These are custom CIA Security forms that you will not find on the Office of Personnel Management’s Standard Form 86 for National Security Positions. I received additional security forms from CIA but I don’t know if I still have copies, if I find any additional CIA security information I will post.
Category: CIA
My National Security Agency (NSA) Interview Schedule
I interviewed with NSA beginning in the Spring of 2008, following my Iraq deployment. I received a Conditional Offer of Employment (COE) from the NSA in the summer of 2008. My DIA security clearance was of no help in my recruitment process with DIA, because NSA (and CIA) view DIA Security as being inferior. In part, NSA and CIA view DIA’s Security apparatus as inferior because DIA does not have a full-scope polygraph program. NSA and CIA do not play well with each other either, the Security apparatus at both agencies view themselves as superior to the other. NSA thinks its polygraphs are better than CIA and vice versa.
I have my NSA COE somewhere in my files, I will post it when I find it. COE’s are not worth the paper they are written on and are fake job offers, because you don’t get the job unless you pass Security and Medical screening, which takes at least 12 months (on the short end at CIA or NSA) and I’ve heard of people waiting for up to 3 years to be cleared by these agencies. I’m not sure why they bother killing trees issuing these COE’s.
Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Polygraph Brochure
DIA’s polygraph differs from the polygraph program at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and National Security Agency (NSA). DIA requires its employees complete a Counterintelligence (CI) Polygraph while CIA and NSA require a more invasive Full-Scope Polygraph.
The attached DIA brochure gives an idea of what a polygraph entails. I do not have any experience with DIA’s polygraph program. I have only been polygraphed by NSA and CIA personnel. Both were unpleasant experiences. Polygraph operators are permitted to ask personal questions and accuse their subjects of crimes without evidence. For example, my NSA polygrapher told me one of his subjects was unable to pass his polygraph, the illegal drug question, until he confessed to him his past hard-core (I can’t remember which drug, it wasn’t marijuana) drug habit. He had attempted to conceal his drug habit but once he confessed to his polygrapher, got this off his chest, he passed. The polygraph experience is invasive and humiliating lacking oversight.
Full-Scope Polygraphs have two parts, the CI and Lifestyle.
CI polygraph includes only questions relevant to CI but I do not have personal experience with CI only polygraphs.
Visit antipolygraph.org for more information on the polygraph. I will post my opinions on how to maintain composure and beat the NSA and CIA polygraphers at their game in a later post. The polygraph is junk science and only works if you believe it works.
Central Intelligence Agency Letter Received after I withdrew 2006 Application
I withdrew my application to CIA in October 2006 and received this letter from an HR chief. In 2006, CIA’s National Clandestine Service Recruitment Process moved exceptionally slow and I decided to give DIA a try, I had met some good mentors, and was enthusiastic about starting my DIA career. I dropped out of CIA’s recruitment process, unfortunately, I reapplied and was accepted in 2008. I entered on duty at CIA on July 5, 2009. CIA still has an exceptionally slow recruitment process which is exaggerated by the intrusive Full-Scope Polygraph and invasive Medical requirements.
Central Intelligence Agency Recruitment Letter 2006
This is a letter I received from CIA’s recruitment Center during my initial application to the CIA in 2006. I later dropped out of the CIA’s National Clandestine Recruitment process and stayed at DIA. I reapplied to CIA in Fall 2007, before my deployment to Iraq.