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.

Obtaining Security Clearance

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We were all young once, and to varying degrees, quite foolish. Time has since passed since we sat around the campfire smoking marijuana, responsibilities have been added, and now we are adults with jobs.  Unfortunately, the passage of time does not completely erase the errors of the past, but it can,

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Background Investigations

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Professionals from the security clearance industry and Pentagon insiders both agree that when the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) took over responsibility for processing background investigations, the quality of investigations suffered because priority was placed on speed and efficiency in getting the investigations completed. This is the latest topic of

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Security Clearance Process

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A recently released report published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) showed that the number of new security clearances and reinvestigations for existing clearances granted has decreased by 9 percent since 2011. The report suggested that this decline is due to a delayed effort to comply

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Obtaining Security Clearance

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The Department of Defense issued an updated Adjudicative Desk Reference (ADR) in March 2014 to assist adjudicators, investigators, and security managers to implement the U.S. Government Personnel Security Program. As in previous versions of the ADR, drug involvement is considered potentially disqualifying conduct.  With so much media and press attention being given to

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