Ex-PH2 sends this article from NBC News which reveals that the federal investigator disregarded the 2004 arrest of Navy Yard gunman Aaron Alexis;
Then federal investigators dismissed the omissions, and made one of their own — deleting any reference to Aaron Alexis’ use of a gun in that arrest.
The gaps in his record eventually allowed him to work in the secure Navy building where he gunned down 12 workers last week, underscoring weaknesses with the clearance process that Navy officials are targeting for change.
[…]
The Navy, in a report released Monday, revealed new details about Alexis’ Navy service, including his failure to reveal the 2004 arrest over a parking disagreement in Seattle. And officials said the background report given to the Navy omitted the fact that he had shot out the tires of another person’s car during that dispute.
Instead, the report from the Office of Personnel Management said Alexis “deflated” the tires.
If you remember, last week the government was blaming the civilian contractor for not being thorough enough and it turns out that it was OPM that dropped the ball. So why, again, is NSA recording my fart jokes on the phone with TSO when they can’t see criminals right in front of their stupid faces?
OK … the relationship between USIS and the government contractors needs to be investigated.
Typically, getting enough contractors onboard to conduct and execute contracts in very time sensitive. Millions of dollars are usually at stake.
Plenty of room for systemic ignornace and possible kick backs for expiditing work!
“is very time”
All Points Logistics.
Philip Dale Monkress.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Proof that if you compared government workers/contractors (in many cases, not all) to retarded howler monkeys, only the retarded howler monkeys would be insulted.
I’m glad you qualified that Sparky…my wife is an engineer for the DoD!
“The tragedy has revealed a number of problems with the security clearance system, including its focus on whether someone is a treason threat rather than a potential killer.” Ahhhh sooo. There’s the money line. So, the talking point is that they were looking for those with suspect loyalties and thereby overlooking other issues, such as whose personal and criminal history background might indicate a pronounced mental imbalance and proclivity for irrational violence. Anyone buying that?
Q: ‘So why, again, is NSA recording my fart jokes on the phone with TSO when they can’t see criminals right in front of their stupid faces?’
A: Because any and all of your jokes are obviously full of secret squirrel codespeak that has insidious meaning and possibly is connected to the place to buy the best cigars at the cheapest price. Obviously, if you are smoking cigars made by ex-pat Cuban cigar makers, who are obviously formerly from Cuba, you must be up to something.
NSA just doesn’t know what. And besides, they want to know where to get those cigars, too. (Clue for you NSA guys: Schranks’ Smoke ‘n’ Gun in Waukegan.)
Did NH just call me a “retarded howler monkey?”
Just checking!
@* No, Master Chief. He used the qualifier ‘not all’.
Refill coffee cup before proceeding further.
Wait…you have fart jokes you’re not telling us?
After much reflection on this amazing story of multiple ways in which the system completely broke down, I keep coming back to a conclusion (which we well may never have enough information to either confirm or refute) that there were moments when Alexis himself acted with more clarity and sanity than most of the people around him.
No excuses for his behavior here. He is ultimately responsible for his actions. However, he seemed to understand that things were not right with his head. He reached out for help from people who are paid to help people like him. What he got was a bottle of pills and he was sent on his way.
No, those individuals are not responsible for his murders. On the other hand, had they done a better job of diagnosing his problems and monitored his reactions to the medications he was prescribed, could this have been avoided? I dunno.
Persons taking psychotropic drugs should not be sent out onto the street until after correct dosage has been established very carefully for the individual. AND, no one on psychotropic drugs (or at least some percentage of them) should not be granted security clearances. (That list of disqualifying drugs would vary and I do not mean that all would necessarily be appropriate as disqualifiers.)
@11
The problem there is that many of these people are correctly prescribed and dosed but after months of relative normalcy, begin to believe that they are “cured” and stop taking the meds.
Man oh man…if I recall correctly back in the day if someone was a security risk/threat of any kind they didn’t get a clearance or it was revoked right away. Sometimes on the spot, then be escorted out of the secured area they were working in. PC has invaded everything…
I said “many, not all”, Master Chief.
Now, retarded howler monkeys and Master Chiefs, OTOH…
OWB – you might note that Alexis’ complaint to VA was that he had trouble sleeping. Absent any other obvious symptomns and if he didn’t tell them he was hearing voices etc., how the hell are they supposed to diagnoe and treat him for the more serious problem?
Retarded Howler Monkey and MCPOs Aye!
@ #12 and #15: Yes, I understand a few of the complexities of the issue. My point perhaps should just be that in many situations, the need for heavy duty psychotropic drugs cannot be measured with a blood test, but must be observed. How can a patient’s needs or reactions to meds be assessed without observation, which cannot occur by handing anyone a bottle of pills and sending them on their way?
I am not blaming the VA. (Not even sure why the VA was involved with his care.) There were a lot of others who dropped the proverbial ball, or coulda/shoulda. When dealing with someone who is delusional, they are still responsible for their behavior. My point is that even this nut case did reach out for help. He didn’t get it.
And I would agree with others that the largest single contributor to this horrendous security breech is pc run amok. Thank you all you red diaper doper babies who put your own feelings above the needs of this nation.
17
You’re exactly right about the meds and you’re right about the pc crowd. The problem is that they don’t want to “stigmatize” these people with the “label” Then the people doing background checks for gun purchases or clearances aren’t going to know what they are dealing. It was the exact same mentality with Hasan. He wasn’t a mental case (to qualify; in the medical sense) but due to pc, no one wanted to be “that guy” that was considered an Islamaphobe.
It hasn’t qualified yet whether the OPM report was compiled by USIS or their own investigators. OPM has their own, too. However, the end result remains the same. Failure to properly document his criminal past enabled him to slide through the system. Where were the incident reports from his reserve squadron that documented his pattern of misconduct ? There is a place in the security clearance database to make these reports and to follow up with their result. Those should have been enough to cause a reasonable person to question his trustworthyness.
Small point, NavCWORet – but best I can tell, the guy apparently didn’t really have that much of a “criminal record”. Other than possibly the incident that put him in jail in GA, he seems to have gotten off with a warning or NJP for each (or, in the case of the tire-shooting incident, the case file got “lost”). Merely being arrested doesn’t equal a criminal record.
Your analysis is otherwise dead on target. From my perspective, it looks like the organizations involved here either cut him a break or were lazy and just didn’t follow through. There was enough there IMO to warrant putting derog info in his clearance records or throwing him out of the service with a general discharge, but apparently no one ever did so.
The only real “awsh!ts” I see for USIS and/or OPM here were (1) the info regarding the tire-shooting incident being mischaracterized and (2) the two non-self-reported items being accepted. The latter was a judgement call and may have seemed reasonable to the investigator or adjudicator after the individual explained himself. But the info about the tire shooting arrest should IMO never have been mischaracterized as him “deflating” the tires.
In this day and age, if you say anything wrong about anyone, you might get sued. This is what I believe the problem is in this case. Nobody wanted to say this man was crazy. A label like that, if it were made official, would open the reporting agency to a huge lawsuit from the person. It’s happened in the past, and the crazy person won.
It is either that or this is the limit of PC. It is not politically correct to label anyone who might have some “problems.” It is easier to just ignore those problems in the person until they go away.