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" WASHINGTON — On Monday, nearly four years after the last mass shooting at a U.S. military base, a heavily armed contractor gunned down 12 defense employees at a supposedly secure Navy base in the nation’s capital.
As investigators sort through the details, the tragedy prompts questions of whether the work done after the last massacre – the highly publicized Fort Hood shootings, which left 13 dead and 32 others wounded – made military facilities any safer.
On Tuesday, a senior Pentagon official said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was set to order a review of physical security and access at all DoD installations worldwide.
"The Secretary is collecting inputs from senior leaders today to define the parameters of this review, which could be formally announced as soon as tomorrow," the official said."
.....
" Fred Burton, vice president of intelligence at Stratfor, a Texas global intelligence company, said military security systems are vulnerable because the process for getting base access cards depends on background checks that don’t go into enough detail.
“Secret clearances can be gained relatively simply through basic national agency checks,” Burton said. “That means running the name through the various federal databases, and in many cases, minor run-ins with the law and misdemeanor offenses simply aren’t in the federal databases.”
There’s no simple fix, he admitted. More robust background checks of the type done before issuance of top secret clearances could be cost-prohibitive, and mandatory reporting of allegations rather than convictions could pose privacy and civil rights concerns.
Beefing up security at military base access points could be problematic as well, he said.
Mandating vehicle searches at military base gates – where big backups already form as drivers stop to present ID – and putting metal detectors at every building entrance could quickly make reporting to work a painful ordeal.
“If you’re going to search every vehicle coming onto a military base, what are the ramifications on workflow in those critical hours of 7 to 9 a.m. when people are coming to work?” Burton said. “Subjecting people to searches every day presents a general morale issue as well.” "
.....
" House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon, R-Calif., said the report details “critical flaws in the practice of contracting access control for military installations to non-governmental personnel.” Lawmakers also questioned whether cost-cutting measures may be to blame for the decision to use the new systems.
However, military officials said those systems were not used in vetting Alexis, according to the Associated Press.
At least one change from the Fort Hood review might have helped save lives during the Navy Yard attack. Rapid response to an “active shooter threat” was a key recommendation and became part of military force protection training.
Investigators said armed responders engaged Alexis about seven minutes after the first shots were fired. "
" WASHINGTON — On Monday, nearly four years after the last mass shooting at a U.S. military base, a heavily armed contractor gunned down 12 defense employees at a supposedly secure Navy base in the nation’s capital.
As investigators sort through the details, the tragedy prompts questions of whether the work done after the last massacre – the highly publicized Fort Hood shootings, which left 13 dead and 32 others wounded – made military facilities any safer.
On Tuesday, a senior Pentagon official said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was set to order a review of physical security and access at all DoD installations worldwide.
"The Secretary is collecting inputs from senior leaders today to define the parameters of this review, which could be formally announced as soon as tomorrow," the official said."
.....
" Fred Burton, vice president of intelligence at Stratfor, a Texas global intelligence company, said military security systems are vulnerable because the process for getting base access cards depends on background checks that don’t go into enough detail.
“Secret clearances can be gained relatively simply through basic national agency checks,” Burton said. “That means running the name through the various federal databases, and in many cases, minor run-ins with the law and misdemeanor offenses simply aren’t in the federal databases.”
There’s no simple fix, he admitted. More robust background checks of the type done before issuance of top secret clearances could be cost-prohibitive, and mandatory reporting of allegations rather than convictions could pose privacy and civil rights concerns.
Beefing up security at military base access points could be problematic as well, he said.
Mandating vehicle searches at military base gates – where big backups already form as drivers stop to present ID – and putting metal detectors at every building entrance could quickly make reporting to work a painful ordeal.
“If you’re going to search every vehicle coming onto a military base, what are the ramifications on workflow in those critical hours of 7 to 9 a.m. when people are coming to work?” Burton said. “Subjecting people to searches every day presents a general morale issue as well.” "
.....
" House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon, R-Calif., said the report details “critical flaws in the practice of contracting access control for military installations to non-governmental personnel.” Lawmakers also questioned whether cost-cutting measures may be to blame for the decision to use the new systems.
However, military officials said those systems were not used in vetting Alexis, according to the Associated Press.
At least one change from the Fort Hood review might have helped save lives during the Navy Yard attack. Rapid response to an “active shooter threat” was a key recommendation and became part of military force protection training.
Investigators said armed responders engaged Alexis about seven minutes after the first shots were fired. "
