Saturday, April 21, 2012

Ouch.

Just ouch. Courtesy Mark Steyn.
Posted by Atom Smasher at 8:36 PM
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3 comments:

Julie said...

lol .. that was good! thanks

April 22, 2012 at 12:15 AM
Marstov said...

I will politely point out his rhetoric gets out of control in one area. He clearly doesn't understand what purpose security clearances serve. They aren't just for spies. They're for anyone who has to handle information that could really dick over our country in the wrong hands.

Are you a person who handles GPS systems for the military? You need a clearance, as the keys that allow centimeter accuracy are classified. Otherwise, anybody with $50 to go to Best Buy could have the technology to make a GPS guided weapon to rival our own.

Do you test sensors for radar homing missiles? You need a clearance for similar reasons as noted above. Do you design or test any kind of electronic, explosive or mechanical device used by our military that could be easily spoofed if people knew the fine details of how it worked? Etc, etc.

Lord knows there is a metric ton of waste in the government, but the fact that lots of people have security clearances isn't a sign of it. I know from personal experience the DoD works really hard to reduce the number of cleared people and the amount of classified material, just because it *is* expensive to maintain that. I had to justify my clearance annually when I had one, and people with higher clearances had to justify them every six months.

April 25, 2012 at 12:58 AM
Atom Smasher said...

Marstov-

You are 100% correct but Steyn's comments on Clearance Bloat were just one graf out of the whole article.

April 25, 2012 at 2:55 AM

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