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 Process

The security clearance appeal process is where an individual is allowed to present their case via document response or in person with counsel if they choose, along with other witnesses and exhibits. Pre-pandemic, almost all federal agencies held security clearance appeal proceedings in person. The Defense Office of Hearings and

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Security Clearance Denial

Financial considerations continue to be the top issue in the denial of eligibility for a security clearance. I have noticed a few recent appeals to the Defense Office of Hearing and Appeals (DOHA) where clearance applicants are using the President’s decision to hold student loan payments in abeyance as an excuse when submitting their

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Security Clearance Denial

Usually, security clearance applicants who are denied eligibility for access to classified information have one or two disqualifying factors that cannot be mitigated. Well, a recent Department of Energy (DOE) contractor takes the cake, hitting over half of the thirteen national security adjudicative guidelines. Here are the highlights from his appeal to

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Security Clearance Process

The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) has published a request for information (RFI) solicitation for contractors who can develop a tool that will automatically sort through social media and other public websites to create a searchable database of posts, items of interest, relationships and interactions that can be used in insider

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