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

As we all know, illegal drug use is one of the disqualifiers for being granted a security clearance, but it can be mitigated depending on several factors. Here is a tale of two drug users who applied for a security clearance with the Department of Energy. Case #1: This applicant

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Security Clearance Denial

The Defense Office of Hearing and Appeals has started 2018 off with a bang in hearing twenty-four appeal cases, of which twenty-two clearance denial decisions were upheld, one denial decision reversed to clearance granted, and one case remanded back to the original adjudicator for a procedural review. As has historically

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Security Clearance Denial

In a previous post, “Online Dating Sites, Sextortion, and Your Clearance”, I covered the pitfalls and potential for blackmail for clearance holders while using online dating sites. In a similar scenario, a recent Department of Energy contractor lost his security clearance  when a woman for whom he was providing financial assistance

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Security Clearance Process

Back in 2005 the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) put the government-wide security clearance process on its “High Risk” list of federal areas in need of a desperate overhaul. It stayed on the list until 2011. Last week the GAO, foregoing the wait on its regularly scheduled update in early

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