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ArmorGroup (Wackenhut AKA Group 4)
July 8, 2011 POGO
Private security contractor ArmorGroup North America Inc. (AGNA) agreed to
pay $7.5 million to settle whistleblower allegations that it violated
procurement rules that put the security of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul,
Afghanistan at risk. AGNA's parent company said the settlement was made
solely "to avoid costly and disruptive litigation—and that there has
been no finding or admission of liability." This is the same company
whose employees are depicted in lewd pictures POGO made available in fall 2009—which
demonstrated a serious breakdown in discipline among the security personnel
defending the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan. POGO Executive Director Danielle
Brian called it a 'Lord of the Flies' environment. Former AGNA director of
operations James Gordon was the whistleblower who filed the lawsuit—he will
receive $1.35 million from the $7.5 million AGNA has agreed to pay. According
to a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release, these are the whistleblower
allegations that were resolved by the settlement: •"AGNA submitted false
claims for payment on a State Department contract to provide armed guard
services at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan"; •"[I]n 2007
and 2008, AGNA guards violated the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA)
by visiting brothels in Kabul, and that AGNA’s management knew about the
guards’ activities"; •"AGNA misrepresented the prior work
experience of 38 third country national guards it had hired to guard the
Embassy"; and •"AGNA failed to comply with certain Foreign
Ownership, Control and Influence mitigation requirements on the embassy
contract, and on a separate contract to provide guard services at a Naval
Support Facility in Bahrain." Gordon’s lawsuit was filed in September
2009. Nearly a year and a half later, DOJ joined Gordon’s whistleblower
lawsuit on April 29, 2011. Slightly more than two months later, AGNA settled.
According to DOJ statistics, whistleblower lawsuits (or qui tam lawsuits)
that allow insiders to sue on behalf of the federal government have a much
higher success rate when the government intervenes and joins the
whistleblower, known as a relator, in their lawsuit (or parts of their
lawsuit). In 2009, Gordon stated that he filed his lawsuit “to hold
ArmorGroup accountable for the blatant disregard of its obligations to ensure
the safety and security of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. In an industry where
good people are required to face extreme risk on a daily basis it is
essential that those companies who disregard the rules be removed as they not
only endanger their own staff but also endanger the mission, all in order to
increase profit.” On September 14, 2009, POGO’s Executive Director Danielle
Brian provided testimony on the breakdown of discipline among many of AGNA’s
employees in Kabul before the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and
Afghanistan. Shortly after the Commission hearing, Brian was contacted by
Samuel Brinkley, Wackenhut Services, Inc. (WSI)’s Vice President of Homeland
and International Security Services, who offered to work with POGO on behalf
of WSI and AGNA to identify and remedy mistreatment of victims of this
hazing, retaliation against some of the whistleblowers who had come to POGO,
and other matters raised in POGO’s disclosures. WSI is AGNA’s parent company.
During the intervening months, Brinkley and Brian had many discussions
regarding the fair and appropriate treatment for POGO’s whistleblowers and
others not involved in the wrongdoing. As a result, POGO was pleased that
WSI/AGNA resolved the employment concerns of those five personnel at issue.
WSI issued a statement yesterday as well in response to the DOJ press release
announcing the settlement. WSI disputed the DOJ’s assertion that there was a
violation of the False Claims Act, that it did not have an anti-trafficking
policy in place, and that it violated rules regarding third country
nationals, and foreign mitigation requirements. It also said “the sole
individual confirmed to have frequented prostitutes was fired by AGNA in
normal course when his conduct became known.” WSI noted that the period of
AGNA’s alleged behavior predated WSI’s acquisition of AGNA. Regarding the
violation of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, Gordon’s allegations are
more serious than they sound in the DOJ press release. Last year, the
Washington Post/Center for Public Integrity wrote about Gordon’s case in the
context of a perceived lack of U.S. enforcement regarding alleged sex
trafficking by U.S. contractors and subcontractors: In Afghanistan, evidence
of trafficking came to light when 90 Chinese women were freed after brothel
raids in 2006 and 2007. The women told the International Organization on
Migration that they had been taken to Afghanistan for sexual exploitation,
according to a 2008 report. Nigina Mamadjonova, head of IOM's counter-human
trafficking unit in Afghanistan, said the women alleged in interviews that
their clients were mostly Western men. In late 2007, officials at ArmorGroup,
which provides U.S. Embassy security in Kabul, learned that some employees
frequented brothels that were disguised as Chinese restaurants and that the
employees might be engaged in sex trafficking. A company whistleblower has
alleged in an ongoing lawsuit that the firm withheld the information from the
U.S. government. James Gordon, then an ArmorGroup supervisor, alleged that a
manager "boasted openly about owning prostitutes in Kabul" and that
a company trainee boasted that he hoped to make some "real money"
in brothels and planned to buy a woman for $20,000. The settlement is a
victory for accountability, but ultimately may be unsatisfying for critics of
the government's less-than-robust oversight of contractors. Can we really
expect other contractors to see this settlement as a wake-up call? The State
Department fell asleep at the switch with AGNA and still has yet to prove
that it's serious about contract oversight and enforcement of trafficking in persons regulations.
October
8, 2010 CBS News
U.S. reliance on private security in Afghanistan that is poorly monitored and
often results in the hiring of Afghan warlords is profiting the Taliban and
could endanger coalition troops, according to a Senate report. Military
officials warn, however, that ending the practice of hiring local guards
could worsen the security situation. Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate
Armed Services Committee which issued the report, said Thursday that he is
worried the U.S. is unknowingly fostering the growth of Taliban-linked
militias and posing a threat to U.S. and coalition troops at a time when
Kabul is struggling to recruit its own soldiers and police officers. The
investigation follows a separate congressional inquiry in June that concluded
trucking contractors pay tens of millions of dollars a year to local warlords
for convoy protection. "Almost all are Afghans. Almost all are armed,"
Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said of the army of young men working under U.S.
contracts. State Dept. Awarding Contractors Up to $10B -- "These
contractors threaten the security of our troops and risk the success of our
mission," he told reporters. "There is significant evidence that
some security contractors even work against our coalition forces, creating
the very threat that they are hired to combat." "We need to shut
off the spigot of U.S. dollars flowing into the pockets of warlords and power
brokers who act contrary to our interests and contribute to the corruption
that weakens the support of the Afghan people for their government," he
added. A well placed source in the Afghan government told CBS News' Fazul
Rahim that the senate report "is what we have been saying for the past
couple of years. This report confirms our suspicions." The Defense
Department doesn't necessarily disagree but warns that firing the estimated
26,000 private security personnel operating in Afghanistan in the near future
isn't practical. This summer, U.S. forces in Afghanistan pledged to increase
their oversight of security contractors and set up two task forces to look
into allegations of misconduct and to track the money spent, particularly
among lower-level subcontractors. The Defense Contract Management Agency has
increased the number of auditors and support staff in the region by some 300
percent since 2007. And in September, Gen. David Petraeus, the top war
commander in Afghanistan, directed his staff to consider the impact that
contract spending has on military operations. The military says providing
young Afghan men with employment can prevent them from joining the ranks of
Taliban fighters. And bringing in foreign workers to do jobs Afghans can do
is likely to foster resentment, they say. Also, contract security forces fill
an immediate need at a time when U.S. forces are focused on operations,
commanders say. "As the security environment in Afghanistan improves,
our need for (private security contractors) will diminish," Petraeus
told the Senate panel in July. "But in the meantime, we will use legal,
licensed and controlled (companies) to accomplish appropriate missions."
Levin says he isn't suggesting that the U.S. stop using private security
contractors altogether. But, he adds, the U.S. must reduce the number of
local security guards and improve the vetting process of new hires if there's
any hope of reversing a trend that he says damages the U.S. mission in
Afghanistan. His report represents the broadest look at Defense Department
security contracts so far, with a review of 125 of these agreements between
2007 and 2009. The panel's report highlights two cases in which security
contractors ArmorGroup and EOD Technology relied on personnel linked to the
Taliban. Last week, EOD Technology was one of eight security companies hired
by the State Department under a $10 billion contract to provide protection
for diplomats. A statement released by EOD Technology said the Lenoir City,
Tenn.-based company had been encouraged to hire local Afghans and that it
provided the names of its employees to the military for screening. The
company said the military has never made it aware of any problems with its
handling of the contract. In the case of ArmorGroup, the Senate panel says
the company repeatedly relied on warlords to find local guards, including the
uncle of a known Taliban commander. The uncle, nicknamed "Mr.
White" by ArmorGroup after a character in the violent movie
"Reservoir Dogs," was eventually killed after a U.S. raid that
uncovered a cache of weapons, including anti-tank land mines. ArmorGroup,
based in McLean, Va., lost a separate contract this year protecting the U.S.
Embassy in Kabul after allegations surfaced that guards engaged in lewd
behavior and sexual misconduct at their living quarters. Susan Pitcher, a
spokeswoman for Wackenhut Services, ArmorGroup's parent company, said the
company only engaged workers from local villages upon the
"recommendation and encouragement" of U.S. special operations
troops. Pitcher said that ArmorGroup stayed in "close contact" with
the military personnel "to ensure that the company was constantly acting
in harmony with, and in support of, U.S. military interests and
desires." In August, Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced that private
security contractors would have to cease operations by the end of the year.
