Author Archive

Marko Hakamaa

Marko Hakamaa served in various military police positions with the United States Army worldwide for 22 years before retiring in 2006 as a Master Sergeant. Afterwards, he transitioned into the civilian workforce as a contractor background investigator for the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) before entering civil service as a Security Specialist in 2009.

Security Clearance Denial

In one of the more unusual security clearance denial appeals I have run across, a DOE applicant successfully pled his case in front of the judge after explaining the circumstances of why he failed to list his military service in the Army from 1978-1984. He also had to explain why

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Security Clearance Process

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who retired last January, stated in a recent interview posted on NextGov that “the clearance system we have is broke”. I am sure many of the current clearance holders and applicants would agree. Some of the issues Clapper identified have long been the bane of

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Security Clearance Jobs

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is one of the lesser known or talked about Intelligence Community agencies whose job requirements, much like the CIA, require eligibility for Top Secret/SCI access. What do they do? They provide the U.S. Government analysis of imagery and geospatial information that describes, assesses and visually

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Security Clearance Denial

If you are working for a Department of Defense contractor there is an almost 100% likelihood they have a policy outlining the prohibition of illegal drug use. Now, say you live and work in Colorado, Washington, or in any number of the other states where recreational or medical use of

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