# A violation of my fargin civil rights **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 7, 2001, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-violation-of-my-fargin-civil-rights/71572 "2001-07-07T06:15:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2001, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-violation-of-my-fargin-civil-rights/71572/21 "2001-07-09T09:59:11Z")
Add me to the list of those who aced the ASVAB and was frequently visited by recruiters for a while afterwards. I only took the test to get out of class and planned on answering every question with ‘A’ or something similarly foolish, but when I saw how easy the test was I couldn’t bring myself to do that. Only branch of the military that didn’t try to recruit me was the Air Force. Navy wanted me to train to be a nuclear engineer, offered a $40,000 re-enlistment bonus if I trained to be one. I wasn’t interested at the time. Later, when I became interested in the military again, I went to the Air Force, figuring that if they were the only ones who weren’t desperate to have me they were the ones I should be with. Unfortunately, they had this silly requirement that the circumference of my neck be within 20 inches of the circimference of my waist. Try as I might, I just couldn’t get my neck thick enough. ---
**Author:** ![Earthworm\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f07891/32.png) [@Earthworm\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthworm_Jim)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2001, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-violation-of-my-fargin-civil-rights/71572/22 "2001-07-09T13:58:13Z")
> [@](#): > > First, why do I not have the right to a simple status report? Because you are not cleared for that information, obviously. Didn’t you get the briefing that tells you: Once you’ve applied for a clearance you forfeit any claim to “civil rights”. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2001, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-violation-of-my-fargin-civil-rights/71572/23 "2001-07-09T14:59:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tripler \* > \*\*Hey **City Gent** , > > If it helps, it took me a whole 12 months to get mine. I don’t even really need it all that much, but I filled out my fourteen sheets of dot matrix crap and got my clearance no problem! > \*\* 12 Months! I have been waiting over two years, and have yet to be interviewed. Our security guy said that right now the backlog is so long that it is taking three years for some people. The guy sitting next to me already has clearance(Air Force Reserve), and hes been waiting 6 months just to get that transferred over. ---
**Author:** ![Spiritus\_Mundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c68b51/32.png) [@Spiritus\_Mundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiritus_Mundi)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2001, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-violation-of-my-fargin-civil-rights/71572/24 "2001-07-09T15:25:23Z")
Well, I’m another veteran of the clearance dance. It took so long for the military to process my TS/BI (as it used to be called) that I was a short-timer before I was cleared to perform all job functions. On the other hand, I have to say that I find the fact that they would not share the details of an investigation with the subject of the investigation to be eminently proper, prudent, and a damned good idea, too. Come on, people, it’s a bloody security investigation. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2001, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-violation-of-my-fargin-civil-rights/71572/25 "2001-07-09T18:33:07Z")
What **Spiritus** said. For fuck’s sake, after Wen Ho and Hanssen people are complaining that security investigations are too fucking strict? Fucking cope, **City Gent**. ---
**Author:** ![City\_Gent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a87d85/32.png) [@City\_Gent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/City_Gent)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2001, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-violation-of-my-fargin-civil-rights/71572/26 "2001-07-10T02:52:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by andros \* > \*\* > What Spiritus said. > > For fuck’s sake, after Wen Ho and Hanssen people are complaining that security investigations are too fucking strict? > > Fucking cope, **City Gent**. \*\* Straw man argument, from you and **Spiritus Mundi** both. If you had read the OP, you’d see that I explicitly accepted the investigation process itself as well as the legitimacy of being kept in the dark about the details of the investigation. I just want to know when it’s going to be over. If you can devise a scenario in which telling me that my investigation is currently scheduled to be complete in X months will imperil national security, then I shall stand corrected. Iceholes. ---
**Author:** ![City\_Gent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a87d85/32.png) [@City\_Gent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/City_Gent)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2001, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-violation-of-my-fargin-civil-rights/71572/27 "2001-07-10T02:52:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by andros \* > \*\* > What Spiritus said. > > For fuck’s sake, after Wen Ho and Hanssen people are complaining that security investigations are too fucking strict? > > Fucking cope, **City Gent**. \*\* Straw man argument, from you and **Spiritus Mundi** both. If you had read the OP, you’d see that I explicitly accepted the investigation process itself as well as the legitimacy of being kept in the dark about the details of the investigation. I just want to know when it’s going to be over. If you can devise a scenario in which telling me that my investigation is currently scheduled to be complete in X months will imperil national security, then I shall stand corrected. Iceholes. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2001, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-violation-of-my-fargin-civil-rights/71572/28 "2001-07-10T03:41:31Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by bdgr \* \*\* > [@](#): > > 12 Months! I have been waiting over two years, and have yet to be interviewed. Our security guy said that right now the backlog is so long that it is taking three years for some people. The guy sitting next to me already has clearance(Air Force Reserve), and hes been waiting 6 months just to get that transferred over. \*\* Can’t help ya dude. Mine was done 1 1/2 years ago, just scant months before anyone knew of the inside threat Hanssen had on us. Unfortunately, nature of my job dictates I get one, so I’m sure that cleared the way for it some. . . I don’t mean this maliciously, but “Suck it up!”