Kabul Embassy Whistleblower Sues Security Firm

A former manager who says he tried to lift the lid on bad behavior by guards at the US Embassy in Kabul is suing security contractor ArmorGroup, CNN reports. James Gordon says he was forced out of his job after asking the company and the State Department to investigate guards' illegal visits to brothels known to house trafficked women. His efforts to bring in a no-brothel policy were met with "outright hostility," Gordon says.

One employee was "forcibly removed from a brothel in Kabul during working hours," but was kept in his job by managers who frequented the same establishment, Gordon says in the lawsuit. ArmorGroup supplied the embassy with too few guards and gave them second-rate equipment, Gordon claims. The company's goal, he says, "was to maximize their profits, provide a fig leaf of security at the embassy, and pray to God that nobody got killed." (More James Gordon stories.)