Does anyone know what you “do” with such a security clearance AFTER you left the government?
Does it entitle you to log in and see secret information? Receive updates from someone? Get briefings, if so from whom?
Brennan needs to prove that he is not still running ops through the CIA.
You may go to a defense contractor, authorized for US intelligence work. Such a position would require a certain level of access. Having that level of access may be a requirement for being hired.
After you leave the government, you might go to work for a company that does business with the government—business that requires cleared employees.
When you leave a position that requires a clearance and go to a position that doesn’t require a clearance, security officials make your clearance inactive. With an inactive clearance, you cannot log in to see secret info, nor do you receive classified updates, briefings or information of any kind.
Access to classified information doesn’t just require a clearance. You must also have a valid need to know. If you have a clearance but not a valid need to know, you will not be allowed to access the information in question (assuming those who control access to the info are doing their jobs correctly).
If your clearance goes inactive, it will expire at the end of the active period (usually 5 years).
I have had clearances, if you leave a company where the clearance was needed you effectively do not have access to classified data since you have to have a manager certify you need to have cleasified data.
As an agency chairman, it is a little different I am told, they may be allowed to keep records that they worked on and have access to them if needed at any time.
A clearance does not immediately disappear in the federal records, because I have been inactive for several years and returned. My clearance was reactive in less than 6 months and I went back on the 5 year cycle. Sometimes the clearance cycle is longer, at one company it was 7 years, because of the cost to run a complete investigation.