So you think people have passed background checks? Think again!

Oh this is the kind of thing to make a guy feel all warm and fuzzy after reading. In a society where everything is done half way to properly and shortcuts are the standard way of operating, not the exception? This should come as no surprise, yet it doesn't make it any easier to stomach. The results of this kind of thing can be catastrophic for a nation and fatal for individuals.

Investigators charged with conducting background checks of U.S. national-security workers have falsified records and aren’t receiving adequate oversight, according to an inspector general’s testimony.

One worker fabricated 1,600 credit checks before it was discovered her own background investigation had been falsified, Patrick McFarland, inspector general of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, said in prepared testimony obtained by Bloomberg News in advance of a Senate hearing tomorrow.

1,600 people then are or have served in sensitive areas of work with access to classified material which may be as low as Confidential or may be as high as the basic levels of Top Secret. Who knows?? The next part makes a mockery of even this outrage.

While 18 investigators, including contract and government employees, have been convicted of falsifying reports since 2006, McFarland said the inspector general’s office lacks the resources to clear a backlog of an additional 36 cases.

Source

Let me get this straight. We have money for Government agencies from the GAO to the IRS to the Court of Appeals in Washington State to go on vacations and conventions totaling millions of dollars each....EACH... but we cannot afford to properly investigate KNOWN cases of potential fraud and abuse among those trusted to check people, to prevent fraud and abuse??

Our priorities aren't simply messed up. They are blown over the top and need the full and proper attention of an engaged public. Our nation is falling, folks, and the people charged with insuring the people handling it's secrets can't even bother to do a background check.

Of course ..... If you were looking to infiltrate your own people into sensitive places, perhaps you'd just corrupt and buy off one of these many people known or outright proven to have fabricated whole investigations, eh? Now that would be a conspiracy to set the bar on conspiracy, given the sheer nature of the impact.

When you have humans in charge of other humans you get corruption.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


As always silly wrabbit, great post! Thank for bringing this to ATS. It seems there's layer after layer of scandals and lies that are being peeled away, ironically like a onion and each layer the smell keeps getting worse.

I would probably pass a background check if I had one. I do have an FBI record for moving back to Michigan in the early eighties before finishing the required stuff for a drunk driving ticket. I finished it all in Michigan but it tagged me with an FBI file forever. I learned this many years ago when getting a conceiled weapons permit at the police department. I suppose it is full of stuff now that I have joined ATS. It probably takes more memory now than it would to store all the info in my brain.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Amazing to me that anyone trusts the source or any like it at all. Think like a gov. looking to
tic it's people off for a minute Wrabbit. The more I see these articles telling the world how
stupid our gov. is ? The less I believe it. Say it with me everyone:

You can't trust the MSM.

Seems to me when I worked for DoD they didn't go through GAO or OPM for background (NACI) checks.
Seems like the fingerprints went through FBI and vetting took place through USAF OSI or USA CID.
I would've hoped that "National Security" positions were more robust in their vetting and procedures.
Will wonders never cease.

ganjoa

reply to post by randyvs


Well, you make a fair point. On the other hand, never underestimate Uncle Sam's ability to screw up an order for lunch. He'll manage it ...then blame someone else...and spend 10x's the cost of the meal to investigate the matter.

This story does surprise me a bit but really, the part about lack of funding to identified and known cases are what surprised me more than people cutting corners to the point of compromising the whole process. How often have we read of mail carriers throwing whole loads of mail in a dumpster so they could get home on time or just hide their own incompetence for a day? Some have even been caught with years worth of mail in their private residence for the same reasons. This isn't much different for motivation, just outcome.

