Friends,

Over the years, I have spoken with FBI employees on many occasions for many reasons.

One office I have a lot of familiarity with is the OPM (Office of Personnel Management).

The OPM does the FBI background checks for higher level security clearances with many Federal agencies and the Pentagon.

I have maximum respect for their job as they are tasked with doing deep background searches on people that will be given access to classified information. Their goal is to make sure nobody that engages in criminal conduct or that works for foreign agents gets access to sensitive materials and information.

I have friends that have worked or do work for the NSA, CIA, NASA, Dept of Defense, Dept of Energy, FBI, and some others I might not want to mention. Several have included me in their clearance checks because of our past work together and my positions with lawmakers and government.

Interviews with OPM are very serious matters. They ask about a large host of things about a person's character, personal life, and loyalty to America.

Today, during an OPM interview for a friend of mine that is renewing or updating his clearances, I could not help my self by answering the following question as i did.

I could hear the agent on the phone gasp., but I believe they got the humor in my response.

FBI Agent: "Do you have any reason to believe that Mr. _______ holds any allegiance to or is under the influence of any foreign government?"

William: "Oh, you mean like President Bush?"



After the interview was complete it occurred to me that President Bush would probably fail to clear an OPM background check based on what I know of the man.

W