MSDF Members w/ Non-Japanese Spouses Lose Security Clearances
I thought I might lose my security clearance when I married my Japanese wife. I didn't.
But…had she worked for the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force, she would have lost hers…at least now she would have.
There has been a few leaks of late of MSDF workers with classified information clearnances and wives who are not Japanese….one a Chinese national.
As a result, the Ministry of Defense has decided to transfer those members with foreign spouses out of departments that handl highly classified information.
It was SDF policy to never allow such members to have clearance in the first place, but the policy was never fully implemented. It will be now…especially since the commander of U.S. forces
in Japan has come down on America's best friend by saying a leak of info related to ships with Aegis radar technology is "a very serious problem" and that he has strong reservations about the SDF protection of information.
But do only foreign spouses pose a threat?
Isn't there some serious discrimination going on here?
The Ministry of Defense is moving people as part of 'regular personnel reshuffling' it says.
Yeah, right?
Do you think a person should lose their security clearance because they have a foreign spouse?
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June 27, 2007
Yeah, I definitely feel like that is a bit unfair – however, I feel that it may be justified. People freak out about racial profiling or about dealing with the US border with Mexico by building a wall, claiming outrageous discrimination based on race. I agree that it’s discriminatory – though not necessarily racist, but I also understand that there are cold, hard facts backing up the discrimination as necessity. Statistically speaking, the overwhelming majority of illegal immigrants come into the US via the border with Mexico – that includes people from all over the world, not just Mexico. Does it makes sense to oppose border enforcement because Latino-Americans feel slighted by it? No, because European, African, and Asian illegal immigrants come through the same way. Similarly, with profiling, it may seem unfair, but when looking at identifiers of people who may have cause to do something dangerous, certain groups of people have a much higher correlation than others. Is it right to drop profiling because people feel insulted by it, or should we work to do this kind of thing in a far more conscientious, polite manner? Is it discriminatory to pull the security clearances of SDF members with foreign spouses? Obviously. Is it wrong? I dunno. I think I agree with you that they should really toughen up on everyone in the wake of their leaks and not seek one group as a scapegoat, but I won’t let my indignant emotions deny that some folks are more hazardous (intelligence-wise) than others. I guess I’ve really not said that much, because in the end, it comes back to being patently unfair, but understandable. You know?