By JUAN CARLOS LLORCA, LINDA STEWART BALL
DALLAS — A Texas teenager who was deported to Colombia in May after claiming to be an illegal immigrant was back in the United States on Friday and at the center of an international mystery over how a minor could be sent to a country where she is not a citizen.
Her family has questioned why U.S. officials didn't do more to verify her identity and say she is not fluent in Spanish and had no ties to Colombia. While many facts of the case involving Jakadrien Lorece Turner remain unclear, U.S. and Colombian officials have pointed fingers over who is responsible.
Jakadrien arrived in Dallas on Friday evening and was reunited with her family. She was flanked by her mother, grandmother and law enforcement when she emerged from the international gate at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport shortly before 10 p.m.
"She's happy to be home," the family's attorney, Ray Jackson, said, adding that the family would not be issuing any statements Friday night.
He said the family was "ecstatic" to have Jakadrien back in Texas and they plan to "do what we can to make sure she gets back to a normal life."
Immigration experts say that while cases of mistaken identity are rare, people can slip through the cracks, especially if they don't have legal help or family members working on their behalf. But they say U.S. immigration authorities had the responsibility to determine if a person is a citizen.
"Often in these situations they have these group hearings where they tell everybody you're going to be deported," said Jacqueline Stevens, a political science professor at Northwestern University, who is an expert on immigration issues. "Everything is really quick, even if you understand English you wouldn't understand what is going on. If she were in that situation as a 14-year-old she would be herded through like cattle and not have a chance to talk to the judge about her situation."
Jakadrien's saga began when the teen ran away more than a year ago. Jakadrien's family said she left home in November 2010. Houston police said the girl was arrested on April 2, 2011, for misdemeanor theft in that city and claimed to be Tika Lanay Cortez, a Colombian woman born in 1990. It was unclear if she has been living under that name.
Houston police said in a statement that her name was run through a database to determine if she was wanted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement but the results were negative. She was then turned over to the Harris County jail and booked on the theft charge.
The county sheriff's office said it ran her through the available databases and did the interviews necessary to establish her identity and immigration status in the country, with negative results. A sheriff's office employee recommended that an immigration detainer be put on her, and upon her release from jail she was turned over to ICE.
U.S. immigration officials insist they followed procedure and found nothing to indicate that the girl wasn't a Colombian woman living illegally in the country.
An ICE official said the teen claimed to be Cortez throughout the criminal proceedings in Houston and the ensuing deportation process, in which an immigration judge ultimately ordered her back to Colombia.
Standard procedure before any deportation is to coordinate with the other country in order to establish that person is from there, the ICE official said.
The ICE official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to not being authorized to discuss additional details of the case, said the teenager was interviewed by a representative from the Colombian consulate and that country's government issued her a travel document to enter Colombia.
Jakadrien was issued travel documents at the request of U.S. officials using information they provided, the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Colombian officials are investigating what kind of verification was conducted by its Houston consulate to issue the temporary passport.
The girl was given Colombian citizenship upon arriving in that country, the ICE official said.
According to the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the girl was enrolled in the country's "Welcome Home" program after she arrived there. She was given shelter, psychological assistance and a job at a call center, a statement from the agency said.
"If she looked like an adult, and she told them she was a 21-year-old Colombian citizen, and she didn't show up in their databases, this was inevitable," said Albert Armendariz, an immigration attorney from El Paso.
Jakadrien's family says they have no idea why she ended up in Colombia. Johnisa Turner said the girl is a U.S. citizen who was born in Dallas and was not fluent in Spanish. She said neither she nor the teen's father had ties to Colombia. Jakadrien's grandmother, Lorene Turner, called the deportation a "big mistake somebody made."
Lorene Turner, a Dallas hairstylist, said she spent a lot of time on the Internet trying to track down Jakadrien.
Ultimately, the girl was found in Bogota by the Dallas Police Department with help from Colombian and U.S. officials.
Dallas Police detective C'mon (pronounced Simone) Wingo, the detective in charge of the case, said she was contacted in August by the girl's grandmother, who said Jakadrien had posted "kind of disturbing" messages on a Facebook account where she goes by yet another name.
Wingo said the girl was located in early November through her use of a computer to log into Facebook. Relatives were then put into contact with the U.S. embassy in Bogota to provide pictures and documents to prove Jakadrien's identity.
Colombian officials said when the government discovered she was a U.S. citizen and a minor, it put her under the care of a welfare program.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the case was brought to the State Department's attention in mid-December.
"We didn't have any involvement at all in this case until it came to light that there may be a problem with an American minor in Colombia, and that — and then we became involved both with Colombian authorities and with folks in Dallas," Nuland said.
Stephen Yale-Loehr, who teaches immigration law at Cornell Law School, said hundreds of U.S. citizens are wrongfully detained or deported each year.
"There are a variety of legitimate reasons why somebody might not appear to be a U.S. citizen at first glance." he said. "It's the duty of the U.S. federal immigration agency to make sure that we do not detain and deport U.S. citizens erroneously. And this, unfortunately happened in this case."
*******
At least when the professionals make mistakes, they admit and correct them. If only DS could learn that lesson.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Another good reason why we need the Foreign Service
Dallas runaway, a U.S. citizen, deported to Colombia
By JASON TRAHAN for The Dallas Morning News
Staff Writer
Published: 03 January 2012 11:52 PM
Relatives of an Oak Cliff girl are trying to figure out how the 15-year-old, born in this country, ended up being sent by authorities to Colombia, where she has been living for months under a false name and is now pregnant.
