A new investigation from the Senate Armed Services Committee shows that private security contractors in Afghanistan “rely on warlords and strongmen” to provide security guards that watch US bases. These guards often have ties to the Taliban.

There was some concern a few weeks back that an amendment by Sen. Al Franken to the defense appropriations bill, which would prevent the government from working with defense contractors who deny court hearings to their employees over issues like discrimination, harrassment or assault because of binding arbitration process, would be gutted during the conference committee process. Thankfully, that does not appear to be the case.