Security Assigned To Oversee Deviant Guards At US Embassy In Kabul

By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer

KABUL - The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan has banned alcohol and assigned American personnel to watch over the embassy's security guards following allegations of lewd behavior and sexual misconduct at their living quarters.

An independent watchdog group alleged this week guards hired by a private contractor were threatened and intimidated at their offsite living quarters, and photos were released of guards and supervisors in various stages of nudity at parties flowing with booze.

The State Department inspector general is leading an investigation of the contractor, ArmorGroup North America.

Ambassador Karl Eikenberry held a meeting with embassy staff on Thursday to discuss the situation, said embassy spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden.

"We've already started to make changes to remedy some of the problems," Hayden said.

Alcohol has been prohibited at Camp Sullivan -- the offsite location where ArmorGroup guards live -- and diplomatic security staff have been assigned to the camp, the embassy said.

The embassy "will continue to take every possible step to ensure the safety and security of American Embassy personnel, while respecting the values of all Afghans, Americans and contract employees and visitors from other countries," an embassy statement said.

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The ArmorGroup security personnel guard the gates to the embassy road and perimeter and screen visitors. The Project on Government Oversight, an independent watchdog group, said the nearly 450 ArmorGroup guards live and work in an oppressive environment in which they are subjected to hazing and other inappropriate behavior by supervisors.

In at least one case, supervisors brought prostitutes into the quarters where the guards live, a serious breach of security and discipline, the group said this week. In other instances, members of the guard force drew Afghans into activities forbidden by Muslims, such as drinking alcoholic beverages, it said.

The situation led to a breakdown in morale and leadership that has compromised security at the embassy, where nearly 1,000 U.S. diplomats, staff and Afghan nationals work, according to the nonprofit group.

The embassy has been targeted in insurgent rocket attacks, and suicide bombs have exploded at or near its gates. Militant attacks have risen across Afghanistan the last three years.

In the latest violence, Britain's defense ministry said a soldier was killed Wednesday in a bomb attack in Helmand province. The death raised the number of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2001 to 211.

Comments

[Rapier]

No Pashtoon has ever been involved in international terrorism, so why are we fighting them? The al-Qaeda people we have been after are not even in Afghanistan. Is it time to leave? Nice little piece worth a bookmark at

http://ofthisandthat.org/LettertoPresident.html

[78Thomas]

Oh Yeah! Look at those comments! A high horse for everyone!
Knees are jerking all over the place.
Its a very high stress enviroment. When there is a war, all the side effects go with it like it or not. Any one of us put into that kind of situation would be/could be susceptible. The book "Lord of the Flies" has been brought up in the telling of this story. And all that it explains is a human condition.
Having been a fraternity pledge and the hazing that took place is no less that what is explained in this story. Or has anyone heard about the hazing of new members to rugby teams?
Well, call out the dogs Ma Barker.
Does it excuse this behavior? No. But to beleive this only happens to "those" people while being "outragede" sitting fat and happy drinking that latte in your air conditioning .
Get out and volunteer in a third world/developing country. You'll then get a perspective on what to be outraged about.
Rest assured, now that the press has photos of people letting off steam it will be delt with with a very heavy hand.

[devans00]

I don't want MY tax dollars paying for nekkid parties in foreign countries. Where do I opt out? Can we get a provision sort of like the Hyde Amendment is for abortions?

[vrndavan]

Deviant behavior? What's so deviant about typical frat boy drunks? This type of behavior is encouraged in our society. Why be so alarmed when it appears at the US embassy in Kabul? It we want to spread American democracy around the world, we should expect everything that comes with it.

[legalgirl]

FIRE THEM! WTF? You're fired !! and there will be a new group of scrupulous­ly-trained Americans anxious for high-paying jobs right behind them. There is no reason to protect this CORPORATION from being FIRED. They broke their contract by failing to do their job and now there is no contract. YOU'RE FIRED! Do your job State Dept. and escort these "gentlemen" back home -- you're behind the curve in every instance and looking weaker and weaker everyday. Hillary, hello? Get up to speed, please.

[novoorganum]

Flossophy: What do you say we learn from our mistakes. Obviously, the great depression escaped both the Clinton and Bush Administrations as well as their corporate paymasters.

