Outsourcing Homeland Security

I have a good imagination and I watch more than my share of t.v. and movies. I also admit to such geeky activities as role-playing games and despite having earned the nickname “conspiracy girl” like it’s my superhero name or something, I am probably not the most paranoid of my geekier friends.

So, you can imagine that my view of what Homeland Security’s officies are like is pretty high-tech and bleak. I imagine retnal scans and fingerprinting and all sorts of trials and tribulations just to get into the coffee break room. I expect that the best of the best trained soldiers are onsite to protect whatever it is that’s going on there.

Imagine my disappointment upon finding this story:

when an envelope with suspicious powder was opened last fall at Homeland Security Department headquarters, guards said they watched in amazement as superiors carried it by the office of Secretary Michael Chertoff, took it outside and then shook it outside Chertoff’s window without evacuating people nearby.

The scare, caused by white powder that proved to be harmless, “stands as one glaring example” of the agency’s security problems, said Derrick Daniels, one of the first guards to respond to the incident.

“I had never previously been given training … describing how to respond to a possible chemical attack,” Daniels told The Associated Press. “I wouldn’t feel safe nowhere on this compound as an officer.” [“Guards Fault Homeland Security Protection” (Yahoo!News)]

Apparently, Homeland Security outsources its security to Wackenhut Services Inc. (Doesn’t anyone else thing there’s something off about that?) Homeland Security’s excuse is that it currently has no control over the training received by Wackenhut’s employees though that is due to change with a new contract.

“If the allegations brought forward by the whistleblowers are correct, they represent both a security threat and a waste of taxpayer dollars,” Democratic Sens. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and Ron Wyden of Oregon wrote. “It would be ironic, to say the least, if DHS were unable to secure its own headquarters.” [“Guards Fault Homeland Security Protection” (Yahoo!News)]

tags: politics, Homeland Security, outsourcing

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