USIS, the Falls Church government contractor that handled the background check for National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, said Thursday that it also vetted Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis for his ¬secret-level clearance in 2007. The company, which is under criminal investigation over whether it misled the government about the thoroughness of its background checks, said earlier this week that it had not handled Alexis’s case. The government’s security clearance process is not designed to flag people struggling with mental illness, experts said. The aim of the system is to root out individuals at risk of compromising classified information. NOW GET THIS: MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT IS NOT A DISQUALIFYING FACTOR, and there are few ways to alert security officials when someone with clearance develops mental-health problems, according to analysts and former government security officials.
Posted on: Fri, 20 Sep 2013 13:38:52 +0000