There may be two new red flags when it comes to tracking insider threats – printers and post its. Last week the FBI arrested Gohkan Gun, a DoD civilian employee who was arrested last week after printing off classified materials, which he had in a backpack along with a list of his security clearances, as he waited for a rideshare to deliver him to the airport and a final destination in Mexico.
Right now, the only thing that’s clear is that Gun was mishandling classified information. The full details known to date are outlined in a piece by Christopher Burgess. What many individuals are already asking is:
1. What prompted Gun to print off so much information and how was he able to walk out of the facility with it.
Printing itself isn’t a security problem per se, although excessive printing is flagged in security training programs as a potential sign of someone who nefarious plans. Some have questioned why Gun was able to print so much – printing a few pages may be one thing, but hundreds is another. It was a similar line of questioning as in the case of Harold Martin, although Martin had decades to amass his trove, while Gun had worked for the DoD just around a year.
2. Was Gun’s dual citizenship a sign of an allegiance issue?
Some have asked how a dual citizen (Gun is a naturalized citizen and held citizenship in Turkey, according to reports) was able to obtain a clearance. Dual citizenship does NOT preclude someone from obtaining a security clearance. Foreign influence and foreign preference concerns would have had to have been mitigated by Gun prior to obtaining a clearance, but he wouldn’t necessarily be asked to renounce or eliminate his Turkish citizenship. In many cases, renouncing dual citizenship can create greater security red flags for an applicant.
So far that has been no information about any possible espionage ties for Gun, and that information will likely slowly trickle out over the coming hearings and criminal process. In last week’s hearing Gun appeared disoriented and was represented by a public defender – that in itself creating more questions than answers.