Jakadrien Larise Turner is in the custody of Colombian authorities, who picked her up last month at the behest of American officials who are now trying to unravel a bureaucratic tangle to get the girl home.
“I am just devastated,” Lorene Turner, the girl’s grandmother, said Tuesday. “No one believed me when I said she was in Colombia. I knew I wasn’t losing my mind. I just wanted to find my grandbaby.”
“ICE takes these allegations very seriously,” said Brian Hale, director of public affairs for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Washington. “At the direction of Department of Homeland Security, ICE is fully and immediately investigating this matter in order to expeditiously determine the facts of this case.”
What is known is that in November 2010, Jakadrien, then 14, ran away from her Oak Cliff home. Her family filed a runaway report with Dallas police and the case remains active, although detectives here have been publicly tight-lipped about it. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s website also still lists her as missing.
The girl’s grandmother, 63, said she kept up with the girl’s whereabouts through Facebook profiles, which she used to track her to New Orleans.
“I always thought she was part of that human trafficking,” the grandmother said. She said that she became obsessed with finding the girl.
“I’d sleep a few hours and then get back on the computer,” Turner said. “It was the only way I could see her and know that she was alive.”
In August, according to the grandmother, one of the girl’s Facebook pages featuring images of her was traced to an Internet address in Bogotá.
“She’s a very smart girl,” her grandmother said. “I think she was playing a role to survive.”
The grandmother said authorities later told her that the teen’s international trek began with an arrest in Houston, where the girl had managed to travel for unknown reasons.
In April, police there caught her shoplifting at a mall, a Houston police spokesman told WFAA-TV (Channel 8). The girl had no identification and gave a false name. It’s unclear where she acquired the alias, but it belonged to a Colombian who was in the United States illegally, officials said.
Calls to Houston police by The Dallas Morning News were not returned late Tuesday. It is unclear whether authorities there took any additional steps to verify the girl’s true identity, such as matching her fingerprints.
Houston police told WFAA that following their protocol, they turned the teen, whose alias had her as being in her 20s, over to federal immigration officials as part of the Secure Communities program, which is designed to identify and deport illegal immigrants.
Hale, the ICE official, could not say whether federal officials in Houston checked her fingerprints. The name of the person the girl used as an alias does have a criminal history, and therefore fingerprints on file, but Jakadrien had no arrest record or available fingerprints, which could have raised a red flag about her identity.
Nevertheless, Jakadrien, who did not speak Spanish when she left home, wound up in Colombia, 2,400 miles away from her Oak Cliff residence.
“She had never been on a plane before,” Turner said. “She don’t even have an accent. Why would they think she was from Colombia? She doesn’t look Spanish, so I don’t know how she could be mixed up with someone who is Spanish.”
The grandmother said that she felt relief when she was told by U.S. Embassy officials in Colombia that Jakadrien was safe. But her relief evaporated when she learned what it could take to get the child back to the U.S.
“They said we’d have to pay an airline ticket to get her back, that it’d be a little over $1,000,” Turner said. “It just made me feel sick inside. I’ll have to sell a bedroom suite or something out of the house.”
The grandmother said that she was told her granddaughter was issued papers as if she were a Colombian citizen. Turner also learned, looking at photos of the girl online, that she was pregnant, which she said authorities have since confirmed for her.
The girl’s current Facebook profile, under the name TiKa SoloToolonq (Tika Confero), says she is a native of Barbados living in Colombia. It lists her as being in a relationship with a Cuban man who is also living in Colombia. He could not be reached for comment.
It also said she went to Townview Magnet School in Dallas and has a psychology degree from Texas Southern University. But her grandmother disputed that and said the girl’s last school was Kimball High School in Dallas.
Turner said she is at a loss to explain why her granddaughter ran away in the first place. She said the girl caused no problems at home and, to her knowledge, was content.
But the latest Facebook post from Jakadrien, who sometimes writes in Spanish, seems to indicate that she’s found happiness in her new surroundings as well.
The post, from November, says that she is back “in a relationship with same man I broke up with, lol! I love him dearly tho!!!!”
By JASON TRAHAN for The Dallas Morning News
Staff Writer
Published: 03 January 2012 11:52 PM
Relatives of an Oak Cliff girl are trying to figure out how the 15-year-old, born in this country, ended up being sent by authorities to Colombia, where she has been living for months under a false name and is now pregnant.
Jakadrien Larise Turner is in the custody of Colombian authorities, who picked her up last month at the behest of American officials who are now trying to unravel a bureaucratic tangle to get the girl home.
“I am just devastated,” Lorene Turner, the girl’s grandmother, said Tuesday. “No one believed me when I said she was in Colombia. I knew I wasn’t losing my mind. I just wanted to find my grandbaby.”
“ICE takes these allegations very seriously,” said Brian Hale, director of public affairs for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Washington. “At the direction of Department of Homeland Security, ICE is fully and immediately investigating this matter in order to expeditiously determine the facts of this case.”
What is known is that in November 2010, Jakadrien, then 14, ran away from her Oak Cliff home. Her family filed a runaway report with Dallas police and the case remains active, although detectives here have been publicly tight-lipped about it. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s website also still lists her as missing.
The girl’s grandmother, 63, said she kept up with the girl’s whereabouts through Facebook profiles, which she used to track her to New Orleans.
“I always thought she was part of that human trafficking,” the grandmother said. She said that she became obsessed with finding the girl.
