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Orlando killer worked as guard for company that provides security officers at 90% of US nuclear plants
Beyond Nuclear
June 16, 2016

Orlando G4S link again exposes lax screening of nuclear personnel The revelation that Omar Mateen worked for the G4S security firm, responsible by its own admission for security at 90% of this country's nuclear power plants, once again raises questions about grossly inadequate internal screening of those working at U.S. nuclear sites. 

Mateen, who murdered at least 49 people and injured dozens more on June 12 inside the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, did not work at nuclear plants.  But G4S, formerly Wackenhut, has a woeful track record of lax oversight. In 2007, the company notoriously lost 10 nuclear power plant contracts after secret videotape at the Peach Bottom, PA nuclear power plant showed security guards sleeping on the job.

There have been other scandals. Sharif Mobley, arrested in 2010 in Yemen as a suspected Al Qaeda operative, had worked at three New Jersey nuclear power plants. The notorious William Clark created an alias as "Zeke the assassin" and a fake background as a mercenary to become head of security at the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan.

Nuclear plants are considered prime terrorist targets. The 9/11 Commission report, released in July 2004, noted that Mohamed Atta, who piloted one of the planes that hit the World Trade Center, "considered targeting a nuclear facility he had seen during familiarization flights near New York."  The plant in question is Indian Point, just 30 miles from midtown Manhattan.  And after the March 2016 attacks in Brussels, the two nuclear plants in Belgium were all but locked down.

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