Jonathan_S wrote:That's not necessarily true - even before you start talking about things like compartmented access and need-to-know which mean that even the government clearing people for access to the most sensitive information aren't cleared to know all the information at that sensitivity level.Louis R wrote:You're missing two things. First, of course, is the fact that in an alliance, each member is responsible for clearing their own people. So if Grayson says Honor's armsmen are cleared, they are.
Second, Grayson armsmen are _not_ chosen at random - you're trusting the lives of the rulers of your planet to them. So they have been very thoroughly vetted, and Honor's more so than most since they were the founding members of the brand new security team of the most controversial Steadholder in a thousand+ years.
Honor's reflection was a nod to the principle that the mere fact that you are cleared for access to information doesn't automatically grant you access: you also have to _need_ that access, and, technically, her armsmen can do their jobs without knowing what people are saying to her as long as they know who's saying it. Or so it was long thought, anyway.
And alliance would have to address how security clearances for shared information would work - and often they would not simply agree to accept each other's security clearances without further review or oversight -- especially for clearances that pre-date the alliance where you might be concerned about ideological tendencies that are hostile to some members of the alliance that weren't an issue when you were only considering their loyalty to their home system.
The other countries may well insist on the right to review supporting records (interview notes, background investigation details, etc) before accepting any given person's clearance for shared alliance classified material. They might even request the government that issued the clearance do some additional investigation about alliance specific security concerns. This could be even more likely if the alliance has access to screening methods that the pre-alliance systems didn't (treecats or other more reliable lie detection methods)
At an extreme they might insist on repeating some of the security clearance process themselves.
And of course this is only step one. Even once the other systems in the alliance agree to accept someone's clearance someone still has to add them to the need-to-know list for any given project or area. I'd image that, except for purely internal items, that that would either be the system that's taking the lead in providing the intel or doing the research or its a group drawn from various allied systems. But I can't imagine either Grayson or Manticore would be willing to let the other unilaterally add even cleared people to every single classified project or area.
In other words, even if Manticore's security establishment has accepted the Top Secret Compartmentalized clearance for her armsment the process to add them to the cleared list for an eye's only Manticoran naval dispatch it going to involve discussions between Grayson and the RMN; Grayson can't do it unilaterally.
Though commanding officers usually have some leeway to provisionally override normal classified handling rules if a developing situation calls for it (though they'll have to justify it later). But I'd think allowing the armsman to stay inside the hatch rather than outside is arguably a small abuse of that customary authority.
Had a conversation with a couple of acquaintances who have government security clearances and I was informed that they have to be vetted every five years. Naive lil ole me thought it was a one time and you're done ordeal. I took their lead and researched it a bit further online and yep, England, The U.S. and other countries vet at regular intervals depending on the job, situation, exposure and risk factor.
It was explained to me that the vetting process may become even more aggressive as you are exposed to various risky conditions. Part of the vetting process may include intensive psychiatric evaluations if necessary. Depending on where and what you were exposed to, vetting can take on an entirely different "tailored" turn, e.g., if you are exposed to a region across the pond where terrorist cells run amok, you automatically become a higher risk and may be vetted to catch any rogue elements -- perhaps having been approached by said criminal cells.
Apparently there are unlimited circumstances that can increase one's ever changing risk factor and alter the size and aggressiveness of the sieve.
Appears as if Grayson's armsmen and perhaps the Maccabeus group should have been part of a consistent ongoing scheduled vetting program. Bottom line, Grayson's armsmen should have been vetted several times over by now. IMO.
