.2 Say They Reported Abuses at Embassy
WASHINGTON — Two former employees of a private contractor hired to provide security at the United States Embassy in Afghanistan charged that State Department officials were aware as early as 2007 that guards and supervisors were involved in lewd conduct.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, one of the former employees, James Gordon, a native of New Zealand who served as director of operations at the contractor, ArmorGroup North America, charged that he had spoken numerous times with State Department officials about significant problems that threatened security at the embassy.
Among other things, he said that ArmorGroup hired guards who could not speak English and had no security experience; that the company employed fewer guards than needed and worked them for longer hours than at other embassies to cut costs; and that it allowed managers and employers to hire prostitutes.
“Their goal was to perform the contract as cheaply as possible,” said Mr. Gordon, speaking by telephone from Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, where he is now employed by another private security contractor which he declined to name. “Their goal was to do everything they could to prevent the State Department from discovering their multiple contract violations and operational shortcomings. Their goal was to provide a fig leaf of security at the embassy, and to pray to God that nobody got killed.”
Mr. Gordon and another former supervisor, John Gorman, said they warned State Department officials in Kabul several times that ArmorGroup was plagued with problems and that it was determined to cover them up. They said that as a result of their efforts to correct the problems and to make the government aware of the issues, ArmorGroup forced them to leave their jobs.
As evidence to support his assertions, Mr. Gorman provided a packet of memos and e-mail messages that he said he and two other former employees gave State Department officials in June 2007, including a three-page memo in which he outlined an array of contract violations. Among them, he wrote: “The training program run for new hires has been plagued with hazing and intimidation of students by students. This included physical threats and perversions.”
Senior State Department officials said they were unaware that guards had engaged in that kind of activity at their living quarters at a base in Kabul. The officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak about a continuing investigation.
The charges echoed those in a report released last week by an independent group, the Project on Government Oversight, which accused the guards and supervisors of deviant behavior. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton ordered an investigation, and about 16 guards and supervisors were fired or have resigned.
ArmorGroup North America, based in McLean, Va., was acquired in 2008 by a Danish security company, G4S, and its American subsidiary, Wackenhut Services Inc. In a written statement, Wackenhut described Mr. Gordon’s allegations as “overstated, ill-founded, not based on any personal knowledge or otherwise lacking in legal merit.”
A State Department spokesman, Philip J. Crowley, said that the investigation into ArmorGroup’s activities was continuing. He said that more than 150 interviews had been conducted in Kabul and that so far the inquiry had shown that the department had “aggressively” overseen the contract since it began.
He said that on several occasions since 2007, the State Department had notified the company about problems, and that the contractor responded with “satisfactory” plans to correct them. He added, “It’s important that at no time, in our view, was the security of the embassy ever threatened or compromised.”
NYT
Well this is just silly, it's been reported to have been going on in Iraq for the last eight years, or at least for the first four years of that war. So It's not exactly "news". If anyone out there know how to use the google genies they should dig up the long defunct "Mustang in Iraq blog" and you'll find exactly these reports, the drinking the sex and even the coerced gay sex to keep your job reports. For gods sake they had some poor woman tied up in a container getting raped! Noting new to anyone that's been listening. It's just that now it seems to be in Vogue or something. Maybe it's just the pictures.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, one of the former employees, James Gordon, a native of New Zealand who served as director of operations at the contractor, ArmorGroup North America, charged that he had spoken numerous times with State Department officials about significant problems that threatened security at the embassy.
Among other things, he said that ArmorGroup hired guards who could not speak English and had no security experience; that the company employed fewer guards than needed and worked them for longer hours than at other embassies to cut costs; and that it allowed managers and employers to hire prostitutes.
“Their goal was to perform the contract as cheaply as possible,” said Mr. Gordon, speaking by telephone from Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, where he is now employed by another private security contractor which he declined to name. “Their goal was to do everything they could to prevent the State Department from discovering their multiple contract violations and operational shortcomings. Their goal was to provide a fig leaf of security at the embassy, and to pray to God that nobody got killed.”
Mr. Gordon and another former supervisor, John Gorman, said they warned State Department officials in Kabul several times that ArmorGroup was plagued with problems and that it was determined to cover them up. They said that as a result of their efforts to correct the problems and to make the government aware of the issues, ArmorGroup forced them to leave their jobs.
As evidence to support his assertions, Mr. Gorman provided a packet of memos and e-mail messages that he said he and two other former employees gave State Department officials in June 2007, including a three-page memo in which he outlined an array of contract violations. Among them, he wrote: “The training program run for new hires has been plagued with hazing and intimidation of students by students. This included physical threats and perversions.”
Senior State Department officials said they were unaware that guards had engaged in that kind of activity at their living quarters at a base in Kabul. The officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak about a continuing investigation.
The charges echoed those in a report released last week by an independent group, the Project on Government Oversight, which accused the guards and supervisors of deviant behavior. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton ordered an investigation, and about 16 guards and supervisors were fired or have resigned.
ArmorGroup North America, based in McLean, Va., was acquired in 2008 by a Danish security company, G4S, and its American subsidiary, Wackenhut Services Inc. In a written statement, Wackenhut described Mr. Gordon’s allegations as “overstated, ill-founded, not based on any personal knowledge or otherwise lacking in legal merit.”
A State Department spokesman, Philip J. Crowley, said that the investigation into ArmorGroup’s activities was continuing. He said that more than 150 interviews had been conducted in Kabul and that so far the inquiry had shown that the department had “aggressively” overseen the contract since it began.
He said that on several occasions since 2007, the State Department had notified the company about problems, and that the contractor responded with “satisfactory” plans to correct them. He added, “It’s important that at no time, in our view, was the security of the embassy ever threatened or compromised.”
NYT
Well this is just silly, it's been reported to have been going on in Iraq for the last eight years, or at least for the first four years of that war. So It's not exactly "news". If anyone out there know how to use the google genies they should dig up the long defunct "Mustang in Iraq blog" and you'll find exactly these reports, the drinking the sex and even the coerced gay sex to keep your job reports. For gods sake they had some poor woman tied up in a container getting raped! Noting new to anyone that's been listening. It's just that now it seems to be in Vogue or something. Maybe it's just the pictures.
posted by madtom at 10:37 PM
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