Personal Conduct

In the national security world, ignorance or mistake of law is generally not an excuse for failing to abide by legal obligations. This opinion has been established long ago by appeals board judges in upholding security clearance denials. There are various adjudicative guidelines where claiming ignorance of the rules or

On the Questionnaire for National Security Positions (SF-86) in the section labeled “Penalties for Inaccurate or False Statements” it states: The U.S. Criminal Code (title 18, section 1001) provides that knowingly falsifying or concealing a material fact is a felony which may result in fines and/or up to five (5) years imprisonment.

Strength of character, trustworthiness, reliability, honesty, and sound judgement are the traits and characteristics employers want from their workers. The same goes for determining whether to grant someone access to classified national security information. So how does your behavior at work relate to whether you are granted a security clearance?

In his appeal before the DOHA judge, the applicant claimed he didn’t understand that what he was doing could throw off the polygraph results – but then eventually recanted his testimony and admitted to trying to manipulate the test.