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

Having been in the military myself, I know it takes quite a bit to get kicked out for misconduct. Commanders give their troops every available option to rehabilitate behavioral issues before resorting to discharge proceedings. A DoD contractor security clearance applicant, also former marine, was denied eligibility for a clearance

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Security Clearance Denial

Marijuana use is becoming more prevalent as the number of states that legalize its use for medical or recreational use increases. Some have legitimate reasons for getting a medical marijuana card, e.g., relieves anxiety from PTSD or chronic back pain. Other use marijuana just to get high or to obtain

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Security Clearance Process

The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency is responsible for running the DoD’s Continuous Vetting (CV) Program and during the last National Industrial Security Program Policy Advisory Committee (NISPPAC) reported getting 19,000 alerts so far in Fiscal Year 2021 on 14,000 different contractors with a security clearance. That means there were

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Security Clearance Jobs

Despite major gains in other areas of security clearance reform, reciprocity acceptance is still a sticking point for clearance holders moving from one agency to another. As recently as a few years ago it took the DoD 65-90 days to review and make reciprocity decisions. Last month the DoD reportedly

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