Budget cuts hit security checks for defense contractors

[Zorro]

A budget shortfall has forced a Pentagon security unit to sharply cut back on regular investigations used to update security clearances for defense contractor employees.

In a little-noticed announcement posted on its website on June 7, the Defense Security Service said that "due to a funding shortfall," it has been obliged to suspend "most" routine re-investigations of defense contractor employers cleared at the "Top Secret" level, at least through the end of September.

The announcement came two days before Edward Snowden went public in a video released by Britain's Guardian newspaper as the source of leaks about the U.S. government's top-secret surveillance of phone and Internet activity.

Snowden was a contractor for Booz Allen Hamilton working as a systems administrator at a National Security Agency facility in Hawaii.

http://news.yahoo.com/budget-cuts-hit-security-checks-defense-contractors-193718663.html

Another unintended consequence of the sequester.

[xtraxritical]

1. Why bother, save the money.