The workers, he said, would have to either join the government security
forces or stop work because they were undermining Afghanistan's police and
army and contributing to corruption.
August
27, 2010 Yahoo
Judge James Cacheris of the United States District Court for the Eastern
District of Virginia has denied Defendants ArmorGroup North America
("AGNA"), ArmorGroup International, Wackenhut Services, Inc., and
Cornelius Medley's motions to dismiss whistleblower James Gordon's lawsuit
brought under the False Claims Act. On September 9, 2009, Mr. Gordon, former
Director of Operations of AGNA, filed a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit
under the False Claims Act in United States District Court for the District
of Columbia, charging that ArmorGroup management retaliated against him for
whistleblowing, internally and to the United States Department of State
("DoS"), about illegalities committed by ArmorGroup in the
performance of AGNA's contracts with the United States to provide security
services at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan and at the U.S. Naval base
in Bahrain. The Complaint charges that during Mr. Gordon's seven-month tenure
as Director of Operations, he investigated, attempted to stop, and reported
to DoS a myriad of serious violations committed by ArmorGroup, including:
•Severely understaffing the guard force necessary to protect the U.S.
Embassy; •Allowing AGNA managers and employees to frequent brothels notorious
for housing trafficked women in violation of the Trafficking Victims
Protection Act; •Endangering the safety of the guard force during transport
to and from the Embassy by attempting to substitute company-owned subpar,
refurbished vehicles from Iraq rather than purchasing armored escort vehicles
as promised to DoS; •Knowingly using funds to procure cheap counterfeit goods
from a company in Lebanon owned by the wife of AGNA's Logistics Manager; and
•Engaging in practices to maximize profit from the contract with reckless
disregard for the safety and security of the guard force, the U.S. Embassy,
and its personnel. In his Memorandum Opinion (August 27, 2010), Judge
Cacheris noted that "Plaintiff alleges and Defendants offer no facts to
dispute that Defendants ... began to try to constructively discharge [Mr.
Gordon] by 'making [his] working conditions intolerable.'" Judge
Cacheris further noted that "Plaintiff alleges, and Defendants have not
offered any evidence refuting the fact, that [Defendant] Medley excluded Plaintiff
from management meetings, shunned him, and relegated him to a position of
persona non grata in the office" and that "Medley made clear to
Plaintiff by his behavior, and to other staff members by his direct boasts,
that his priority was to force Gordon to quit." In denying Defendants'
Motion for Summary Judgment, Judge Cacheris concluded that "there is a
genuine issue of material fact regarding the continued nature and duration of
the allegedly illegal acts Plaintiff was requested and required to participate
in." The parties will now proceed into the discovery phase of the
litigation. According to Debra S. Katz, counsel for Mr. Gordon, "this is
an important victory for conscientious employees, like Mr. Gordon, who blow
the whistle on fraudulent practices by defense contractors and wind up then
paying the ultimate price. The court's decision today makes clear that such
employees can bring federal claims under the False Claims Act to obtain
redress."
August
18, 2010 Government Executive
It will be "very challenging" to comply with an edict Afghan
President Hamid Karzai issued this week to remove all private security
contractors from Afghanistan within the next four months, according to
Pentagon and State Department officials. "Obviously that is a very aggressive
timeline and one which I think our forces and commanders as well as the State
Department and ambassador will be working with the government of Afghanistan
to achieve," Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters
on Tuesday. About 20,000 armed security contractors work for Defense, State
and the U.S. Agency for International Development in Afghanistan, guarding
supply convoys, key personnel, checkpoints and installations. Thousands more
work for media outlets, private corporations or nongovernmental
organizations. But Karzai said the companies still operate with impunity and
with little oversight and regulation. He also argued the presence of private
security contractors undermines the efforts of Afghanistan's security forces.
Karzai expects Afghanistan to assume control of all security functions
nationwide by 2014. Whitman noted that while the United States shares a
common goal with Karzai to eliminate the need for private security
contractors, "we also recognize that Afghanistan presents a daunting
security challenge." According to Defense Department figures, there were
16,733 private security contractors in Afghanistan as of the end of March --
a 415 percent increase from the 3,000 who were in the county 15 months
earlier. Many of the contractors are Afghan nationals, who would have options
for staying on. The State Department, which has more than 1,000 private
security contractors on its payroll in Afghanistan, also suggested that
Karzai's time frame might be overly ambitious. "We continue to support
the Afghan government's intent to properly regulate the activities of private
security companies in Afghanistan," State Department spokesman Mark
Toner said. "There are questions of implementation, however."
August
17, 2010 Reuters
Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued a decree on Tuesday setting a deadline
of four months to disband private security firms to avoid the misuse of
weapons which had caused "horrific and tragic incidents." The
decree said the order to disband the companies, which employ up to 40,000
people working mainly for Western enterprises in Afghanistan, was being
issued "to prevent irregularities" and the misuse of weapons and
other military equipment. "I am signing the dissolution of all local and
foreign security companies within four months," said the decree, issued
by the presidential palace. The decree includes an exemption for firms whose
guards work inside compounds used by foreign embassies, even though Karzai's
office said last week there would be no exceptions. Karzai has long called
for the disbanding of such companies, which compete for contracts worth
billions of dollars, and said last week that time
was running out for them. The push to scrap the firms is linked to Karzai's
ambitious 2014 timetable for Afghan forces to take over all security
responsibility from foreign forces, who presently
number almost 150,000 troops. Private security companies, which are not
accountable to the Afghan government, have long been an irritant for Afghans
and for U.S. and NATO forces in the country after a series of scandals. The
U.S. military also employs some of them and the Pentagon said last week it
was in talks with Karzai's government to address its concerns.
April
27, 2010 RTTNews
An Afghan court has jailed a British manager of a firm providing security
to the British embassy in Kabul on graft charges. Bill Shaw, serving for
British security firm Group 4 Securicor, was found guilty of corruption by an
anti-corruption court partly funded by British government, reports said Tuesday.
He was sentenced to a two-year jail term, and fined $25,000. His lawyers said
they were planning to appeal the verdict in a higher court. During trial, the
defendant admitted that he had paid money to get two armored cars impounded
by Afghan authorities under the belief that it was an official release
payment. The prosecution case was that Shaw struck a deal with one Eidi
Mohammad to secure the release of the vehicles, confiscated by Afghanistan's
National Directorate over licensing irregularities, after agreeing to pay
$25,000. However, Shaw denied this. Shaw, who was arrested on 3 March, will
shortly be moved to the notorious Pul-e-Charkhi prison located outside the
capital Kabul. Shaw served in the British army for 28 years and was awarded
an MBE (Member of the British Empire). Reports say Shaw's case is being used
by Afghan authorities to show the world that foreign nationals were
responsible for most of the corruption in the country.
December
8, 2009 Reuters
The State Department will not renew the contract of a security company
embroiled in a scandal involving the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, where guards were
accused of drunken conduct and sexual hazing. U.S. State Department spokesman
Mark Toner said on Tuesday Virginia-based ArmorGroup would not have its
contract renewed when it expires in June, although it will receive a
six-month extension to allow the contract to be put up for new bids. Toner
said officials had reviewed the contract and "concurred that the next
option year should not be exercised and that work begin immediately to
compete a new contract." He said the review included both recent
misconduct allegations against ArmorGroup personnel and the company's
"history of contract compliance deficiencies." This week a report
by the non-partisan Government Accounting Office identified a number of
shortcomings in the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security
including staffing shortage and increased reliance on contractors in
high-risk posts. The Kabul embassy scandal broke in September, when a watchdog
group accused ArmorGroup of jeopardizing security at the embassy by
understaffing the facility and ignoring lewd, drunken conduct and sexual
hazing by some guards -- and provided graphic photos as evidence. ArmorGroup
North America, now owned by Florida-based Wackenhut Services, was also hit by
a federal whistle-blower lawsuit that said it had ignored brothel visits by
guards and other misconduct because of what a lawyer said was a "myopic
preoccupation with profit" in its five-year, $187 million contract with
the State Department. State Department officials said the safety of embassy
staff was never in jeopardy. But they subsequently said 12 embassy guards had
been removed or resigned, ArmorGroup's entire senior Kabul management
replaced and alcohol banned at the group's camp. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton ordered a thorough review of how contractors are used. The GAO report
noted that worldwide, the U.S. diplomatic security budget had grown to $1.8
billion in 2008 from just $200 million in 1998, when truck bomb attacks on
U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killed more than 300 people including 12
Americans. The bureau's workforce has also doubled over the same period but
is failing to keep pace with rising security threats including those faced in
Iraq and Afghanistan, it said. "Staffing shortages in domestic offices
and other operational challenges -- such as inadequate facilities, language
deficiencies, experience gaps, and balancing security needs with State's
diplomatic mission -- further tax its ability to implement all of its
missions," the report said. The report urged the State Department to
develop a strategic plan to directly address the rising demands of diplomatic
security including increased staffing.
