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The Carlyle Group has its hands on millions of sensitive files on American citizens stored in limestone mine in Pennsylvania
The problems with the 1997 privatization of the Office of Federal Investigations
(OFI), which ultimately became U.S. Investigations Services (USIS), now owned
by The Carlyle Group, were known to members of Congress, according to a former
OFI official. A number of employees of OFI, which was part of the Office
of Personnel Management (OPM) before privatization, refused to accept the terms
of the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). The late Democratic Senator Paul
Simon of Illinois was particularly opposed to the privatization of OFI.
After OFI became USIS, the timeliness and quality of the security background
checks conducted on Federal employees quickly deteriorated according to former
OFI employees. They saw USIS being turned into a cash laundering operation whereby
a few officials at the top became instant millionaires. Insiders also report
that USIS "branched" into other operations never before conducted
by OFI/OPM. These other operations were the focus of Col. Ted Westhusing's investigation
when he was "suicided" in Baghdad. It is also noteworthy that USIS
assumed control of a converted limestone mine in Boyers, Pennsylvania. The mine,
built during the Cold War to safeguard files in the event of a nuclear conflict,
contains millions of government files, including those held by the federal Employee
Service and Records Center. That means that The Carlyle Group now has
access to sensitive personnel files on millions of current and past government
employees as well as contractors who have applied for security clearances.
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