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Comment by bandrami | Hacker News Reader

CIA recruits a lot of square pegs who didn't quite fit in to other parts of government

CIA recruitment is actually highly competitive. The best avenue to get to the top of the list when applying is if you have an “in”. CIA managers still do college campus visits, and for new college graduates who have done an interview with that individual and decide to apply that can use that person to get to the top of the list.

But it still vets them. This is very odd.

Vetting has been put on hold in cases where there are labor shortages. Don’t remember where, but I read an account of a military guy applying to ICE and they did no vetting at all, and had he accepted the jobs with a sizablebonus (he did it to see what their process was) he would have been deployed without training. At the time the source and person seemed credible.

This is what happens when a new administration fires the incumbent experts and hires by loyalty tests.

DHS is not the same as the CIA. The former is heavily politicized and the latter kinda just does its own thing and I'm pretty sure they haven't paused vetting (ICE agents don't require TS/SCI clearance like CIA officers)

All you need to join ICE is being a certified neonazi, so background checks would only jeopardise that policy.

I think they are a couple of standard deviations more fucked up than the average person still.

Does it?

He is accused of fabricating his educational credentials.

Either this guy is fantastic at lying or the orgs where he worked are falling flat on due diligence.

One thing I was reminded by a friend is that exposing his fabrication would make that information useless. As long as the person who knows it wasn’t involved in the vetting process, they now have leverage over at least two people.

As someone said, all spies are bastards.

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