“I’d sleep a few hours and then get back on the computer,” Turner said. “It was the only way I could see her and know that she was alive.”
In August, according to the grandmother, one of the girl’s Facebook pages featuring images of her was traced to an Internet address in Bogotá.
“She’s a very smart girl,” her grandmother said. “I think she was playing a role to survive.”
The grandmother said authorities later told her that the teen’s international trek began with an arrest in Houston, where the girl had managed to travel for unknown reasons.
In April, police there caught her shoplifting at a mall, a Houston police spokesman told WFAA-TV (Channel 8). The girl had no identification and gave a false name. It’s unclear where she acquired the alias, but it belonged to a Colombian who was in the United States illegally, officials said.
Calls to Houston police by The Dallas Morning News were not returned late Tuesday. It is unclear whether authorities there took any additional steps to verify the girl’s true identity, such as matching her fingerprints.
Houston police told WFAA that following their protocol, they turned the teen, whose alias had her as being in her 20s, over to federal immigration officials as part of the Secure Communities program, which is designed to identify and deport illegal immigrants.
Hale, the ICE official, could not say whether federal officials in Houston checked her fingerprints. The name of the person the girl used as an alias does have a criminal history, and therefore fingerprints on file, but Jakadrien had no arrest record or available fingerprints, which could have raised a red flag about her identity.
Nevertheless, Jakadrien, who did not speak Spanish when she left home, wound up in Colombia, 2,400 miles away from her Oak Cliff residence.
“She had never been on a plane before,” Turner said. “She don’t even have an accent. Why would they think she was from Colombia? She doesn’t look Spanish, so I don’t know how she could be mixed up with someone who is Spanish.”
The grandmother said that she felt relief when she was told by U.S. Embassy officials in Colombia that Jakadrien was safe. But her relief evaporated when she learned what it could take to get the child back to the U.S.
“They said we’d have to pay an airline ticket to get her back, that it’d be a little over $1,000,” Turner said. “It just made me feel sick inside. I’ll have to sell a bedroom suite or something out of the house.”
The grandmother said that she was told her granddaughter was issued papers as if she were a Colombian citizen. Turner also learned, looking at photos of the girl online, that she was pregnant, which she said authorities have since confirmed for her.
The girl’s current Facebook profile, under the name TiKa SoloToolonq (Tika Confero), says she is a native of Barbados living in Colombia. It lists her as being in a relationship with a Cuban man who is also living in Colombia. He could not be reached for comment.
It also said she went to Townview Magnet School in Dallas and has a psychology degree from Texas Southern University. But her grandmother disputed that and said the girl’s last school was Kimball High School in Dallas.
Turner said she is at a loss to explain why her granddaughter ran away in the first place. She said the girl caused no problems at home and, to her knowledge, was content.
But the latest Facebook post from Jakadrien, who sometimes writes in Spanish, seems to indicate that she’s found happiness in her new surroundings as well.
The post, from November, says that she is back “in a relationship with same man I broke up with, lol! I love him dearly tho!!!!”
Friday, December 23, 2011
NORAD is ready to track Santa's flight
From NORAD's website:
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- The North American Aerospace Defense Command is getting ready to track Santa’s yuletide journey! The NORAD Tracks Santa website, www.noradsanta.org, went live today featuring a Countdown Calendar, a Kid’s Countdown Village complete with holiday games and activities that change daily, and video messages from students and troops from around the world. With the addition of Brazilian Portuguese, the website is now available in eight languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, and Chinese.
Starting at midnight MST on Dec. 24, website visitors can watch Santa as he makes all the preparations for his flight. Then, at 4 a.m. MST (6 a.m. EST), trackers worldwide can talk to a live phone operator to inquire about Santa’s whereabouts by dialing the toll-free number 1-877-Hi-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) or by sending an email to noradtrackssanta@gmail.com. NORAD’s “Santa Cams” will also stream videos as Santa makes his way over various locations worldwide.
NORAD Tracks Santa has truly become a global experience, delighting generations of families everywhere. It is due, in large part, to the efforts and services of numerous contributors. New to this year’s program are Acuity Scheduling, Big Fish Worldwide, Carousel Industries, the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce Military Affairs Council, General Electric, the National Tree Lighting Ceremony, RadiantBlue Technologies Inc., thunderbaby studios, the U.S. Coast Guard Band, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy Band, Visionbox, and the West Point Band. Returning collaborators include the Air Force Academy Band, Analytical Graphics Inc., Air Canada, Avaya, Booz Allen Hamilton, Colorado Springs School District 11, the Defense Video & Imagery Distribution System, the Federal Aviation Administration, First Choice Awards & Gifts, Globelink Foreign Language Center, Google, the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, Meshbox, the Naden Band of the Maritime Forces Pacific, Naturally Santa’s Inc., the Newseum, OnStar, PCI Broadband, the Space Foundation, tw telecom, Verizon and UGroup Media.
It all started in 1955 when a local media ad directed kids to call Santa direct – only the number was misprinted. Instead of reaching Santa, the phone rang through to the Crew Commander on duty at the Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center. Thus began the tradition which NORAD has carried on since it was created in 1958.
“NORAD stands the watch protecting the skies of North America 365 days a year, but on Christmas Eve the children of the world look to NORAD, and our trusted partners, to make sure that Santa is able to complete his mission safely,” said General Charles H. Jacoby, Jr., NORAD Commander.
