The form actually asks uses terms like close, personal relationship so it not just listing random people. And to put the shoe on the other foot, what if it were your job to vet a person working on plans for a new nuclear reactor. Don't you think you'd like to know if the person had a college roommate from [insert hostile country here] and continues to maintain the relationship with visits, phone calls, etc? Maybe relevant, maybe not, but you'd be negligent not to check it out.
If you rely for your security on having people who do not maintain relationships with the people from their past then your security has already failed.
I see the red scare is still alive and well, which 'hostile countries' would those be? How does what someone does in their time off impact your ability to let them work on the plans for your nuclear reactor?
Do you really believe any of the leaks from the past 40 years or so were because someone had a college roommate from a hostile country (whatever that is) and who maintained their relationship?
