Holy Shit: How many security clearances have been issued?

[cali]

Nearly enough for everyone in the Washington area

More than 4.2 million people have security clearances for access to classified information, a number that vastly outstrips previous estimates and nearly rivals the population of metropolitan Washington.

The number was disclosed in a new report that was mandated by Congress and marks the first time that the government has produced a detailed accounting of the clearances issued to federal, military and contract employees.

The official count is so much greater than previous estimates that it caught security experts off-guard. Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists said the new total is an “astonishingly large figure” and “another reminder of how quickly the national security bureaucracy has expanded over the past decade.”

Aftergood noted in his blog that just two years ago the Government Accountability Office estimated that about 2.4 million people held clearances. The Washington region’s overall population is just under 5.5 million.

The vast majority of clearance holders are federal employees or members of the U.S. armed services. But more than a million contractors also have access to classified information. Remarkably, nearly as many contractors hold top secret clearances (524,990) as do federal workers (666,008).

<snip>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/checkpoint-washington/post/how-many-security-clearances-has-the-government-issued-nearly-enough-for-everyone-in-the-washington-area/2011/09/20/gIQAMW3OiK_blog.html

[Spider Jerusalem]

1. That isn't really "holy shit", for the most part

access to most things is on a need-to-know basis and tends to be fairly restricted and limited in scope.

[Cali_Democrat]

4. Exactly. n/t

[cali]

5. It's holy shit to the experts- as the article makes clear.

[Earth_First]

2. I'm not really surprised by these numbers...

'The vast majority of the clearance holders are...members of the U.S. armed services'

Nothing shocking there.

[NightWatcher]

3. the bigger question... Who conducted the security background investigations

Was it a government agency, was it a private contractor, was it a private contractor with a badge from a government agency???

What safeguards were in place to ensure that whomever granted the access thoroughly vetted? Did the contractor really check out the applicant or did they need to get it done fast to remain within the contract specifications?

[wandy]

6. Don't know how it is now. Security clearnesses had levels.........

Very low level you might only think about because you could 'badge into' some areas.
Higher levels, you're neighbors might inform you that 'some fellow was around here asking questions about you'.
You might have required some security level because of what you worked on. Even if what you worked on wasn't directly involved with 'Spy vs. Spy' or had a military application.

[longship]

7. I was DOD Secret in the 1980's.

I worked at Boeing Military Airplane Company in Wichita, KS, a separate subsidiary of the commercial company based in WA.

You couldn't be employed professionally at BMAC without one. It was a condition of employment. I had six months to get it done or I was out. I will just say that it is not an easy task. The application alone takes considerable effort. You don't want to lie on it. You don't want to leave things blank. And the boss tells you that, YES! it will all be independently verified.

The old guy that lived next door to my family when I was in high school was interviewed by the FBI. He told me later that he got a big kick out of that. As I was 33 years old then, you can imagine the depth of the investigation to go back to my high school days with next door neighbors who were not even mentioned on my application.

Here's another thing about this Snowden guy. A secret clearance takes months to obtain clearance due to these interviews and such. Mine took about three, which I understood was about average. I got a black letter pinned on my Boeing badge indicating I was Secret secure. At the time it meant that I got to keep my job. All the aircraft I did work on were military. My favorite was the KC-135 Stratotanker (the 707 was a KC-135 in civilian dress) on which I did all of the sonic testing for the big re-engining which almost doubled its thrust. Fun, but grueling work.

But I have some amusing stories about working at a place where everybody has a DOD Secret clearance.

I don't buy half of what Snowden is saying. There's something that just doesn't add up here.

[pinboy3niner]

8. A Secret clearance is pretty run-of-the-mill

iirc, every military officer commisioned as a 2nd Lt. or higher must qualify for and receive a Secret clearance.

[longship]

10. That's why it took months to get mine.

And they interviewed people in my life going back more than a decade. And I was mostly working on military aircraft, specifically the KC-135, which Boeing turned into the 707, the first transcontinental jet airliner. Not exactly secret, that technology.

