Sex Parties Scandal at Kabul Embassy - ArmorGroup Named

Wild sex parties at the American Embassy in Kabul resulted in eight guards being fired. Employed by ArmorGroup, the guards at Camp Sullivan allegedly held the scandalous parties on a weekly basis for as long as a year and a half.

Senior guards were coercing subordinates to participate in sex games involving despicable acts against their will in fear of reprisal. Those that refused were ridiculed, demoted - some even fired. Those that participated may have been promoted or given other special treatment.

ArmorGroup, owned by Wackenhut Services, has been overseeing Embassy security in Kabul, Afghanistan for several years and the $189 million contract was just renewed in July.

ABCNews.com reports that in June 2007, the State Department warned "the security of the US embassy in Kabul is in jeopardy" because of "deficiencies" on the part of ArmorGroup. Similar complaints were raised at a Senate hearing in June 2009 by Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO).

Why wasn't ArmorGroup's presence in Kabul investigated further either time? Why was the contract renewed just a short time after the latest observations were brought to the Senate floor? These actions directly affect national security as well as the very lives of our American citizens and soldiers in Afghanistan. For the Senate and State Department to not demand full accountability at the time other issues were reported is an outrage.

Project on Government Oversight (POGO), an independent watchdog group, gathered eyewitness testimonies, videos and at least 12 explicit photographs of deviant sex acts being performed by drunken guards during the parties. Their findings were submitted to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a 10-page report; citing her disgust at the alleged activities, the guards were terminated the next day.

According to eyewitness reports, as many as 30 guards and supervisors may have been instigating the sex parties and although complaints were made for an unknown period of time, ArmorGroup management apparently looked the other way. Sex parties among the guards not being enough, many allege that prostitutes were often brought in and one Aghan national employed at Camp Sullivan submitted that he was grabbed by one guard, accompanied by four others, and verbally accosted with talk of sex . All of the guards were near naked, brandishing bottles of alcohol. How many other Afghan nationals may have been targets of similar abuse, but fear has kept them quiet?

While the State Department has given no indication that ArmorGroup's contract will be canceled, they expect more guards to be fired as the investigation continues. Three separate investigations are still undergoing, and it's certainly possible that cancellation of the contract will still be forthcoming. Wackenhut Services is purportedly cooperating with the ongoing investigation of the acts at Camp Sullivan, but has given no official statement on the situation as of this writing.

The State Department has instructed that all personnel known to be involved in the scandalous sex parties at Camp Sullivan be removed immediately and that all management staff in Kabul be replaced.

POGO has advised the State Department to have management of private security companies at all embassies be overseen by military personnel.

I'd say they're a little late.

Sources:

ABC News
Spiegel Online International
NYDailyNews.com