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.

Obtaining Security Clearance

There were only two Defense Office of Hearing and Appeals (DOHA) cases involving the Allegiance guideline this year. This one involved a DoD contractor who had shown a more than passing interest into the anti-establishment conspiracy theorist group called QAnon, and militia extremists who call themselves Three-Percenters (III%). He was

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Security Clearance Denial

Every once in a while, I run across an appeals case that makes me shake my head and wonder why on earth they tried applying for a job that required a security clearance. This particular one takes the cake. The applicant was initially denied clearance eligibility by the DoD based

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Security Clearance Denial

Getting fired from a job is not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to getting a security clearance. There are many reasons for getting fired from employment. It could be because of performance, not meeting quotas, personality conflicts, or even just downsizing. These are things that do not factor

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Security Clearance Process

Like the Intelligence Community (IC) agencies, the Department of State processes their own background investigations and security clearances by using the personnel security resources from their Bureau of Diplomatic Security, specifically, the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS). The DSS also assist other federal agencies in processing their background investigations. According to

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