When you apply to, plan to apply to, or work within, a classified workspace, you give up certain rights for the privilege of working under a security clearance granted because you have eligibility for access to classified information. As summer skies start to age, and school buses are being tuned for the Fall, those end of season vacations are at hand.
Let's review some blunt facts before you endanger your current or future employment.
Where Not to Go
First, there are some places you just do not want to go, whether on vacation or to visit family. East of Malta, and the neighborhoods can get spotty. Stay away from Pakistan, or indeed any "-stan", as those countries complicate security clearance reviews. North Korea, Iran, Ukraine, Venezuela, Russia, China, Cuba, Nigeria, all bad ideas. That includes the two week vacay in Panama with a side junket to Havana over the weekend; security will figure out your design. If you go to the Dominican Republic, dinner and sex is still prostitution if you pay your liaison $600 for the cab home. Actually, any one-night stand outside the United States is a bad idea. Doesn't matter that prostitution is legal in the Netherlands, it isn't in Washington, D.C. where your employment fate will be determined.
Foreign travel includes ALL trips and vacations abroad, even day trips to Mexico and Canada. Yes, go to Toronto or Tijuana while vacationing at Buffalo or San Diego, but you need to report it before you go. Security clearance holders cannot be "spontaneous" and if the crowd with whom you are vacationing cannot respect that restriction, it is time to lose them before you lose your job. Any trip that is not official government business needs to be reported. If you're stationed abroad, you must report all personal travel to other countries during that time period.
Don't be the 'Unwitting' Fool
Don't be the unwitting fool. Why? Security watches you to see who is . . . watching you. Foreign intelligence services index security clearance holders, and what they may know, and develop targeting plans to go after that information. You do not need to be malignant. You may simply be what is called "the unwitting fool" in an organization, naively setting yourself up for blackmail. Once the foreign intelligence service has the goods on you, the Enemy of the State can then squeeze you to leak classified information.
All sorts of overseas faux pas can make you an unwitting fool. Naughty pictures on your cell phone or camcorder, prostitution, drug use whether legal or illegal in country, if it is illegal for the federal government; illegal gambling: all these can comprise you. To avoid this, security requires you to self-report before you go abroad. Self-reporting requirements are codified through Security Executive Agent Directive (SEAD) 3. You are briefed before you go, and debriefed when you come back.
Report Ahead of Travel
Once reporting travel ahead of departure, the clearance holder then needs to adopt proactive measures while traveling. Fleeting interactions with cab drivers or wait staff while abroad do not need to be reported. But if you open up on the bar stool to your drinking mate next to you, discussing personal and private details, that will need to be reported when you debrief upon your return. In between bar hops, the rest of your vacation needs to be armored, ensuring you do not leave a trail making you the target of an intelligence operation.
Do not court visibility, as you will if you are in an auto accident. Pack so as to not trigger heighted border surveillance, as you do when your hair gel is in your carry-on baggage. Stay off public transportation; rent a car and prepare for different traffic patterns and natives driving more aggressively. Medications are a challenge. Have your doctor issue ample supply and leave them in the original prescription bottle with the prescribing label on the bottle. Before you depart, research the best hospitals, local police station and the local U.S. Embassy or consulate. Keep essential information on a notepad, not on an electronic device. In written form, the information is available for first responders, natives, or cab drivers if you are injured or cannot communicate in the local language.
Protect Yourself
Scan your passport. Store the scan on your phone. Guard it and never let it out of your possession. You can also leave a photocopy with a contact able to fax it to the nearest U.S. Embassy or consulate in the event you lose your passport or it is stolen. While you may see yourself as a victim of theft, Security may see you as bumbling into a crime and thereby opening you up to official exploitation by the foreign State. Dress inconspicuously, do not put yourself or your family on show. Keep your money, credit cards and a photocopy of your passport in a secure place inside your clothing. Carry only what you may need for a particular day; use the hotel room safe to protect items left behind from prying house cleaning.
Vacations are necessary; they allow you to recreate yourself and bond with your family. There are also many great places to visit in the United States. But if you decide to go abroad, think the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada first. Then go to places not known for exposing you to danger: Republic of Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Norway, etc. Move beyond the 'safe' countries with caution, planning and executing your trip with your heightened employment needs in mind. If you are an American, you are a target. Add the American with a security clearance, doubly so.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
