Blue Mountain Group, the British company providing security at the U.S. compound in Benghazi during the Sept. 11, 2012, attack there, was hired by the State Department despite having lost several other contracts in Libya, according to emails obtained by watchdog group Judicial Watch.

Blue Mountain was awarded a yearlong contract in March 2012. Three months later, Jairo Saravia, the State Department’s acting security regional officer in Tripoli, sent an email to Regional Security Officer David Oliveira in Benghazi alerting him that the company had problems in Libya.