Private security called weak link

[Kadie]

Private security called weak link
Source: AP


WASHINGTON -- Across the United States, large numbers of ill-trained, low-paid private security guards are protecting tempting terrorist targets.

Richard Bergendahl, 55, is one of them. He fights the war on terrorism in Los Angeles, protecting a high-rise office building for $19,000 a year. Down the block is a skyscraper that has been identified by President Bush as a target for a Sept. 11-style airplane attack.

Bergendahl said he often thinks "what am I doing here? These people are paying me minimum wage."

The security guard industry found itself involuntarily transformed after the 2001 terrorist attacks from an army of "rent-a-cops" to protectors of the homeland.

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