Contractor that screened Snowden also vetted alleged Navy Yard shooter
September 19, 2013
Contractor that screened Snowden also vetted alleged Navy Yard shooter
The government contractor that screened Edward Snowden also was responsible for a background check that granted "secret" security clearance to Aaron Alexis, the alleged Navy Yard shooter.
USIS, a private company based in Falls Church, Va., said on Thursday that it had vetted Alexis in 2007.The security clearance he subsequently received in 2008 was good for ten years, until 2018.
A USIS spokesman declined to say what Alexis' background check revealed, although government officials have said it turned up a 2004 arrest in Seattle for malicious mischief.
"We are contractually prohibited from retaining case information gathered as part of the background checks we conduct for (the federal Office of Personnel Management) and therefore are unable to comment further on the nature or scope of this or any other background check," USIS spokesman Ray Howell said in a statement.
USIS recently came under scrutiny for performing a five-year “periodic reinvestigation” for Snowden’s security clearance in February 2011. The 30-year-old systems administrator for Booz Allen Hamilton later leaked documents to the media, revealing massive secret surveillance by the National Security Administration.
At a Senate hearing in June, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said USIS was under criminal investigation for systemic failure to adequately conduct background checks. McCaskill chairs a Senate subcommittee on contracting oversight.
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http://blogs.mcclatchydc.com/washington/2013/09/the-government-contractor-that-screened-edward-snowden-also-was-responsible-for-a-background-check-that-gave-secret-security.html
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