September
18, 2009 AP
A top executive of the private security contractor hired to protect the U.S.
Embassy in Afghanistan was informed in July 2008 of alleged illegal and
immoral conduct by guards, attorneys for a whistleblower suing the company
said Friday. The claim contradicts the sworn testimony of Samuel Brinkley, a
vice president for Wackenhut Services, the owner of ArmorGroup North America.
Brinkley told the Commission on Wartime Contracting under oath on Monday that
he and other corporate officials outside of Afghanistan didn't know until a
few weeks ago of problems that reportedly included lurid parties and
ArmorGroup employees frequenting brothels in Kabul. But in a 10-page letter
to the commission, the attorneys say their client, James Gordon, told
Brinkley during a meeting on July 15, 2008, of alleged guard misconduct. The
meeting took place in Brinkley's office in Arlington, Va., Gordon said in a
separate e-mail through the lawyers. Gordon was ArmorGroup's director of
operations until February 2008. He says he was forced out of the job after
trying to get the company to fix a long list of shortcomings with the $189
million embassy security contract that the State Department awarded
ArmorGroup in March 2007. He filed a lawsuit earlier this month in federal
court claiming the company retaliated against him for telling the department
about the deficiencies. Brinkley and Wackenhut did not immediately respond to
a request for comment. In a previous statement on the lawsuit, a Wackenhut
spokeswoman called Gordon's claims baseless and said he voluntarily resigned
from the company. Clark Irwin, a spokesman for the wartime contracting
commission, said the congressionally mandated panel is reviewing the letter.
At the commission's Sept. 14 hearing on ArmorGroup's performance, Brinkley portrayed
himself and other company executives as being blindsided by the misconduct of
a small number of employees. "I am not here to defend the
indefensible," Brinkley said. "Certain of our personnel behaved
very badly." During a series of heated exchanges, commissioners pressed
Brinkley to explain why he didn't tell the State Department of reports that
guards were behaving inappropriately, potentially putting security of a key
U.S. diplomatic outpost at risk. Brinkley said ArmorGroup managers in
Afghanistan only told him about an Aug. 11 incident involving nine employees
who got drunk at a bar near their living quarters. Those workers were
counseled by the on-site manager and a temporary ban on alcohol was imposed.
He said the State Department was informed of this incident on Aug. 26.
Brinkley said he wasn't aware of the scope and duration of the misconduct
until Sept. 1 when a watchdog group released a report with photos showing
guards and supervisors in various stages of nudity at parties flowing with
alcohol. The watchdog group, the Project on Government Oversight in
Washington, also said guards were subjected to abuse and hazing by
supervisors who created a hostile work environment. The letter from Gordon's
attorneys says they are concerned Brinkley's testimony did not provide the
commission with a "full and accurate understanding of many of the events
in question."
September
14, 2009 Government Executive
The State Department should terminate ArmorGroup North America's contract for
security services at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, witnesses and panelists said
during a Commission on Wartime Contracting hearing on Monday. The recent
photographs and report from the Project on Government Oversight detailing
alleged lewd, drunken behavior by guards at the embassy just describe the
latest and most egregious violation by ArmorGroup, witnesses told the panel.
State Department Undersecretary of Management Patrick Kennedy testified that
the contract has required "extensive oversight and management."
Since awarding the contract to ArmorGroup on March 12, 2007, State has issued
seven deficiency notices addressing 25 deficiencies, one cure notice and one
show-cause notice. Each notice demanded separate correction action plans to
resolve contractual issues and several involved serious allegations,
including that the contractor had deceived the government in its contract
proposal. Despite these problems, State has not terminated the contract with
ArmorGroup and has, in fact, exercised an extension of the contract period.
State officials said they are awaiting the results of an ongoing
investigation into the contractor's conduct at the embassy. Commissioner
Clark Kent Ervin pressed Kennedy to pledge State would terminate the contract
if the probe validates the allegations made against the contract employees.
While Kennedy was hesitant to speculate on a hypothetical situation, he said
he could imagine an outcome of the investigation that would lead the agency
to terminate the contract. "We're seeing a serious case being made for
termination," he said. William Moser, deputy assistant secretary of
State for logistics management, told the commission a public hearing was not
the proper forum to talk about future contract actions. Regardless, he said
the department is discussing potential alternatives and approaching the
reevaluation of the contract "with a great deal of seriousness."
Danielle Brian, executive director of POGO, said the organization's
investigation shows State officials were notified of serious issues relating to
the ArmorGroup contract repeatedly, and took limited action. "For the
two years of this contract, State's response to whistleblowers' sustained
complaints and to its own finding of severe noncompliance consisted mainly of
written reprimands and the renewal of ArmorGroup's contract," Brian
said. "Simply documenting a problem or even levying a fine is not
effective oversight when those same problems continue to occur." Brian
said State has been "stubbornly defensive" in not recognizing its own
failures, and how those failures have caused misconduct and potential lapses
in security. While POGO strongly believes the contract should be canceled and
ArmorGroup -- or its parent company, Wackenhut -- should be debarred from
doing business with the government, that will not prevent future problems,
Brian said. To ensure proper conduct by contractors overseas, State must
shorten the rotations of its regional security officers, perform more
frequent audits and independent verification of contractor reports of
compliance, and prioritize accountability, she said. "This cultural
shift will be aided by canceling contracts when the contractor consistently
underperforms -- which will have the added benefit of acting as a deterrent
to future contractors -- and by disciplining the State Department officials
who are responsible for the failed oversight of the ArmorGroup
contract," Brian said. Commissioner Linda Gustitus said State already
lost authority with industry by not terminating its contract with Blackwater
Worldwide in the wake of the Nissor Square shooting incident in Iraq.
"That helped to send a message to other contractors that you can do a
lot and not have you contract terminated," Gustitus said. Several
commissioners joined Brian in urging Kennedy to hold accountable the State employees
responsible for managing Armor Group by firing them, withholding bonuses or
taking some other disciplinary action.
September
14, 2009 Wayne Madsen Report
At a September 10 press conference at the National Press Club in
Washington, two former managers for ArmorGroup North America (AGNA),
headquartered in McLean, Virginia and a subsidiary of ArmorGroup
International (AGI), revealed a litany of contract fraud and abuse charges
against AGNA and AGI and provided further details of sexual deviancy among
AGNA security guards in Kabul tasked with protecting the U.S. embassy.
ArmorGroup is now owned by Wackenhut Services, Inc., headquartered in Palm
Beach Gardens, Florida. The two former employees are suing AGNA, AGI,
Wackenhut, and Corporation Service Company for wrongful termination, false
claims, and conspiracy. John Gorman, a retired Marine Corps veteran who was
the camp manager at the security guard force’s Camp Sullivan, blew the
whistle on contract non-performance, security pitfalls, and sexual deviancy,
and was placed under virtual house arrest in June 2007 by AGNA’s top manager
in Kabul, Michael O’Connell, and flown out of the country. Gorman was
terminated and confined for some 24 hours, along with two other AGNA
managers, James Sauer, a retired Marine sergeant major and Pete Martino, a
retired Marine colonel, who filed complaints to both AGNA and the Regional
Security Office (RSO) for the U.S. embassy in Kabul, also Marine Corps
veterans. Because they told the RSO they feared for their personal safety
after bringing the charges against AGNA, he offered them the security of his
apartment on the embassy compound, which they turned down only to later have
their cell phones and weapons confiscated by AGNA and being confined before
their flight out of the country. Gorman said no one at AGNA “ever mentioned
or indicated a concern for the actual security at the
embassy -- the greatest and only concerns were the profit margin and
the bottom line.” Gorman said the project manager for the security contract,
Sauer, a man with 35 years of experience as a 30-year career Marine with
private security contractor experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, was “ignored,
second guessed, and rejected.” Sauer had vehemently objected to allowing
security personnel to be deployed to Kabul who had engaged in “lewd and
deviant behavior” during their subcontractor training in Texas. After Gorman,
Sauer, and Martino made their complaints known to McConnell, the corporate
executive replied that ArmorGroup was a publicly traded company and could,
therefore, not hire more people “because he had a responsibility to the
shareholders.” The effect was the hiring of clearly unqualified personnel for
the security guard force. Gorman said that there were people hired as guards
who had “no DD214s, driver’s licenses, passports,” including one person who
had been fired from a previous security project for pulling a pistol on
another employee while drunk. AGNA, according to Gorman, covered up the
security contract failures because the firm was “to assume the $187 million a
year security contract for the American embassy in Kabul in less than two
weeks and they were bidding on the more lucrative $500 million contract for
the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. James Gordon, a New Zealand citizen and New
Zealand Army veteran who is married to an American, worked for ArmorGroup
Iraq as the operations manager, a subsidiary of AGI, also spoke about
corporate malfeasance involving AGNA. He later became the business
development director for AGNA headquarters in McLean. In 2007, Gordon took
over as operations director for the Kabul embassy security contract and
attempted to bring the contract into compliance with State Department
requirements. Eventually, Gordon was forced out of the company because
instead of correcting contract violations the firm’s only goal was to
“maximize profits.” Gordon said among AGNA security personnel were
unqualified personnel, some of whom had serious criminal
records. Some guard recruits had engaged in “disgusting behavior”
during their initial training at AGI’s subsidiary’s training facility,
International Training Inc. (ITI) of Pearsall, Texas. Sauer, Martino, and
Gorman had received reports that some of the AGNA recruits, while undergoing
pre-deployment in Texas, had engaged in “lewd, aberrant, and sexually deviant
behavior, including sexual hazing, urination on one another and equipment,
bullying, ‘mooning,’” exposing themselves, excessive drinking, and other
conduct making themselves unfit for service on the contract. The AGNA
employees who were later forced out of the company attempted to ensure that
the trainees in Texas never arrived in Kabul. Several email exchanges
(“e-pong”) show they tried to block the sexual deviants from duty in Kabul.
