before McLain’s funeral — that the Army Criminal Investigation Command was conducting a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding McLain’s death.

McHugh said he forwarded Snowe’s letter to the U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for reviewing training programs for Afghan troops.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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The six Fort Campbell soldiers ambushed and killed on Nov. 29, 2010, while conducting artillery registration during a training mission in the Pachir Wa Agam District, Combat Outpost Lonestar in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, were:

* Sgt. 1st Class Barry E. Jarvis, 36, of Tell City, Ind.

* Staff Sgt. Curtis A. Oakes, 29, of Athens, Ohio.

* Spc. Matthew W. Ramsey, 20, of Quartz Hill, Calif.

* Pfc. Jacob A. Gassen, 21, of Beaver Dam, Wis.

* Pfc. Austin G. Staggs, 19, of Senoia, Ga.

* Pfc. Buddy W. McLain, 24, of Peru, Maine.

They were assigned to 1st Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).

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