Army Turns to Private Guards

[russian33]

WASHINGTON — Stretched thin by troop deployments in Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites) and security needs at home, the Army has resorted to hiring private security guards to help protect dozens of American military bases.

To date, more than 4,300 private security officers have been put to work at 50 Army installations in the United States, according to Army documents obtained by The Times.

The work was awarded to four firms — two of which got the contracts without having to bid competitively. The contracts are worth as much as $1.24 billion.

The Army says the maneuver lets it free up more soldiers for military duty while quickly putting private guards in place to meet the need for additional security since the Sept. 11 attacks.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/latimests/20040812/ts_latimes/armyturnstoprivateguards

[Semi_subversive]

1. Knowing that Wackenhut is involved

means the guards aren't getting paid much more that minimum wage.

[pocket]

2. Navy started doing this back in the 80s

and US Army bases in Germany have had rentacops for years