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

Those not working in or having experience in the industrial security world may find the acronyms and specific meaning of words a bit confusing as they apply to classified contracts, security clearances, and the handling and protection of classified material. As an example; an FSO must ensure all employees have

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Background Investigations

There are different types of federal background investigations and matching adjudicative criteria used to make favorable or unfavorable determinations. Depending on the purpose and level of the investigation, adjudicators are trained to apply the correct adjudicative criteria to each case. Here are the different types of adjudicative determinations: National Security

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Security Clearance Denial

Anyone who has filled out a Questionnaire for National Security Positions (SF-86) is familiar with the section where you must list all previous employments in the past seven years and why you left. It is pretty straightforward and branching questions ask about being fired, leaving employment under mutual agreement after being told

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Security Clearance Process

Senator Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Committee of the Judiciary, initiated an investigation into the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and their more than eight hundred percent rise in security clearance suspensions over the past four years which seems directly tied to political partisanship and influence. The investigation

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