Dems target loophole that lets US proxy forces skip human rights vetting – By Kyle Rempfer (Military Times) / July 14, 2022
Democrats in the House and Senate are going after a set of Pentagon authorities that have for years funded foreign military units across the world without proper oversight, lawmakers say.
The Leahy Law was intended to prohibit U.S. security assistance from going to foreign units that have committed gross human rights violations, but two Defense Department programs — Section 127e and Section 1202 — are currently exempted from any vetting.
Legislation introduced this week by Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., would close that loophole, shutting off funds to specific units found to be committing atrocities, while also expanding the reporting requirements under which the two notoriously secretive programs are subject.
Section 127e funds partners who conduct counterterrorism missions, sometimes with U.S. special operations troops directing them as a surrogate force in combat, such as raids on militant compounds. It started with a small budget of $10 million in the mid-2000s, but grew to about $100 million per year more than a decade later.
