made for particularly bracing headlines when the director of one pentagon agency said quote i have got murderers who have access to classified information, i have rapists. i have pedophiles, i have people involved in child porn. i have all these things at the interim clearance level, and i m pulling their clearances on a weekly basis. january of this year, nbc news obtained a report from the defense department showing that 165 contractors to the department of defense had had interim security clearances revoked because of illicit activity at some time, thing like questionable financial transactions or being influenced by a foreign government or, one person who got an interim security clearance clearance in 2015 was discovered in 2017 to have been found guilty of raping a child. he was found guilty of raping a child before he ever applied for that clearance. think of that. guilty, on record, as guilty of
obtained a report from the defense department showing that 165 contractors to the department of defense had had interim security clearances revoked because of illicit activity of some kind, things like questionable financial transactions or being influenced by a foreign government or, one person who got an interim security clearance clearance in 2015 was discovered in 2017 to have been found guilty of raping a child. he was found guilty of raping a child before he ever applied for that clearance. think of that. guilty, on record, as guilty of child rape, nevertheless sailing right through to an interim security clearance. seems like getting an interim security clearance isn t that hard. for the past several months, democrats in the house oversight committee have been trying to get answers about the machinery of security clearances inside the defense department and beyond. the top democrat on that committee is elijah cummings. he wrote to the republican chair
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since writing about miss disappearance in 2012. what she reveals is a troubled young man who had been discharged from the coast guard after fewer than 180 days of service in 2006, because of psychological problems. and who somehow was still able to join the army in 2008. a period in which the military dramatically lowered its standards in order to keep feeding the war in iraq. an article by fred caplan in january of 2008 quoted the national priorities project, which compiled data from the defense department showing that the percentages of new army recruits with high school diplomas has plunged, from 94% in 2003 to 83.5% in 2005, to 70.7% in 2007. the pentagon s long-standing goal is 90%. the army is fielding fewer and fewer high-quality recruits. caplan said in order to meet the recruitment targets, the army
in short, i cannot keep piling up these cases. i need to act on it. reporter: the hearing ended rather abruptly about an hour ago on a mote of frustration both by the chairman, congressman mccall, and the ranking member, congressman keating. they said they were extremely frustrated publicly because the head of the tsa and the head of i.s. ivity c.e. did not atten. jon: pretty disturbing to hear. reporter: well, the issue is not only an issue for the taxpayer, but it s whether these are isolated events or whether this speaks to a broader culture problem and a management problem. jon: all right. very disturbing either way. catherine herridge, thank you. reporter: you re welcome. jenna: a big milestone for america s melting pot. new information from the census department showing minorities now make up 37% of the u.s. population and account for more than 50% of the births. compare that to 1990 when