Talking about security clearances in HS... story just now on Market Place

[nadinbrzezinski]

Now talk about a police state... and really creeping me out. You will make more money (that is true actually) if you hold a secret or TS clearance... what is wrong with this picture? Talking about this to HS students. and starting next fall as early as... seventh graders? Sorry if I go back to the practices of the Stasi

[Lars39]

1. I remember back in college when my history prof mentioned that

he would have been in CIA but for his height(he was really short). It was not a career path any of us had even remotely known was there to have or considered. Now they're recruiting HS kids? It does sound like something out of the old Soviet Union, etc.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. One of my profs WAS an old company man

which leads to a funny story... Young Repuke ahem challenged him for assigning Lenin's work. I mean this kid called him all kinds of names.

So this prof went into his past... ten years in AF Intel, and 25 in the CIA... and then challenged the kid to THINK... and that if he truly believed the commies were the enemy... this was about five years before the wall fell... he should go down to the ROTC recruiting and sign up to stand watch... and also LEARN how the enemy thinks.

Let's just say this kid was all kinds of shocked. In private I learned his politics were to the right of Atila the Hun, he also knew I did what I did with refugee processing and understood the real world consequences of the cold war. We had a few drinks (well for me coffee) sharing on those things. He wished this Young Republican had half the live experience I did working for a humanitarian organization... which was the ugly step side of policy for the CIA. Though he pointed out that if I needed a security clearance I'd have some issues due to my bleeding heart and all that. I think he's right... but for other reasons.

[Lars39]

3. Bet that was interesting,

Sounds like a "ways justify the means" kind of guy. I guess in that business a person would have to do a lot of compartmentalization.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Yep, and you do in refugee processing too

or you will go nuts.

That was one thing that accidentally we shared and chuckled over.

But the young republican believed this guy was automatically a commie for assigning Lenin in a political science class. I did learn more of how China worked before the opening though than I thought possible.

[csziggy]

4. My first year in college the CIA tried recruiting

At the small very liberal arts college by using an "assassination game" that had been on a TV show (The Saint - The Death Game http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0693517/). That was in 1970. While that may have succeeded at some colleges, at that one it was a miserable failure. Most of the students simply refused to play the game.

Every student had been sent through the campus mail the name of another student they were supposed to assassinate. It was framed as a way to meet new people. So instead of doing the "assassinations" the students simply contacted their "victims" and invited them to a party. Roughly 95% of the students went to the party, out of the eleven hundred students at the college. Most of the other 5% just didn't do anything, a few had other plans for that evening, I never heard of anyone who attempted their assassination.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Alas in our public university the CIA does recruiting the same

way Wallmart does... though the career center. That has to say something about us. Yep they were protested, but not really... Them, the FBI, the local PD, Wallmart, Shoes for Less...

[sarcasmo]

5. Brain washing them young.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. That is where the Stasi came to mind