SkyPilot,
I’m glad you brought this up. Do you have any idea why government employees keep any security clearance? It boggles my mine why on earth we would do that.
Thank you,
Dave
Security clearances are commodities in the job market, because they are sometimes difficult to get and are expensive. A Top Secret lasts 5 years before a reinvestigation is required. Let’s say you are a Navy 0-6 who just retired. You have a TS. You apply for a job at Raytheon that requires a TS. If Raytheon hires someone without a clearance, Raytheon has to pay to have your clearance processed (Defense Security Service and FBI). Agents have to travel and personally interview your neighbors, former employers, friends, coworkers, and family members. You financial and personal records are vetted. It’s an exhaustive process.
Retired bigwigs, like State Dept deputies, CIA directors, and all the rest retain their clearances as well when they leave government service. The inherent assumption being, they were highly trusted to get the job, and the clearance is still valid.
Within Top Secret are compartments of different sensitivity. Just because you have a TS does not mean you get access to anything and everything. There is need to know and being “read in” criteria. Hillary had Special Access Programs (SAPs) on her unclassified server. Not only do you need and SCI billet to access each program, even Hillary didn’t have those, and she most likely sold this material to our enemies.
There are records kept on who sees what, and when. Q told us that this is why Brennan and other rats used foreign entities (British, Aussies, etc) to access material and get around the recording of who is accessing highly classified material. Hillary’s server was entirely predicated on her getting rich by selling us out, and there being no records.
So here is where it gets murky. How do political appointees get clearances? On paper, like everyone else. But the rules are often bent for them. See Gary Aldrich’s book “Unlimited Access.” That entire storyline is about the Clinton’s and their dregs. Gary said that Hillary and Bill should have denied clearances. Same with their underlings. But they weren’t.
Good question. I know my LEO husband had to be re certified OFTEN for everything from carrying a gun to teaching an LEO class. Nothing permanent came with the state job. Once he retired, he couldn’t look up tag numbers, criminal history’s...nothing. Guess one would say, “He lost his clearance.”
I don’t get how these federal employees have life time rights to security clearance without just cause. Needs to be fixed.
I expect it’s for situations where that individual may be called back to consult on operations. Also, I’m not sure your clearance ever really “goes away” unless you do something wrong.
just an FYI clearance and access are 2 different things. many military come out with their clearances and go into military hardware industry. the clearance is required and many companies will give preference to those with a current clearance. Difference is the type of material one has access to is much different depending on the role.
The real question should be why are they still allowed access, not why do they still have a clearance.