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

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,

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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.

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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

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Security Clearance Denial

In most security clearance denial cases the adjudicative decision is based on one or two areas of concern that are disqualifying in accordance with the adjudicative guidelines. However, in a recent Defense Office of Hearing and Appeals (DOHA) case the applicant was issued a Statement of Reasons (SOR) that invoked

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