So you worked in the White House, right?

I did. I did.

This is Ned Price.

I was a special assistant to President Obama on the National Security Council, but obviously

that's co-located with the White House.

So doing that kind of work, do you need a security clearance?

You do. This week, Ned's need a security clearance? You do.

This week, Ned's been thinking about how difficult it was to get that White House gig.

Even though he'd worked at the CIA for years, he still had to prove he wasn't a security risk.

Getting cleared for this kind of work means filling out 136-page form.

And then there are the interviews with friends,

neighbors. Every time an investigator would visit, I would get these calls. Are you in trouble? Are you,

are you on the lamb? Is everything okay? Because the investigator doesn't show up at someone's house and say, you know, we're looking at Ned Price for a job at the CIA,

or even we're looking at Ned Price for a job in the U.S. Intelligence Committee, they essentially

to say, you know, we're taking a look at his background and we need to speak to you.

And then they go through a series of questions. And these questions are pretty daunting.

Is his allegiance with the United States government? Has he ever been a member of a foreign terrorist organization? Has he ever sought to overthrow the U.S.

government?

There was this one time that Ned himself was given 24 hours to report to a government office building,

submit to questioning.

It turned out some research he had done for his master's thesis had raised red flags with a security agent.

He said, look, this isn't a huge deal, but let this be a reminder that we take these issues extremely seriously.

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