. It will end sometime. Just pray that yer not a Commie pinko with something to hide. _Then_ it’ll take a li’l longer. . . Tripler Damn Communist Pinko bastards!! ---
**Author:** ![Spiritus\_Mundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c68b51/32.png) [@Spiritus\_Mundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiritus_Mundi)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2001, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-violation-of-my-fargin-civil-rights/71572/29 "2001-07-10T03:54:39Z")
What I saw was > [@](#): > > So I contact the Inspector General of the Defense Security Service to find out what the Christ is up with my investigation. And I am told that they will not, as a matter of policy, discuss an ongoing investigation with the subject being investigated. They will only entertain inquiries from the security manager of the subject’s employer > > WTGDF? I can’t get a simple status report from the government about my own goddamned investigation?! I have to ask the little guy who hands out donuts to the security guards to look into it, and then he doesn’t even have to tell me what he found out? > > What possible standing does my motherfucking employer have in regard to this? First, why do I not have the right to a simple status report? I’m not asking for the names of any sources they may have contacted, or any other sensitive information, just a fucking status report. Second, why does my employer have not only the right, but the exclusive privilege of getting such a report? To take them in order: (1) The status is “under investigation”. Happy? (2) I wonder if the security manager at your company understands the disdain in which you hold him. I wonder if that attitude shows through to other people who work in security related fields, people like, oh, DSS investigators. (3) I would imagine that the standing your employer has with regards to the investigation exists so that they can get answers to exactly the type of query you propose: when can they expect an employee to be cleared for work. You probably should have asked the IG that question, though. I would also imagine that the security manager for a company that does sensitive defense work probably also erquires a security clearance. Those silly defense folks might actually think that makes a difference when discussing an ongoing investigation. (4) I missed the part of your post where teh IG told you that the employer would be given access to the full details of the report. I only saw the part where they would entertain inquiries. My imagination ruins away with me, and I wonder whether they might actually place restrictions on the information they give out in response to said queries. I trust you find the above sufficiently responsive to your OP. I would hate to be accused of constructing another straw man. > [@](#): > > If you had read the OP, you’d see that I explicitly accepted the investigation process itself as well as the legitimacy of being kept in the dark about the details of the investigation. I just want to know when it’s going to be over. No, I can’t say that I see either of those points in your OP. I see **Last June, I submitted about a hundred frickin pages of information . . .Already I’m thinking this is bullshit**. And I see **I’m not asking for the names of any sources they may have contacted, or any other sensitive information, just a fucking status report.** Of course, since the IG had already told you that a status report _was_ considered sensitive information, your statement is contradictory. But, hey, you know better than they what information should be sensitive. There can’t possibly be any good reason for them to not divulge the expected timetable of an investigation to the person being investigated, right? No possible scenario exists in which that information could ever matter. Hell, we can even dismiss the idea that maybe they have found it most effective to insist upon a clear directive to withhold information rather than allow officers discretion to disclose material according to their own determination of risk. After all, why should they err on the side of caution if it means your company has to make security inquiries through their goddamned, donut-delivering meat-whistle of a security manager instead of through some uncleared, bill ducking, pot smoking rocket scientist like yourself. :rolleyes: > [@](#): > > If you can devise a scenario in which telling me that my investigation is currently scheduled to be complete in X months will imperil national security, then I shall stand corrected. Wow, that’s hard. I can’t imagine any situation that has the potential to become embarrassing at some future date but which might be suppressed, delayed, hidden for a finite period of time if someone could predict when the investigators would stop looking closely. Nah – that could never happen. Why, the world would have to contain loan sharks or secret love affairs or sneaky stuff like that. Frankly, with the utter contempt you seem to feel for security precautions in general I am not at all upset that your clearance is not flying through in record time. Treason and blackmail are not the only way information becomes compromised. Carelessness and disadain for security procedures do a fine job, too. ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2001, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-violation-of-my-fargin-civil-rights/71572/30 "2001-07-10T04:23:21Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by Tripler \* \*\* > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bdgr \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > 12 Months! I have been waiting over two years, and have yet to be interviewed. Our security guy said that right now the backlog is so long that it is taking three years for some people. The guy sitting next to me already has clearance(Air Force Reserve), and hes been waiting 6 months just to get that transferred over. \*\* > > Can’t help ya dude. Mine was done 1 1/2 years ago, just scant months before anyone knew of the inside threat Hanssen had on us. Unfortunately, nature of my job dictates I get one, so I’m sure that cleared the way for it some. . . > > I don’t mean this maliciously, but “Suck it up!”. It will end sometime. Just pray that yer not a Commie pinko with something to hide. _Then_ it’ll take a li’l longer. . . > > Tripler > Damn Communist Pinko bastards!! \*\* I do have kind of a colorfull past. I have a former friend who is sitting in federal prison for terrosim. He tried to blow up a chemical plant in wise county. I hadnt associated with him for years before that, but hes in all my wedding pictures. Those two felony arrests are bound to come back to haunt me. There is an upside to all the waiting, they are much less likely to lay me off because getting someone cleared is an extreme investment of time. ---
**Author:** ![Linear\_Crack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Linear\_Crack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linear_Crack)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2001, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-violation-of-my-fargin-civil-rights/71572/31 "2001-07-10T05:13:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by monster \* > \*\*I have absolutely nothing to add to this conversation other than the fact that I love a guy who quotes from _Johnny Dangerously_. > > You fargin icehole! 😉 \*\* Ahhh the infamous **Roman Murone** “Your a fargin’ bastach!” You know, he was deported to Sweden, though he claimed he is not from there. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-violation-of-my-fargin-civil-rights/71572.md?page=1)