Security Clearance Jobs Blog

The FBI released a statement and politico reported that a former FBI contract linguist pleaded guilty to unlawfully providing classified documents to the host of an Internet blog who then published information derived from those documents on the blog.

Shamai Kedem Leibowitz, a.k.a., Samuel Shamai Leibowitz, 39, of Silver Spring, Maryland, pleaded guilty in federal court to a one-count information charging him with knowingly and willfully disclosing to an unauthorized person five FBI documents classified at the “Secret” level that contained classified information concerning the communication intelligence activities of the United States.  Under the plea agreement, the government and Leibowitz have agreed that a term of 20 months imprisonment is the appropriate sentence in this case.

From January 2009 through August 2009, Leibowitz was employed by the FBI as a contract linguist in an office in Calverton, Maryland.  Leibowitz held a Top Secret security clearance and is an Israeli American dual citizen. More from Politico…

“After news of the charges against him broke, it took reporters only minutes to track down news articles reporting that Leibowitz was fired from a legal clerkship in Israel and was publicly chastised by an Israeli Supreme Court justice for leaking a judge’s private comments…

Experts were also puzzled that someone with a long history of public activism on polarizing issues would wind up working for U.S. law enforcement in a classified environment and be granted access to sensitive information…

Some lawyers said the top-secret clearance awarded to Leibowitz, who describes himself as an Israeli-American, was particularly puzzling because Americans who are also Israeli citizens frequently face clearance denials and delays because of concerns they might harbor an allegiance to Israel.”

The FBI said it would look at whether the clearance process was handled properly.

Does this signal a breakdown in the security clearance process?

Related Article: Dual Citizenship And Security Clearances, Foreign Influence and Security Clearances

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As seen on Time Magazine’s website. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been “the best recruiting officer” for U.S. military efforts to partner with Arab states over the past year. That’s according to General David Petraeus, who as commander of Centcom is responsible for overseeing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

What’s been good for Centcom has also been good for the high-tech U.S. arms industry. Despite the global recession, Arab states have signed huge deals for U.S. military hardware, whose sophistication has been on full display in two long wars in the neighborhood.

Petraeus said countries in the region now deploy eight Patriot missile-interceptor batteries — up from zero a few years ago — made by Raytheon Corp. And the Pentagon last month announced that Kuwait had ordered upgrades of its Patriot missile system, in a deal worth $410 million. But Raytheon isn’t the only beneficiary of anxiety over Iran. The United Arab Emirates this year ordered $9 billion worth of U.S. military gear, Petraeus noted, including 70 Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jets.

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The Office of the Director of National Intelligence announced last week regarding their 2nd Annual Summer Seminar for College Students interested in Intelligence Community careers.

They will again offer about 40 highly motivated graduate students and college seniors an opportunity to study with currently serving intelligence analysts and other experts. The National Security Analysis & Intelligence Summer Seminar is planned for July 13 through July 24 in Washington, D.C. The intensive, residential seminar will include lectures, field trips to agencies and work on substantive topics under the direction of Intelligence Community analysts, academics and other professionals.

Career opportunities will be highlighted. Students who are selected and approved will receive secret-level security clearances for the duration of the seminar. “The program’s benefits are many fold,” said Director Dennis C. Blair. “The Intelligence Community is eager to work with some of the nation’s best and brightest. In return, we hope they will benefit from an inside look at what national intelligence is all about.”

The NSAISS application will be available online in January. It is recommended that students who are interested in careers in intelligence begin to gather transcripts, two letters of recommendation and a current resume that must accompany the application. Applicants will also need to complete Standard Form 86 (SF-86)/Questionnaire for National Security Positions (download here).

The NSAISS is open to U.S. citizens who are graduate students, and to college seniors graduating in the 2009-2010 academic year and applying to graduate school. The seminar is not open to federal government employees, contractors or currently serving military or activated reservists. Participants will receive travel expenses, room and board, course materials and a $500 stipend. The debut effort attracted more than 700 applicants for 40 slots.

For more information, click here.

Related: Intelligence Jobs on ClearanceJobs.com

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On December 7, 2009 Psnews reported that the Government of Australian will consolidate the granting of all security clearances under their Department of Defence by October 2010. Currently clearances are granted by more than 100 different agencies using 50 separate investigative service providers.

“The new approach is expected to save $5.3 million a year and improve the security vetting process by ensuring Public Servants and business contractors have a single clearance effective across Government.  It was also designed to address unnecessary regulation and remove inconsistencies within the current system.”

Australia only processes about 50,000 federal security clearances a year (about 6% of the number processed in the U.S.), but it’s still commendable that government agencies there are wililng to surrender authority for their own security clearances to a single agency in order to create a monolithic system that promises greater efficiency and consistency.

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The quest to speed up the security clearance process continues with several Senators introducing the Security Clearance Modernization and Reporting Act of 2009 yesterday.

Overall the bill’s goal is similar to the Executive Order 13467 President Bush signed in June 2008 and would codify many of those provisions.

An article in NextGov goes on to say that the bill would:

• “mandate the creation of a performance accountability council to oversee the reduction of the government’s security clearance backlog and extends reporting requirements.”
• director of OMB will submit an IT strategy to Congress within 120 days of the bill’s enactment to speed up the security clearance process.
• “agencies would have to continue reporting to Congress on their progress in improving the security clearance process until two years after GAO removes the program from the high-risk list.”

“As for reciprocal recognition of security clearances among agencies, the legislation, a Senate Democratic committee aide said the bill “reemphasizes” that requirement. “We were getting the sense that not everyone was following the intent, as we saw it, of what reciprocal recognition was,” the staffer said.”

Related Articles: Security Clearance Reciprocity of Special Access Eligibility

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