“This mission is a duty to the children of the world and a privilege we've enjoyed for 56 consecutive years, but the effort could not be carried out without the superb assistance of numerous government and non-government contributors. It is the generosity of these contributors, the hard work of the more than 1,200 volunteers who man the NORAD Tracks Santa Operation Center, and vigilance of the Canadian and U.S. forces who work at NORAD that guarantees the program's success each and every year."
BTW: This is based on Google Earth. If you press the plus sign, you can zoom in close enough to see buildings and such, and maybe catch Santa actually going down a chimney
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- The North American Aerospace Defense Command is getting ready to track Santa’s yuletide journey! The NORAD Tracks Santa website, www.noradsanta.org, went live today featuring a Countdown Calendar, a Kid’s Countdown Village complete with holiday games and activities that change daily, and video messages from students and troops from around the world. With the addition of Brazilian Portuguese, the website is now available in eight languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, and Chinese.
Starting at midnight MST on Dec. 24, website visitors can watch Santa as he makes all the preparations for his flight. Then, at 4 a.m. MST (6 a.m. EST), trackers worldwide can talk to a live phone operator to inquire about Santa’s whereabouts by dialing the toll-free number 1-877-Hi-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) or by sending an email to noradtrackssanta@gmail.com. NORAD’s “Santa Cams” will also stream videos as Santa makes his way over various locations worldwide.
NORAD Tracks Santa has truly become a global experience, delighting generations of families everywhere. It is due, in large part, to the efforts and services of numerous contributors. New to this year’s program are Acuity Scheduling, Big Fish Worldwide, Carousel Industries, the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce Military Affairs Council, General Electric, the National Tree Lighting Ceremony, RadiantBlue Technologies Inc., thunderbaby studios, the U.S. Coast Guard Band, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy Band, Visionbox, and the West Point Band. Returning collaborators include the Air Force Academy Band, Analytical Graphics Inc., Air Canada, Avaya, Booz Allen Hamilton, Colorado Springs School District 11, the Defense Video & Imagery Distribution System, the Federal Aviation Administration, First Choice Awards & Gifts, Globelink Foreign Language Center, Google, the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, Meshbox, the Naden Band of the Maritime Forces Pacific, Naturally Santa’s Inc., the Newseum, OnStar, PCI Broadband, the Space Foundation, tw telecom, Verizon and UGroup Media.
It all started in 1955 when a local media ad directed kids to call Santa direct – only the number was misprinted. Instead of reaching Santa, the phone rang through to the Crew Commander on duty at the Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center. Thus began the tradition which NORAD has carried on since it was created in 1958.
“NORAD stands the watch protecting the skies of North America 365 days a year, but on Christmas Eve the children of the world look to NORAD, and our trusted partners, to make sure that Santa is able to complete his mission safely,” said General Charles H. Jacoby, Jr., NORAD Commander.
“This mission is a duty to the children of the world and a privilege we've enjoyed for 56 consecutive years, but the effort could not be carried out without the superb assistance of numerous government and non-government contributors. It is the generosity of these contributors, the hard work of the more than 1,200 volunteers who man the NORAD Tracks Santa Operation Center, and vigilance of the Canadian and U.S. forces who work at NORAD that guarantees the program's success each and every year."
BTW: This is based on Google Earth. If you press the plus sign, you can zoom in close enough to see buildings and such, and maybe catch Santa actually going down a chimney
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
The Sandusky Case is a Metaphore for DS/PSS
What do the Bureau of Diplomatic Security's Coordinator for Security Infrastructure and former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky have in common?
They look kind of similar.
What else do they have in common?
They've both been doing bad things that destroy innocent lives, and getting away with them for a long time.
The news this month has brought a number of commentaries and insights into why this is so.
The news has not just brought us a Penn State coach who is a pedophile, and an organization that protected him. It brought us news of similar atrocities in both Orthodox Jewish and Conservative Christian communities in the US. All are shocking, not just for the nature of their crimes, but for the degree to which they have remained hidden for years.
All of these cases share certain traits:
They have all occurred in small communities that have each, in their own way, taken pains to separate themselves from others.
These communities see themselves as elite and special, in some ways better than everybody else.
All see themselves as doing God's work, or at least, serving a greater good - so great a greater good that ordinary rules and laws do not apply to it.
These are communities that put the reputation of the community - the good name of Penn State, or the Lord, or DS, ahead of any individual right. Or wrong.
They have an organizational or community-based claim to integrity, and the ability to accuse others of lacking that integrity. They share a belief that they can strip any accusers of credibility at will.
And they use these ideas to justify to themselves the collective hiding of secrets that they believe could hurt their community - protecting the wrongdoers in their own ranks in the name of avoiding an embarrassment to football, to the University, to the Lord, or to the DS team. "We represent" they tell themselves, " the very nature of GOOD, itself. And we cannot even admit to ourselves, much less to others, that there are any among us who are not absolute in that embodiment."
Or worse: "We do so much good (help so many kids) that a few missteps along the way (a few kids sacrificed as a reward to the do-gooders) is an acceptable price to pay."
One by one, their secrets are coming out.
The victims are confronting their abusers, and the facts are becoming clear.
Under its current Coordinator, DS has routinely abused the security clearance system to punish dissidents, silence critics, settle personal gripes, and limit diversity.
It has gotten away with this abuse because it refuses categorically to subject itself to any oversight or to enact any internal control mechanism to ensure compliance with the government-wide rules followed by every other agency.
