WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Clinton ordered an investigation on Tuesday into the Animal House revels of private guards at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan – including booze, hookers and other “deviant behavior.”
“These are very serious allegations, and we are treating them that way,” State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said of photo and e-mail evidence of the “climate of fear and coercion” at the living quarters of ArmorGroup guards. The investigation by the State Department’s inspector general follows a shocking report to Clinton by the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight detailing a “Lord of the Flies environment” at the Camp Sullivan compound a few miles from the embassy in Kabul. Prostitutes allegedly were brought in for birthday parties, drunken guards engaged in brawls and boozy lawn parties turned into naked affairs where guests urinated on one another, according to photos and videos obtained by the nonprofit group.
The report 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. “One guard described the situation as so dire that if he were to say to many of the Gurkhas, ‘There is a terrorist standing behind you,’ those Gurkhas would answer ‘Thank you, Sir, and good morning,'” the report said.
Wackenhut did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
What happened to the days when American Embassies used Marines as guards? Wackenhut? Is that the same bunch of morons that they use at malls?
The battle cry of the Republicans:
“The private sector is better at everything without exception.” (Repeat indefinitely)
Great civilizations aren’t killed, they commit suicide. Such as having to hire mercenaries to implement foreign misadventures as the citizens don’t support it. Never a good sign. By coincidence, “somebody” on tv last night said we had more private contractors in ((Afghanistan or Iraq, I forget which)).
Hey, strike another one for the old dead white guy. (Toynbee that is.)
How could Obama see the ditch in Iraq and not see the same ditch in Afghanistan? We went in to remove the Taliban. We won. Why didn’t we leave 8 years ago? We can’t remake the Middle East, we don’t have the stomach for it, and can’t pay enough mercenaries.
When will Obama recognize his limits?
Pedro,
I agree with you… change is not taking place fast enough… maybe it is time for us ‘liberals’ to take people like you, the people that started and instigated this breakdown, and lay you down on the floor and stomp your teeth out of your mouths, so maybe you will shut up and let the necessary change take place.
You want change, you will see it, because there are lots of us ‘liberals’ that are sick and tired of your retarded obstructionism, and the push-back is beginning. We tried to be civilized and reasonable with morons like you… well enough is enough… we had our peaceful revolution, but worms like you are still scurrying around sabotaging the well being of America… the next step is force, stomping down obstructionists with no ideas but lots of oppinions like you.
#3. The term “won” in the Afghanistan is dubious at best.
Unfortunately, colleagues in the USMC are busy getting blown up, so apparently the higher ups feel that we need a bunch of rent-a-cops guarding the civil affairs bureaucrats. IMHO it sounds like another chapter title in the forthcoming book, “How to Win Battles and Lose Wars” by the US Government et al.
How many folks on here who have been to Kandahar or the northern Afghan provinces think it looks kind of like parts of Wyoming or the Dakotas?
Before I start a flame war let me explain that I meant the countryside of No. Afghanistan not the cities. I don’t want to upset anyone from Laramie or Grand Forks.
lawn parties turned into naked affairs where guests urinated on one another, according to photos and videos obtained by the nonprofit group.
=============================
Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (Caligula) would be proud.
I hope these videos will be on YouTube soon
(sarcasm on)
Onward Christian soldiers!
(sarcasm off)
#11-Improbus-Onward Christian soldiers
Looks more like atheist behavior to me.
(no sarcasm)
” Secretary of State Clinton ordered an investigation on Tuesday into the Animal House revels of private guards at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan – including booze, hookers and other “deviant behavior.”
Should Have Read…
First Lady Clinton ordered an investigation on Tuesday into the Animal House revels of her husband at the Whitehouse including booze, hookers and other “deviant behavior.”
#13 Same old tired return to Clinton sex scandal. As if his behavior and lying about it even compare to lying about WMD in Iraq and killing thousands of Iraqi’s in “collateral damage” of fighting there. What a troll. The post is about contractor behavior in Afghanistan. Wait, look over there! It’s the past! Don’t look at correcting what’s wrong over here. Nothing to see. Oops. Photos?
So the republicans want NO MEDICAL coverage but they let THIS GO ON???
AND do you think we pay these folks Min wage OR LESS as we do our OWN military??
#14-pedro-US is in a steep slide down and there’s no sign of anybody even wanting to stop it.
Fortunately, there are many that are working to stop the moral decline. They are easy to recognize – just look for the ones the media and the godless left label as crazy.
You know you are in trouble when right is wrong and wrong is right.
I was in Kabul when the new Embassy opened and they hired these bozos. Let me tell you we civilians hated the mercenaries almost as much as the soldiers did. All of us were in much more danger every day and earning a small fraction of what the top mercenaries did.
But the “grunts” were initially Filipinos hired to guard the Embassy. Most couldn’t speak English very well and some couldn’t even speak Spanish. Why Filipinos? They worked cheap. But not cheap enough, I guess. It was rumored before I left they would be replacing them all with Gurkas because the Nepalese would work even cheaper.
Most of the “elite” or management were Australian and, even then, were reputed to be partying heavily. Not a lot of Afghan whores. Hookers in Kabul were usually eastern European women smuggled in.
