Steve Jobs believed someone could kidnap his daughter in order to blackmail him, according to a newly released Department of Defense document that was filled out in the 1980s when Jobs underwent a background verify for a Top Secret security clearance.
That revelation, along with some new specifics on Jobs’ drug use and a previously unreported arrest as a minor, comes from a questionnaire that Jobs filled out for the clearance investigation, which was acquired by Wired through a Freedom of Details Act request.
Steve Jobs in 1987, about the time when he was applying for a Top Secret clearance. Photo: Ed Kashi/Corbis
Even though getting interviewed by investigators for the clearance in 1988, Jobs was asked in what approaches he might be susceptible to blackmail. He replied that he had an illegitimate daughter and felt that “the variety of blackmail or threat that could be made against me would be if an individual kidnapped [her].” But he added that if he were blackmailed, it would “primarily be for the goal of cash, not simply because I may have access to classified Top Secret material or documents.”
“If I do receive my clearance,” he stated, “there can be a possibility of blackmail and I do acknowledge this truth.”
An unidentified woman who was also interviewed by investigators to provide a character reference for Jobs, took a contrary view on the blackmail query. She indicated that since Jobs was a public person whose “dirty laundry” was currently publicly aired, she believed he would not be susceptible to blackmail.
Sources and more information:
• Other Mysteries – Re: Steve Jobs’ Pentagon File
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