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On September 16th , tragedy struck Washington, D.C., sending all government buildings into lock down.
According to the New York Times, Aaron Alexis, a former Navy reservist, killed twelve people and injured eight on Monday morning at the Naval Sea Systems Command headquarters in Washington, D.C. The shooting began at 8:20 a.m. when three shots where heard from the hallway. CNN reported that the shooting put government buildings on lockdown and had SWAT teams rushing to the scene.
According to hufflepost.com, Aaron Alexis had been suffering from a series of mental illnesses, including paranoia and sleeping disorders. He even complained that he was hearing voices from inside his hotel room and that the microwave was sending vibrations into his body to keep him from sleeping. CBS news reported that Alexis visited the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center to seek treatment for insomnia, but when asked by doctors, he denied having thoughts about harming himself or others.
Even though this event happened in Washington, the event can still affect people in Alabama. Security clearance is required in order to get onto Redstone Arsenal property, but could a something similar occur in Huntsville as well?
Redstone Arsenal worker Jill Smith mentions how security clearance functioned when she first began working on base.
“When I first applied for and was granted a top security clearance in 1981, the requirements for obtaining and retaining a clearance at that level were very strict,” explained Smith. “Even though I was only about eighteen years old, my background was investigated thoroughly.”
In 1981, mental health was an area that was closely scrutinized, according to Smith. In her eyes, it seems that somewhere over the last thirty years that level of scrutiny and exclusion has been drastically reduced.
“In my opinion, the tragedy at the Navy Yard happened because the system failed to identify a person that should not have been granted access to that area. I think the standards for obtaining and retaining a security clearance and access have been dangerously loosened, there is no clear channel for reporting an individual with a clearance that might have become untrustworthy or a threat and no quick response plan for dealing with them.”
According to theatlanicwire.com, Alexis entered the Navy Yard with a legitimate pass acquired through his contract work at the yard. USA Today reports that Alexis carried a dissembled shotgun into Building 197 and reassembled it in the men’s bathroom before he went to an upper floor and began shooting into the building’s central atrium. When the mayhem was over, he had killed a security officer and a staff member before he was shot and killed by the police.
Redstone Arsenal worker, Todd Alexander states that he thinks the Navy, background investigators, security managers, and coworkers, respectively, were at fault. He believes that past history or misconduct was ignored and/or overlooked.
“There is new evidence that important information such as arrests and debts were intentionally left off his security clearance application. There was a time, not too long ago that his alone would have prevented anyone from receiving a security clearance at any level,” Alexander states.
Could this event have been prevented? Are the background investigators and security managers at fault here? Or is too hard to find people with clean records these days?
