(This isn’t satire – it’s G4S!)
Is it only me that’s noticed G4S were the company in charge of airport security which let some of the 9/11 hijackers slip through?
Through a contract with United Airlines, a company called Argenbright Security operated passenger security checkpoints at Dulles International Airport, where five hijackers passed through before boarding American Airlines Flight 77 on September 11, 2001.
But Argenbright were a subsidiary of Securicor, who are now – yes, you’ve guessed it – G4S.
The company was also fined for hiring people to work on airport security with criminal convictions for assault and drug possession.
In the US, FAA investigators found that Argenbright was regularly employing people who didn’t speak English and that it was paying workers no better than wages in a fast-food restaurant.
Now, where have I heard that before?
Don’t you think – in light of the complete shambles G4S has brought to the security operation for the Olympics before the bloody thing has even got started – this is pretty important information we should all know about?
And what about the government? Did they have this information before they handed over security for the Olympic Games to G4S?
And if the government didn’t know about it – why not?
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Oh and here’s yet another example of the incompetence and unprofessionalism of G4S:
Not satire – prisoner escaped curfew after G4S mistakenly tagged his false leg!
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Please help spread this information by sharing. Thanks.
Think Left 
As I have pointed out elsewhere…
Not quite. G4S has its origins in several companies which have merged at various points since the first of them formed in 1901, but to cut a long story short, Securicor and Group 4 Falck were two separate companies which merged to form Group 4 Securicor (subsequently G4S) in 2004, three years after 911:
http://www.g4s.com/en/Who%20we%20are/History/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G4S
Which still doesn’t detract from how pisspoor G4S are.
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Mr. Nick Buckles, CEO, has been a Director of Securicor PLC – and now G4S – since May 2000:
http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=1205757&ticker=GFS:LN
That’s before 9/11.
Changing the name doesn’t cut it I’m afraid.
And yes agreed – they’re pisspoor.
So pisspoor our government has paid them 300 million of our money to do a job they clearly were incapable of doing. A quite important job actually.
On that theme, I wonder how much of this fiasco is known internationally, especially by the nations competing at the Olympics?
Maybe someone should tell them?
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Reblogged this on The Political Idealist and commented:
Yet another example of sloppy practice which invites questions as to whether we want firms such as this providing ever more of our public services. I don’t think that we do.
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Not only do I not want more firms providing our public services, I’d prefer to take the contracts away from a great majority of the existing ones. It is quite different that a private company, should make/supply the bed-pans, from providing care for the elderly. Profit margins should have no place in provision of public services. They inevitably distort the care.
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Very true; it generates an inevitable conflict of interest. It is all but impossible to find an outsourced service that is of a higher standard than when said service was in-house.
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Pingback: Oh dear! G4S were in charge of security at airport which let 9/11 hijackers slip through. | Atos Victims Group News
The 9/11 hijackers took control of the planes with items that, at the time, were legal to carry on planes….just so you know
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Oh well that was nice of them.
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Just saw this article so I apologize for the delay. In reading your comment, this turns out not to be true. According to “The Air Carrier Standard Security Program” on September 11, 2001, which can be found on the internet, box-cutters, knives, mace, pepper spray, and plastic explosives were prohibited items.
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