Report: Pentagon Employees with Top Secret Access Have $730M in Back Taxes

The Washington Free Beacon ^ | July 28, 2014 1:31 pm | BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff

[drewh]

Some 83,000 Pentagon employees and contractors who handle classified intelligence were found to have unpaid federal taxes totaling $730 million, which makes them more likely to “compromise classified information,” according to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

At least 83,000 Defense Department tax delinquents “were determined eligible for secret, top secret, or sensitive compartmented information (SCI) clearances, or related interim clearances” despite their outstanding debts, according to the report.

Some of those with back taxes are likely security-cleared employees of the executive branch, legislative branch, and the intelligence community, due to the large scope of the GAO’s analysis.

Pentagon officials warned that “individuals having access to classified information pose a greater risk because they have more opportunity to actually compromise classified information than a person who is only eligible to access classified information,” according to the GAO.

The “GAO found that about 26,000 of the 83,000 DOD employees and contractors with eligibilities who owed taxes (about 31 percent) had access to classified information, and they owed about $229 million in federal taxes as of June 2012.”

[octex]

If we gain control of the Senate in 2014, legislation should be passed to REQUIRE garnishing the wages of ANY Federal employee who owes taxes, and that would include members of the Legislative branch, as well.

[octex]

Great, I bet the government could get any of these people do do anything they wanted them to if those tax evaders owe taxes.
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Thing is, nefarious foreign agents can also get them to do what they want, with the payoff of their debts. When talking about Top Secret folks, that is very dangerous.