The State Department decided to hire Blue Mountain Group to guard the ill-fated U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi.

The Obama Administration did entrusted security tasks to a little-known British company instead of the large firms it usually uses in overseas danger zones.

The contract was largely based on expediency, U.S. officials have said, since no one knew how long the temporary mission would remain in the Libyan city. The cradle of last year’s uprising that ended Muammar Gaddafi’s 42-year rule, Benghazi has been plagued by rising violence in recent months.

Security practices at the diplomatic compound, where Blue Mountain guards patrolled with flashlights and batons instead of guns, have come under U.S. government scrutiny in the wake of the September 11 attack in Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

Federal contract data shows that the Benghazi security contract, worth up to USD 783,284, was listed as a “miscellaneous” award, not as part of the large master State Department contract that covers protection for overseas embassies.

“Blue Mountain was virtually unknown to the circles that studied private security contractors working for the United States, before the events in Benghazi,” said Charles Tiefer, a commissioner at the Commission on Wartime Contracting, which studied U.S. contracting in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Several British government sources said that they were unfamiliar with Blue Mountain, which is based in Wales. They said British authorities used a different contractor for security protection in Libya.

Source: Reuters.

My comment:

Having 15 trillion in debts and counting, the USA do have a self-image problem.

Are the USA the Worlds lone military super power, and should American continue to be the Global police force?

The W.Bush Administration found a tool they could use. It is called “outsourcing of wars”.

The first major scandal was a death squad from the money makers in Blackwater, who slaughtered a group of civilians in Iraq. The massacre took place on September 16, 2007, when the contract killers tried to clear the way in Baghdad for a convoy of State Department officials. 17 Iraqi civilians were brutally murdered.

Who gave them the authority to kill?

Under which laws are such groups accountable?

The scandals goes on. When the US starts a war, the killing squads need to be hired men on contract, not employed US Servicemen.

When the money available becomes less, the Pentagon can not chose among the best. They have to chose among the lowest bidders. This is the main reason for the death of the US Ambassadors. Pax-Americana goes from bad to worse.

Written by Ivar