Free Republic

A veteran State Department employee contends that a month-long trip he took to Israel more than two decades ago has contributed to the suspension of his security clearance, stalling and perhaps ending his career in the foreign service. [snip] Mr. Hirsch said the story about him being a paratrooper deserved to be checked out, but could have been quickly resolved. The seemingly open-ended inquiry into his life and an agent's questions about whether the Maryland native could automatically become an Israeli citizen because he is a Jew have led the diplomat to conclude that he is the victim of religious...

A Saudi man who authorities say was upset about being denied a job as an Arabic interpreter for the U.S. military in Iraq was charged with threatening to blow up a Delta Air Lines flight. Saleh Al Suwailem, 45, of Boise, Idaho, was arrested by the FBI on Tuesday. Al Suwailem was at Fort Benning on Monday being interviewed for the job when he learned he would not be hired because he was denied security clearance, federal authorities said in court papers. After being told to fly home to Idaho the next day on a Delta flight, he started drinking...

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration last year quietly rewrote the rules for allowing gays and lesbians to receive national-security clearances, drawing complaints from civil rights activists. The Bush administration said security clearances cannot be denied "solely on the basis of the sexual orientation of the individual." But it removed language saying sexual orientation "may not be used as a basis for or a disqualifying factor in determining a person's eligibility for a security clearance." The White House sought to play down the changes, approved by President Bush in December, as an effort to ensure the security clearance rules are consistent...

The Bush administration has displayed a remarkable mastery at directing attention on issues through its own lens. Recently, for example, the White House tried to shift the national focus from the subject of alleged illegal wiretapping to a criminal investigation into who leaked the president's secret. Which raises the question: Should constitutionally protected news gathering be given a renewed boost through shield laws? The answer is — emphatically — yes. Reporter shield laws, designed to protect the confidentiality of press sources, are necessary not only to protect individual reporters, but more importantly, to protect the news gathering process and to...

NEW YORK - New York Times reporter Judith Miller has addressed an issue that raised eyebrows in the journalism community: her statement that she had "clearance to see secret information" while covering the invasion of Iraq. In a first-person piece last weekend, Miller wrote that because of that status, "I was not permitted to discuss with editors some of the more sensitive information about Iraq." The statement led some to charge that the Times had allowed Miller to become compromised by the military. But Miller told the paper for a story published Thursday that her "clearance" was akin to the...

There are about 40 of them -- ghost employees of the State Department. They have had their security clearances suspended and are under investigation until officials decide whether to revoke or restore them. Some of the employees are Foreign Service officers with decades of experience. They say they have been waiting for as long as two and three years for the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, which investigates possible security risks, to make decisions in their cases. Daniel Hirsch, one of the diplomats with a suspended clearance, was recalled to Washington from a Central Asian nation after his wife sought marital...

Notwithstanding former President Jimmy Carter's recent statement to the contrary, Undersecretary of State John Bolton's remarks about Cuba's biological weapons capabilities underscore lingering concerns with the rogue island only 90 miles from the United States. Bolton, on May 6, told an audience at the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation that the U.S. is suspicious about Cuban biomedical laboratories and their ability to transfer biological weapons technology to Iraq, Syria and Libya, all countries that Cuban President Fidel Castro visited last year. Bolton also made remarks, which may be interpreted as a clear signal of hardening State Department policy toward Cuba, faulting...

Kerry Lost Security Clearance! Just spoke with reporter friend in DC. She is talking with former USN ONI types who worked on DOD/USN investigation that resulted in total loss of Kerry’s Navy security clearance. Kerry had been granted a Top Secret by the Navy on October 11, 1967 based on a routine background investigation by Office of Naval Intelligence. A top secret clearance was required for his work at that time. Obtaining and holding a security clearance of any level, especially TS or above, requires certain terms, obligations, commitments and conditions from the holder. One of the most important is...

WASHINGTON – Though the Homeland Security Department has not terminated a high-ranking department official accused of resume fraud, sources say she's been denied the security clearance she needs to perform her job. Laura Callahan, the department's deputy chief information officer, was placed on paid leave in June while officials investigate her academic credentials. The advanced degrees she lists on her resume are from a diploma mill. Callahan's assistant, Jim Shepard, says she is still out on leave and has not been fired. However, sources say she was denied Top Secret clearance and is appealing the decision. Callahan's lawyer did not...

There’s increasing speculation that CIA Director George Tenet’s job may be in jeopardy if the U.S. doesn’t find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Perhaps the CIA has been more preoccupied with other matters. The CIA web site has a section on "Diversity in the CIA" that emphasizes the agency’s involvement with ANGLE, which stands for the Agency Network for Gay and Lesbian Employees. This is "an outreach of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans-gendered employees providing internal networking support and education to the overall Agency regarding issues relating to sexual orientation and the workplace." This year, however, there was no...

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- An immigration crackdown has led to the arrests of several illegal aliens working for subcontractors at Sikorsky Aircraft in Stratford. Seven suspects, five men and two women, were brought into U.S. District Court shortly before 9 p.m. Tuesday, charged with misusing Social Security numbers and having false alien registration cards. ... the seven were turned over to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. The seven work for subcontractors ... All had obtained security clearance badges by allegedly using false information, authorities said. As a result, they had access to classified areas and possibly sensitive materials. However, none...