In short: Information at the “TOP SECRET//SI//TK//NOFORN” level is considered exceptionally highly classified and must be handled with great care under penalty of serious consequences for mishandling. Every person who is cleared and “read on” for access to such information signs reams of paperwork and receives detailed training about how it is to be handled, no exceptions–and what the consequences will be if the rules are not followed.
From an earlier comment of mine:
“If Clinton was keeping TS material on her server, it’s likely a double whammy: most TS stuff is also compartmented (a special security category). All the files Edward Snowden made off with were in this category. So not only Top Secret but sensitive information as well.
If Hillary sails on to the presidency despite this while the US continues to try and get its hands on Snowden, this will represent a Clintonian hypocrisy of epic proportions, far beyond the bounds of the Lewinsky affair.”
TOP SECRET//SI//TK//NOFORN makes it a TRIPLE whammy: Top Secret + compartmented (SI and TK) + bonus: NOFORN which means “US EYES ONLY” in Canadian parlance (i.e., NO Foreign Nationals).
I foresee a sudden medical crisis in her future.
When in college, I worked as a security guard at a defense plant. I had to have a modest clearance just to walk around in the building. There were pictures of people rotting in prison on the file cabinets. I wonder if there was one on Hillary’s server?
The history of the Clinton’s is one where their enemies seem to befall some catastrophic fate. Ergo I will presume there are a good number of recipients of the Clinton treatment that would take the opportunity to pile on if they knew the author of their misery was headed to jail.
Yes blackmail works both ways cause there is no honour among theived.
The Clintons have demonstrated a remarkable ability to slip out of the most impossible situations. This time might require the services of a Houdini type as I’m getting the impression things are starting to pile on. Too many things are leaking.
They have an extensive enemies list but conversely they are on a lot of lists. She is trending as they say and maybe some of their ‘friends’ in high places can smell an opportunity.
She wont be the nominee.
Nothing will come out of this; at best (worst?) she’ll be censured by Congress and that’ll be the end of it. Like Rangel or Holder.
“… consequences if the rules are not followed” and Clinton.
What are things never found in the same sentence, Alex?
Here’s something more to chew on:
TS sensitive information only resides on a compartmented, secure intranet. In order to get that information onto an Internet server, you have to:
1. have the clearance to access the compartmented intranet;
2. download the information to a memory device; and then
3. upload the information to the Internet.
It goes without saying this constitutes an extremely serious security breach.
Bradley “Chelsea” Manning is now in prison for doing just this very thing and passing (irony of ironies) US State Department diplomatic emails to WikiLeaks.
Oh, and Manning probably took those emails off the SECRET-level US intranet, not the sensitive compartmented one for the SI and TK stuff.
I question the seriousness of the source.
While the various classifications are easy to find out, and are certainly in the vernacular of the profession, I couldn’t help but trip over this: “read on” . Pardon? Read on ? I know my garden variety spy stuff. The phrase is ‘read in’ or ‘read into’. I’ve watched enough docs and spook teevee shows to know this. Also wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classified_information_in_the_United_States
“A person is granted access to a specific compartment after the individual has: (a) had a Single Scope Background Investigation similar to that required for a collateral Top Secret clearance; {b) been “read into” or briefed on the nature and sensitivity of the compartment; and (c) signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).”
So what? Well, that caused me to go and Google the author of the blah blah at Kate’s link – one John R. Schindler. Oh look. It seems he’s rather full of himself, and while having served, apparently, in some tangential capacity in intelligence ( I really didn’t look all that deep), he is indeed something of a hack:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/12/how-surveillance-state-insiders-try-to-discredit-nsa-critics/281941/
So … let’s wait and see what the investigation actually unearths – because this guy seems like nothing more than a publicity hound – and one who can’t even keep basic intelligence terminology right.
Forgot to include this link:
The Crazy Emails That Took Down NSA Spook John Schindler
http://blackbag.gawker.com/the-crazy-emails-that-took-down-nsa-spook-john-schindle-1610203101
Mmmmm. Let’s imagine that Hillary does not get the Dems nomination and the race for the White House comes down to Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. The talking head are stunned. Amnesty International and the U.N. announce that they will monitor the election process. Then Scott Walker announces a run as an Independent with Carly Fiorina as VP and in a landslide victory destroys both corrupt parties in the election.
Naaah. Even I don’t buy that scenario.
However, I have been saying repeatedly for months (and on this site no less)that Hillary will not be elected because she has too much baggage and in addition is too old to relate to the “young voters” and “people of color”. Folks, the campaign has not even started and already the weight of Clinton’s baggage is huge. I also said it was even odds that she would not get the Democrat nomination. That prediction is looking good as well.
