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| She doesn't remember the CIA Director Deutch scandal? |
After the significant top secret security violation that occurred during Hillary Clinton's reign as First Lady to the 42nd president of the United States, it is surprising that she would get caught up in an identical breach of national security.
While she lived in the White House, then CIA Director Deutch kept classified documents on his personal laptop computer which were unsecured, unlocked and wide open to the World Wide Web. In January 1997 the CIA began a formal investigation of the matter, fearing that Deutch's vulnerable computer, which he casually loaded with carefully protected secrets, could become a target for any computer hacker or foreign intelligence agency.
At the time, Hillary Clinton witnessed senior management at the CIA decline to fully pursue the breach. Even Attorney General Janet Reno declined prosecution; however, she recommended that Deutch be investigated to determine if his security clearance should be revoked.
Although the investigation concluded with Deutch agreeing to plead guilty for mishandling government secrets, Hillary's husband pardoned him on the last day of his presidency, before the Justice Department could file the case.
Most of us learn from the mistakes made by others; Hillary Clinton is apparently reluctant to do so. As First Lady, she rode out U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Richard Shelby's deep distrust of Deutch for leaving U.S. secrets open for grabs. He wanted him to appear before his committee, but Deutch either never showed up or the session was held in secret and the proceedings were never published.
Does Hillary Clinton not learn from mistakes that she and others around her have made? A short time ago, the CIA discovered two classified messages stored on her home-based computer. They appear to be even more sensitive than the hush-hush stuff Deutch had on his.
She squirreled away top-secret information on signal intercepts from Keyhole satellites. The missions of these new generation spy satellites are run by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and what they stealthily uncover should be, in the mindset of any reasonable person, instinctively classified. No red "Top Secret!" stamp is necessary, for it's obvious that the NGA's high-resolution optical and infrared imagery that helps the CIA and Pentagon determine what our enemies are up to should not be housed in any unsecured personal computer.
In lieu of her living through the Deutch ignominy, Hillary should have insured her computer hard drive and e-mail server were secure by inviting one of the directors of the CIA, NGA or NSA to have their agency document that the information on it did not contain even the slightest threat to national security.
But, why should she do what the rest of us would? The former First Lady understands why Deutch paid no price for his gross transgressions from national security rules and CIA protocol.
It appears that the American public senses some malfeasance here, for Hillary's honesty and trustworthiness ratings deteriorated immediately after the e-mail controversy was made public. But, like Deutch, she is skilled at wiggling out of tight spots and the truth may never come out until after the 2016 election.
1 comment:
Lots of interesting stuff, but I still find it very hard to imagine ANY SOS deliberately ignoring top secret info on his or her computer? I mean isn't that's part of the job---to safeguard secrets, not to wantonly ignore communications that clearly need to be kept secret?
Clinton recently explained that many documents are retroactively marked top secret long after their original transmission. And, she even admitted that this is a stupid practice for intelligence officials to permit, however, I find that any story that sounds to incredible to be true, is usually not true, or, is some rumor which contains bits and pieces of the real story but not the entire story. If we hear that the ACA contains provisions which allow the government to decide when and how old people must be taken off life supports, That Obama wants to make it illegal to pray at military funerals, That John Kerry deliberately shot enemies in the back (for no good reason), or that John McCain had an illegitimate black child by someone other than his wife, or even that Mitt Romney ENJOYS fireing people, you can bet someone is being a spin doctor somewhere. As I already said, how many email would a current SOS receive each day, and how long would it take her to personally screen those with no outward indications of being classified or secret? Seems like a pretty good way to ensure that our SOS has no time to take care of so many other affairs of State which undoubtedly need his or her direct involvement.
In the words of a wise American satirist, (Will Rogers?) "believe some of what you see, half of what you read, and none of what you are told," or words to that effect. A good rule of thumb is to just understand that deceptions happen on the part of those wanting to keep secrets, just as much as by those who want to create scandals. Either way, If Hillary is the nominee, I feel way more comfortable with her honesty than that of a unapologetic Jerk like Donald Trump.
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