SECURITY CLEARANCE

Snowden Background Check ‘Flawed’

Company that performed it under investigation.

In order to get security clearance to access “confidential and secret” government information, like the details on the NSA spying program that Edward Snowden leaked to the public, one must undergo a background check. Snowden, as an employee of the government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, had to undergo such a background check, and now the company that administered it is being investigated. USIS, the government contractor that performed Snowden’s background check, is being probed because, according to Sen. Claire McCaskill, of its failure to conduct proper investigations. “We are limited in what we can say about this investigation because it is an ongoing criminal matter,” said McCaskill. “But it is a reminder that background investigations can have a real consequence for our national security.”