AGNA also misrepresented ethnic Nepalese Gurkha farmers hired as security
guards for the Kabul embassy job as Gurkha military veterans of the British
and Indian armies. In fact. the Gurkha farmers hired
from Nepal and northern India were not proficient in English as required
under the State Department contract. In fact, some could speak no English.
The language test had never been administered to the Gurkha recruits. When
some Gurkha guards walked off their jobs in May 2007 because of poor wages
and treatment, Carol Ruart, AGI’s human resources director in London, ordered
AGNA management in Kabul to “lock [the Gurkhas] in their rooms until they
agree to work for less.” Gordon also stated that AGNA never invested in
secure vehicles to transport embassy guards between the embassy and other
locations. AGNA used broken down vehicles called “white coffins.” After the
State Department released funds to AGNA to buy secure vehicles, the firm
never bought the vehicles but transferred the money to AGI in London. AGNA
also hired a “rogue” South African program manager for the embassy contract
in Kabul, according to Gordon. DuPlessis replaced Sauer. Jimmy Lemmon
replaced Martino as deputy program manager. During the tenure of the South
African, Nick duPlessis, ammunition went missing from Camp Sullivan where the
guards were bivouacked and illegal weapons were stored at the facility.
Moreover, duPlessis did not possess a security clearance to receive
classified briefings, a requirement for the program manager position. In
addition, Gordon stated that the AGNA logistics manager, Sean Garcia, used
contract funds to purchase counterfeit North Face and Altama jackets and
boots for the security guards from his wife’s company in Lebanon, Trends
General Trading and Marketing LLC of Beirut. Gordon said, “the cheap
knock-offs could never keep the men warm during the cold winters in
Afghanistan.” After Gordon notified the State Department about the contract
breach, the order to remove him was ignored and the State Department
continues to own sub-par counterfeit material. Gordon sent an email dated
September 3, 2007 to duPlessis and his staff in Kabul. Gordon also said that
the AGNA armorer in Kabul, responsible for maintaining all the weapons, had
to be “forcibly removed” from a brothel in Kabul. Many of the prostitutes
working in Kabul, according to Gordon, are young Chinese girls who were taken
against their will to Kabul for sexual exploitation. When Gordon ordered the
armorer’s immediate termination, he discovered that the AGNA medic, Neville
Montefiore, and duPlessis, the program manager, had also frequented the
brothels with the armorer. Gordon also discovered that there had been an
outbreak of sexually-transmitted diseases among the AGNA guards in 2007 and
this was never reported to the State Department as required by the contract.
Prostitutes also frequently visited Camp Sullivan. Gordon also discovered
that the guard force routinely visited brothels in Kabul and Montefiore’s
replacement discovered the improper storage of regulated narcotics at Camp
Sullivan’s medical facility, including morphine. “You can rest assured that
there is no hiding of information from the DoS [Department of State]. Anyone
who thinks that they can get away with this will probably end up in a Federal
Penitentiary. It is our duty to report on all aspects of the contract
performance and we are required to be transparent and honest in our dealings.
Personally I wouldn’t accept anything else.” Gordon’s plans to visit Kabul to
conduct an investigation were immediately shut down by ArmorGroup’s parent
office in London. Gordon said it is contrary to U.S. law for a foreign
company to direct or influence any activities on a classified contract.
Moreover, the British parent conducted their own investigation, which
resulted in a three-page whitewash. Gordon was denied access to all
information about AGI London’s investigation. After the whitewash, Gordon
received a report that an AGNA trainee wanted to be hired on as a security
guard at the embassy in Kabul because he knew someone “who owned prostitutes
there.” The trainee boasted that he could purchase a girl for $20,000 and
earn a handsome profit each month. The trainee, according to Gordon, had
previously worked in Kabul under duPlessis. Neither AGNA nor the State
Department conducted a follow-up investigation of the violations of the U.S.
Trafficking in Victims Protection Act by AGNA employees. AGNA responded to
Gordon’s warnings by blaming him for all the contract’s failures and he was
forced to leave the firm on February 29, 2008. After Wackenhut Services Inc.
bought ArmorGroup, after Gordon left the company, he met with Sam Brinkley,
the vice president of Wackenhut, to discuss the contract problems. Brinkley
promised to remove duPlessis and investigate all the charges of misconduct.
On June 10, 2009, Gordon was present during hearings held by Senator Claire
McCaskill (D-MO). Gordon said that Brinkley and the State Department
testified to McCaskill’s subcommittee on contracting oversight that AGNA was
“fully compliant” on the security contract for the embassy in Kabul. Brinkley
told the subcommittee that he “was proud” of the way the company had been
managing the embassy security contract. Gordon said the situation at Camp
Sullivan had worsened and the U.S. Embassy was facing a grave security
threat. McCaskill and ranking Republican member Susan Collins (R-ME) never
heard testimony from any of the whistleblowers on AGNA’s poor security record
in Kabul. The only witnesses heard were Brinkley and William Moser, the
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Logistics Management. Brinkley, in
addition to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, has responsibility for the security
contract for the U.S. Naval Support Activity in Bahrain, which, according to
ex-AGNA sources, may be using untrained Gurkha farmers from the Indian
subcontinent as crack veterans of the British and Indian armies. The
Gorman/Gordon lawsuit states that on October 10, 2007, the AGNA security
force in Kabul was involved in a number of serious incidents, including:
detaining a group of Afghan civilians and involuntarily transporting them to
the U.S. embassy; verbally and physically engaging in an altercation with
Afghan Ministry of Interior policemen and handcuffing the policemen;
confronting an Afghan general and several Ministry of Interior policemen;
refusing an order from the embassy RSO to withdraw from a checkpoint to
defuse a potentially explosive situation. The statements of the two ex-AGNA
employees reveal a culture of depravity and unprofessional behavior that
Gordon stated still exists to this very day in Kabul.
September
14, 2009 AP
A member of a federal commission investigating wartime spending said
Monday that photos showing private security guards in various stages of
nudity at drunken parties may be as damaging to U.S. interests in Afghanistan
as images of detainee mistreatment at Abu Ghraib were in Iraq. Dov Zakheim, a
former Pentagon comptroller, made the comment at a hearing Monday held by the
Commission on Wartime Contracting on allegations of lewd behavior and sexual
misconduct by employees of ArmorGroup North America, the company hired to
protect the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. Zakheim said the photos are circulating
heavily on the Internet and give Muslims in Afghanistan a negative image of
the United States. Patrick Kennedy, the State Department's management chief,
acknowledged the department should have been paying closer attention to the
activities of the ArmorGroup guards at their living quarters near the
embassy. The private security contractor hired to protect the embassy said
Monday it erred by not immediately telling the State Department about an
alcohol-related incident involving its guards that proved far more serious
than company officials first believed. "I am not here to defend the
indefensible," said Samuel Brinkley, vice president of Wackenhut
Services, the company that owns the contractor, ArmorGroup North America. A
manager for ArmorGroup counseled nine guards after they got drunk at a bar
near their living quarters in Kabul on August 10. But after photos surfaced
showing the guards had been at a party where ArmorGroup employees engaged in
lewd and inappropriate behavior, they realized they made a mistake by not
alerting U.S. officials. Photos showed guards and supervisors in various
stages of nudity at parties flowing with alcohol. Brinkley said the manager's
response, which included a temporary ban on alcohol, seemed adequate at the
time. "In retrospect, we were wrong in not notifying the State
Department," Brinkley said in testimony before the independent
Commission on Wartime Contracting. Kennedy, under secretary of state for
management, told the commission the State Department is very concerned about
ArmorGroup's delays in reporting its knowledge of any misconduct by its
employees. The State Department has been sharply criticized for its management
and oversight of the security contract at one of the country's most important
diplomatic outposts. In addition to the allegations of misconduct, other
problems have included a shortage of guards and inferior equipment. As the
department's top management officer, Kennedy said he takes full
responsibility for having failed to prevent the problems that reportedly
ranged from out-of-control parties to Armor Group supervisors frequenting
brothels in Kabul. The State Department has launched an investigation into
ArmorGroup's handling of the $189 million contract embassy security contract.
