US Embassy Guards in Afghan Night Ops?

The allegations against private contractors responsible for guarding the U.S. Embassy in Kabul may have gone beyond the strictly bizarre and perverse actions already alleged, according to a British newspaper.
 
According to a report in The Independent, the State Department is investigating claims that 18 guards dressed as mujahedin fighters and hit the nighttime streets of Kabul on unauthorized military operations, using weapons from the armory and night-vision goggles. The paper quotes an official report that it says it viewed that taking the NVGs left embassy staff "largely night-blind" in the event of an emergency.
 
The contract guards from ArmorGroup North America have come under official investigation since the independent Project on Government Oversight -- POGO -- sent the State Department a copy of its own investigation into guard activities, including drunkeness and sexual misconduct at their quarters at Camp Sullivan near Kabul.
 
The Independent reports that the guards are not trained to conduct military operations. It says that the guards conducted the unauthorized ops this past spring, photographing themselves on the missions and posting the images online.
 
The report also reveals, according to the newspaper, that AGNA, instead of taking disciplinary action against those involved, issued them a mocked-up citation bearing THE seal of the U.S. State Department and PRAISING them for their "intrepidity."
 
In a press announcement yesterday, the State Department said it has acted aggressively in investigating the POGO findings on Camp Sullivan, interviewing 60 people and holding a town meeting with the embassy community.
 
The POGO report, with photographs of the guards nude and behaving like out of control frat boys, prompted the watchdog group to liken the guards to the abandoned school children in the novel "Lord of the Flies," who eventually forsake civilized behavior for the law of the jungle.
 
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told The Washington Post that Secretary Hillary Clinton was "genuinely offended" by the reports of misconduct, and that any employees found to have taken part in the actions "will be removed and taken out of the country and will find a new line of work."