Army Hired Criminals as Security Guards

The Virginian-Pilot

The U.S. Army and private contractors employed convicted criminals as security guards across the country despite repeated warnings in the past three years of the "risky situations" that could present, according to a new federal report.

Fort Eustis and Fort Story were found to have some training documentation deficiencies but have not employed criminals as guards, according to the Army and Alutiiq, the private company that manages the security guards at the two bases.

The report by the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, said this is the third time in three years that it has warned the Army that the lack of proper background checks could jeopardize security at some of the largest and most important installations, including Fort Bragg and West Point.

The GAO report says that at one facility, which was unidentified other than it was not in Hampton Roads, 61 security guards with criminal records had been hired, including two dozen with felonies and one with an outstanding warrant.

When I first saw this Headline I thought of an old movie The Dirty Dozen. Altho I don't think that these Hired Criminals, working as Security Guards are as "Cool" as Telly Savalas, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine or Donald Sutherland in the Movie.

Well, there is one thing from the movie that I found Interesting - a Quote from it:

"Train them! Excite them! Arm them!...Then turn them loose on the Nazis!"

Only that Today it sounds more like this:

"Train them! Excite them! Arm them!...Then turn them loose on the Iraqis!

[edit on 8/4/06 by Souljah]

Alutiiq are the company that is mentioned
in the link you supplied.
A quick search at their site gives a run down on what they do.
The below quote is from said site.

Alutiiq employs veteran Special Forces, Intelligence, and Law Enforcement personnel with the expertise to properly analyze and detect vulnerabilities, recommend sound approaches to eliminate them, and the real world savvy to know which approaches really work. Our experts provide:

I did try and find where it also mentioned that it uses criminals to do this kind of security work, but , for the life of me cannot find any info at all.