Oh. The best insult was that while the Aussies were armed with the latest and greatest weaponry and body armor, the Filipinos were mostly armed with AK-47s and blue fatigues. We heard they supplied their own weapons and, of course, AKs were dirt cheap. You could buy a used one in Afghanistan for under US$50.
I don’t know the facts but it was rumored that the company was charging over five billion for security work in Afgh on a 5 year contract.
Seriously, who cares? I don’t. If the state department wants to waste money on incompetent and unethical hired thugs to protect their own asses, then let them. When the next assault on that embassy happens, they deserve whatever they get. Having an embassy in Afghanistan is already a joke, having it guarded by mercenaries from a rent-a-cop company only seems fitting.
look-up G4S, an EU company and Wackenhut’s parent Corp
G4S is really a private army and Wackenhut has many contracts here stateside, the Department Of Homeland Security being their largest client. Janet Napolitano has their contract as well as BP and ICE.
it is just ugly business, not ugly American business
perhaps Janet is going to use them to force swine flu shots!
#5 Who’s administration signed/approved the contract? Obama? Take another guess.
No further explanation needed.
#19
Did you ever head outside town to Qargha lake? I think it was near the old Hassar fortress. Whenever I was deployed I tried to find a few places that locals enjoyed. I guess it made me more conscious of the perspective of the locals. What sucked the most was seeing the kids that you knew you couldn’t help — there were just too many.
#21
I agree! Definitely a very profitable business — not just American.
What happen to our Marines? They are fighting two worthless wars in god forsaken countries full of people who hate us, want to kill us or just want us to go! Why we have solders of fortune protecting our Embassies who knows? Might be better off with Boy Scouts just teach them to shoot!
At least they would not be partying!
When did the American Army become useless and ineffective? Why do we have to pay private contractors 4 times a U.S. soliders salary to defend us?
* Is it because our military can’t do the job? Then train them better.
* Is it because we just don’t want to see “dead soldiers” so we’re trying to hide the true casualties of a war? Then grow up and face the consequences of war.
* Is it because we just WANT to spend more and more? $600 billion a year in public taxes to fund the military just isn’t enough?
I wish we’d quit our empire. Close all but 3 or 4 of the hundreds of military bases around the world (about 830) and stop spending so much damn money.
No official ‘nation’ will attack us (like Germany invading Poland) because we have 10,000 nuclear weapons. Individual terrorist attacks, like 9/11, can’t be stopped by a military anyway. 9/11 was ultimately implemented by a dozen guys with box cutters from K-Mart. All the aircraft carriers in the world can’t stop that. It’s not tanks vs tanks, or fighter jets vs fighter jets. That’s special forces, intelligence and policing.
Isn’t this why we spend $600 billion a year in public tax money on the military? Can’t our soldiers do this?
#26,
Pay Billions to private corps, and pay the HIRED guns Little, and our military EVEN LESS..
If Our military paid a decent wage, we would have MORE people in it.
THIS for a nation that cant KEEP 1% of its Cits as military. EVEN when we are fighting terrorism.
#24 Are you serious? You think Obama is to blame because the contract is still in force after he’s been in office?
Contracts, include with the government, can’t be terminated for convenience (e.g., just because the new administration thinks they’re wasteful, un-American, stupid, etc.) without very expensive consequences. So, we (as in all of us) are stuck with this Bush legacy until the contracts lapse or they can be terminated for breach (e.g., non-performance, violation of a covenant, etc.).
There endith the lesson.
“be thinkin” and “Pedro” didn’t either of you listen to the video? The Obama administration renewed their contract in July for another year…
It’s Obama’s problem now…
#23 – Wumpus – Never made it to Lake Qargha. As I recall, it was in an area we were not allowed to travel in. When I was in Kabul, I was usually too busy to travel, in any case. My other base was Faizabad in the north and I usually had time to travel extensively. The north is a beautiful though often barren place. Especially the huge fields of lovely poppies.
I know what you mean about the kids. I must have bought and given away a million packages of those gawdawful Chinese cookies, Lord knows how much melamine I inadvertently introduced into the country!
They don’t have enough bodies so they are contracting it out. The quality varies.
There’s no sense to any of it, but that won’t keep your government from sacrificing lives and spending too much on it. Who gives a shit what kind of governmet these people have? That’s their problem! Nation building is what an aggressor nation does to the countries it ‘helps’. Just like Stalin after WWII. With a defecit so huge that soon they’ll have to invent new numbers just to describe it, they just continue to spend on useless crap that only benefits the american military industrial complex and big oil interests.
Unfortunately, as all of you with triple digit IQ’s should know, politicians are nothing but clowns put there to distract the people from the real source of power. $$$
It’s not too late to emmigrate!
#18 pedro – you miss the point entirely. I was being critical of anyone who tries to post an irrelevant tangent – say one trying to make humor while pointing out Clinton sex scandal, while ignoring the shamefulness of important lies and in this case, shameful behavior of rent-a-security. Seems to me reading your responses to my post and others that you aren’t really thinking too deeply before you get your name and comment up on a blog. My post is critical of these security personnel, not supportive. Read my last two sentences with the sarcasm I meant them.
#22 Well stupid, The answer is Yes he (Obama) renewed (the contract) earlier this year so Tag your it.
Ahh don’t ya hate facts. But he probably used one of Bushes old pens that George left lying around so that would be Georges ink, so it would be Bushes fault. See how easy this is.
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