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.

AdjudicationSecurity Clearance DenialSecurity Clearance Process

Most states have laws where if you feel threatened – and are in fear of injury or death – you may use deadly force to defend yourself. Criminal defense attorneys use this argument to defend clients’ actions that may sometimes have exceeded the parameters of self-defense laws. In one of

Read More
AdjudicationSecurity Clearance DenialSecurity Clearance Process

When reading through case summaries and Report of Investigations (ROI), I always look for what a security clearance applicant’s motivation was for committing a crime, doing illegal drugs, or just plain lying about stuff. In most cases, the motivation is easy to figure out: financial difficulties, alcohol or drug dependency,

Read More
Security Clearance Process

The Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) conducted an in-depth analysis on this issue and published a report outlining the obstacles and identified opportunities to overcome them.

Read More
Security Clearance Denial

Many security clearance applicants mistakenly believe that entering into a pretrial intervention (PTI) program with the court in order to get charges dismissed exonerates them and has no bearing on eligibility for a security clearance. This may be so in the private sector or in a criminal law context, but

Read More