State Official Describes Benghazi as an 'Emergency' Situation

Contact: Jill Farrell, Judicial Watch, 202-646-5188

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11, 2014 /Standard Newswire/ -- Judicial Watch has obtained and released internal Department of State documents detailing the department's $783,284.79 contract with U.K.-based Blue Mountain Group (BMG) to provide security at the diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya. The documents show that BMG did not have a license to operate in Libya at the time of the attack due to a business dispute with its partner in Libya, XPAND Corporation, and quote a State official describing the Benghazi security issue as an "emergency situation." Judicial Watch obtained the documents through a court order in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit (Judicial Watch v U.S. Department of State (No. 13-00243)).

BMG notified State Department Contracting Officer Jan Visintainer of the dispute on June 6, 2012. On July 10, 2012, Visintainer advised the company that the department, "is not required to mediate any disagreements between the two parties of the Blue Mountain Libya partnership." The letter further suggested that "it is in the best interests of both of the 50/50 partners to resolve their differences and successfully complete this contract."

Despite that urging, the documents obtained by Judicial Watch include an agreement, dated August 20, 2012, between Blue Mountain Group and XPAND Corporation to dissolve their partnership. On September 9, 2012 – just two days before the terrorist attack – an unidentified partner at Nabulsi & Associates (the law firm representing XPAND) wrote to Visintainer advising the department that XPAND, which owned the security license under which BMG was operating, "hereby bar and prohibit BMUK [Blue Mountain U.K.] from utilizing such license." The letter continues:

Accordingly, we kindly inform you that any use of such license by BMUK in Libya shall be illegal and a clear violation of Libyan laws. We therefore request that the US mission ceases any dealings with BMUK if such dealings are based on any form of reliance on such security license.

In response to XPAND's letter, an unidentified BMG official wrote to Visintainer on September 11, 2012:

I have never experienced anything like this in business before. The agreement was signed and we were to operate under the [Blue Mountain Libya] license and confirmation of this was due through from [sic] the partners. However, they have had a change of mind and now this. I will call you very shortly.

The documents indicate that the dispute and licensing issue led the State Department to immediately plan to terminate their contract with BMG. On the morning of September 11, 2012, David Sparrowgrove, a State Department regional security officer, wrote to Visintainer and others, "The dissolution of the partnership leaves BMG without a security license to operate in Libya and the Libyan partner has no capacity to manage the guards or the contract. As a result, we feel the best course of action is to terminate the contract in short order." Sparrowgrove also writes, "I've CC'd OPO Branch Chief Ricki Travers who has had the unfortunate pleasure of dealing with these types of emergency situations in the past."

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