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

In May 2020, a Department of Energy (DOE) contractor had her security clearance suspended after the latest alcohol related incident involving public intoxication (PI) on an airplane in 2019. Additionally, the contractor intentionally provided false information to the psychologist concerning her alcohol consumption. The Local Security Office (LSO) further alleged

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Background Investigations

Adjudicators must be decisive and efficient critical thinkers to make quality adjudicative decisions and meet timeliness standards, ensuring mission readiness and risk mitigation. They require a strong knowledge of the policies and procedures that govern adjudications and need to be able to efficiently review a subject’s case, identify the information

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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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