The government contractor that ran the background check on National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden also vetted the alleged Navy Yard Shooter, The Hill has confirmed.
{mosads}The Wall Street Journal and McClatchy originally reported on Thursday that Falls Church, Va.-based USIS, which cleared Snowden, also vetted and granted a 10-year security clearance for the Navy Yards to Aaron Alexis in 2008.
Alexis died in a shootout with police after killing 12 and wounding many others in a rampage near Capitol Hill Monday.
Subsequent media reports have uncovered numerous red flags about Alexis. The 34-year-old Fort Worth, Texas, resident reportedly suffered from mental illness and had at least two gun-related incidents in his background, although neither resulted in a criminal record.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) responded to the news by calling for a “top-to-bottom” overhaul of the security clearance process.
“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,” she said in a statement.
“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.”
In June, McCaskill announced at a Senate hearing that USIS was under criminal investigation by the Office of Personnel Management for a “systematic failure to properly conduct its investigations.”