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

An interesting Defense Office of Hearing and Appeals (DOHA) case caught my eye because it involved a DoD contractor who had his security clearance revoked for being a member of what the Federal Government calls an Outlaw Motorcycle Gang (OMG). Even more unusual, in his initial appeal to a DoD

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Security Clearance Denial

Under the national security adjudicative guidelines Personal Conduct (Guideline E) covers many areas that don’t fall into criteria under other guidelines. Disqualifying conduct under personal conduct includes dishonesty, history of rule-breaking, failure to follow orders, negligence in work performance, falsification, civil litigation, or omission of relevant facts during the background

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Obtaining Security Clearance

The Department of State (DoS) Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DSS) is the division that processes and conducts all background investigations for DoS employees and contractors working for DoS. They are one of the few agencies that handle their own investigations in lieu of using the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency.

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Security Clearance Denial

I have read through some pretty interesting case summaries over the years, but this Defense Office of Hearing and Appeals (DOHA) case I ran across stood out for the blatant fabrication of information that turned out to be completely false. The DoD initially denied this contractor clearance eligibility based on

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