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Various Issues
As I am currently very busy with not blogging just various links:
China and Russia finally getting smart over Iran. No more UN sanctions:
Two small but interesting developments in Syria. Palestinians and Kurds against the Jihadis:
On Egypt. There was an alternative though the IMF issue may have been the deal breaker:
The U.S. seems not to understand how this incredible bullying over Snowden is seen in the rest of the world. That bullying is doing more damage than whatever Snowden released:
The NSA is taking and checking data up to 3 hops away from any suspect. On the Internet you are only 4.71 hops away from anyone else.
From the Guardian, linked at 37:
…when over 1.4 million Americans hold “top secret” security clearances. When that many have access to sensitive information, is it really so difficult to envision a leak?
This is inaccurate, plus the Guardian is almost always lousy with nos.
What the Guardian is writing about is a security clearance at the lowest level. Roughly, divided into: confidential, secret, top secret, and one more above that.
The lowest level, as I understand it, involves the right to read classified documents, as well as unclassified documents that are nonetheless not public. How that info can be used, treated, disseminated, is another ball of wax.
The whole complicated boondoggle of these certifications is part of the stratification and person-vetting bent of the US (see drug tests, credit scores, being kicked off food stamps for drug convictions, etc.) and the need to create in-groups who are ‘certified‘ by some Gvmt entity (DOD, DHS, CIA, plus others, etc. – who have different rules and procedures I have read, which is why it is so hard to describe it all) – a sort of bona fide pass, which comes under review periodically, etc.
The reason why so many ppl have the lowest level clearance is that many jobs are tagged with that requirement. I suppose that the tagging comes mainly from the US Gvmt, yet, it make Corps look good as well? Idk.
It is easy for State, para-State, contractors, to comply with these demands, they simply don’t hire someone who doesn’t have it.
The result is that masses of young and not-so-young ppl try to get it and succeed. (Any forum on Gvmt. jobs has a section on How to get my security clearance, it can be arduous and take a year or more..) It is required, for ex, for air traffic control, rather mundane jobs.
The US Dpt. of State puts it thus, in the first parag.
Eligibility for access to classified information, commonly known as a security clearance, is granted only to those for whom an appropriate personnel security background investigation has been completed. It must be determined that the individual’s personal and professional history indicates loyalty to the United States, strength of character, trustworthiness, honesty, reliability, discretion, and sound judgment, as well as freedom from conflicting allegiances and potential for coercion, and a willingness and ability to abide by regulations governing the use, handling, and protection of classified information. A determination of eligibility for access to such information is a discretionary security decision based on judgments by appropriately trained adjudicative personnel. Eligibility will be granted only where facts and circumstances indicate access to classified information is clearly consistent with the national security interests of the United States. Access to classified information will be terminated when an individual no longer has need for access.
http://www.state.gov/m/ds/clearances/c10978.htm
Ha ha ha…it couldn’t be clearer..it is all BS which is supposed to vet for ‘loyalists’ and eliminate ‘potential dissidents’ in a primitive way. (Tribal loyalty enshrined by bureaucracy.) This also has to do with ‘risk assessment’, which is another topic.
I have no idea how many are certified at the low level, how many of these are actually employed in a job that requires it, most likely nobody knows, but the estimates for holders I have read turn around half a million or so.
Posted by: Noirette | Jul 18 2013 16:31 utc | 46
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