David, indeed you have said this, and in part I agree with you. My only problem is that the Arkansas hillbillies are past masters at throwing others under the bus for their sins. So the caveat is how convincingly The Hag is going to find someone to kiss tires for her.
“But if that classification notice was omitted, it wasn’t the U.S. intelligence community that took such markings away. Moreover, anybody holding security clearances has already assumed the responsibility for handling it properly.”
and that is where the FBI will drill down…Somebody on Hillary’s team may have removed the markings. Simple back tracking to the source & handling will show who removed the markings…A suggested Conspiracy to scrub & then store on her unsecured server. BIG TIME
On Her Majesty’s Secret Disservice…
Obama is investigating this. Keep that in mind.
Damned spell check keeps coming up with Hil-lyar. ? an example of artificial intelligence
Treasury now cooking the books
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/150-days-treasury-says-debt-has-been-frozen-18112975000000
David in Michigan thinks that the 30% population of illegal aliens in federal prison is not a reality.
Sure, his perspective comes from living just outside of Detroit where most of the crimes are committed by Black Americans, but take everything he says about what is going on outside of his very parochial view with a grain of salt, considering he doesn’t think crime from illegals is even an issue.
Hillary Clinton was finished ages ago. This is yet another nail in the coffin. Her actions either make her look treasonous or stupid.
Perhaps she should not envy whoever does get into office. That guy would have to clean up Obama’s messes.
Two thoughts.
1. Rules are for little people.
2. If you want to keep a secret, don’t write “TOP SECRET” all over it; i.e. don’t tell everyone you have a secret.
Seriously, though, I cannot believe this ambitious woman and her organization are this incompetent. There must be some other explanation for her amateur-hour e-mail server.
So what system did Hillary use to communicate “really really top secret emails” apart from the now exposed one?
You weren’t supposed to ask that.
Seriously, though, I cannot believe this ambitious woman and her organization are this incompetent. There must be some other explanation for her amateur-hour e-mail server.
Oh, believe me, ambition and criminally negligent incompetence at IT are hardly mutually exclusive.
‘Turning her server over to the Dept. of Justice.’
Ha.
–
As an SDA commented days ago,
Her server will be encased in 1,000 pounds of concrete,
dropped in the South Pacific Ocean,
and will be harder to find than Flight 370…
Prerequisites to be POTUS:
1. Natural born citizen?
2. Ability to hold a security clearance?
3. …?
@Oz: Opinions and facts. Let’s keep them in separate. We had what I consider a minor disagreement. Clearly you felt differently. If I hurt your feelings, I apologize. It’s hard for me to “bite my tongue” and not reply in kind. Consider the fact that I don’t an olive branch.
“There must be some other explanation for her amateur-hour e-mail server”
That is a hard question…What use would a unfiltered server provide.
1. She had her own core of freelancers who where analyzing all the data, without limitations of access, such that she would be out in front of the Obama WH when projecting results.
2. She was providing ALL her communications to OTHERS…UN or EU Brussels etc . They would have an unfiltered view in which to advise Hillary….Hard to make decisions without FULL Knowledge
3. She is bat shit crazy.
“Seriously, though, I cannot believe this ambitious woman and her organization are this incompetent. There must be some other explanation for her amateur-hour e-mail server.”
Reading the latest today in the media, it seems clear that journalistic ignorance about how classified materials are handled by governments knows no bounds.
The way the media reports this stuff suggests it isn’t aware that the Internet isn’t used to prepare, store and communicate sensitive classified material. In order for any such material to appear on the Clinton private server, it had to have been physically downloaded from a US Government secure intranet and then transferred in some manner to that server.
When you do this, you can then easily cut and paste and strip off security classification headers, footers and paragraph markings off the documents (they’re usually in MSWord or MSPowerPoint anyway). Obviously, Hillary herself wouldn’t have done this, that would have been her minions and sycophants in State and elsewhere. But such obfuscation would be entirely deliberate.
And that’s what the Clintons seem to be all about: deliberate obfuscation.
Incompetent? Not sure about that but the bottom line, she is where she is because she is ‘the bosses wife’. Hillary has had some maniacal obsession with power since she was a kid. Nothing or no one can get in the way – no deception to trivial.
This drive has taken her to this point. Not bad considering the starting point but in the end if/when all this fails/succeeds she will still be ‘the bosses wife’. I’ve never heard her referred to as brilliant.
IIt’s orange jumpsuit time…bwahahahaha!