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

The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Hearing and Appeals recently ruled on an appeal granting eligibility for access authorization to a DOE contractor who was initially denied due to financial issues. This case was a good example of overcoming events beyond your control and acting responsibly in resolving the

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Security Clearance Process

The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) has updated their “conditional eligibility determination” process to align with Continuous Evaluation/Continuous Vetting (CE/CV) program. This allows national security adjudicators to make conditional eligibility determination on investigations that have issues of concern which cannot be fully mitigated, but with continuous monitoring, the risk to national

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Security Clearance Denial

Recently, I have noticed the number of appeals submitted to the Defense Office of Hearing and Appeals (DOHA) where security clearance eligibility was denied based on marijuana use. It seems many applicants think because it is legal in their state or because it has been federally decriminalized, it is not

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Obtaining Security Clearance

Have you ever wondered how other countries process their applicants for a security clearance? Is it more or less stringent? It depends on what country we are talking about. Let’s take Australia for instance. They are in a strategic geographic region and have to be politically sensitive to relations with

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