When I got my TS, the initial stuff was done by the FBI and the rest by NIS (which is now NCIS). I have the feeling that these checks are for civilian workers, probably congress critters and their staffs.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000
oH me to..... so warm and fuzzy...... knowing the fox is in the hen house armed with full autos ready to make scrambled eggs. what is to disarm us is meant to arm them , come hell or high water , for they are now the new SS, you should not question the reason why or whom, just be happy the fox is in the hen house.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Not to challenge any of your points at all Wrabbit as I do agree with them.
And I hope I'm not com'in off all paranoid but with this gov. and really the world.
I've learned that what you see going on upon the surface. Most of the time, has nothing
to with what's going on in the fathoms.

SnF

Some folks say the guy sitting in the Oval office wouldn't pass a background check either.
Once they know they can get away with something it tends to spread to every other branch soon enough.
Accountability in our government?
I too have a dream Wrabbit.

All I can go by is my own background check (NACI) and it's a low level clearance. I had to submit a ton of forms, affidavits and references, all of whom were interviewed. I was interviewed for almost two hours on every aspect of my life. After the interview, the answers were verified through a different person than the interviewer.

I suspect that I could not have gotten one lie past the process.

Originally posted by thisguyrighthereWhen you have humans in charge of other humans you get corruption.

Or negligence and/or bad workmanship

Originally posted by usernameconspiracy
All I can go by is my own background check (NACI) and it's a low level clearance. I had to submit a ton of forms, affidavits and references, all of whom were interviewed. I was interviewed for almost two hours on every aspect of my life. After the interview, the answers were verified through a different person than the interviewer.
I suspect that I could not have gotten one lie past the process.

All that for a NACI? Hmmmm doesn't make sense. How long ago was this?

I told them I didn't know how the hell I could get a SECRET clearance,this would go far in that explanation.Maybe because I was an officer's kid.
Nothing cool really,above TSI is the cool stuff.

Originally posted by hp1229

Originally posted by usernameconspiracy
All I can go by is my own background check (NACI) and it's a low level clearance. I had to submit a ton of forms, affidavits and references, all of whom were interviewed. I was interviewed for almost two hours on every aspect of my life. After the interview, the answers were verified through a different person than the interviewer.
I suspect that I could not have gotten one lie past the process.

All that for a NACI? Hmmmm doesn't make sense. How long ago was this?

edit on 20-6-2013 by hp1229 because: (no reason given)

edit on 20-6-2013 by hp1229 because: (no reason given)

2010.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
Let me get this straight. We have money for Government agencies from the GAO to the IRS to the Court of Appeals in Washington State to go on vacations and conventions totaling millions of dollars each....EACH... but we cannot afford to properly investigate KNOWN cases of potential fraud and abuse among those trusted to check people, to prevent fraud and abuse??

edit on 20-6-2013 by Wrabbit2000 because: (no reason given)

No we can not afford it. Why would China want to loan us money for anything that would actually improve our Nation?

I thought I'd better add this to the mix. It's certainly relevant to the thread topic.

(CNN) – The private firm that vetted Edward Snowden in 2011 is under criminal investigation for routine failures in properly investigating the backgrounds of people in line for security clearances, Sen. Claire McCaskill said during a Senate hearing Thursday.

Additionally, a government watchdog told lawmakers his agency believes the check into Snowden's background conducted by USIS, a Virginia-based government contractor, may have been faulty.

(Source Article: Senator: Firm that vetted Snowden under criminal investigation

Sounds like this private firm isn't getting away with a simple "oops" on Snowden. I'm not sure quite what they may be guilty of though. From initial reports in all directions, he was a rising star and considered a man with great promise in his line of work. It wasn't for a couple days that it all changed to the character assassination campaign. Hmmm.....

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
McFarland said the inspector general’s office lacks the resources to clear a backlog of an additional 36 cases...

Had the same problem in Australia a few years back.
The few people employed to do the security checks were so overwhelmed with work that they'd just *make stuff up* if the forms were incomplete, simply so that they could get through the sheer number of them.

smh.com.au

Oh! Look Mommy that emperor has no clothes!
These clowns need a gouse cleaning.....this is rediculous.
OOPs just had a baaad thought....what if they use this to redo a whole pile of security checks?
They could bog the system permanently...