Two paragraphs reads: Employees in the program — called the Post-Adjudication Risk Management plan, or PARM — face more frequent security interviews, polygraph tests, scrutiny of personal travel, and reviews of, in particular, electronic communications and files downloaded from databases. Some of these employees, including Muslim and Asian personnel who have been hired to fill crucial intelligence and counterterrorism needs, say they are being penalized for possessing the very skills and background that got them hired. They are notified about their inclusion in the program and the extra security requirements, but are not told precisely why they have been placed in it and apparently have no appeal or way out short of severing all ties with family and friends abroad. Three paragraphs reads: Details of the little-known security plan are emerging from some angry F.B.I. employees while the nation’s spy agencies are developing new programs and standards to help detect so-called insider threats. These efforts came after the shootings at the Washington Navy Yard in 2013 by a former Navy reservist that left him and 12 other people dead, and the damaging disclosures of highly classified information by Edward J. Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor. All F.B.I. personnel with access to classified information are subject to periodic polygraph tests and other internal security measures, but some PARM participants say they face unfair scrutiny. “This program was good for the new hires after 9/11, but for it to be used against current employees, some with 10 or 15 years’ experience and who have proved themselves, is unacceptable,” said Gamal Abdel-Hafiz, an Egyptian-born agent in Dallas who joined the F.B.I. in 1994 as a linguist and was put in the program without warning in 2012. He said he no longer received all the top-secret information he needed to carry out his job. Others in the program said it was harder to get choice undercover or overseas assignments. Paragraph reads: The F.B.I. began the program in 2002 to help screen scores of contract linguists for security clearances. The authorities feared that the new employees could be manipulated or coerced to help a foreign spy agency or a terrorist group. For example, a friend or relative overseas could be threatened with harm unless the F.B.I. employee provided secret information or otherwise cooperated with the spies or terrorists. Paragraph reads: Senior F.B.I. officials insist that inclusion in the program is neither discriminatory nor a hurdle in career advancement, and that the enhanced scrutiny protects the agents or analysts as well as safeguards state secrets. nytimes/2015/01/04/us/fbi-employees-with-ties-abroad-see-security-bias.html
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 21:30:20 +0000
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