UK Military Drafts Vets to Guard Olympics

The British military has been forced to hold an "emergency draft" to add another 3,500 troops to its Olympic security contingent—most of them soldiers just returning from Afghanistan—after the private security company hired to protect the games came up thousands short of the number of guards it promised to provide, the New York Times reports. There will now be 17,000 soldiers guarding the games, meaning they'll outnumber civilian security by more than 2-to-1.

What's more, the private contractor, G4S, appears to be in total disarray. With just two weeks to go, guards say they have no schedules, uniforms, or x-ray machine training, the Guardian reports. One employee tells Sky News that there's a 50-50 chance someone could carry a bomb past security. He said all recruits were hired, no matter their qualifications or competence. And the UK is paying handsomely for this crack squad—last year organizers increased G4S' "management fee" to recruit guards almost tenfold, from about $11.2 million to nearly $93 million—even though G4S only increased recruitment spending by about $4.3 million, according to the Daily Telegraph. (More 2012 London Olympics stories.)