Friday, June 21, 2013
They say private enterprise can do it better.
But from the available information that does not appear to be the case with our National Security. Once upon a time the government did its own thorough background checks for those who needed security clearance. Then the task was given to a private corporation that had to do the same task AND make a profit. One of the results was Edward Snowden.
The private company responsible for vetting Edward Snowden for a security clearance is under criminal investigation for systemic failure to adequately conduct background checks.In the old days you could expect the FBI to stop by the neighborhood and ask some questions, now they can't even be bothered to pull a real credit check. But they do make a profit.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., announced at a Senate hearing Thursday that USIS, a government contractor headquartered in Falls Church, Va., conducted a background check for Snowden in 2011. The 29-year-old systems administrator’s clearance gave him access to classified documents he later leaked to the media, revealing secret surveillance by the National Security Agency.
“We are limited in what we can say about this investigation because it is an ongoing criminal matter, but it is a reminder that background investigations can have real consequences for our national security,” McCaskill said. “Federal agencies, like the Defense Department, rely on these background investigations to make assessments of whether people should be trusted with our nation’s most sensitive information. . . . It appears that this trust has been broken.”
USIS is the largest commercial provider of background investigations to the federal government. The company said in a statement that USIS has never been informed that it is under criminal investigation, although it did receive a subpoena for records from the inspector general of the Office of Personnel Management in January 2012. “USIS complied with that subpoena and has cooperated fully with the government’s civil investigative efforts,” the statement said.
And USIS is not the only private corporation failing to do what it was contracted to do.
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