A veteran State Department employee contends that a month-long trip he took to Israel more than two decades ago has contributed to the suspension of his security clearance, stalling and perhaps ending his career in the foreign service.

After serving in 10 overseas posts, Daniel Hirsch has spent the last three and half years behind a desk at Foggy Bottom or elsewhere in Washington as agents from the Bureau of Diplomatic Security have scoured his past to determine whether he is trustworthy and loyal enough to be allowed access to government secrets.

Mr. Hirsch told The New York Sun yesterday that the investigators have seized on a trip he took in 1983, at age 23, with a group called Volunteers for Israel. He said he was already working for the CIA at the time and cleared it with the agency before going.

"At that time, it was no big deal," Mr. Hirsch said. "Nobody gave it a second thought until a quarter of a century later. Now, it's a big deal."...