Russia, as in the country that tried to warn the US about the (now-deceased) at least half-Chechen Boston Marathon bomber even after the country had been on the receiving end of Chechen terrorists who had US training and other material support from the US?

Family connections in the US can be used as pressure points too, with pressure even applied from, by or on behalf of foreigners and/or foreign governments.

If family connections abroad is such a big fear -- and it is for some -- then perhaps the country should be in the business of holding a family member hostage and/or only employing orphans or those alienated completely from healthy family connections?

The "sins of the father" is used by the government against free US persons, and that is in part why I oppose DHS "trusted traveler" nonsense and why I instead prefer that such "trusted traveler" type facilities be a default right for all free US persons.

Why speculate? Write to the Ombudsman. By OP's own admission, his account says that his GOES was revoked for "ineligibility." Running around asking others isn't going to yield a result. Going to the Ombudsman might not, but is OP's best chance.

My recommendation: stop posting, do not send emails and do not discuss with others. Deal with the Ombudsman. Period.

Haven't you heard about the FT get enough votes for you GE exception?

In reality, the above post/poster is the best advice. All you will get on FT is sympathy from some quarters and, frankly, a dose of suspicion from the rest that you've really done some vile and reprehensible act that justifies your GE de-frocking.

The OP should certainly contact the Ombudsman . . . and then check his mailbox for a response in 3-6 months. I hear there is one Ombudsman (singular) and that he is backed up-- and that was before PreCheck which I'm sure is no help.

OP isn't asking FT to solve his problem, but to provide advice and to share similar experiences. He's obviously received some advice, but he clearly also wants to know if anyone has been in a similar situation and received a response from the ombudsman with an explanation. He CAN do both at the same time, you know...

Thank you for expressing exactly what I was thinking.

Indeed, but some apologists for government/travel industry suppliers/who-knows-what may not want the proverbial "dirty laundry" ways of their favorites exposed and would prefer to "whitewash" reality in attempted defense of their favorites.

The exposure of the "dirty laundry" provides practical knowledge of relevance to those passengers who find themselves in such situations.

Out of curiosity, do you have a "common" last name? There is a possibility that your rejection is linked with someone else.
I doubt that contacting the Ombudsman could hurt your case--so certainly do that. You might try to directly contact CBP. [There is a thread here on FT where a GE applicant was demeaned by the CBP agent during his interview--and was initially rejected. He contacted CBP (possibly with the aid of his Senator or Cong. Rep.) and after his new interview WAS accepted.]
Have you (now) tried to access your account on GE: (1)can you log in? (2)perhaps some pertinent info is listed there.

Presuming that part is true... Report the incident to your security office. Technically, you should have done so already. Have them track it down.

No longer eligible could mean that the eligibility criteria for GE have now changed. Have you carefully reviewed the current rules?

Since you say that father lived in Europe, are you a USA citizen? Could you have dual citizenship and could this cause a problem?

That might with a security clearance, but not with GE. Or, if it does, then I'm screwed given the number of passports I've got.

That was the original reason for my post, to reduce my own speculation by learning from other people's experience navigating the system. This is a unique process and I am trying to understand better how the review process works. The strange position I found myself in was staring at a blank sheet of paper not knowing what to speculate about (so I could write something to the Ombudsman). I wrote a letter anyway.

According to an article, between 2002 and 2009, 6,534 NEXUS memberships were revoked, and another article says that Sentri revokes about 2,000 cards per year. GOES is in the same family with these programs, and I figure has a similar rate. So I'm probably asking a common question on behalf of a lot of people. Maybe they can update the GOES FAQ to provide some guidance on what information the Ombudsman is looking for when the applicant has no clue of the specific reason they are not eligible anymore.

sry for lack of follow-up. Not been on the site for a while. I have finally (after burying my head in the sand for almost a year), started the procedure with the Ombudsman.

One other item that may have caused this was that I had changed jobs at one point. Perhaps they did a background check at some point after the fact and my job addresses / names did not match my original application. Still an unknown. Will revert back later.

I am also quite curious of what you find out, because my membership was also mysteriously revoked, and I also had a change of address of my employment since the original application. In my case I am with the same company but the physical address changed (facility was shut down and moved to another city). I couldn't figure out how to update the address online. One would think that GE would tell us if the revocation was because of such a simple paperwork reason. Or if it's not the address thing, they must know something about me that I don't know about me.

I feel exactly the same. I know that I am clean, in all areas I can possibly think of, yet somewhere, something is disconnected. Maybe something to do with my extensive global travel, address change, some algorithm of risk, who knows, but I intend to get to the bottom of this, possibly get a lawyer.