First off, let me go on the record as saying that I agree that a lot of these intrusions don't seem justified to me. I myself am subject to a whole slew of checks, but my profession is one that is considered security-sensitive, and there have been long-standing legal requirements associated with security checks for people in jobs similar to me. No biggie... that's something that I expected. I will say, however, that some similar information to what you indicate in Part II can be obtained from the responses to the questions on the MMPI (preliminary psychological evaluation exam) such as whether one has lied, stolen a minor item, etc... the rationale behind asking such questions is that it is essentially expected that a prospective candidate will have done some things in the past, and a squeaky clean record is an indication that some follow-up may need to be done because the individual in question may be gaming the system, so to speak.

All of this is sort of aside from my confusion, you specifically point out the Privacy Act and are angry that the executive branch (who I do NOT approve of, by the way) is side-stepping the law of Congress. Yet in the HSPD, it specifically says... "6) This directive shall be implemented in a manner consistent with the Constitution and applicable laws, including the Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a) and other statutes protecting the rights of Americans." If such actions at NASA are indeed against the applicable laws, then it is more a case of some over-zealous administration officials with respect to their interpretation of what they are supposed to do. Of course, the President put these people in charge of their respective agencies, so blame could still be assigned in that direction. But the gist of what I'm trying to say is that if there are specific people in higher positions who are overstepping the boundaries of the law, the HSPD doesn't cover their butt. Some people need to push back!