Security at the US embassy in Kabul is being undermined by a breakdown in discipline and morale among guards, some of whom have been subjected to “deviant hazing,” a watchdog group said on Tuesday.
The nonprofit Project On Government Oversight (POGO) said on its Web site it had sent a letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton detailing the problems, which also include language barriers between Nepalese Ghurkas and other guards.
It said it had obtained many e-mails, photographs and videos that “portray a Lord of the Flies environment,” referring to the title of the novel by William Golding about stranded school boys who turn into savages on a desert island.
In the letter dated Tuesday, POGO said it launched its investigation after about one-tenth of the 450 guards and supervisors responsible for security at the embassy contacted the group.
They sought “to express concerns and provide evidence of a pattern of blatant, longstanding violations of the security contract, and of a pervasive breakdown in the chain of command and guard force discipline and morale.”
It said such an environment has led to “chronic turnover” among the guards and has undermined security at the embassy where about 1,000 US diplomats, staff and Afghan nationals work.
It said security for the embassy is provided under a State Department contract with ArmorGroup, North America (AGNA), owned by Wackenhut Services, Inc (Wackenhut).
It said guards presented POGO with allegations and photographic evidence that some supervisors and guards are engaging in “near-weekly deviant hazing and humiliation of subordinates.”
Management has declined to discipline the culprits, it said.
“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,” it said.
POGO said security was also endangered by language barriers between the Nepalese Ghurkas and other guards. Even though they make up nearly two-thirds of the force, it said, most Ghurkas “cannot adequately speak English.”
It said the “State Department has acknowledged the [language] issue as a problem, but has not fixed it.”
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters the POGO charges were being taken seriously.
“Let me just say that these are very serious allegations, and we are treating them that way. As soon as we received the documents, they were turned over immediately to our Office of the Inspector General,” Kelly said.
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