According to an article by Frank Munger in yesterday's Knoxville News Sentinel, one of the companies in a partnership hired to provide security at ORNL is accused of fraud involving a contract to provide security at a U.S. military air base in Iraq.

(The U.S. military needs security guards? And they have to outsource them?)

This is another example of why security at these facilities should be federalized. I don't understand why we have companies like "National Strategic Protective Services" and "Consolidated Nuclear Security" (which was recently hired to provide security at Y-12) when we have federal law enforcement and the military. The federal government should be able to do the job at a lower cost with better supervision and more accountability.

And in the case of Y-12, shouldn't nuclear weapons facilities be protected by the military?

The recent security contractor changes are fallout from WSI (formerly Wackenhut) losing both contracts after an 82-year-old nun and her team of senior peace protesters breached security at Y-12 armed with only wire cutters and Bibles.

It appears there are serious problems with outsourcing critical national security operations to lowest bidder private contractors lined up at the military-industrial complex trough.