Like Penn State, and the various Deacons and Rabbis involved, and the Vatican, for that matter - in earlier allegations of child abuse and pedophilia by priests, the State Department has remained aloof, supporting continued abuse through continued silence. The Department routinely signs off on certifications, including an annual certification by the Secretary, that internal controls are in place and being followed. Meanwhile, two key DS functions - security clearance adjudication and PR investigations, remain entirely free even from rudimentary internal oversight.
Any visa issuance, any travel voucher, any housing assignment, any outgoing telegram, receives more scrutiny and oversight than investigations and adjudications that can end people's careers. These functions are virtually the only functions in all of State's operations that have no - repeat no - mechanism in place to ensure compliance with State's own rules.
That has allowed DS to get away with doing metaphorically to FSOs what Sandusky did physically to children.
But the truth will one day be made clear. And CFSO will continue to work towards that goal until it does.
They look kind of similar.
What else do they have in common?
They've both been doing bad things that destroy innocent lives, and getting away with them for a long time.
The news this month has brought a number of commentaries and insights into why this is so.
The news has not just brought us a Penn State coach who is a pedophile, and an organization that protected him. It brought us news of similar atrocities in both Orthodox Jewish and Conservative Christian communities in the US. All are shocking, not just for the nature of their crimes, but for the degree to which they have remained hidden for years.
All of these cases share certain traits:
They have all occurred in small communities that have each, in their own way, taken pains to separate themselves from others.
These communities see themselves as elite and special, in some ways better than everybody else.
All see themselves as doing God's work, or at least, serving a greater good - so great a greater good that ordinary rules and laws do not apply to it.
These are communities that put the reputation of the community - the good name of Penn State, or the Lord, or DS, ahead of any individual right. Or wrong.
They have an organizational or community-based claim to integrity, and the ability to accuse others of lacking that integrity. They share a belief that they can strip any accusers of credibility at will.
And they use these ideas to justify to themselves the collective hiding of secrets that they believe could hurt their community - protecting the wrongdoers in their own ranks in the name of avoiding an embarrassment to football, to the University, to the Lord, or to the DS team. "We represent" they tell themselves, " the very nature of GOOD, itself. And we cannot even admit to ourselves, much less to others, that there are any among us who are not absolute in that embodiment."
Or worse: "We do so much good (help so many kids) that a few missteps along the way (a few kids sacrificed as a reward to the do-gooders) is an acceptable price to pay."
One by one, their secrets are coming out.
The victims are confronting their abusers, and the facts are becoming clear.
Under its current Coordinator, DS has routinely abused the security clearance system to punish dissidents, silence critics, settle personal gripes, and limit diversity.
It has gotten away with this abuse because it refuses categorically to subject itself to any oversight or to enact any internal control mechanism to ensure compliance with the government-wide rules followed by every other agency.
Like Penn State, and the various Deacons and Rabbis involved, and the Vatican, for that matter - in earlier allegations of child abuse and pedophilia by priests, the State Department has remained aloof, supporting continued abuse through continued silence. The Department routinely signs off on certifications, including an annual certification by the Secretary, that internal controls are in place and being followed. Meanwhile, two key DS functions - security clearance adjudication and PR investigations, remain entirely free even from rudimentary internal oversight.
Any visa issuance, any travel voucher, any housing assignment, any outgoing telegram, receives more scrutiny and oversight than investigations and adjudications that can end people's careers. These functions are virtually the only functions in all of State's operations that have no - repeat no - mechanism in place to ensure compliance with State's own rules.
That has allowed DS to get away with doing metaphorically to FSOs what Sandusky did physically to children.
But the truth will one day be made clear. And CFSO will continue to work towards that goal until it does.
Monday, December 12, 2011
GAO calls DOD Security Clearance Program a Model for Performance Management
By Ross Wilkers Dec 12, 2011
The Defense Department‘s program for processing security clearances has seen a marked improvement in the past six years, according to the Government Accountability Office, who in 2005 placed the program on its high-risk list.
In a 63-page report published Friday, GAO examined the role Congress plays in helping federal agencies with their performance. In January, Congress updated the nearly 20-year old Government Performance and Results Modernization Act, which requires more frequent performance reviews and reports.
The updated legislation also requires agencies to, among other things, have four-year strategic plans that coincide with presidential terms and submit reports on unmet performance goals.
GAO said it placed the clearance program on its high-risk list, and then kept it there in 2007 and 2009, because of “delays and problems with the quality of investigations and adjudications.”
Congress intially passed the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act in 2004, which established a goal of processing the fastest 90 percent of clearance applications within 60 days. Congress then held oversight hearings after GAO placed the clearance program on its high-risk list.
In the Intelligence Authorization Act of fiscal year 2010, Congress required annual reports on the number of contractors and federal employees with clearances and the amount of time it takes to process a clearance.
As a result, GAO said, it took an average of 60 days to process a clearance application in fiscal year 2010, largely meeting the goal set in 2004. GAO also credited the Pentagon with implementing quality assessment tools to measure performance in both investigations and adjudications.
As a result, GAO said it removed the clearance program from its high-risk list this year.
*******
Meanwhile, the two longest-running security clearance cases in the history of the United States continue unaddressed at State.
The Defense Department‘s program for processing security clearances has seen a marked improvement in the past six years, according to the Government Accountability Office, who in 2005 placed the program on its high-risk list.
In a 63-page report published Friday, GAO examined the role Congress plays in helping federal agencies with their performance. In January, Congress updated the nearly 20-year old Government Performance and Results Modernization Act, which requires more frequent performance reviews and reports.
The updated legislation also requires agencies to, among other things, have four-year strategic plans that coincide with presidential terms and submit reports on unmet performance goals.
