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US - Same firm did checks on Snowden, Navy Yard shooter

September 20, 2013

The company that conducted the background check on Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis, a contract worker, also conducted an investigation of contract worker Edward Snowden. And now that company, USIS, is under criminal investigation, the office of U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) reported.

“From Edward Snowden to Aaron Alexis, what’s emerging is a pattern of failure on the part of this company, and a failure of this entire system, that risks nothing less than our national security and the lives of Americans,” McCaskill said in a press release. “What’s most frightening is that USIS performs a majority of background checks for our government. We clearly need a top-to-bottom overhaul of how we vet those who have access to our country’s secrets and to our secure facilities. I plan to pursue such an overhaul, and won’t rest until it’s achieved.”

USIS conducts approximately 65 percent of all background check investigations conducted by contractors, according to McCaskill’s office.

Businessweek reports on the situation here.