Somebody has to do a much better and faster job of this.
But I’m not sure the Pentagon is capable of doing so.
Was there a backlog in Obama’s administration? Or did this backlog occur in the last 15 months? Something seems weird about this situation.
Put the military in charge! Nothing can go wrong with that.
Um, this is bullcrap:
President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, for example, received his permanent clearance just a few weeks ago, more than 16 months after Trump took office. The delay, his lawyer said, was caused by the backlog in the new administration and Kushner’s extensive financial wealth, which required lengthy review.
No, you silly AP reporter. That’s not why his security clearance was held up. He failed multiple times to disclose information.
Swell reporting there.
OPM was keeping everyone’s SF86 forms – their detailed personal information – unencrypted on a network accessible from the internet. China hacked the network in 2015 (under Obama) and got detailed data on more than 20 million people. Background clearance investigations were transferred from the Defense Security Services to OPM in 2004 (under Bush). Before OPM took over, secret clearances were taking three to six months to complete, now they are at least a year, and sometimes two.
I’m not saying that giving this function back to DSS will improve things, but OPM has proven they are completely incompetent.
Or, you know, it was delayed because everyone thinks Kushner is a security risk who shouldn’t have clearance, but they’re all too chiickenshit to tell Trump.
My feelings exactly. Not sure about the wisdom of giving those leeches more power. And for those that want to believe that the military is all about patriotism and dedication to the country: John Kelly, Flynn, Zinke, Greitens, McMasters, Mattis…
this makes me very nervous
Well for one thing when Obama was running in 2008 they started background checks on all Cabinet possibilities, and then worked down. Also that team was usually picking know entities that had gone through the process before.
When a person with no public service on their resume, who doesn’t know anyone in the public sector, and then chooses people off the TV then it’s going to take awhile.
Oh I think they broached the subject once or twice and felt like trying to explain why Jared is incompetent for a third time would just be like hitting one’s head against a brick wall, and why bother.
So when the robots flag Trump as a security risk, will they listen to them?
Three years to get up to speed?
Just in time for the new President to get his choices vetted quickly. And begin cleaning up the damage.
It’s always been bad, but now it’s worse. This is mostly a flaming-dog-doo present left over from sequestration.
There’s a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people. - Commander William Adama
Indeed. Furthermore we do not know if Jared and Ivanka got their clearances via the formal process, or if POTUS waived it and declared them eligible. It is very likely though, due to the nature of the omissions, infractions, and lies you note that kept Jared from receiving it for so long.
Wrong. There’s a reason why the FBI conducts the background investigations for any position requiring a clearance.
Uhhhh… Who is the Commander-in-Chief of the Pentagon? No problem here.
So first the military investigation offices have to ramp up and get good at this. Then, their performance reviews depend on people whose performance reviews depend (in part) on positive clearance results for the half-million contractors the military investigation offices are looking at.
And that’s before you get to things like who is going to do the front-line personal interviews of associates, whether that will be contracted out to a private security firm and so forth.
That was my immediate response as well.