Watchdog faults background check of NSA leaker

AP/WTOP ^ | 6/21/2013 | KIMBERLY DOZIER

[markomalley]

A government watchdog testified Thursday there may have been problems with a security clearance background check conducted on the 29-year-old federal contractor who disclosed previously secret National Security Agency programs for collecting phone records and Internet data -- just as news media disclosed more information about those programs.

Appearing at a Senate hearing, Patrick McFarland, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's inspector general, said USIS, the company that conducted the background investigation of former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden, is now under investigation itself.

McFarland declined to say what triggered the inquiry of USIS or whether the probe is related to Snowden. But when asked by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., if there were any concerns about the USIS background check on Snowden, McFarland answered: "Yes, we do believe that there may be some problems."

Meanwhile, new details emerged about the scope of two recently disclosed NSA programs -- one that gathers U.S. phone records and another that is designed to track the use of U.S.-based Internet servers by foreigners with possible links to terrorism.

Two new documents published Thursday by The Guardian newspaper -- one labeled "top secret" and the other "secret" -- said NSA can keep copies of intercepted communications from or about U.S. citizens indefinitely if the material contains significant intelligence or evidence of crimes.

[pepsionice]

When they do the background checks....they require you to list three people who know you and they will interview the three people...possibly. I’ve seen cases where the investigation person simply walked into the work-place...found three people who worked around the guy and accepted them as the three references. I’ve seen some cases where they went to actual neighbors of the guy and asked questions. In this case...I’d have my doubts about who they interviewed for the three references.

I’d also be wondering if they did a medical records review. I’m going to take a guess that this guy is taking some type of medication. I’m also going to bet that he hasn’t been drug-tested since the short period that he was in the Army. This will so be an issue that might have to be explained.

[lavaroise]

So the NSA fails to snoop on its own communists and muslims? Nothing new we did not know.

[SueRae]

“At the hearing, McFarland called for much closer oversight of the investigators who conduct background checks. He said that 18 background investigators and record searchers have been criminally convicted since 2006 for fabricating information in background reports.

McFarland’s office is actively working on 11 fabrication cases and another 36 cases involving background investigators are pending, according to data he provided to the subcommittees.

Of the 18 investigators who were criminally convicted, 11 were federal employees and seven were contractors. Of the 47 active and pending cases, six involve federal employees and 41 involve contractors, according to McFarland”

Investigating the investigators. Sounds like a bad episode of MAD Magazine’s “Spy vs. Spy”. I wonder if any of them were involved in background investigations of the current WH occupant and his staff. With all the questions asked about foreign travel, addresses, school and previous employment and medical info, isn’t it amazing that NOTHING turned up?(sarc) Not for him, not for Valerie, not for Michelle or any or ‘those women’ in his administration now in high positions of National Security.

[SE Mom]

They’re claiming they don’t have enough “resources “ read MONEY, to perform proper background checks.

HOWEVER we DO have enough to spend $70 m on IRS bonuses and is it $60m for O to go to Africa?
Cannot buy our marines anything but MRE’s in Afghanistan but we’re leaving $7 billion worth of equipment there to be trashed.

This government is a MESS.

[tbw2]

If they fault the system of background checks in deciding who can hold our most sensitive data, why trust those who collect more personal data like health records and internet compilations?

[Strategerist]

I wonder if any of them were involved in background investigations of the current WH occupant and his staff. With all the questions asked about foreign travel, addresses, school and previous employment and medical info, isn’t it amazing that NOTHING turned up?(sarc) Not for him, not for Valerie, not for Michelle or any or ‘those women’ in his administration now in high positions of National Security.

There are no security clearance or background investigations for elected officials.

[Albion Wilde]

I wasn't able to convince my thesis advisor of this, but my grad thesis research in the 90s led me to understand that the breakdown of traditional marriage would result in the end of traditional American freedom. If children are not brought up from infancy in the virtues of accountability to others who love you passionately, are connected to you biologically, work hard to support you and have the power to correct your mistakes as you are growing and becoming educated, as adults they will be incapable of behaving ethically and morally on behalf of employers.

I contended that morality is a social "luxury good" that, like rivers and forests, America had in abundance at its founding due to the Christian culture of 95% of its inhabitants for the first 300 years. It has been shattered by socialist infiltration of government starting at the time of the Soviet revolution 1911 and by immigration policies I can only characterize as "sentimental" rather than supportive or strategic.