HOW THE GOVERNMENT TRIES TO AVOID HIRING SECURITY RISKS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100070003-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: July 13, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

$1 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/03/20: CIA-RDP90-009658000100070003-4
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
13 July i9RS
HOW THE GOVERNMENT TRIES TO AVOID HIRING SECURITY RISKS
BY TIM AHERN
WASHINGTON
Access to some of the nation's most sensitive secrets starts with Form
1879,CTEXT ILLEGIBLEI investigative Service in the Pentagon to trigger a n
investigation into this question: Gan this person be trusted with the nation's
secrets?
The process is coming under scrutiny - and already has come under criticism -
as a result of the arrest of four men with ties to the Navy on charges of
passing military secrets to the Soviet Union.
Particularly troubling is the fact that the spy ring apparently operated fo r
at least 18 years. All four of the suspects had passed security checks - and
two had been re-investigated and cleared again.
Three of them - John A. Walker Jr., his brother, Arthur, and his friend,
Jerry A. Whitworth - had "top secret" clearances and the fourth John's san,
Michael, had access to "secret" information, permitting them tondo what top Navy
officials say is "very serious" damage to military secrets, particularly coded
communications.
A military agency's request for a security clearance, the Form 1879, triggers
an investigation intended to turn up any potential damaging material that could
make a government employee vulnerable to blackmail, temptation or pressure, such
as a history of money problems, excessive drinking, arrests or the use of drugs.
Rut those investigations may often miss important material because of their
sheer number - more than 200,000 were requested last year alone - and because a
conflicting male of legal requirements blocks access to some important material.
"We need to improve our bureaucratic structure far investigations, there`s no
question about that," Rep. Les Aspin, D-Wis., and chairman of the House Armed
Services Committee, said Wednesday.
Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., one of the Senate's most respected military experts,
said recently, "We should do a better jab of clearing government and defense
workers."
While the military security investigations sound complete, there are big
gaps, according to critics like Nunn,
For example, Defense Investigative Service investigators have no direct
aCCe55 to the National Crime Information Computer, the centralized data bank
which even local police agencies can tap into. If a person is convicted of a
crime but that information is not sent to the FBI far same reason, it would not
turn up in the "agency check," said investigative service officials.
The investigative service is barred from using the computer system because of
privacy safeguards built in after civil libertarians raised fears about "Big
Brother" federal dossiers when the system was created 19 years ago.
t'MOnued
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/03/20: CIA-RDP90-009658000100070003-4