Your Thoughts on ODNI's 2012 Security Clearance Report?
This afternoon I posted a brief overview of the already brief annual report on the security clearance process released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
The meager report is primarily data, leaving analysis to the reader.
The motive for demanding release of this data (I believe) is (1) general oversight of the number of security clearances granted by the government; and (2) that the reporting of investigation lengths serves as a check on agencies.
But only a few years after the 2010 law required the report’s publication, the Senate Intelligence Committee approved the ODNI’s request to axe it altogether. Eventually oversight groups clamored and the committee backed off.
I’m curious to know: Do you believe this is an apt accountability mechanism for the security clearance process, or is this report just a perfunctory exercise (and interruption for ODNI) mandated by law? (And maybe it’s not enough oversight.) And second, since what’s most important is not the report’s data itself but the conclusions gleaned from the (albeit cursory) information therein, what’s your insight/analysis on the numbers?
Comment Archive
The ODNI could give a shxt about security clearances. If I were the oversight committee, I’d know all I need to when nobody can tell how many actually clearances are on the books. Last report used an estimate.
Seems weird they don’t have an exact figure.
I think the number is probably classified to keep the actual size of the IC a secret. One of the reasons their budget is largely classified as well.
One of the major problems is that many people are not “separated” in JPAS or in other clearance databases after they terminate employment where the clearance was required. This leaves thousands of people in the databases listed as having an active clearance when in fact their clearances are no longer active.