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 Denial

Many security clearance applicants mistakenly believe that entering into a pretrial intervention (PTI) program with the court in order to get charges dismissed exonerates them and has no bearing on eligibility for a security clearance. This may be so in the private sector or in a criminal law context, but

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Security Clearance Denial

In most security clearance denial cases the adjudicative decision is based on one or two areas of concern that are disqualifying in accordance with the adjudicative guidelines. However, in a recent Defense Office of Hearing and Appeals (DOHA) case the applicant was issued a Statement of Reasons (SOR) that invoked

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Obtaining Security Clearance

There are lots of questions on this site from security clearance applicants regarding what or how to list employment activities in Section 13A on the SF-86. The more accurate and thorough you are, the easier it is for investigators and records custodians to verify the information and check the block.

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AdjudicationBackground InvestigationsSecurity Clearance Process

Back in June of 2018 the Director of National Intelligence and the Office of Personnel Management issued a joint memorandum that outlined using a deferment process in background reinvestigations as one of the methods implemented to cut into the huge backlog. The Defense Security Service (DSS) Vetting Risk Operations Center

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