Terminate Wackenhut’s contract TODAY

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 Blog / Commentary by IARC

By Dino Teppara, Esq.
IARC Chairman

An embarrassing and potentially dangerous situation needs to be handled immediately at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.  Supervisors and some security guards employed by ArmorGroup, a private contractor and subsidiary of Wackenhut, are being investigated for their crude, humiliating and deviant hazing of fellow guards at their off-site living quarters at Camp Sullivan.  These deeply troubling actions were highlighted by the Project on Government Oversight in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Despite concerns raised in 2007 of ArmorGuard employees’ behavior, the State Department extended the five-year, $189 million contract for an additional year.  This too, in the face of a congressional investigation where Wackenhut’s Vice President testified before Congress that the Embassy was fully-staffed, when there was actually a nearly 100% turnover of security guards due to low-morale and the breakdown of authority.  Many of the guards subjected to the hazing were young military veterans, who faced promotions or demotions depending on whether they cooperated.

These security guards were supposed to be protecting American diplomats and Afghan personnel from the ever-present dangers posed by the Taliban and al Qaeda.  Instead, they were fighting off their own supervisors’ emasculating attempts to sexually demean them.  The result? Sleep-deprived guards, a massive turnover rate leading to a breakdown of team cohesion at the Embassy, and State Department officials publicly claiming ArmorGuard’s performance was sound while internal documents showed otherwise.

While Congressional and State Department leaders are investigating further, dramatic action needs to be taken now.  The contract should be terminated and the company that was the second bidder, should be given a six-month contract on a trial basis to immediately provide new security for the Embassy.  All the current ArmorGuard supervisors and guards that participated in this lurid behavior have been ethically compromised and must be removed immediately.  The guards who were subjected to this hazing should be given the opportunity to be hired by the new American contractor.

Above all, we should remember two things: (1) these monies are paid for by American taxpayers, and (2) we are in a Muslim-majority country fighting terrorists and fighting to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people at the same time.

With Abu Ghraib still in the minds of many Muslims, we may well imagine what a leader of a Pashtun tribe that has existed for 3,000 years in Afghanistan may think if they see these hazing pictures: If Americans would humiliate and treat their own people this way, how would they treat people in the local village?