GAO said it placed the clearance program on its high-risk list, and then kept it there in 2007 and 2009, because of “delays and problems with the quality of investigations and adjudications.”
Congress intially passed the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act in 2004, which established a goal of processing the fastest 90 percent of clearance applications within 60 days. Congress then held oversight hearings after GAO placed the clearance program on its high-risk list.
In the Intelligence Authorization Act of fiscal year 2010, Congress required annual reports on the number of contractors and federal employees with clearances and the amount of time it takes to process a clearance.
As a result, GAO said, it took an average of 60 days to process a clearance application in fiscal year 2010, largely meeting the goal set in 2004. GAO also credited the Pentagon with implementing quality assessment tools to measure performance in both investigations and adjudications.
As a result, GAO said it removed the clearance program from its high-risk list this year.
*******
Meanwhile, the two longest-running security clearance cases in the history of the United States continue unaddressed at State.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
DS/PSS Continues to Violate Laws Governing Security Clearance Adjudications
This month's regular article in the Foreign Service Journal, by AFSA's State VP Daniel Hirsch, caught our eye:
Text:
The State Department’s Office of Medical Services has been working steadily to improve its handling of mental health issues, including workplace and trauma-induced stress disorders and substance abuse problems. AFSA has been kept apprised of new programs and improvements, and consulted as they are developed. We are very favorably impressed by both the quality and the intent behind these increasingly excellent programs and urge employees who feel they need help to seek it.
AFSA has been asked to help spread the word within the Foreign Service that using these programs will not affect employees’ security clearances. While we consider that the probable consequences of seeking needed treatment are better than those of not seeking it — and strongly recommend that those who need help take advantage of these outstanding programs — we cannot confidently assert that a security clearance will not be affected. Nobody can.
The governmentwide guidelines quoted in the Foreign Affairs Manual contain a unique mechanism that, used properly, should prevent an unreliable or improper factor from leading to a security clearance revocation. They require that mandatory questions be asked about every factor considered, that all available information be weighed and that information used in a decision is reliable and proper. However, AFSA continues to see and hear of cases indicating that this “whole person analysis” is not always conducted or is based on highly questionable information, including cases involving Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms and substance abuse.
For years, AFSA has recommended the adoption of basic management controls that would indicate whether “adverse action” decisions by the Bureau of Diplomatic Security’s clearance office complied with State’s own FAM regulations and governmentwide procedures. These controls could serve not only as reference tools for attorneys working on the cases of the employees involved, but would also allow the department — and AFSA — to certify that issues like PTSD treatment were not leading to clearance revocations. To our knowledge, such controls have not been implemented.
Without procedures in place to ensure compliance with regulations, adverse action security clearance adjudications are, for all intents and purposes, unregulated.
Currently, there is no mechanism in place to ensure that mental health treatment, or any other prohibited factor, will not improperly form the sole basis for a security clearance revocation at State.
In the absence of management controls to demonstrate compliance with its own rules and promises, the Department relies on the memory of the adjudicators, and points to a September 2006 Office of the Inspector General Review (ISP-I-06-43). That review looked only at closed files already massaged by lawyers and purged of notes, at theoretical timelines, and at whether or not rules were actually on the books. It ignored every lead provided by AFSA, and did not involve any of the procedures described by the basic governmentwide recommendations for quality control in security clearance cases.
An investigation into the conduct of that inspection by the President's Council on Integrity & Efficiency — which investigates claims of wrongdoing by inspectors general — ended with the untimely departure of the State Department inspector general who ordered it.
AFSA would like to see the following controls implemented:
• DS/PSS should use the same standard used by the Office of Personnel Management and other agencies to verify the reliability of information used in a clearance determination. That standard requires that any allegation be supported by at least one piece of evidence that a reasonable person would consider plausible, and that information which does not pass a “reasonable person test” not be used as the basis for a revocation.
• DS/PSS should use a form or template to demonstrate that the whole-person evaluation described above was performed. This would list the required questions, indicate which information in DS’s files was applied to those questions, and summarize the answer to each question.
Where an initial investigation did not obtain information needed to address all of the mandatory whole-person questions, additional investigation or interviews for the sole purpose of answering those questions should be performed.
Documenting a whole-person review would make the basis of any decision clearer and more verifiable.
• The FAM should include the Quality Control mechanisms described in government-wide directives and used by other agencies.
• There should be a clarification of procedures in the FAM, to make all involved understand that the purpose of the exercise is a fair and complete evaluation, not merely a successful adverse outcome.
All of these suggestions are based on governmentwide guidelines and are used by other agencies that conduct security clearance adjudications. Implementing them would go a long way towards enabling AFSA (or anyone) to say with certainty that rules are being followed, and whether employees who need help can get that help without fear of losing their livelihood.
End text.
CFSO would put it more simply: In the majority of cases we have seen, DS has performed no whole-person review at all. That failure to perform the most basic step in a security clearance adjudication violates federal laws and Department regulations. The reason DS refuses to put management controls into place is that those controls would prove routine violations of law by DS/PSS; which are, in turn, routinely rubber-stamped up the chain of command.
Like the OIG report cooked up between IG Cookie Krongard and former DS Assistant Secretary Richard Griffin - both of whom resigned in disgrace following numerous revelations of wrongdoing - these routine violations of law are performed in order to allow State to continue using this process as a back-door mechanism to fire - or harass into resignation - employees who cannot legally be fired by any other mechanism. By definition those are people who have committed no wrongdoing, and perform their work satisfactorally - but who somebody in power - or in DS - wants to see gone. This is a prohibited personnel practice, which internal controls and oversight would force State to abandon.
