By Sarah KneezleA cellphone video released Wednesday allegedly captures several U.S. defense contractors staggeringly drunk or high on narcotics while stationed at an operations center in Kabul, Afghanistan.
The video was given to ABC News by two former employees of Jorge Scientific who felt that the pattern of drug use and outrageous behavior jeopardized American lives. This behavior, they say, was undetected by the U.S. military, which is responsible for overseeing contractors, until the video was provided to ABC. One of the whistleblowers, John Melson, told ABC News: "It was going against everything that we were trying to do over there."
The two employees, Melson and Kenny Smith, worked as armed security officers in Kabul as part of a $47 million government contract with the Arlington, Virginia-based defense company, which led efforts to train the Afghan National Police in counter-insurgency tactics, according to ABC. They have now filed a lawsuit against Jorge Scientific, alleging widespread misconduct and fraud under the False Claims Act.
In a statement, Jorge Scientific says that it has taken "decisive action to correct the unacceptable behavior of a limited number of employees that occurred at an administrative living facility in Afghanistan." The U.S. military has launched an investigation into the incident. In a statement to ABC News, the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan said that the "behavior such as that described by ABC news is not acceptable for U.S. personnel, but it is not indicative of the outstanding work that thousands of contractors and service members perform every day in Afghanistan."
In the video, a shirtless man takes long swigs from a glass, slumps over and begins kicking the air. Nearby tables are cluttered with bottles of alcohol. Later in the video, the same man, alleged to be the security manager, engages another employee in a wrestling match.
Continue Reading: time.com
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