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1. Comment - GAO pen test brings the hammer down on federal rent-a-cops

   (Jul 9, 2009 - 4:19 PM)

   These contractors were very well trained. B.F. Skinner could have told you that if you rewarded pigeons or monkeys for NOT performing the tasks they had before them, they would learn NOT to do the task.
   
   By failing to enforce contractual provisions for liquidated damages, the government has taught contractors that they can make greater profits by non-performance. They can hire only 80% of the employees for which they've contracted. They can fail to cover shifts. They can fail to do background screening or properly train workers. They can hire people who may, through design or incompetence, be even more dangerous or larcenous to the people and government facilities they're guarding than those whom they are supposed to be protecting us against.
   
   The for-profit prison business is a perfect example of this. Wackenhut spin-off GEO Group deliberately does exactly this yet gets ever more contracts because no one is willing to take responsibility for their failures and theft and overbillings.
   
   This is how we got 9/11, when a parade of 19 Arabs who bought one-way tickets for cash were allowed to board four jets carrying Leatherman knives (not box cutters). A check at one airport revealed that a huge percentage of the flight line employees, such as baggage handlers, had felony records.
   
   These "guards" and prisons do not truly provide security, but they perform their intended function very well. They give us a false sense of security and the mistaken belief that the government is doing its job.