A whistleblower was forced to resign after he helped a government watchdog organization expose the scandalous behavior of security contractors guarding the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

    The Project on Government Oversight on Thursday charged that one whistleblower was "pressured" to resign after his company "came to believe that he had reached out to [Washington] D.C. for assistance," the watchdog organization said in a statement.

Pictures of US Embassy workers in Kabul show private security contractors drinking alcohol and posing in obscene ways. (Photo: The Times UK)

    POGO on Tuesday released an investigation into the misconduct of private security guards at the embassy.

    POGO concluded that the contractors are posing a "significant threat" to security because their lewd behavior and hazing of subordinates demoralizes the already understaffed force.

    POGO detailed and documented its investigation in a 10-page letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. As a result, the State Department has announced it is launching a wide-ranging inquiry into allegations of misconduct and mismanagement by the private security firm ArmorGroup North America.

    ArmorGroup is a subsidiary of Wackenhut Services Inc., a large security contractor. The firm employs 450 guards to provide security at the embassy in Kabul under a five-year, $189 million contract with the State Department. About 1,000 people work at that embassy.

    The State Department awarded the security contract to ArmorGroup in 2007 and since then has repeatedly warned the company that it was failing to meet contractual requirements. After its own inspection in March 2009, the State Department found at least 18 guards were absent from their posts because of negligent supervisors.

    Nevertheless, the State Department agreed in June to extend the contract for another year.

    Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) this week called on the State Department to open an investigation into the performance and management of the security contract with ArmorGroup. McCaskill, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a leading voice on government contracting oversight, said the new evidence calls into question the company's ability to provide adequate security at a key facility.

    POGO said on Thursday that it was concerned about "the action allegedly taken against the whistleblower." POGO described the whistleblower as working for a company whose client is ArmorGroup.

    "He is being forced out at a time when three of the supervisors responsible for allowing the misconduct at Camp Sullivan have been allowed to quietly resign and escape accountability," POGO said in a statement.

    The company told POGO that the whistleblower's resignation was voluntary.

    POGO initiated the investigation after nearly one-tenth of the U.S. and expatriate guards individually contacted the organization to express concerns about 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," Danielle Brian, POGO’s executive director, wrote in the letter to Clinton.

    "This environment has resulted in chronic turnover by U.S./ex-pat guards," Brian said.

    Only 150 guards are Americans or from other English-speaking countries. POGO identified the rest as Gurkhas from northern India and Nepal who speak little or no English. POGO said that the language barrier prevented the guards from communicating in a crisis.

    Additionally, POGO points out that the English-speaking guards are creating a Lord of the Flies environment, a reference to a 1954 novel by William Golding about a group of British schoolboys who were stranded on a desert island and failed to govern themselves amid chaos.

    POGO cites an e-mail from a guard describing scenes in which guards and supervisors are "peeing on people, eating potato chips out of [buttock] cracks, vodka shots out of [buttock] cracks (there is video of that one), broken doors after drnken [sic] brawls, threats and intimidation from those leaders participating in this activity. ..."

    "Photograph after photograph shows guards — including supervisors — at parties in various stages of nudity, sometimes fondling each other. These parties take place just a few yards from the housing of other supervisors," POGO added.

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