Re: Dear "The Intercept"
I know the process for obtaining 'top secret' clearance, having done so myself at one point (long expired now) They want you to provide them a lot of information, but it all seems focused on getting you to give them information they are almost certainly able to obtain themselves, so I think it is more to detect deliberate omissions or lying.
The problem is overclassification - for example the IP addresses and hostnames of machines in the DoD internal network are classified Secret. Let's forget that they are running DNS servers to tell you those things... Because so many things will be classified Top Secret, just about everyone who works in the DoD, let alone the NSA, will require Top Secret clearance. So they can't be particularly selective or have too intensive of a vetting process or they'll be short staffed.
As a result, all the real secrets are Top Secret - SCI (secure compartmentalized information) or the so-called 'codeword access'. I have to think (hope?) that access to the real secrets covered under some of those codewords will weed out people like her. Perhaps even people like me, who since I sympathize with whistleblowers conceivably could become one under the right circumstances.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