CFSO believes that part of the problem lies in the comparatively small size of DS/PSS, the office in question; and in the fact that, staffed as it is with CS employees, the turnover in that office is low. The small size means that a handful of people wield inordinate control, and the low turnover means that the bad habits instilled in that staff have become ingrained. It also reduces the willingness of DS/PSS staff members to refuse unlawful orders.
In larger operations, like that of OPM and DOD, size itself ensures greater objectivity. There are thousands of adjudicators, hundreds of supervisors, and the operation is performed independently of internal agency politics.
Moreover, greater diversity within DOD's and OPM's adjudicative staffs help overcome the bias that is exhibited all too frequently in DS/PSS cases. For this reason, we urge Congress to consider removing this authority from State, and transferring it to OPM - where it can be performed fairly and to a government-wide standard.
The two longest-running security clearance suspensions in the history of the U.S. Government (both well into their ninth years) are both current Department of State cases, as is a case generally considered to be among the most obvious examples of antisemitism in a recent security clearance matter.
Whatever nonsense DS spouts about improvements or integrity, those facts alone should give one pause.
Text:
The State Department’s Office of Medical Services has been working steadily to improve its handling of mental health issues, including workplace and trauma-induced stress disorders and substance abuse problems. AFSA has been kept apprised of new programs and improvements, and consulted as they are developed. We are very favorably impressed by both the quality and the intent behind these increasingly excellent programs and urge employees who feel they need help to seek it.
AFSA has been asked to help spread the word within the Foreign Service that using these programs will not affect employees’ security clearances. While we consider that the probable consequences of seeking needed treatment are better than those of not seeking it — and strongly recommend that those who need help take advantage of these outstanding programs — we cannot confidently assert that a security clearance will not be affected. Nobody can.
The governmentwide guidelines quoted in the Foreign Affairs Manual contain a unique mechanism that, used properly, should prevent an unreliable or improper factor from leading to a security clearance revocation. They require that mandatory questions be asked about every factor considered, that all available information be weighed and that information used in a decision is reliable and proper. However, AFSA continues to see and hear of cases indicating that this “whole person analysis” is not always conducted or is based on highly questionable information, including cases involving Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms and substance abuse.
For years, AFSA has recommended the adoption of basic management controls that would indicate whether “adverse action” decisions by the Bureau of Diplomatic Security’s clearance office complied with State’s own FAM regulations and governmentwide procedures. These controls could serve not only as reference tools for attorneys working on the cases of the employees involved, but would also allow the department — and AFSA — to certify that issues like PTSD treatment were not leading to clearance revocations. To our knowledge, such controls have not been implemented.
Without procedures in place to ensure compliance with regulations, adverse action security clearance adjudications are, for all intents and purposes, unregulated.
Currently, there is no mechanism in place to ensure that mental health treatment, or any other prohibited factor, will not improperly form the sole basis for a security clearance revocation at State.
In the absence of management controls to demonstrate compliance with its own rules and promises, the Department relies on the memory of the adjudicators, and points to a September 2006 Office of the Inspector General Review (ISP-I-06-43). That review looked only at closed files already massaged by lawyers and purged of notes, at theoretical timelines, and at whether or not rules were actually on the books. It ignored every lead provided by AFSA, and did not involve any of the procedures described by the basic governmentwide recommendations for quality control in security clearance cases.
An investigation into the conduct of that inspection by the President's Council on Integrity & Efficiency — which investigates claims of wrongdoing by inspectors general — ended with the untimely departure of the State Department inspector general who ordered it.
AFSA would like to see the following controls implemented:
• DS/PSS should use the same standard used by the Office of Personnel Management and other agencies to verify the reliability of information used in a clearance determination. That standard requires that any allegation be supported by at least one piece of evidence that a reasonable person would consider plausible, and that information which does not pass a “reasonable person test” not be used as the basis for a revocation.
• DS/PSS should use a form or template to demonstrate that the whole-person evaluation described above was performed. This would list the required questions, indicate which information in DS’s files was applied to those questions, and summarize the answer to each question.
Where an initial investigation did not obtain information needed to address all of the mandatory whole-person questions, additional investigation or interviews for the sole purpose of answering those questions should be performed.
Documenting a whole-person review would make the basis of any decision clearer and more verifiable.
• The FAM should include the Quality Control mechanisms described in government-wide directives and used by other agencies.
• There should be a clarification of procedures in the FAM, to make all involved understand that the purpose of the exercise is a fair and complete evaluation, not merely a successful adverse outcome.
All of these suggestions are based on governmentwide guidelines and are used by other agencies that conduct security clearance adjudications. Implementing them would go a long way towards enabling AFSA (or anyone) to say with certainty that rules are being followed, and whether employees who need help can get that help without fear of losing their livelihood.
End text.
CFSO would put it more simply: In the majority of cases we have seen, DS has performed no whole-person review at all. That failure to perform the most basic step in a security clearance adjudication violates federal laws and Department regulations. The reason DS refuses to put management controls into place is that those controls would prove routine violations of law by DS/PSS; which are, in turn, routinely rubber-stamped up the chain of command.
