[Vision2020] US Embassy Embarrassment In Afghanistan

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (September 2, 2009) Washington Post.

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Report Details Misbehavior by Kabul Embassy Guards
Contractors Called 'Lewd and Deviant'

By Ann Scott Tyson

Private security contractors who guard the U.S. Embassy in Kabul have
engaged in lewd behavior and hazed subordinates, demoralizing the
undermanned force and posing a "significant threat" to security at a time
when the Taliban is intensifying attacks in the Afghan capital, according
to an investigation released Tuesday by an independent watchdog group.

The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) launched the probe after more
than a dozen security guards contacted the group to report misconduct and
morale problems within the force of 450 guards who live at Camp Sullivan,
a few miles from the embassy compound.

The report highlighted occasions when guards brought women believed to be
prostitutes into Camp Sullivan and videotaped themselves drinking and
partially undressed. It also outlined communications problems among the
guards, many of whom don't speak English and have trouble understanding
orders from their U.S. supervisors.

"The lewd and deviant behavior of approximately 30 supervisors and guards
has resulted in complete distrust of leadership and a breakdown of the
chain of command, compromising security," POGO said in a letter to
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton outlining the security
violations.

The report recommends that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates immediately
assign U.S. military personnel to supervise the guards. It also calls on
the State Department to hold accountable diplomatic officials who failed
to provide adequate oversight of the contract.

"These are very serious allegations, and we are treating them that way,"
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said. "The secretary and the
department have made it clear that we will have zero tolerance for the
type of conduct that is alleged in these documents.

The guards work for ArmorGroup North America, which has a $180 million
annual contract with the State Department to protect the embassy and the
1,000 diplomats, staffers and Afghan nationals who work there. The State
Department renewed the contract in July despite finding numerous
performance deficiencies by ArmorGroup in recent years that were the
subject of a Senate subcommittee hearing in June.

At the time, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State William Moser
acknowledged "deficiencies" by the contractor but said "performance on the
ground by ArmorGroup North America has been and is sound." Subcommittee
Chairman Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) agreed to the renewal of ArmorGroup's
contract, though she said she had reservations.

Susan Pitcher, a spokeswoman for Wackenhut Services, the Palm Beach
Gardens, Fla., company that owns ArmorGroup, declined to comment on
Tuesday's POGO report.

In one incident in May, the report says, more than a dozen guards took
weapons, night vision goggles and other key equipment and engaged in an
unauthorized "cowboy" mission in Kabul, leaving the embassy "largely night
blind," POGO wrote in the letter to Clinton. The guards dressed in Afghan
tunics and scarves in violation of contract rules, and hid in abandoned
buildings in a reconnaissance mission that was not part of their training
or duties. Later, two heads of the guard force, Werner Ilic and Jimmy
Lemon, issued a "letter of recognition" praising the men for "conspicuous
intrepidity" with the State Department logo on the letterhead.

"They were living out some sort of delusion," one of the whistleblower
guards said in an interview with The Washington Post from Kabul. "It
presented a huge opportunity for an international incident."

The guard, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he said he
feared retribution, said, "It's insane here. If you didn't go along with
the game plan you eventually were going to make a mistake and put yourself
in a position" to be let go.

The report said supervisors held near-weekly parties in which they
urinated on themselves and others, drank vodka poured off each other's
exposed buttocks, fondled and kissed one another and gallivanted around
virtually nude. Photos and video of the escapades were released with the
POGO investigation.

Conduct of contractors providing security in Iraq and Afghanistan has been
the subject of controversy and other investigations in recent years. The
government relies heavily on such contractors for security and other
needs.

A new Congressional Research Service report said that as of March, the
Defense Department had more contract personnel than troops in Afghanistan.

The 52,300 uniformed U.S. military personnel and 68,200 contractors in
Afghanistan at the time of the research "apparently represented the
highest recorded percentage of contractors used by DOD in any conflict in
the history of the United States," the report said.

About 16 percent of the contractors are involved in providing security,
compared with about 10 percent in Iraq.

Although contractors provide many essential services, "they also pose
management challenges in monitoring performance and preventing fraud,"
according to Steven Aftergood, who first disclosed the congressional
report on his Secrecy News Web site Tuesday.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown