PwnallthethingsI have some, uh, ... questions about the .... diligence ... of this leaker's clearance process
Gareth PotterHate to generalize, but just gonna say it as I see it: if you have the insignia of the Russian General Staff prominently on display in your bedroom, USG probably shouldn't give you a TS/SCI and let you wander round the IT networks where the JCS daily brief is freely available for you to print out and take home
Him: can I have a gun?
Cops: yeah sure why ... wait, hold on a minute, whoa, holy shit, no, you're off-the-deep-end crazy. And we'd normally let *basically anyone* have a gun
DOD: would you like a TS/SCI clearance and unrestricted access to the JCS brief
Him: OK
* two years later *
DOD, in hot-dog costume: Look, we're all just trying to work out who did this, ok
Justin Schuh@Pwnallthethings @Pwnallthethings Don't know the current situation, but it used to be pretty common for service members to never get past a clearance waiver in their first tour. As in, I had friends who finished a 5yr enlistment working in the IC and handling classified, got civilian job offers assuming they had an active clearance, and had the offers rescinded when it turned out they'd been on a waiver the whole time and the clearance had never been fully adjudicated.
All of this is a long way around saying that I wouldn't place much stock in the quality of the clearance process for a junior enlisted. But the fact that we have to clear so many people is just another symptom of the more fundamental problem of excessive classification.
Tom Bellin 
@jschuh @Pwnallthethings Yup. This is a pretty clear case of how when everything's secret, nothing is secret.
WndlB@Pwnallthethings Just for the record, that is beautifully written.
HTTP 1.1/418 Teapot@Pwnallthethings @memory In most towns in MA, you have to work at it to get turned down for an FID card.
That Anonymous CowardSadly it is not just the DOD.
How someone got clearance knowing me I will NEVER understand.
Alexander Ruthol@Pwnallthethings
I'm going to guess he's someone's nephew.
That Strings Were Pulled(tm) to get "He's Not A Bad Kid Really It's Just Those People He Hangs With Online" his clearance.
John Hitt@Pwnallthethings Bingo. Just inexcusable incompetence that this kid had a security clearance and local police knew better. Heads should roll within DOD.
kravietz 🦇No idea how it’s done in the US, but I’d assume the process of granting them is largely based on self-declaration (“did you knowingly X” forms) and things they can check because it’s in their databases (e.g. foreign trips). Obviously, they would have learned about the bedroom only if someone recognized it and denounced him.
@kravietz For TS/SCI, no, it's very much not generally just a self-declaration.
So background checks involving cops visiting you at home and talking to neighbours?
Cory Foy@kravietz @Pwnallthethings Generally yes *especially* at the TS/SCI level. However there can be waivers in place granting you need-to-know access in specific cases without actually holding the clearance.
❄️ J. Eddy@Pwnallthethings Probably shouldn't have let a known Russian asset and his blatantly transparent crime family POTUS & Co either, but here we are.
Administrator@Pwnallthethings Sadly enough, if one wanted to disqualify anyone in the US with a liking towards Russia/Putin these days, you'd quickly find yourself being accused of discrimination against Conservatives in general. 🙄