The number of people who are cleared for access to classified information
continued to rise in 2012 to more than 4.9 million, according to a new
annual report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
This is only the third official tally of government-wide security clearance
activity ever prepared, and it is the largest reported to date.
Click to access clear-2012.pdf
The total number of cleared personnel as of October 1, 2012 was 4,917,751.
Although the number of contractors who held a clearance declined in 2012,
the number of eligible government employees grew at a faster rate, yielding
a net increase of 54,199 clearances, or 1.1 percent, from the year before.
It is possible that there were more security-cleared Americans at some
points during the Cold War, when there was a larger standing military with
more cleared military personnel than there are today. But until 2010, no
comprehensive account of the size of the security clearance system had ever
been produced. So the new 4.9 million figure is the largest official
figure ever published.
A 2009 report from the Government Accountability Office had estimated that
2.4 million people held clearances, excluding some intelligence agency
employees. But even allowing for one or two hundred thousand cleared
intelligence personnel, this turned out to underestimate the case by nearly
50%. A 1995 GAO report presented an estimate of 3.2 million persons as of
1993.
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2009/07/security_clearances.html
(Strictly speaking, the new ODNI report does not present data on the
number of clearances but rather on the number of people who have been
investigated and deemed “eligible” for a clearance, regardless of whether
or not they have been granted access to classified information in fact. In
addition to a security clearance, an individual is also supposed to have a
“need to know” particular classified information in order to gain access to
it.)
During 2012, the CIA denied 4.9% of the clearance applications that it
reviewed, the report indicated, while NRO denied 5.9% and NSA denied 5.7%.
Several of the intelligence agencies reported that they had individual
security clearance investigations that had remained open in excess of one
year.
“The IC faces challenges in clearing individuals with unique or critical
skills — such as highly desirable language abilities — who often have
significant foreign associations that may take additional time to
investigate and adjudicate,” the new report said.
The report notes that it was prepared in fulfillment of a requirement in
the 2010 intelligence authorization act. It does not mention the fact that
the DNI asked Congress to cancel that requirement last year.
The DNI’s request to eliminate the report was initially approved by the
Senate Intelligence Committee (as first noted by Marcy Wheeler of the
Emptywheel blog). But then several public interest groups wrote to ask the
House and Senate Intelligence Committees to preserve the annual reporting
requirement, arguing that it provided unique public insight into the size
and operation of the security clearance system. The Committees concurred,
and the reporting requirement was retained.
Click to access clearance_rpt.pdf
In the absence of similar public attention and intervention, another
intelligence community report to Congress on proliferation of weapons of
mass destruction was discontinued at the DNI’s request, to the dismay of
students of arms control.
http://lewis.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/6511/no-more-721-reports
A pending change to the security clearance process is intended to
encourage mental health counseling, but some say it may generate new
confusion, reported Josh Gerstein in Politico today.
U.S. AID TO PAKISTAN, AND MORE FROM CRS
Some lightly updated reports produced lately by the Congressional Research
Service include the following.
Direct Overt U.S. Aid Appropriations for and Military Reimbursements to
Pakistan, FY2002-FY2014, April 11, 2013:
Sensitive Covert Action Notifications: Oversight Options for Congress,
April 10, 2013:
Covert Action: Legislative Background and Possible Policy Questions, April
10, 2013:
Navy Ship Names: Background For Congress, April 8, 2013:
Navy Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Program: Background and Issues for
Congress, April 5, 2013:
_______________________________________________
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_______________________
Steven Aftergood
Project on Government Secrecy
Federation of American Scientists
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email: saftergood@fas.org
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