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.

Adjudication

As noted in a posting by William Henderson on our main site regarding the recent release of Security Executive Agent Directive (SEAD) 4 – National Security Adjudicative Guidelines, a few changes were made to some of the adjudicative definitions and concerns. Guideline H: Drug Involvement and Substance Misuse has some

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Background Investigations

During the bi-annual National Industrial Security Program Policy Advisory Committee (NISPPAC) meeting held last month James Onusko, Deputy Assistant Director for the NBIB, provided attendees from various government agencies and private industry with an update on the efforts to reduce the clearance investigation backlog. Onusko stated reform efforts were underway

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Security Clearance Process

For current security clearance holders there are some things you should know if you ever happen to have your security clearance suspended. Most federal agencies use similar guidelines and procedures when suspending an individual’s clearance, but the focus of this post will be on DoD’s process which is outlined in

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Security Clearance Denial

In a previous post “Financial Issues Still the Biggest Reason for a Clearance Denial” I explained what the adjudicative guidelines stated regarding concerns about financial issues and ways for applicants to provide mitigation. Yet, it still seems almost every day we get comments or questions on the site from applicants

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