Private guards at National Archives not trained for emergencies, watchdog says

[alp227]

Source: The Washington Post

Private security officers who guard the headquarters of the National Archives are not properly trained to respond to threats to visitors, the staff or the holdings, a report by the agency's watchdog reveals.

Without a more robust system of testing and drills for the guards, the Archives "has no assurance officers are proficient enough with their weapons" to respond to an attack, the agency's inspector general said in an emergency memo to top Archives officials.

"We lack the confidence the security officers would be able to respond appropriately during an incident," Inspector General Paul Brachfeld warned Archivist David S. Ferriero in a two-page letter last fall. The letter had not been made public, but a copy was recently obtained by The Washington Post.

Brachfeld said building security deserves heightened priority in light of the September hostage crisis at the Discovery Channel headquarters in Silver Spring and the 2009 shooting inside the Holocaust Museum.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/09/AR2011010903631.html

[boppers]

1. Rent a cop: not trained in lethal force.

I hang out with a lot of folks who do this kind of detail, they're simply not trained, or paid, as well as needed.

[peacetalksforall]

2. Crap. That kind of article triggers the scent - someone want to privatize it.

Goldman-Sachs on orders - from Cheney.

[JDPriestly]

3. Why would anyone attack the National Archives?

I've been to the archives in Southern California. It's as quiet and boring as a mausoleum. Why would anyone be interested in them?

Do the National Archives really draw all that much attention?

[baldguy]

4. If they get control of the National Archives they can control who has access to our history.

And they can make any evidence of wrongdoing by their RW heroes disappear.

[fasttense]

5. They can make any evidence of wrongdoing by their RW heroes disappear.

Doesn't the corporate media and the Obama Administration do that for them anyway?