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1/19/2016 10:31 pm  #1


Inspector General: Clinton's server had material beyond top secret

This Politico story makes me wonder if the Democratic Party establishment has started thinking about an, "In Case of Emergency, Break Glass", backup plan for Hillary....

Intelligence officials have discovered sensitive national security information on Hillary Clinton’s server that goes beyond the “top secret” level, the intelligence community inspector general told lawmakers in a letter last week.
In a copy of the Jan. 14 correspondence obtained by POLITICO, Intelligence Community Inspector General I. Charles McCullough III told both the Senate Intelligence and Senate Foreign Relations committees that intelligence agencies found messages relating to what are known as “special access programs,” or SAP. That’s an even more restricted subcategory of sensitive compartmented information, or SCI, top secret national security information derived from sensitive intelligence sources.

“To date, I have received two sworn declarations from one [intelligence community agency],” the letter reads.

“These declarations cover several dozen emails containing classified information determined by the [intelligence community agency] to be at the confidential, secret, and top secret/sap levels. According to the declarant, these documents contain information derived from classified [intelligence community agency] sources.”

The letter suggests that the universe of highly sensitive documents that passed through Clinton’s unsecured server goes beyond what was previously known. During the Clinton email release process, State has designated more than 1,300 of Clinton's emails at the “confidential” level or beyond, though Clinton and State say none were marked classified at the time. Six of those have been flagged as “secret,” a step below “top secret.”

State and the intelligence community, however, have clashed over whether the content of at least two yet-to-be-released emails were at the highest classification level: “top secret.” Those two emails actually triggered an ongoing FBI probe into the email matter over the summer, sources say.

Intelligence officials insist that both of those messages were “top secret” when they were sent and one remains so, while one is now considered “secret.”

However, the emails now deemed to contain “top secret, special access program” information are in addition to the messages previously disputed between State and the Director of National Intelligence, according to a spokesperson for McCullough. The official said the intelligence community review group is wrapping up its look into the documents and is putting these documents in the SAP category.

The Central Intelligence Agency is the agency that provided the declarations about the classified programs, another U.S. official familiar with the situation told POLITICO Wednesday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said some or all of the emails deemed to implicate “special access programs” related to U.S. drone strikes. Those who sent the emails were not involved in directing or approving the strikes, but responded to the fallout from them, the official said.

The information in the emails “was not obtained through a classified product, but is considered "‘per se’ classified” because it pertains to drones, the official added. The U.S. treats drone operations conducted by the CIA as classified, even though in a 2012 internet chat Presidential Barack Obama acknowledged U.S.-directed drone strikes in Pakistan.

The source noted that the intelligence community considers information about classified operations to be classified even if it appears in news reports or is apparent to eyewitnesses on the ground. For example, U.S. officials with security clearances have been warned not to access classified information leaked to WikiLeaks and published in the New York Times.

“Even though things are in the public domain, they still retain their classification level,” the official said. “The ICIG maintains its position that it’s still ‘codeword’ classified.”

The State Department is likely to persist in its contention that some information the intelligence community claimed was “top secret” because it related to North Korean nuclear tests was actually the product of “parallel reporting” that did not rely on classified intelligence products and so should not be treated as highly classified, the official said.

However, State is set to acquiesce in the determinations regarding classified programs like drone strikes because there is a longstanding, government-wide consensus that such information must be treated as classified even if it leaks or becomes apparent from events on the ground, the official added.

 


I think you're going to see a lot of different United States of America over the next three, four, or eight years. - President Donald J. Trump
 

1/20/2016 6:46 am  #2


Re: Inspector General: Clinton's server had material beyond top secret

Run Joe, run!


We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists. 
 

1/20/2016 8:44 am  #3


Re: Inspector General: Clinton's server had material beyond top secret

The report further shows just how screwed up our classification system is. 


"Do not confuse motion and progress, A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress"
 
 

1/20/2016 9:03 am  #4


Re: Inspector General: Clinton's server had material beyond top secret

The report further shows just how screwed up our classification system is.  - Tennyson

Yeah I thought about that, too.  I mean, what if something wasn't classified as 'top secret' yesterday, last week, or last month, and it was then re-classified today as something 'top secret', what happens?  Tennyson has touched on something here.

 

1/20/2016 11:41 am  #5


Re: Inspector General: Clinton's server had material beyond top secret

It will be interesting to see how this turns out, but things aren't looking good for Hillary.  And as far as I know, this can't be blamed on some right-wing conspiracy as this is all being investigated by independent government offices.

What would happen if she is the nominee and then gets charged with a criminal offense?

 

1/20/2016 11:44 am  #6


Re: Inspector General: Clinton's server had material beyond top secret

There is much for the Clinton camp to worry about.
 


We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists. 
 

1/20/2016 11:49 am  #7


Re: Inspector General: Clinton's server had material beyond top secret

Brady Bunch wrote:

It will be interesting to see how this turns out, but things aren't looking good for Hillary.  And as far as I know, this can't be blamed on some right-wing conspiracy as this is all being investigated by independent government offices.

What would happen if she is the nominee and then gets charged with a criminal offense?

 

I think the likelihood that she gets charged with a criminal offense is about zero, IF you are referring to being charged from some Federal level. That does NOT preclude the fact that the GOP will try to prosecute her in some fashion. As a matter of fact, I would expect that it will surface somehow. This is politics, after all. 


"Do not confuse motion and progress, A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress"
 
 

1/20/2016 11:50 am  #8


Re: Inspector General: Clinton's server had material beyond top secret

And why do you think she won't be charged?

 

1/20/2016 11:55 am  #9


Re: Inspector General: Clinton's server had material beyond top secret

tennyson wrote:

The report further shows just how screwed up our classification system is. 

All the more reason to keep all sensitive material off of private unsecured servers.
 


I think you're going to see a lot of different United States of America over the next three, four, or eight years. - President Donald J. Trump
     Thread Starter
 

1/20/2016 12:01 pm  #10


Re: Inspector General: Clinton's server had material beyond top secret

Brady Bunch wrote:

And why do you think she won't be charged?

I think IF some concrete damage came about and can be documented from the use of the email system, then there will be a valid case, but lacking that, I expect there will not be a case put forward to indite her by the IG. Like I said, I believe that there is an almost certain likelihood that the GOP will try to find a way to bring forward a case. It is in their best interest to take her down. It is all about politics and not really the emails themselves. 

A bigger question then would arise is IF she is prosecuted, the DNC is then faced with the same conundrum of who they want to win as the GOP currently faces. And, can they find an alternative to Hillary in time (rather than Sanders or would they embrace him as their savior?) 


 


"Do not confuse motion and progress, A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress"
 
 

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