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Elon Musk to not receive highest-level government security clearance – reports (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The space entrepreneur Elon Musk is unlikely to receive government security clearances if he so applied, even as his SpaceX launch company blasts military and spy agency payloads into orbit, according to a report on Monday.

The billionaire, a close ally of Donald Trump, who is set to join the incoming administration as an efficiency expert and recently became the first person to exceed $400bn in self-made personal wealth, is reported by the Wall Street Journal to have been advised by SpaceX lawyers not to seek highest-level security clearances owing to personal drug use and contacts with foreign nationals.

Musk currently holds a “top-secret” clearance that took years to obtain after he discussed use of marijuana on a 2018 podcast with Joe Rogan, according to the outlet. But that may not be enough to have access to information about US government payloads in his rockets.

Typically, candidates undergoing federal security screenings by the department of defense may not receive clearance if the agency expresses concerns about drug or alcohol use, criminal conduct, psychological conditions, sexual behavior or allegiance to the US.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago

Trump can just order them to give him clearance not that it matters or Musk cares. His government dismantling is going to be pointed very far away from the military-industrial-intelligence complex and all of its grift and waste towards social safety nets, environmental safety, things that the government does that hinder the profits of a greedy polluter like him and help the average person.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Officially. Dipfuck sure as hell will just tell him, or leave folders laying about.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Yeah, this means nothing.

Did people already forget that Trump just basically stole a small library worth of classified documents after his first term, lied about giving them all back, got raided by the FBI?

That Trump was just having meeting with fucking whoever and showing off various classified documents?

Trump can and will give Elon anything he feels like giving him, he has less than 0 care for any concept of security classes.

Oh right, did people forget that's all legal now too?

Trump's defense: Uh giving Elon the nuclear launch codes had to do with my official duties as President.

Bombed out, radiation soaked ruins of fallout ghoul supreme court: Yep, checks out.

... The only thing constraining Trump's ability to just do shit like that in his first term was that most of his staff and other government officers/liasons did eventually turn out to have limits, they were not all pure sycophants.

Now THEY ARE.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 week ago (2 children)

After his recent stunts with Russia, he shouldn't have any clearance at all.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 week ago

The same could be said of Trump himself, and yet here we are

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago

He should be deported back to South Africa.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

He personally doesn't need to know what's in the payloads, for the company to deliver on the rocket contracts.

The mechanical and electrical interfaces between the rocket and the payload are pretty standardized, and the payload can complete most of its testing in a separate facility from the launch vehicle.

I would guess the main concerns about classified data are people getting peeks when the spacecraft is being installed, launch technicians that need to get inside the fairing during checkout, loading last minute software and encryption keys, and secure function checkout for the spacecraft on the pad.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Hey guys how's the launch prep going? You don't mind if I take a peek around the shuttle, do you?