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Just got off the phone with a Federal law enforcement officer. I was listed as someone’s reference for a clearance. We met this guy on a  trip and hung out with him and his. Wife four an afternoon. Kept in touch a little with them on FB. That’s it. Told the caller I really can’t offer anything based on the above. His response was “ well that’s probably not good. Have a nice day”

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Yeah had a clearance back in the day. Took months for mine to clear as I had foreign born parents which required additional checks.  They scoped out my references pretty well and they probe pretty freaking deep.

I was also denied certain programs clearances because of my parents being foreign born.  I miss it sometimes but am also glad I'm out of that line of work.

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1 minute ago, jsharr said:

She should have given Zackny a hard time when she called him.

She doesn’t do the investigations, she puts the cases together. She does check on AKAs and does credit checks among other things. I was mowing at MILs house today and she kept locking me out. (She has to work behind two locked doors). 

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I had similar with my neighbor across the street...but at least I knew him. He was a retired Navy Captain, who had a clearance during active duty, but upon retirement created a business that provided IT support to government programs, including sensitive programs. The agent asked me if could vouch for his character and any behaviors I had noticed or had concerns about. I started laughing. He looked puzzled so I told him my background assessing behaviors as a former military mental health officer. I had done so many psych evals for commanders it wasn't funny. so assessing his behavior was kind of second nature.

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I remember when I had my background done for the PD my investigator called me up.  So how come you failed to mention your involvement in a truck club and all of the beer drinking, loud parties and burn outs down the street!?!?

That was my brother? Freaking Mrs Sprague (neighbor two houses down who was a PITA) gave you an ear full didn't she!?!?  Uh yeah she sure did...  Yeah that wasn't me...

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8 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

I remember when I had my background done for the PD my investigator called me up.  So how come you failed to mention your involvement in a truck club and all of the beer drinking, loud parties and burn outs down the street!?!?

That was my brother? Freaking Mrs Sprague (neighbor two houses down who was a PITA) gave you an ear full didn't she!?!?  Uh yeah she sure did...  Yeah that wasn't me...

Your own brother didn’t invite you to his parties?

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I used to get used a lot as a reference by former high school students who entered the military and now needed a security clearance because of a job applied for at a base in England or Korea, etc. or for jobs at the National Security Agency, etc.  I had had a security clearance myself (and for all I know I still do) when I worked on an aspect of the fuel for the Tomahawk Cruise Missile, so I was a favorite of agents from the FBI, DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency), etc.  Sometimes they'd make an appointment to meet me after school to talk about more than one reference the same day.

In a couple cases, the former students must have forgotten that they refused to stand for the National Anthem (Fridays) or do the Pledge of Allegiance (Mon-Thurs) at the beginning of morning announcements in my classroom. It was such a rare thing that I didn't forget.  In those cases, the interview with me was over quickly.

Otherwise, the FBI or DIA interview focused on questions about if the applicant for a security clearance seemed to be mentally stable, admitted to or showed signs associated with illegal drug use, was associated with people who could blackmail him/her, and generally seemed patriotic or displayed patriotism.  These were people who were mostly still teenagers so the FBI and DIA people would tell me to take my time and think about each question because these applicants didn't have any adult history for them to check and what I said had a strong influence.

In the vast majority of cases, I gave them a very positive reference - which isn't surprising considering a lot our students had parents stationed or working at nearby Fort Meade, America's largest military base.

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2 hours ago, MickinMD said:

In a couple cases, the former students must have forgotten that they refused to stand for the National Anthem (Fridays) or do the Pledge of Allegiance (Mon-Thurs) at the beginning of morning announcements in my classroom. It was such a rare thing that I didn't forget.  In those cases, the interview with me was over quickly.

Was that a requirement or a suggestion? Seems like a teen, if given a choice, might just do the one that would pizz someone off the most?  But seemingly, the Pledge of Allegiance (Mon-Thurs) would be a reasonable one for someone like an atheist or agnostic (and plenty others) to not participate in.  What's the beef with that one? Clearly, many (probably countless) atheists and agnostics have faithfully served, defended, and given their lives for America, so it seems an odd point to use as a red flag to end a meeting quickly.

Tom

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3 hours ago, MickinMD said:

 Fort Meade, America's largest military base.

Don't mean to be a contrarian but I don't believe this is correct.  As for landmass, the NTC (National Training Center) has got to be bigger than Meade.  Asfor population I gotta believe a base with large Divisions stationed there like Bragg (82nd Airborne), Campbell (101st Air Assault), Riley (1st Infantry), Lewis (7th Infantry) Hood (1st Cavlary) have got to have more troops.

Meade is a regional training center and I believe HQ for the 1st Army but doesn't billet a large troop count.

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4 hours ago, Razors Edge said:

Was that a requirement or a suggestion? Seems like a teen, if given a choice, might just do the one that would pizz someone off the most?  But seemingly, the Pledge of Allegiance (Mon-Thurs) would be a reasonable one for someone like an atheist or agnostic (and plenty others) to not participate in.  What's the beef with that one? Clearly, many (probably countless) atheists and agnostics have faithfully served, defended, and given their lives for America, so it seems an odd point to use as a red flag to end a meeting quickly.

Tom

I suspect that it's a statistical thing like the actuarial tables used by insurance companies to predict risk.  If it is possible to find someone else for the job then why bother.  Simply serving does not necessarily put one in a position of requiring a higher clearance.

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Just now, Prophet Zacharia said:

I could teach an orange orangutang to salute the flag, but I still wouldn’t want it to have security clearances. But I get the point, they want conformity.

Not so much as they don't want an obvious lack of conformity.  There is a difference.  Of course almost anyone can be taught to salute the flag by rote but those who refuse to salute it stand out in what may be a way that signifies trouble.  Remember actuarial tables at work here.

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On 8/24/2018 at 11:11 PM, ChrisL said:

Don't mean to be a contrarian but I don't believe this is correct.  As for landmass, the NTC (National Training Center) has got to be bigger than Meade.  Asfor population I gotta believe a base with large Divisions stationed there like Bragg (82nd Airborne), Campbell (101st Air Assault), Riley (1st Infantry), Lewis (7th Infantry) Hood (1st Cavlary) have got to have more troops.

Meade is a regional training center and I believe HQ for the 1st Army but doesn't billet a large troop count.

I stand corrected. According to wikipedia, Ford Meade is the "second largest installation by employee population in the Army."

Note that Fort Meade includes the Defense Information School, the Defense Media Activity, the United States Army Field Band, and the headquarters of United States Cyber Command, the National Security Agency headquarters, the Defense Courier Service, and Defense Information Systems Agency headquarters.

So it's total national security employee population may be the largest in the USA.

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On 8/24/2018 at 10:19 PM, Razors Edge said:

Was that a requirement or a suggestion? Seems like a teen, if given a choice, might just do the one that would pizz someone off the most?  But seemingly, the Pledge of Allegiance (Mon-Thurs) would be a reasonable one for someone like an atheist or agnostic (and plenty others) to not participate in.  What's the beef with that one? Clearly, many (probably countless) atheists and agnostics have faithfully served, defended, and given their lives for America, so it seems an odd point to use as a red flag to end a meeting quickly.

Tom

What's the beef? No beef. Those involved sat for both the anthem and the pledge. I felt I'd be remiss if I withheld that information from the investigator. I'll leave it there.

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