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.

Security Clearance Process

When the Defense Counterintelligence Agency (DCSA) first introduced their new National Background Investigation Services (NBIS) system a few years ago, it was still going through a lot of changes to work out the bugs that caused almost daily system outages. This caused a lot of frustration with eAPP applicants and

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Security Clearance Denial

A security clearance applicant working for a DoD contractor on an Unmanned Aerial Vehicles contract was recently denied eligibility by the DoD Central Adjudications Services based on security concerns regarding the applicant’s behavior that resulted in an “Other Than Honorable” discharge from the U.S. Naval Academy. He subsequently appealed to

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Polygraph

By now, you would think security clearance applicants would know to be up front and honest about marijuana use, seeing as how ODNI and OPM have put out policy guidance stating prior use is not an automatic disqualifier. Yet, we still see an abundance of appeal cases where the applicant

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Obtaining Security Clearance

I recently ran across a most unusual Defense Office of Hearing and Appeals (DOHA) case where the applicant previously had his clearance revoked in 2020 due to security concerns under sexual behavior and psychological conditions. He reapplied for a clearance in 2023 with his current company and the DoD issued

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