Actually, a number of the members of my team are non-white, gay, or both, including some senior folks. We do however tend to avoid hiring the ignorant.

Your description is more accurate than mine; saying that the FBI engages in "spying" is probably a bit off. they do engage in covert surveillance and counter espionage within the United States.

Systems housing government data are required to meet certain minimum protective requirements, every system also needs to be certified as initially complying with those requirements by an independent third party (i.e., not the system owner), with a re-examination every three years. It's called "Certification and Accreditation." if you want to understand more about the requirements, look for a document called NIST 800-53. It's basically a penetration test.

In the United States, it's not that domestic spying is not allowed, it's that it's prohibited within specific agencies. The FBI does a lot of internal spying.

The key word there would be "automatic."

Actually, you can apply the two years to an undergrad degree and a lot of people do that.

I would agree that active duty enlisted tend to be "redder" than average. Also, the time frame you're describing is quite interesting as sounds like it was just about the time that the NSA had been publicly identified as breaking the law and new restrictions were put into place (which is probably what the Chief was bellyaching about). But my experience post reform is that the vast majority of people at the NSA take the prohibition on domestic spying very seriously.

The Tulsa program recruits students from all over the United States. Each of the colleges certified by the NSA as a Center of Excellence has different strong points; some are very focused on coding, for example, other on forensics or policy. My experience with the program is that is a reasonable mix of liberals and conservatives.

The program offers four semesters of financial help; it was obviously aimed at the Masters level, but it can be applied to both undergraduate and even a PhD.

Using drugs is not an automatic disqualification. Committing a crime is not an automatic disqualification. Lying about it is an automatic disqualification.

The Cyber Corps is not a high school program; it's a college program. Here's a link to the NSA certified centers of excellence: http://www.nsa.gov/ia/academic_outreach/nat_cae/institutions.shtml

This article is very poorly researched. There are Cyber Corps graduates in every federal agency. You don't have to work for the CIA / NSA if you don't want to (but you do have to apply for jobs at other agencies; the NSA actively recruits Cyber Corps graduates so if that's the only job offer you get, you have to take it or pay the money back.

I have to say I disagree. One of my key values to my organization comes from my ability to state why a preferred course of action does not comply with the law, regulations, and requirements. My job is not (exclusively) to do what is asked of me; my job is to comply with the oath of office, to protect the Constitution of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Now, it is true that being willing to say "No" can affect your career path. But it's also true that all the guys who have threatened me are no longer employed by my agency. That's probably the coolest part about being a fed: Doing the right thing for the right reasons means it's very difficult for some political hack to get you fired.

I am actually not a spook, though I was recruited by one of the spooky agencies. i chose the non-spook life and I don't regret it. I have a number of friends who are spooks and they are the last defense against political appointees who try to engage in all kinds of prohibited activities. The nice thing about being a government employee is that we get to take an oath pledging us to protect, not the government, not a party, but the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic. How do you think you became aware of the excesses of the past? It's because some low-level employee discovered some political hack set up an illegal program and let somebody -- a member of Congress, a law enforcement agency, or a newspaper -- about what was going on. You'd be shocked at how many liberals work for the NSA.

I joined the Cyber Corps in my Forties. Tulsa and I were talking quite a bit but eventually I wound up applying to another school instead. There are currently hundreds of schools across the United States that participate in the Cyber Corps program.