I almost got sucked into one of the "black hole" projects while I worked there. (You go in, and you never come out. All hush, hush.) I know what it was, but I won't say here. My best friend got sucked in to one which I later learned was the Pave Tiger, Boeing's first escapade into a weaponized drone.

It was a weird place to work because the security was everywhere and they were very, very paranoid. As I said, I have some amusing stories.

[pinboy3niner]

11. I was only 19 when I was commissioned in the Army, so it didn't take long to vet me, lol

My clearance only came into play twice during my service. First, as a company executive officer, I was in charge of our company's secure safe--which contained a file on a Lieutenant who'd been caught in a sexual act with a male troop. I don't recall if they were going to pursue court-martial charges (more likely they'd just allow him to resignhis commission and discharge him).

And in Vietnam, I happened to be on duty when a secret order came down for an MPC (Military Payment Certificate) currency conversion came down. I'd designed my unit's conversion program and had just trained all our officers on it. So we were the first unit in-country to complete the conversion.

[rppper]

15. I had a top secret + in the service....

A top secret is required for all submariners...70% of the gear and machinery are classified....my clearance was higher because I handled krypto codes and nuclear material/subsafe/combat systems materials....mine consisted of two sets of interviews with the FBI and the NSA...the later being somewhat bizzare in the types of questions they asked...that was in 88-89.....a bit over 2 hours each...I had to sign waivers when I got out and actually got a MUC medal that had redacted statements as to why we got it...we all knew anyway....

I had to fill out all sorts of paperwork at the end of navy boot camp for the background check....I put my moms friends, as all of mine were into herbal remedies....they found them anyway....

[pinboy3niner]

16. LOL!

Even for my piddly Secret clearance they talked to everyone I knew.

My older brother was in the Marines before Vietnam, and went through infantry, artillery, armor, and communications.

My brother was on a ship in the south China Sea with a contingent of Marines that was prepared to invade Laos. He was handling all communications.

They had a 14 or 15 point plan for the invasion, but as he tells it they aborted at the very last point--which was, for the Marines, "Lock and load.".

My brother said that the plan was to truck the grunts through some country he'd never heard of--South Vietnam--and chopper the HQ troops in.

Kind of ironic that my brother saw both of his younger brothers later serve in VN--one seriously wounded. He didn't tell me about the Laos op until 16 years after I got back from VN.

There isn't much on the net about that op. But the guys who were there, like my brother, put "Laos Float" on their short-timer sticks...

[HipChick]

12. His story doesn't appear credible..SF-86 can take months

A Top Secret with poly even longer....even some of the people conducting the background investigation are contractors...

This process will now take even longer..and its already backlogged as is..

[WillyT]

9. K & R !!!

[al_liberal]

13. Having a clearance doesn't mean carte blanche.

One is only privy to the information directly related to their duties. It's not like having a clearance gives one the keys to the kingdom and grants them access to everything in the secret realm. There's also a level above TS, TS/SCI that strictly restricts one to only the details of the project they are involved with. The work is highly compartmentalized to ensure that there is no cross project involvement. They are given access to the top of the top, the SCIF and they must pass a polygraph test to be cleared. Each and every one of the security clearances issued by the Govt is investigated and approved by actual Govt employees, not contractors.

Given all of this, there is nothing to prevent a cleared employee from going rogue and telling all they have been involved with. It's no different than one taking the vow to love, honor, and cherish and later having an affair. The penalties notwithstanding.

[FarCenter]

14. At my first employer, all new hires were cleared

Ostensibly this was so they would have flexibility in assigning staff to defense versus commercial work. But I think it was also the case that they wanted only cleared people in the building in order to widen the secure perimeter around actual secret work.

In the '70s there was a big move to reduce the number of people with clearances, mostly to cut costs. So I lost mine. But I never handled any classified information while I had it.