By PHILLIP WALTER WELLMAN | STARS AND STRIPES Published: April 23, 2021 KABUL, Afghanistan Six former employees of a U.S. government contractor have been charged with fraudulently recruiting unqualified linguists to work alongside U.S. troops in Afghanistan, putting American forces at greater risk while lining their own pockets, U.S. officials said this week. The former recruiters identified as Mezghan Anwari, Abdul Latifi, Mahjoba Raofi, Laila Anwari, Rafi Anwari and Zarghona Alizai are accused of endangering American troops and military operations in Afghanistan, the Justice Department said in a statement Thursday. The group knowingly recruited linguists who lacked even minimum language proficiency in Dari or Pashto, two of the main languages spoken in Afghanistan, fraudulently making it seem that they were competent so that they would be hired, the statement said.