Kennedy told the commission that the misconduct "dishonored" the
State Department in Afghanistan, where "the success of U.S. objectives
depends on the cultural sensitivity of all mission personnel, including
employees under contract." But he and other State Department officials
said no decision will be made on whether to terminate the contract with
ArmorGroup until the investigation is complete. Members of the commission pressed
Kennedy to be more aggressive, saying the evidence already available is
enough to warrant firing ArmorGroup, which was awarded the contract to
protect the embassy in March 2007. "To me, it's just totally out of
control and it's been going on for a long time," said Michael Thibault,
co-chairman of the commission. Commissioner Clark Ervin asked Kennedy to
pledge to terminate the contract if the investigation proves all the
allegations prove to be true. Kennedy refused to commit, saying the inquiry
needs to run its course. However, Kennedy added, "We are seeing a very,
very serious case being made for termination."
September
13, 2009 Washington Post
In 2005, the State Department hired a Northern Virginia company to provide
security for the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan. Diplomats quickly became
concerned about whether the new guards, who barely spoke English, could
protect such a sensitive site. "They had serious problems,"
recalled Ronald E. Neumann, who was ambassador at the time. The department
then brought in another security contractor, ArmorGroup North America. But
the difficulties didn't cease. In recent days, evidence of ArmorGroup's
failings has burst into public view -- photos depicting its guards in
semi-naked hazing rituals and official documents showing persistent staff
shortages. Harold W. Geisel, the acting inspector general of the State
Department, told Congress last week that his investigators are checking for
possible criminal conduct by ArmorGroup, and a congressional hearing is
scheduled for Monday. Lawmakers and watchdog groups are questioning how the
department could have continued to employ a company that, in addition to
tolerating bullying and understaffing, failed to ensure that its guards had
proper security clearances and sufficient equipment -- or that they spoke
English. The criticism is particularly intense because the State Department
had promised to improve oversight after a 2007 shooting incident in Iraq
involving bodyguards from security contractor Blackwater that left 17 Iraqi
civilians dead. "State's management of these contracts has been
self-evidentially abysmal," said Peter W. Singer, an expert on
government contracting at the Brookings Institution. ArmorGroup's efforts to
guard the Kabul embassy were troubled from the start, according to
congressional hearings, internal State Department documents and interviews.
The McLean-based company submitted "an unreasonably low price" in
2007 for the contract, said Samuel Brinkley, an official with Wackenhut
Services, the firm's parent company, at a congressional hearing in June.
Former ArmorGroup supervisors have said in interviews that the company
slashed guard staffing so it could squeak out a profit. State Department
officials have expressed outrage about the lewd behavior shown in the photos.
Still, they defend their selection of ArmorGroup, saying they are legally
required to award such contracts to the lowest qualified bidder and noting
that ArmorGroup was well-regarded. They also insist that the embassy was
never endangered by the guard problems -- even though internal department
documents say it was. "The fact you find something is wrong means
something is wrong. But you find it," the department's undersecretary
for management, Patrick F. Kennedy, said in an interview. He emphasized that
many of the guards' failings emerged in documents written by department
officials. "There was oversight present," he said. The troubles at
the Kabul embassy raise questions about how authorities will manage what is
expected to be a surge in the number of contract guards at U.S. facilities in
Iraq as the American military presence declines. The scandal has also given
new impetus to a debate over whether too many government wartime jobs are
being outsourced. "The State Department should consider whether the
security for an embassy in a combat zone is an inherently governmental
function, and therefore not subject to contracting out," Danielle Brian,
executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, wrote to Secretary
of State Hillary Rodham Clinton this month. Brian's group released the photos
of what it called near-weekly sessions of hazing and sexual humiliation of
ArmorGroup guards at their camp. The State Department has for years used
local contract guards to secure the perimeters of its embassies, while
generally keeping a modest Marine contingent for interior access. But in Iraq
and Afghanistan, the department decided not to use local guards because of
vetting concerns, officials say. Instead, as the military withdrew forces
from around those embassies in recent years, the department turned to
contractors such as ArmorGroup. But the department, which suffers from a
shortage of contracting staff, has had a rocky history of managing such guard
contracts. Each of its three contracts in Kabul has come under fire. The
first was awarded to McLean-based Global Strategies, to replace a Marine
combat force withdrawing from the U.S. Embassy in March 2005. The department
justified the $6-million-a-month sole-source contract by saying it had
received late notification of the Marines' departure. But the inspector
general found that the Defense Department had given six months' official
notice, and scolded the State Department for poor planning. By July 2005, the
State Department had signed a contract with MVM of Ashburn, cutting its guard
costs to less than $2 million a month, according to the inspector general's
report. But MVM could not provide enough guards, partly because it was paying
much less than its predecessor, according to Neumann. And, he said, the
guards spoke so little English that they could not understand instructions.
"We went back to the State Department and said, 'These people are
unacceptable,' " Neumann said. State canceled MVM's contract and kept on
the Global guards temporarily. MVM's chief executive, Dario O. Marquez, did
not return a call seeking comment but told the Wall Street Journal last year
that the State Department did not give him enough time to fix the problems.
Neumann said the department was handicapped in selecting guard companies
because of regulations stipulating that the contract go to a qualified U.S.
firm that offers the lowest bid. "People low-bid, and then they're not
competent," he said. Finally, in March 2007, the department turned to
ArmorGroup. The firm, which also guarded the British Embassy in Kabul, was
one of only two bidders deemed technically qualified by the department's
acquisition and security specialists. Its price was about $3 million a month,
officials say. "ArmorGroup was not a small, undercapitalized,
underfunded, fly-by-night organization," Kennedy said. "They put
forth a proposal that met every requirement." But within weeks of the
company starting work, the State Department sent ArmorGroup a warning that
its deficiencies -- including shortages of guards and armored vehicles --
were so serious that "the security of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul is in
jeopardy," according to the House Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight.
State Department officials issued eight more warnings to the company over the
next two years, including one last September threatening to terminate the
contract. Despite the problems, the department stuck with ArmorGroup,
agreeing this summer to extend its contract for a year. State Department
officials have said that the company appeared to be making progress and that
changing firms would be disruptive. A spokeswoman for Wackenhut, which took
over ArmorGroup North America last year, declined to comment. In a lawsuit
filed last week, former ArmorGroup supervisor James Gordon accuses the
company not only of failing to properly staff the embassy but also of lying
to the State Department about its capabilities. The operation "was a
complete shambles," he said.
September
12, 2009 New York Times
When a security guard at the United States Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan,
was leaving for breakfast Monday morning, he froze at the sight of a crude
poster of a rat hanging on his door. “Warning!” the poster said in stark,
black letters. “Rats can cost you your job and your family.” The guard was a
whistle-blower who had told of security lapses and lewd, drunken bacchanals
by fellow workers, sparking an outcry and enraging Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton. Now he wonders whether he should have kept his mouth shut.
“Threats are still running rampant here,” he said in a telephone conversation
from Kabul, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. “So even
though it looks like State may finally turn things around, no one’s ready to
celebrate yet.” Such skepticism may be warranted. A review of two years of
e-mail messages, letters and memos reveals that the State Department had long
known of the serious problems with ArmorGroup, the contractor chosen to
protect its embassy. The complaints went beyond the lurid pranks that made
headlines, the documents show, and included serious understaffing, bullying
by management, petty corruption and abusive work conditions. In fact, the
deficiencies became so severe that they threatened the security of the
compound, the documents show, and State Department officials withheld
payments to ArmorGroup as a way to compel it to comply with the terms of its
agreement. On a few occasions, government officials warned the company that
if it did not correct the most egregious problems it would lose the five-year,
$189 million deal. Yet both times the contract came up for renewal, in 2008
and 2009, the State Department opted to extend it, officials confirmed. The
troubles with the ArmorGroup contract, and the State Department’s frustrated
dealings with the company over two years and through two administrations,
illustrate how the government has become dependent on the private security
companies that work in war zones, and has struggled to manage companies that
themselves are sometimes loosely run and do not always play by the
government’s rules. With a stretched military, the government relies on the
security companies themselves to vet, train, and discipline the guards, all
at the lowest cost. “It’s expensive for the State Department to withdraw a
contract from one company, rebid the project and award it to a new one,” said
Janet Goldstein, a Washington lawyer who represents one of the ArmorGroup
whistleblowers. “So businesses know that once they get a contract, State may
ding them around a little bit, but it’s not going to fire them.” The perils
of this reliance were most graphically illustrated in Iraq in 2007, when
security guards from another contractor, Blackwater, were involved in
shootings that left 17 civilians dead on a Baghdad street. But interviews and
documents show that the ArmorGroup affair, in its mundane, unsavory details,
offers perhaps a more representative look inside the troubled relationship
between contractors and the government in war zones. State Department
officials acknowledge they had a litany of complaints about the company, none
of which, they insist, compromised the security of the embassy. But they
profess to being deeply embarrassed by reports of parties where security
guards were photographed naked, fondling and urinating on each other. “I’ve
been doing this for 37 years; I’m proud of what I do,” said Patrick F.