[PCMinistry]

Oh thats just perfect! We have an embassy in a country that is highly religious and rural, and we carouse and partake of prosititutes and lure them into temptation with booze and immoral acts. All sorts of garbage taking place inside and we We have a big building set up in their country as one big symbol of the degraded way in which we live our lives here. No wonder they shoot rockets at it, and try to suicide bomb it.

[devans00]

Don't forget.

The female prostitutes are probably the widows, sisters and other female relatives of men killed in the fighting with or because of Americans. In such a repressive society, women are limited by what they can do to survive, especially without a male relative.

[hartooniansolutions]

"Blackwater" should be mandatory reading for the DOD, Congress, and the Senate.

[gatogato]

Did Armorgroup change it's name from the Village People?

[Chopin]

Afghanistan has a population of 33.6 million (2009). Even if only 1% of their population can be recruited into their ranks of the Talibans, we're talking of 300Thousand of an elusive enemy, lodged in the mountainous terrain.

How long will be the trail of blood and tears in America, before the inescapable truth surfaces and becomes irrefutable and undeniable. The conflict between USA and Afghan Talibans CANNOT be settled by force of arms !!!

Those of us among people who have enough life experience, sense of history, and commonsense of human nature reach logical conclusion that in 21st century, armed conflicts with armies and wars of attrition with guns and bombs are no longer tenable means of settling international conflicts. Throw in explosive mixture of ethnic-tribal loyalties and religious affiliations, localized low-intensity armed conflicts can no longer be settled between opposing armies, guns and bombs.

This trend and costly lessons of reality in the global village have become apparent since Vietnam. Different individuals and nations reach that conclusion at different speeds in their own ways.
How much blood is spilled,
how many lives are sacrificed,
how many bodies are crippled,
how many minds are shattered,
how many families are torn apart,
how much national treasures are wasted,
how many opportunities for progress are blown, . . .

depends on the narrowness of mind,
stupidity of intellect,
stubbornness of heart,
poverty of spirit of each individual,
the hubris and blindness of nations,
and the rigidity of national institutions resisting change.
.

[RustyNeverSleeps]

And where do I sign up?

[68-lukeburlington]

http://www.wackenhut.com

[cayuse]

I suspose if I was a gun runner I might want to do lude conduct to p i s s off the enemy to create a bigger WAR and PROFIT

[JohnKen]

I thought that Marines were supposed to guard embassies.

[FastMovingCloud]

We wouldn't need guards guarding the guards if the guards were members of the military and subject to the military code of justice.

[jafsie]

Amen.
The problem is hiring mercenaries to do the work that should be performed by our military.
This practice must be stopped.

[Chopin]

GWB fought his private war in Iraq at public expense. He did not flinch in redeploying National Guards to Iraq, (whose purpose is to serve on domestic emergencies in their home states) 3 to 4 times until they break. Where would he find the spare marines to guard non-essential embassy guard duties? The world and USA had changed for the worse since GWB. There are over 100,000 lawless armed mercenaries running loose in Iraq. Someday soon, when they are demobilized from Iraq, they would be running loose and lawless on the streets in towns and cities of USA.

[sheoples]

anyone who works in law enforcement/penal system have huge egos. the very people who should NOT be in power are given power.....what a system

[PostModernPatriot]

OMG people stop making excuses for these jerks.

Bad enough they were partying like this but we can let that go.

BUT the accusation is that young men were pressured to provide sexual favors in exchange for promotions.

This company is part of Wackenhut, the company that gets paid to run some of our prisons here at home.

The corruption is broad and deep, at all levels.

[sheoples]

and once again nothing but a slap on the wrist if that and the broken system continues on it's merry way

[68-lukeburlington]

check out wackenhut values statement, with more party pics
http://www.suburbanempire.com

[Intelligentia]

This is repulsive! These people are employed while more deserving Americans are without employment. We need these people's names published. We need to know how they got the job. These people are definitely not what America can provide. If this is the standard, why not employ all these men and women in prisons to go there and do the job. What is the difference. Oh, I know. Convicted criminals with criminal records cannot get the job but uncovicted criminals with no criminal records can be "senior management"! This system of government is so unfair and unjust and it is repulsive! By the way, I am not referring to the Obama administration, when I say "system of government." So, don't spin it. I mean the system of corruption and the subjugation of some groups for the benefit of another group, where the worst of one group can be "senior management" ,at the taxpayers' expense, while better qualified members of other groups never even get the opportunity at entry level positions. Very sad!