'Very obsolete' security clearance procedures let Manning and Snowden get by, '60 Minutes' reports
After a fatal 2013 mass shooting by a government contractor at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., the feds overhauled security clearance procedures, and another review is now ongoing.
But more still needs to be done, a 60 Minutes report suggests.
Pointing to the “profoundly psychotic” Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis; soldier Bradley Manning (now Chelsea Manning), convicted of providing a trove of classified military documents to WikiLeaks; and intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who faces prosecution if he returns to the U.S. for revealing a massive motherlode of material he obtained while working for the National Security Agency, the CBS News program notes that all had security clearances.
Yet there were red flags that should have warned those in charge that all three individuals posed security risks, 60 Minutes says. Both Alexis and Manning failed to reveal information on standard application forms, for instance: Alexis didn’t disclose a firearm-related arrest (he said he had let air out of an individual’s tires, but didn’t say he had shot them with a Glock pistol) and Manning reportedly didn’t mention a mental-health issue.
John Hamre, a former deputy secretary of Defense who chairs a Pentagon defense policy advisory board, called the current security clearance system “very obsolete.” Because of privacy concerns, regulations say reviewers aren’t allowed to look at applicants’ social media accounts.
“It’s amazing what people will say on their Facebook account that they don’t say on a security clearance,” Hamre said.
Those who OK’d a security clearance for Manning didn’t look into a complaint his stepmother made to Oklahoma City police that he had threatened her with a knife, 60 Minutes reports. Despite subsequent complaints that Manning had attacked another soldier, violated security rules by bringing a camera into a vault and attacked supervisor Jihrleah Showman, the security clearance remained in place.
Showman complained about Manning being “most likely a spy” and details in a separate video interview with 60 Minutes her frustration at being unable to enforce multiple violations of security rules while both were stationed in Iraq.
Asked by a 60 Minutes interviewer what more she could have done, she said: “By regulation, nothing. But as an American who cares about my people I should have just been willing to lose my rank and search every pocket he had.”
As far as Snowden was concerned, a similar omission in his application for a security clearance helped put him in a position to steal government secrets. He had previously worked for the CIA, which put a note on his file that should have warned any other government agency not to hire him for a sensitive job, 60 Minutes reports. But Snowden was able to avoid bringing his file to light by explaining that his job was classified; the federal Officer of Personnel Management hence didn’t verify his employment there.
OPM, which processes security clearance applications and, according to 60 Minutes, is overwhelmed with a backlog of files, said in a written statement (PDF) provided to the news program that it is working to enhance its procedures.
“OPM and its federal agency partners are currently reviewing key aspects of the security clearance process, building upon steps the administration has taken to improve security clearance processes following the tragedy at the Navy Yard. In short, change is underway and more is coming,” the statement says.
Specifically, in addition to “multiple steps” previously taken, “We are working aggressively to incorporate new data sources and to transform investigation methods from presenting a “snapshot in time” to providing continuous assessments of behavior in real time, while protecting privacy and civil liberties,” OPM writes.
See also:
ABAJournal.com: “Massive hack attack on feds compromised background-check info for 21.5M people”
Slate: “How OPM Betrayed Me”
Washington Post (reg. req.): “There’s a new hired gun at OPM. He’s there to take on hackers and tighten cybersecurity.”