Kennedy, the undersecretary of state for management who oversees outside
contractors. But, he added, “This is humiliating.” Mr. Kennedy, however,
defended the State Department’s overall handling of the contract. The
frequent letters of complaint the government sent to ArmorGroup, he said,
were evidence that the department was keeping close tabs on the company. The
“greatest majority” of the failures cited in the letters were addressed, he
said. Part of the problem, officials said, was that the guards are housed in
a complex six miles from the embassy, Camp Sullivan, with little oversight by
State Department officials. Susan Pitcher, a spokeswoman for Wackenhut
Services, the American subsidiary of the Danish company that owns ArmorGroup,
referred questions to the State Department, saying only that it was
cooperating with the government’s investigation. On Monday, the independent
Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan will hold a hearing
to examine the State Department’s oversight of the contract. Christopher
Shays, a former congressman and co-chairman of the commission, said there was
“a serious failure on the part of the State Department in being unable to
compel the contractor to fulfill its commitment.” The disclosures, which were
originally made by a nonprofit organization, Project on Government Oversight,
deeply rattled the State Department. At a staff meeting following the release
of the group’s report, senior officials said, Mrs. Clinton vented her anger
about the lurid pictures. Karl W. Eikenberry, a retired Army general who
became President Obama’s ambassador to Afghanistan last May, was livid, an
official said, because he had never been briefed about the problems. Despite
their unease with contractors, officials acknowledged the department had no
choice but to keep using them. “In situations where there is a surge of
intense security requirements, it is a real challenge,” said Jacob J. Lew,
the deputy secretary of state for management and resources. “We cannot reduce
the security presence.” The State Department was not in a buyer’s market when
it looked for a company to protect its embassy in Kabul. It picked ArmorGroup
in March 2007, after its previous choice, MVM, proved unable to marshal the
necessary personnel or equipment, officials said. Of the eight companies that
bid for the contract the second time around, only two were deemed technically
capable. ArmorGroup was the cheapest. The company’s most recent contract
extension was granted in June this year, after a Senate hearing in which one
of its executives, Samuel Brinkley, a Wackenhut vice president, said in sworn
testimony that his company was in full compliance with the terms of its
contract, and a State Department official, William H. Moser, a deputy
assistant secretary of state, also under oath, said he was satisfied with the
company’s performance. In interviews, ArmorGroup whistleblowers said they
felt betrayed by the testimony. By many measures, they said, things were
worse, not better. After largely uneventful company barbecues morphed into
what have been described as scenes from “The Lord of the Flies,” at least a
dozen of the men started a document trail of their own, sending e-mail
messages and photographs to the Project on Government Oversight. According to
interviews and those documents, from July 2007 to April 2009, the State
Department issued ArmorGroup at least nine warnings, nearly one every other
month, about contract violations that ranged from mundane concerns about the
company’s ability to keep accurate personnel logs, to more critical concerns
about corruption among company managers and the hardships faced by
sleep-deprived, underpaid guards — the majority of them Gurkhas from Nepal —
who could not understand simple commands in English. While the Gurkhas were
largely the source of the language problems, the lewd hazing rituals were
largely the activity of the native English speakers, a mix of Americans,
South Africans, New Zealanders and Australians. In 2008, after ArmorGroup was
acquired by the Danish company, G4S, Wackenhut informed the State Department
it was taking control of the Kabul contract, and promised to fix any
problems. Government officials agreed to give the new owners a chance.
According to their own correspondence, their optimism seemed to dim fairly
quickly. On Aug. 22, 2008, the State Department wrote to ArmorGroup to
express concerns that staffing shortages were so severe the company might not
be able to provide security after a situation with mass casualties. On Sept.
21, 2008, the State Department deducted $2.4 million in payments from
ArmorGroup, warning that its failure to provide a sufficient number of guards
“gravely endangers the performance of guard services.” In March 2009, the
department again advised ArmorGroup that it had “grave concerns” about
staffing shortages, noting that inspectors on a recent tour found 18
guardposts left uncovered. In April, it denied ArmorGroup’s request for a
third waiver to the requirement that it teach its foreign guards English. A
month later, without much explanation, ArmorGroup told the State Department
that deficiencies relating to language and staffing had been resolved. And a
month after that, a senior State Department official told the Senate
Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight that “despite contractual deficiencies,
the performance by ArmorGroup North America has been and is sound.” “I sat in
the audience that day, and shook my head in disbelief,” said James Gordon, a
former ArmorGroup executive who has filed a whistleblower’s lawsuit against
the company. He says he was forced out for complaining about the problems. “I
knew that conditions at Camp Sullivan were deteriorating, that the contract
continued to be understaffed, that the conditions in Kabul were getting more
dangerous, and that the U.S. Embassy was facing grave threats.”
September
10, 2009 New York Times
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.”
September
10, 2009 AP
A former manager for the security contractor protecting the U.S. Embassy
in Afghanistan says the company lowballed its bid for the work and then
failed to hire enough guards or fix faulty equipment. The allegations come
after an independent watchdog group said last week that ArmorGroup guards
were subjected to abuse and hazing by supervisors who created a climate of
fear and intimidation. On Thursday, James Gordon, former director of
operations at ArmorGroup North America, alleged the company bid too low in
order to win the contract and then cut corners to keep profits up. Gordon
says he was fired for reporting the problems. He also claims ArmorGroup
withheld from Congress information about employees who went to brothels.
Wackenhut Services, ArmorGroup's parent company, had no immediate comment.
September
8, 2009 Government Executive
A contract employee in Afghanistan claims he was forced to resign or risk
being fired outright in retaliation for his role in exposing alleged lewd and
drunken behavior of security guards at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. Terry
Pearson worked for 16 months as an operations supervisor for RA
International, a Dubai-based food service provider at Camp Sullivan, the
off-site base that was home to the ArmorGroup North America security guards
alleged to have participated in the incidents reported last week by the
Washington watchdog group the Project on Government Oversight. A native of
Great Britain, Pearson said he was disgusted by the behavior of some guards,
including one episode in which an apparently drunken supervisor allegedly
accosted a young Afghan employee. Pearson reportedly complained about the
incidents to RA International and ArmorGroup -- the prime contractor on the
$187 million State Department embassy contract -- but when the two companies
failed to address his concerns, he contacted a Washington law firm. Internal
company e-mails obtained by Government Executive show that
RA International executives suspected Pearson was a whistleblower. In
one of the messages, RA International Chairman Soraya Narfeldt asked Pearson
to admit that he was the source of the complaint about the guards. Narfeldt
also questioned Pearson in two separate e-mails about calls to the Washington
attorney. "They have stated that a staff member of RAI reached out to
another law firm in D.C. regarding information pertaining to AGNA,"
Narfeldt wrote. "I cannot see how they could have this information if it
was not true and if you have reached out using the RAI e-mail address then
this is quite serious. How can a D.C. firm pluck RAI out of thin air to call
with no information? Makes no sense." Narfeldt punctuated the e-mail by
noting that ArmorGroup "is our client" and what the company
"does within themselves is not our concern." Shortly after
receiving the message, Pearson gave his 30-day notice of resignation. Five
hours later, he rescinded his resignation, but Scott Fardy, the firm's
country manager in Afghanistan, told him to have his personal property
removed from Camp Sullivan by the end of the day, e-mails show. Pearson later
told the Project on Government Oversight that, "This is definitely a
case of get rid of the whistleblower." RA International, however,
insists that Pearson left the company voluntarily for reasons that were
"not associated" with the guard controversy. "The employee
independently made the decision to leave the company," Fardy said in an
e-mail to Government Executive. "His notice was received on Sept. 1,
2009. We have very clear [human resource] procedures in place both for
dealing with grievances and issues -- in confidence if necessary -- and for
ensuring that an employee's decision to leave the company is validated. There
was no coercion leading to his resignation and, in fact, RA International's
response highlighted that he was welcome to reapply to the company for positions
in the future." Fardy said he spoke with Pearson twice following his
resignation "to check that he felt he was making the right
decision." Once Pearson made up his mind, Fardy said, the company had to
move on. RA International has more than 1,000 employees worldwide and, in
addition to Afghanistan, holds reconstruction assistance contracts in Darfur,
Sudan; and the Central Republic of Chad. Pearson was among the first to blow
the whistle on alleged hazing and alcohol-filled debauchery of ArmorGroup guards,
much of which was caught on camera and video. On Aug. 1 an ArmorGroup
supervisor and four others reportedly entered a Camp Sullivan dining facility
that was run by RA International wearing short underwear and brandishing
several bottles of alcohol. Before leaving the facility, the supervisor
allegedly grabbed the face of a young Afghan national employed by RA
International, and began abusing him with foul and sexual language, according
to a complaint filed by the employee. Pearson was in charge of taking the
statement from the Afghan national. POGO investigators said Pearson was
punished for speaking out and that if he had been fired, he would have had
difficulty finding work elsewhere as a security contractor. By resigning,
however, he can find work with another company. During an interview with CNN
over the weekend, Pearson said he does not regret his decision to speak out
about the scandal. "If I had the chance to turn back the clock and do
something different, I don't think I would," he said. "I would
still end up doing exactly the same thing because people's dignity at work
and respect at work are more important than the job itself." Meanwhile,
other embassy whistleblowers have reportedly been threatened for coming
forward with their accusations. POGO said posters were produced and
distributed at several locations in Afghanistan calling the whistleblowers
"RATS" and warning them that if they continued revealing negative
information, then they could be in danger. POGO brought the posters to the
attention of the State Department, which has since reportedly put up its own
posters stating that, "Threats and/or intimidation are completely
unacceptable and should be reported immediately." The posters include
the name and phone number of a special agent for the embassy for
whistleblowers to contact. On Friday, the State Department announced it had
fired eight ArmorGroup contractors who appeared in the photographs. The
embassy originally reported that two other guards had resigned their
positions. But, POGO said the State Department later rescinded those
resignations and fired the employees. State's inspector general office is
investigating the conduct of the ArmorGroup guards. RA International is
cooperating with the probe, Fardy said.
