Security Clearances and the Entire Clearance Process in the News Again

By Ronald C. Sykstus

Every time there is a public breach of security, there is a resulting flurry of news about how the clearance system is too loose and too many people have access to classified material.

According to this article, nearly 3 million Americans. have a security clearance, while about 1.2 million have access to information that is considered top secret. The recent breach, however, feels different insofar as how a low ranking enlisted national guardsman was allegedly able to access and disseminate a great deal of very sensitive and top secret national security information to his gaming buddies. As a result, I believe there will be renewed scrutiny and overhaul of the entire clearance process as this article sets forth. I don’t see how that won’t be the case this time.

Given this current climate, and in light of the continuous evaluation and vetting that is being instituted now for all security clearance holders, I thought this would be a good time to remind clearance applicants to be very thoughtful and considered in their approach to the clearance process.

The start point for all clearance applicants is the SF 86/e-Qip that is required to be completed. Take your time with this, practice your answers to any “problem” questions you see and supply a good bit of detail and explanation where required. Do all of this ahead of time so you are not rushed. This is where a lot of clearance applicants mess up. If mistakes are made here, you could potentially live with the consequences forever. In a nutshell, and from my experience, the worst thing someone can do is to make a fraudulent statement or answer on the SF 86. If an applicant does this and the false answer is discovered by the government, this can be a lifetime clearance killer. Also make sure to read the questions thoroughly and carefully and, if a yes answer is required, put in as much detail and mitigation as possible in your answer.

If, following the submission of your SF 86/e-Qip, you receive interrogatories from the government regarding specific answers you provided, then you know that they are looking at the answers very carefully as they most likely suspect a problem or an issue with your answer. Make sure to answer the interrogatories in great detail and provide evidence to support your answers, if at all possible.

Subsequent to that, if the government still believes there are issues with your clearance application, it will move to revoke or deny your clearance by issuing you a Statement of Reasons (SOR). You have a short time period in which to respond to the statement of reasons so make sure you do this promptly and with a great deal of detail.

Again, given the current climate we are in and the renewed focus that will be on clearances in the future, I just wanted this to serve as a reminder to be thoughtful, methodical and detailed in your approach to obtaining or protecting your clearance so that your job that requires a clearance is safe in the long run.

If you are in the process of having to complete an initial or renewal sf 86 form through e-Qip, and you have questions or concerns about how to disclose your previous employment, please reach out to me immediately BEFORE you answer those questions. A consultation with me is protected under the attorney-client privilege and only you and I will know what we discuss. To that end, I strongly recommend that you do not discuss any security concerns with your chain of command, civilian supervisors, or anyone else since, reporting any type of potential issue to anyone else, may require them to forward that information along to the facility security officer. Before you decide to do anything like that, and if you think you have an issue that needs to be disclosed either on the SF 86 form or by self-reporting, let’s discuss it first before you do anything in a meeting (by phone or in person) protected by the attorney-client privilege so that we know exactly what all of the issues are and we can ensure that, together, we can control the narrative of exactly what you are reporting or answering. Please feel free to contact me by phone or text at 256-713-0221 or by email at rsykstus@bondnbotes.com if you would like to discuss any concerns that you have regarding your clearance. My goal is to put any security clearance issue and concern that you may have to rest at the earliest and lowest possible level.

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