Letter to Secretary Panetta

Letter

Dear Secretary Panetta:

I write further to my inquiries that began prior to the December 7, 2011 joint House/Senate Homeland Security Committees' hearing on threats to military communities, to request an accounting of "green on blue" casualties suffered by Coalition Forces in Afghanistan.

It is reported that as many as forty such attacks have taken place against Coalition Forces by members of the Afghan security forces and local nationals employed by our forces this year, causing at least 13% of Coalition casualties, including 11 men killed in the last two weeks alone. One of our slain servicemen was a constituent, Marine Corps Lance Corporal Greg Buckley, Jr.

The statistics cited above are unofficial. In preparing for our December 7th hearing, I was surprised that the military claimed that it did not then track green on blue casualties. A phenomenon now resulting in such a high proportion of our dead deserves both close study, which I trust you have undertaken, and also disclosure to Congress of the scope of the problem.

We cannot address this growing crisis for our mission in Afghanistan unless we first understand how many such incidents have taken place, who has perpetrated them, and which Coalition units have suffered these attacks, and under what circumstances.

I have also asked the Director of National Intelligence to lead an interagency counterintelligence survey of the Afghan security forces, on an expedited basis, to address this critical matter.

If you have any questions regarding this letter, please have your staff contact my Committee staff at 202-226-8417. Thank you for your prompt attention to this urgent matter of national security.

Sincerely,

PETER T. KING

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