Like the OIG report cooked up between IG Cookie Krongard and former DS Assistant Secretary Richard Griffin - both of whom resigned in disgrace following numerous revelations of wrongdoing - these routine violations of law are performed in order to allow State to continue using this process as a back-door mechanism to fire - or harass into resignation - employees who cannot legally be fired by any other mechanism. By definition those are people who have committed no wrongdoing, and perform their work satisfactorally - but who somebody in power - or in DS - wants to see gone. This is a prohibited personnel practice, which internal controls and oversight would force State to abandon.
CFSO believes that part of the problem lies in the comparatively small size of DS/PSS, the office in question; and in the fact that, staffed as it is with CS employees, the turnover in that office is low. The small size means that a handful of people wield inordinate control, and the low turnover means that the bad habits instilled in that staff have become ingrained. It also reduces the willingness of DS/PSS staff members to refuse unlawful orders.
In larger operations, like that of OPM and DOD, size itself ensures greater objectivity. There are thousands of adjudicators, hundreds of supervisors, and the operation is performed independently of internal agency politics.
Moreover, greater diversity within DOD's and OPM's adjudicative staffs help overcome the bias that is exhibited all too frequently in DS/PSS cases. For this reason, we urge Congress to consider removing this authority from State, and transferring it to OPM - where it can be performed fairly and to a government-wide standard.
The two longest-running security clearance suspensions in the history of the U.S. Government (both well into their ninth years) are both current Department of State cases, as is a case generally considered to be among the most obvious examples of antisemitism in a recent security clearance matter.
Whatever nonsense DS spouts about improvements or integrity, those facts alone should give one pause.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Whistleblower Franz Gayl gets his job back
By Jason Ukman - Associated Press
The Marine Corps has given a well-known whistleblower his security clearance — and his job — back.
Franz Gayl, the civilian adviser who in 2007 criticized military leaders for not fielding heavily armed vehicles known as MRAPs in Iraq, was accused about a year ago of using an unauthorized flash drive in a secure computer. His security clearance was stripped, he was put on leave and, this fall, he was threatened with indefinite suspension.
Gayl denied the accusations and, with the backing of various advocacy groups, appealed, saying he had become the subject of reprisals.
This week, the Office of Special Counsel, the federal agency that protects whistleblowers, said the Navy, after a review, had relented on the threat of indefinite suspension and reinstated Gayl’s clearance, allowing him to go back to work.
In a statement, Gayl said he was “committed as ever to return to my Marine Corps to work hard in support of all Marines in the capacities for which I was hired.”
A senior science adviser for the Marines, Gayl’s persistent push for MRAPs (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles) at the height of the Iraq war raised hackles at the Pentagon. He spoke out publicly, and described the military’s delay in making a priority of the acquisition of the vehicles as “criminal negligence,” given their proven ability to protect troops against improvised explosive devices.
Former defense secretary Robert M. Gates later cited media reports about the effectiveness of the vehicles, largely based on Gayl’s advocacy, in explaining his decision to accelerate production.
Gayl has become something of a hero in the whistleblowing community, and advocates on Wednesday described his reinstatement as a clear-cut victory.
“As former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates noted, thousands and thousands of Marines owe their lives and safety to the brave actions of Franz Gayl,” Danielle Brian, the executive director of the the Project on Government Oversight, one of the groups that backed Gayl, said in a statement. “What Gayl has endured is a gross injustice.”
The Marines have declined to comment directly on Gayl’s case, citing privacy laws and regulations.
********
Suspension of security clearances is the number-one method used by Federal agencies to retaliate against whistleblowers and punish dissenters.
The two longest-running security clearance suspensions since current procedures were put into place during WWII are both current State Department cases. Both are nearing the nine-year mark, with no end in sight.
The Marine Corps has given a well-known whistleblower his security clearance — and his job — back.
Franz Gayl, the civilian adviser who in 2007 criticized military leaders for not fielding heavily armed vehicles known as MRAPs in Iraq, was accused about a year ago of using an unauthorized flash drive in a secure computer. His security clearance was stripped, he was put on leave and, this fall, he was threatened with indefinite suspension.
Gayl denied the accusations and, with the backing of various advocacy groups, appealed, saying he had become the subject of reprisals.
This week, the Office of Special Counsel, the federal agency that protects whistleblowers, said the Navy, after a review, had relented on the threat of indefinite suspension and reinstated Gayl’s clearance, allowing him to go back to work.
In a statement, Gayl said he was “committed as ever to return to my Marine Corps to work hard in support of all Marines in the capacities for which I was hired.”
A senior science adviser for the Marines, Gayl’s persistent push for MRAPs (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles) at the height of the Iraq war raised hackles at the Pentagon. He spoke out publicly, and described the military’s delay in making a priority of the acquisition of the vehicles as “criminal negligence,” given their proven ability to protect troops against improvised explosive devices.
Former defense secretary Robert M. Gates later cited media reports about the effectiveness of the vehicles, largely based on Gayl’s advocacy, in explaining his decision to accelerate production.
Gayl has become something of a hero in the whistleblowing community, and advocates on Wednesday described his reinstatement as a clear-cut victory.
“As former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates noted, thousands and thousands of Marines owe their lives and safety to the brave actions of Franz Gayl,” Danielle Brian, the executive director of the the Project on Government Oversight, one of the groups that backed Gayl, said in a statement. “What Gayl has endured is a gross injustice.”
The Marines have declined to comment directly on Gayl’s case, citing privacy laws and regulations.
********
Suspension of security clearances is the number-one method used by Federal agencies to retaliate against whistleblowers and punish dissenters.
The two longest-running security clearance suspensions since current procedures were put into place during WWII are both current State Department cases. Both are nearing the nine-year mark, with no end in sight.
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