1) She needs to determine whether Kerry was cleared for Top Secret or Top Secret/SCI; "straight" TS gets you access to war plans and similar-type documents; TS/SCI gets you access to our most sensitive intelligence information. As far as I know, Kerry never performed any intel-related duties (at least for our side); I'd be surprised if he was ever in a TS/SCI billet. Loss of a TS clearance is bad enough; loss of a TS/SCI clearance would be an even bigger story. And that would raise an obvious question: how did someone stripped of his clearance gain access to codeword information as a U.S. Senator--what wheels had to be greased to make that happen?
2) In my experience (I didn't enter the spook world until the mid-80s) the initial investigation for a TS/SCI clearance is done by either the FBI or the Defense Investigative Service--not the military service. The military branch grants the clearance and administers the billet/personnel actions, but only after the background check has been completed. "ONI investigation," even in 1967, sounds a little fishy.
3) Document, document, document. If Kerry did lose his clearance, there ought to be a paper trail a mile long. Your friend clearly can't afford a Dan Rather moment at this juncture. I hope she gets copies of all relevant documents and has them thoroughly authenticated.
4) Finally, I can predict the Kerry camp's "spin" on this one. It's a fake (first defense), followed by, "it happened after he left active duty, and only because the Navy was PO ed because of his Congressional testimony--who cares. The obvious retort ought to be in the paper trail I referred to. It is exceedingly rare for a military service to pull a clearance after the member has left active duty. If Kerry lost his clearance, the Navy had very compelling reasons to pull it. One final thought: I've heard that Kerry's medals were "reinstated" (?) shortly after he was elected to the Senate. I spent 20 years on active duty and I've never heard of that happening. Even when Kerry threw his medals at the Pentagon, they were still on his records. Was Kerry's "loss" of medals related to his reported discharge problems and lost security clearance? Again, there are some smoking guns in the security clearance file and Kerry's personnel records.
WE have everything every piece of paper, every thankeful letter ever written, and we can pull it up ourselves, we have them ,and we will until we die,I dont understand why skarry cant produce all of his in a yearly order .