FBI clearance
Reader comment on item: More on the Links between Obama and Extremist Islam

Submitted by Diane (United States), Oct 31, 2008 at 14:16

You undercut your own argument with the example of the NSA candidate who got dinged just for having a French girlfriend. It makes the whole FBI clearance process seem frivolous.

By this standard, Obama would be ineligible for security clearance even if there were no Ayers, Wright or Rezko in his closet. He would be disqualified simply because he has close relatives in countries that are not friendly with the U.S. e.g. Indonesia and Kenya. He has traveled to these places recently and participated in political rallies for foreign leaders (Odinga).

A propos, my husband was formerly an assistant U.S. attorney and he underwent an FBI clearance check in the mid 1990s. During this drawn-out process, he was asked to list any relations living abroad. I am a naturalized citizen born in Hungary and at the time, my grandfather was still alive and living in Budapest. My husband got his clearance in the end, but the agency clearly was concerned about my grandfather - they made special inquiries about whether I ever talked politics with him.

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