As long as their extended background clearances indicated no drug use, wild frat/sorority parties, or late Macy's payments - I don't see the problem here.(/sarcasm)
I held a very high clearance several years ago - and the absolute morons in charge of giving out clearances were more interested in the above than anything truly threatening to the US. These idiots better get a clue about newer generations - or we'll all be living underground waiting for radiation half-lives to expire.
I've never sought a position that would require me to apply for so much as the lowest level of clearance, and probably never will. But everything I've ever seen and heard about the process matches what you say. They appear obsessed with the most meaningless penny-ante crap that gives no indication of an individual's trustworthiness nor would ever make a person a blackmail risk. I can only presume that much of the clearance process is plain old elitism at work. And I'm sure the United States has wasted untold thousands, if not millions, of opportunities to acquire useful intelligence as a result.
"She cited examples of mistranslations and security breaches within the FBI's language division, where translators with Top Secret clearance interpret sensitive terror-related information for agents.
As long as their extended background clearances indicated no drug use, wild frat/sorority parties, or late Macy's payments - I don't see the problem here.(/sarcasm)
I held a very high clearance several years ago - and the absolute morons in charge of giving out clearances were more interested in the above than anything truly threatening to the US. These idiots better get a clue about newer generations - or we'll all be living underground waiting for radiation half-lives to expire."
Thanks for your inside look. When I read something like this, it reminds me of what the FBI did with valuable defectors from the Soviet intelligence community. They treated them badly, saying that they didn't like "traitors". Some of the defectors went back to Russia.
Whenever I read about this, I remember thinking, "It's possible that the FBI has hired people this dumb to work these jobs---but not possible that the administrators in charge of these people are this dumb. We are looking at traitors inside the FBI here."