Inside US mission in Kabul: Booze, nudity & lewd acts

WASHINGTON: Private contractors hired by the US government have jeopardized security at the American embassy in Kabul with lewd, drunken conduct
and an understaffed guard force at a time of rising violence in the Afghan capital, a watchdog group said on Tuesday.

The non-partisan Project on Government Oversight sent US secretary of state Hillary Clinton a letter documenting complaints about guards working for ArmorGroup, North America, and photos of nearly naked men behaving lewdly at their camp.

The firm employs 450 guards to provide security at the Kabul embassy under a five-year, $189 million State Department contract. The department extended the contract in June.

Pictures obtained by the group showed male guards, scantily dressed in G-string style garments, dancing around a bonfire and urinating while others snapped photographs. Video showed them pouring alcohol down the bare backside of a new recruit and trying to drink it as it spilled from the man's buttocks.

These are the latest of many allegations of misconduct by private security contractors hired by the US government to perform duties in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"These are very serious allegations and we are treating them that way," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said at a briefing, adding that the issue had been turned over to the department's inspector general.

About 150 guards are Americans or from other English-speaking countries. The remaining 300 are identified by the Project on Government Oversight as Gurkhas from India and Nepal who speak little or no English. The group said the language barrier between English-speakers and Gurkhas was so severe it would be difficult for them to communicate in a crisis.