Same firm involved in security checks on Snowden and Navy Yard gunman

The company that scrutinised former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden for a US government security clearance said on Thursday it also checked the background of the Navy Yard shooter, allowing him to obtain a “secret” clearance.

USIS, working as a contractor for the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), conducted a background review of Aaron Alexis, identified by law enforcement authorities as the shooter who killed 12 people at the Navy Yard before he was shot dead.

“Today we were informed that in 2007, USIS conducted a background check of Aaron Alexis for OPM,” USIS spokesman Ray Howell said in a statement.

He did not provide additional information. “We are contractually prohibited from retaining case information gathered as part of the background checks we conduct for OPM and therefore are unable to comment further on the nature or scope of this or any other background check,” Howell said.

Earlier this year, USIS became the focus of congressional scrutiny when it was discovered that the company handled the most recent background investigation of Snowden, accused of disclosing top secret materials taken from the National Security Agency facility where he worked.

“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,” Senator Claire McCaskill said in a statement Thursday.

“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,” she said.