POGO Blasts State Department Over ArmorGroup Oversight Before Wartime Contracting Commission

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Infuriatingly, in response to the recent revelations, the State Department has repeated baseless statements that “at no time was security jeopardized.” Based on what facts can they possibly make those assurances? Four times between June 2007 and March 2009, the State Department itself told ArmorGroup that the inadequate number of guards put “security in jeopardy,” “negatively impacted the security posture,” caused “serious” and “grave concerns,” and “gravely endangers the performance of guard services.” NOTHING has changed since those statements were made. Yet the State Department is now assuring the Congress and the Wartime Commission that security at the Embassy is sound? I have last week’s shift schedule. I know they are still operating on a schedule that their own commander described as unsustainable and causing sleep deprivation. These public assurances by State are not supported in fact, and make clear the Department does not yet recognize its own role in this public policy failure.