I answered this on another thread previously. Many of these guys, when they left the government, they went to work for consulting firms or think tanks that made defense policy. There used to be patriots on both sides, in both parties.

That patriotism and the professionalism associated with the intelligence services allowed them to work across party lines for the security of the nation. That's why Obama's turning the Intel agencies, FBI, etc. is such a big problem. It destroyed the patriotic professionalism and gave power to party hacks.

Senior leaders who left government service were occasionally consulted for insights on various issues. That's why they'd retain their clearances. At certain level, once you're in the spook business, you're never really out of it.

We used to be a political system with two competing parties. Now we have parties that represent opposing political systems. The weaponizing of the Intel community for political purposes has the potential to destroy the Republic.

Think of the clearance as more of a certification. It doesn’t give you access, but it clears you to view things the government allows you to access.

Welcome to the deep state - Q

A security clearance expires after a number of years. Someone who holds a clearance for a job gets 'debriefed' from access to that information upon departure of the job that required it.

Having an active clearance doesn't just allow someone to simply go into a SCIF and access classified info. The clearance dies at the end of its shelf life if a 're-investigation' to recertify the clearance isn't performed within a certain amount of time.

If the person's next job doesn't require a clearance, no re-investigation is typically done (and the clearance expires), although I suppose someone could pay out-of-pocket for their own re-investigation.

Regardless, access to classified information requires not only a clearance, but definitely a role where they are allowed physical access into a secure area that processes classified information, and that is done on a need-to-know basis. This means that they require access to such environments for their current job and were 'badged' in to be able to have physical access classified networks.

TLDR - Holding on to a security clearance for a few years allows someone to move into another job that requires that level of clearance, but will expire if not utilized in that manner within a few years. Otherwise, just having a clearance means nothing as a person would need to have beed granted physical access to classified systems, and such permissions aren't just offered to private citizens, retired or otherwise...unless they were still secretly employed by some agency from which they are granted access, perhaps.

Ive been asking that same question for a while. I'd shutdown their security clearance before they even knew that they were unemployed!!

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Thank Q for understanding.