September
4, 2009 Government Executive
The State Department on Friday announced it has fired eight security
contractors assigned to guard the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan, after photos
surfaced of the men involved in lewd and embarrassing behavior. The guards
from ArmorGroup North America left Afghanistan on Friday, according to a
statement from the embassy. In addition, the company's senior managers in
Kabul are "being replaced immediately," the statement said. The
embassy did not release the names of the dismissed employees. "The
embassy security office continues its interviews of every one of the
ArmorGroup guards," the statement said. The embassy originally reported
that two other guards who appeared in the now infamous photographs had
resigned their positions. But, sources told the Project on Government
Oversight, the watchdog group that broke the scandal, that the State
Department rescinded their resignations, fired them and revoked their
security clearances. That essentially will prevent them from finding work
with another security contractor. But, POGO is concerned that some of the
employees who lost their jobs were young recruits who might have been
pressured to participate in the sexual and alcohol-fueled escapades captured
in the photos. "We have been told people are being fired for simply
being in the photographs," POGO Executive Director Danielle Brian said.
"We do know a number of those were unwilling participants. We also want
to hear that the supervisors who were responsible for this debacle are being
held fully accountable and not simply allowed to resign and go to another
contractor." A team from the State Department's inspector general office
arrived in Kabul this week and is conducting an investigation of the
allegations. On Thursday, POGO learned that one of the whistleblowers who
helped expose the guard scandal allegedly was forced to resign. The
whistleblower's company, RA International, is a Dubai-based food service
provider at Camp Sullivan, the off-site base where the guards lived.
September
2, 2009 The Guardian
Pictures have emerged showing private contractors at the embassy holding
'deviant and lewd' parties.The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, has
ordered an investigation into allegations that private contractors employed
to protect the American embassy in Afghanistan were engaged in "deviant
and lewd" parties that have been compared to Lord of the Flies. The
decision to launch the inquiry came after an independent group sent her a
10-page dossier yesterday claiming that the security guards at the embassy
had been engaged in drunken parties involving prostitutes and the kind of
ritual humiliation associated with gang initiation. Pictures and video
footage were attached to the dossier. The dossier, compiled by the
independent investigative group Project on Government Insight, includes an
email allegedly from a guard currently serving in Kabul describing scenes in
which guards and supervisors are "peeing on people, eating potato chips
out of [buttock] cracks, vodka shots out of [buttock] cracks (there is video
of that one), broken doors after drnken [sic] brawls, threats and
intimidation from those leaders participating in this activity". The
allegations are an embarrassment at a time when the Obama administration is
struggling to win hearts and minds in Afghanistan and the Muslim world in
general. It comes against the backdrop of the continuing controversy over the
widespread use by the US of private contractors in war zones, of which the
most notorious was Blackwater, now named Xe. The group at the centre of the
new allegations are the ArmorGroup, part of the Florida-based Wackenhut
group, one of the biggest private security organisations in the US. The
organisation did not respond immediately today to the allegations. The
Project on Government Insight, which was established in 1981 to track
military procurement and bring to light evidence of any corruption, described
the environment at Camp Sullivan, where the guards were housed outside Kabul,
as comparable to the anarchy in William Golding's Lord of the Flies. It said
about 300 of the 450 ArmorGroup guards are Gurkhas and the rest are a mix of
Australians, South Africans and Americans. In the dossier, it said that
guards were "engaging in near-weekly deviant hazing and humiliation of
subordinates" . It claimed that some guards had
barricaded themselves in their rooms out of fear that the alleged hazing
might harm them physically. It further claims that guard force supervisors
"made no secret that, to celebrate a birthday, they brought prostitutes
into Camp Sullivan, which maintains a sign-in log." According to the
report, Afghan nationals, as Muslims, were humiliated by the behaviour and
the apparently free-flowing use of alcohol. The pictures could be picked up
by the Taliban and used as propaganda against the US and its allies. But the
Project on Government Insight stressed that comparisons should not be made
with the pictures of abuse at the Iraqi prison, Abu Ghraib, because no
allegations of torture are being made. The report says that the general
breakdown in discipline poses a threat to the security of the embassy. Ian
Kelly, the state department spokesman, said of the reports of wild, anarchic
partying: "These are very serious allegations, and we are treating them
that way." Clinton has "zero tolerance" for the behaviour
described and has directed a "review of the whole system" for
farming out security to private contractors that may have threatened the
safety of embassy personnel, Kelly said. The embassy said today:
"Nothing is more important to us than the safety and security of all
embassy personnel - Americans and Afghan - and respect for the cultural and
religious values of all Afghans." It added: "We have taken
immediate steps to review all local guard force policies and procedures and
have taken all possible measures to ensure our security is sound."
Senator Claire McCaskill, a Democrat who heads a subcommittee on contractor
oversight, wrote to the state department calling for the inquiry in the light
of the report. McCaskill's committee earlier this year conducted its own
hearings on the involvement of ArmorGroup in Afghanistan.
September
1, 2009 Washington Post
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 time when
the Taliban is intensifying attacks in the Afghan capital, according to an
investigation released Tuesday by a government watchdog group. The Project on
Government Oversight 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 that lives at Camp Sullivan, a few miles from the
U.S. embassy compound. In one incident in May, 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 a letter to Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton outlining the security violations. 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 mission. Later two heads of the guard force, Werner Ilic and Jimmy
Lemon, issued a "letter of recognition" praising the men for
"conspicuous intrepidity (sic)" with the U.S. State Department logo
on the letter head. "They were living out some sort of delusion,"
one of the whistle-blower guards said Tuesday in an interview with The
Washington Post from Kabul. "It presented a huge opportunity for an
international incident," said the guard who spokes on condition of
anonymity because he feared retribution. The report recommends that Defense
Secretary Robert M. Gates immediately assign U.S. military personnel to
supervise the guards and remove the management of the current force. It also
calls on the State Department to hold accountable diplomatic officials who
failed to provide adequate oversight of the contract. The report also found
that 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.
"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 the letter to
Clinton. The guards work for ArmorGroup, North America, which has an $180 million annual contract with the State Department
to secure the embassy and the 1,000 diplomats, staff and Afghan nationals who
work there. The State Department renewed the contract in July despite finding
numerous performance deficiencies by ArmorGroup in recent years which were
the subject of a Senate subcommittee hearing in June. Susan Pitcher, a
spokeswoman for Wackenhut Services, Inc., the Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
company that owns ArmorGroup, declined to comment on Tuesday's POGO report.
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 has found that as of March, the
Defense Department had more contract personnel than troops in Afghanistan.
The 52,300 uniformed U.S. military and 68,200 contractors in Afghanistan at
that time "apparently represented the highest recorded percentage of
contractors used by DOD [Defense Department] in any conflict in the history
of the United States," the report said. Some 16 percent of the
contractors are involved in providing security, a much higher percentage than
the 10 percent that were used 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.
September
1, 2009 AP
Guards hired by the State Department to protect diplomats and staff at
the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan live and work in a "Lord of the
Flies" environment in which they're subjected to hazing and other
inappropriate behavior by supervisors, a government oversight group charged
Tuesday. In a 10-page letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton,
the Project on Government Oversight contended the situation has led to a breakdown
in morale and leadership, compromising security at the embassy in Kabul where
nearly 1,000 U.S. diplomats, staff and Afghan nationals work. The group is
urging Clinton to launch an investigation of the contract with ArmorGroup
North America. It also recommends that she ask the Pentagon to provide
"immediate military supervision" of the private security force at
the embassy. The oversight group's findings are based on interviews with
ArmorGroup guards, documents, photographs and e-mails. One e-mail from a
guard describes lurid conditions at Camp Sullivan, the guards' quarters a few
miles from the embassy. The message depicted scenes of abuse including guards
and supervisors urinating on people and "threats and intimidation from
those leaders participating in this activity." Multiple guards say these
conditions have created a "climate of fear and coercion." Those who
refuse to participate are often ridiculed, humiliated or even fired, they
contended. The group's investigation found sleep-deprived guards regularly
logging 14-hour days, language barriers that impair critical communications,
and a failure by the State Department to hold the contractor accountable.
