Contractors at home

One of the bizarre side issues I've picked up over the years is in how private contractor work in peace and stability operations. In this context there has been plenty of talk over the years about the ways in which improper oversight is seriously endangering US military and civilian personal and strategy. What hasnt been mentioned in the same context is that many of this issues also come into play when looking at homeland security operations.

The Post has a piece today about a GAO investigation (original report here) of the effectiveness of contracted security on government building state side that highlights some petty shocking flaws in the system. While I think security related contractors are a fact of life that are here to stay (and have lots of friends in the business who I greatly respect) we clearly need to get a better hand on how we organize oversight.