Gawker reporting causes State Department investigation
Yesterday, Gawker published some disturbing photos of private contractors employed by ArmorGroup who guard State Department employees in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Today, we find out that the State Department is launching a full investigation into the contractor.
So, was Gawker publishing the pics a motivating factor behind the State Dept’s quick response? Hard to say. Clearly that letter and those photos (which POGO also sent to the State Dept.) would have resulted some sort of reaction, though apparently the contractor ArmorGroup has been under some sort of investigation due to its behavior since 2007. But, much like the shots out of Abu Ghraib, the pictures Gawker first pubbed are upsetting, utterly damning, and impossible to ignore, and they’ve now been seen very quickly by a whole lot of people (though not as many as saw McSteamy!).
I believe the photos & story first appeared on Mother Jones:
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/09/embassy-guards-gone-wild-pictures-nsfw