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

I have noticed an uptick in the number of Defense Office of Hearing an Appeals (DOHA) cases involving security clearance applicants who unwittingly fell for scams involving foreign nationals from China. How does this happen? Here are two actual DOHA case scenarios: This security clearance applicant meets a Chinese woman online in

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Adjudication

The Senate Intelligence Committee approved a provision for the 2023 Intelligence Authorization Act that will amend current language regarding past marijuana use which is a disqualifier for some federal agencies like the Drug Enforcement Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, and a few others. This follows a similar trend in policy shifts

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Security Clearance Denial

It is not often you see someone denied security clearance eligibility for being a sex addict, but a recent Defense Office of Hearing and Appeals case involved exactly that. The DoD CAF issued this defense contractor a Statement of Reasons (SOR) outlining specific concerns regarding sexual misconduct and personal conduct.

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Security Clearance Jobs

The Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA), a nonpartisan, nonprofit trade association made up of senior executives and intelligence experts from public, private, and academic sectors, recently published a white paper identifying the challenges and obstacles getting cleared contractors from one agency or contract to another and recommended solutions to overcome these

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