Wackenhut Services, ArmorGroup's parent company, had no immediate comment on
the allegations. The State Department also had no immediate comment. The
State Department has been aware of ArmorGroup's shortcomings, the letter
says, but hasn't done enough to correct the problems. It cites a July 2007
warning from the department to ArmorGroup that detailed more than a dozen
performance deficiencies, including too few guards and armored vehicles.
Another "cure notice" was sent less than a year later, raising
other problems and criticizing the contractor for failing to fix the prior
ones. In July 2008, however, the department extended the contract for another
year, according to the notice. More problems surfaced and more warning
notices followed. Yet at a congressional hearing on the contract in June,
State Department officials said the prior shortcomings had been remedied and
security at the embassy is effective. The contract was renewed again through
2010. Nearly two-thirds of the embassy guards are Gurkhas from Nepal and
northern India who don't speak adequate English, a situation that creates
communications breakdowns, the group says. Pantomime is often used to convey
orders and instructions. On the Net: Project on Government Oversight: http://www.pogo.org/
Xe
(formerly Blackwater)
August
20, 2010 New York Times
The private security company formerly called Blackwater Worldwide, long
plagued by accusations of impropriety, has reached an agreement with the
State Department for the company to pay $42 million in fines for hundreds of
violations of United States export control regulations. The violations
included illegal weapons exports to Afghanistan, making unauthorized
proposals to train troops in south Sudan and providing sniper training for
Taiwanese police officers, according to company and government officials familiar
with the deal. The settlement, which has not yet been publicly announced,
follows lengthy talks between Blackwater, now called Xe Services, and the
State Department that dealt with the violations as an administrative matter,
allowing the firm to avoid criminal charges. A company spokeswoman confirmed
Friday that a settlement had been reached. The State Department spokesman,
Philip J. Crowley, said he could not immediately comment. The settlement with
the State Department does not resolve other legal troubles still facing
Blackwater and its former executives and other personnel. Those include the
indictments of five former executives, including Blackwater’s former
president, on weapons and obstruction charges; a federal investigation into
evidence that Blackwater officials sought to bribe Iraqi government
officials; and the arrest of two former Blackwater guards on federal murder
charges stemming from the killing of two Afghans last year. But by paying
fines rather than facing criminal charges on the export violations,
Blackwater will be able to continue to obtain government contracts. While the
company lost its largest federal contract last year to provide diplomatic
security for United States Embassy personnel in Baghdad, where the Iraqi
government was incensed by killings of Iraqis in one highly publicized case,
it still has contracts to provide security for both the State Department and
the C.I.A. in Afghanistan. Blackwater, its reputation tainted in part because
of the excessive use of force by some of its personnel in Baghdad, sought for
years to extend its reach far beyond the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan.
For a time, the company’s founder, Erik Prince, had ambitions to turn
Blackwater into an informal arm of the American foreign policy and national
security apparatus, and proposed to the C.I.A. to create a “quick reaction
force” that could handle paramilitary operations for the spy agency around
the world. He had hopes that Blackwater’s military prowess could be an
influential force in regional conflicts around the world. Mr. Prince, a
former Navy Seals member and the heir to an auto parts fortune, took an
interest in Africa, particularly the Sudan, and he is said to have wanted
Blackwater to step in to help the rebels in southern Sudan, which is predominantly
Christian and animist, fight the Sudanese government and the Muslim north,
despite United States economic sanctions. Blackwater’s ambitions in Sudan
where described in detail by McClatchy newspapers in June. The settlement
with the State Department, involving practices from the days before
Blackwater was rebranded as Xe Services, comes as Mr. Prince is trying to
shed his ties to Blackwater and its past activities. He overhauled the
company’s management in 2009, changed its name, and has now put the privately
held company up for sale. He has just moved with his family to Abu Dhabi from
the United States, a move that colleagues say was a result of his deep anger
and frustration over the intense scrutiny he and his firm have received in
recent years. The State Department export controls require government
approval for the transfer of certain types of military technology or
knowledge from the United States to other countries. But Blackwater began to
seek training contracts from foreign governments and other foreign
organizations without adhering closely to American regulations. The company
also shipped automatic weapons and other military equipment for use by its
personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan in violation of export controls, and in
some cases sought to hide its actions, according to the government. In one
incident, Blackwater shipped weapons to Iraq hidden inside containers of dog
food. A federal investigation into the company’s weapons shipments to Iraq
led to guilty pleas on criminal charges by two former Blackwater employees
who are believed to have cooperated with a broader federal inquiry.
Investigators reportedly looked into whether some of the weapons that were
shipped to Iraq were sold on the black market and ended up in the hands of a
Kurdish rebel group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., which Turkey
considers a terrorist organization. Turkish officials reportedly complained
to the United States about American weapons seized from the group. In 2008,
after a federal investigation of Blackwater’s actions was begun, the company
admitted “numerous mistakes” in its adherence to export laws, and created an
outside board of experts to supervise the firm’s compliance. Current and
former government officials say that the government’s inquiry into some of
Blackwater’s export control violations began as part of a federal grand jury
investigation in North Carolina, where Blackwater is based. But the matter
was apparently shifted to the State Department when the criminal
investigation in North Carolina narrowed its focus. That grand jury handed
down the indictments of the five former Blackwater executives earlier this
year. That indictment includes charges that Blackwater executives sought to
hide evidence that they had given weapons as gifts to King Abdullah of
Jordan. Despite the fines and investigations that have plagued Blackwater,
the firm has continued to win contracts from the State Department and the
C.I.A. In June, the State Department awarded Blackwater a $120 million
contract to provide security at its regional offices in Afghanistan, while
the C.I.A. renewed the firm’s $100 million security contract for its station
in Kabul. At the time, the C.I.A. director, Leon E. Panetta, defended the
decision, saying that the company had offered the lowest bid and had “cleaned
up its act.”
August
18, 2010 Government Executive
It will be "very challenging" to comply with an edict Afghan
President Hamid Karzai issued this week to remove all private security
contractors from Afghanistan within the next four months, according to
Pentagon and State Department officials. "Obviously that is a very
aggressive timeline and one which I think our forces and commanders as well
as the State Department and ambassador will be working with the government of
Afghanistan to achieve," Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman told
reporters on Tuesday. About 20,000 armed security contractors work for
Defense, State and the U.S. Agency for International Development in
Afghanistan, guarding supply convoys, key personnel, checkpoints and
installations. Thousands more work for media outlets, private corporations or
nongovernmental organizations. But Karzai said the companies still operate
with impunity and with little oversight and regulation. He also argued the
presence of private security contractors undermines the efforts of
Afghanistan's security forces. Karzai expects Afghanistan to assume control
of all security functions nationwide by 2014. Whitman noted that while the
United States shares a common goal with Karzai to eliminate the need for
private security contractors, "we also recognize that Afghanistan
presents a daunting security challenge." According to Defense Department
figures, there were 16,733 private security contractors in Afghanistan as of
the end of March -- a 415 percent increase from the 3,000 who were in the
county 15 months earlier. Many of the contractors are Afghan nationals, who
would have options for staying on. The State Department, which has more than
1,000 private security contractors on its payroll in Afghanistan, also
suggested that Karzai's time frame might be overly ambitious. "We
continue to support the Afghan government's intent to properly regulate the
activities of private security companies in Afghanistan," State
Department spokesman Mark Toner said. "There are questions of
implementation, however."
August
17, 2010 Reuters
Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued a decree on Tuesday setting a deadline
of four months to disband private security firms to avoid the misuse of
weapons which had caused "horrific and tragic incidents." The
decree said the order to disband the companies, which employ up to 40,000
people working mainly for Western enterprises in Afghanistan, was being
issued "to prevent irregularities" and the misuse of weapons and
other military equipment. "I am signing the dissolution of all local and
foreign security companies within four months," said the decree, issued
by the presidential palace. The decree includes an exemption for firms whose
guards work inside compounds used by foreign embassies, even though Karzai's
office said last week there would be no exceptions. Karzai has long called
for the disbanding of such companies, which compete for contracts worth
billions of dollars, and said last week that time
was running out for them. The push to scrap the firms is linked to Karzai's
ambitious 2014 timetable for Afghan forces to take over all security
responsibility from foreign forces, who presently
number almost 150,000 troops. Private security companies, which are not
accountable to the Afghan government, have long been an irritant for Afghans
and for U.S. and NATO forces in the country after a series of scandals. The
U.S. military also employs some of them and the Pentagon said last week it
was in talks with Karzai's government to address its concerns.
January
7, 2010 AP
Two ex-Blackwater guards have been arrested and charged with the murder
of two Afghans. Twenty-seven year-old Justin Cannon and 29-year-old Chris
Drotleff have been indicted on charges of second-degree murder, attempted
murder and weapons charges, the AP reports. The two were charged because of
an incident last year at an intersection in Kabul, when the two allegedly
opened fire on a vehicle and killed two Afghans. Blackwater, now known as Xe,
fired them soon after over the incident. This is the latest setback in what
was been a rough year for Xe, but that hasn't stopped the military contractor
from pushing for even more Defense Department contracts.
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