The Fight Against HSPD12
There’s a fascinating court fight, being run by people at the Jet Propulsion Lab. See “JPL Employees File Suit to End Background Investigations”
From the press release:
The plaintiffs include highly placed engineers and research scientists at JPL who have been involved in critical roles in NASA’s most successful recent programs, including leading engineers and scientists on the Mars Exploration Rovers program. All are long term employees of Caltech who have never had to submit to the incredibly intrusive check that the Bush Administration desires. None of the plaintiffs have classified or sensitive positions. Plaintiffs challenge Bush’s decision to require that all JPL employees submit to a “National Agency Check with Inquiries” and sign a broad written waiver, permitting investigators to obtain records from their past employment files, and to question their friends and associates about their emotional health, financial integrity, and general conduct, including whether they’ve ever had sex and, if so, what type.
Or, “the more you tighten your grip, the more national labs will slip through your fingers.”
It’s not just employees. It is extending also to onsite service personnel _AND_ remote service personnel for vendors as well. A group of vendors in a related industry to mine with a progressive manufacturer’s association tried to get the DoD to accept the company background check and that effort failed.
This was a sneaky way to get 50% of the US population to submit to a NACI.
It’s not just JPL, although that’s where it’s popping up this month. Clearance management is broken in the Government, even after 200+ years of trying to fix it.
Basically, every agency has their own background check criteria and even though it’s all done by the Office of Personnel Management, they don’t recognize each others’ clearances.
http://www.guerilla-ciso.com/archives/55