Why Hillary’s EmailGate Matters

[Purveyor]

In casually disregarding basic security, Secretary Clinton harmed our country and helped our adversaries

By John R. Schindler • 01/28/16 11:56am

Every few days, another bombshell appears in the media illustrating just how poorly Hillary Clinton, during her tenure as our nation’s foreign policy boss, handled communications security. By now, we have a complex portrait of someone whose mishandling of our nation’s secrets, by herself and her staff, beggars belief for anyone versed in such matters. EmailGate isn’t going away, no matter how much Ms. Clinton’s supporters want it to.

The number of “unclassified” emails that turn out to be classified, some of which transited Ms. Clinton’s unencrypted server of bathroom fame, now surpasses 1,300 and may go higher still. A couple weeks ago I explained howMs. Clinton’s emails included highly classified information from the National Security Agency, based on signals intelligence about Sudan at the Top Secret Codeword level (see this for an explanation of such classifications). How they got there has yet to be explained.

We’ve since learned Ms. Clinton’s “unclassified” emails also included Top Secret information from the Central Intelligence Agency, including espionage from a compartmented Special Access Program. SAPs, as they are called in the Intelligence Community, represent “crown jewel” information. Even for holders of Top Secret Codeword clearances, the highest in the U.S. Government, access to SAPs requires special permissions, on a strict need-to-know basis.

How such highly classified information from both NSA and CIA wound up in Ms. Clinton’s personal email is a messy question that the FBI is currently unravelling. Don’t expect pretty answers. That her staff at Foggy Bottom treated classification as a nuisance is already apparent, and such guidance, which was flagrantly illegal, could only have come from “the boss.”

more...

http://observer.com/2016/01/why-hillarys-emailgate-matters/

[farleftlib]

1. Of course it matters

For someone who touts hers foreign policy experience, it's mind-boggling that she had top-secret and above top-secret email stored on a personal server. The FBI has literally hundreds of people investigating this mess and don't expect to have that wrapped up until the fall. Can you imagine what the republicans would do if the democratic nominee for president was facing charges for playing fast and loose with national security?

It's also a matter of hubris, her casual disregard for security shows abominable judgement.

[Fawke Em]

10. Not just a personal server, but a very unsecure one.

Anyone who knew first-level hacks could directly connect with that server since it didn't use an encrypted, two-factor authorized VPN.

[Uncle Joe]

2. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Purveyor.

[farleftlib]

3. Wow, can you say "compromised?"

It gets worse and worse the farther down you go. This is the first I've heard about this tidbit.

Nevertheless, the casual approach of Ms. Clinton and her staff to classified information is already abundantly clear. Cheryl Mills, her chief of staff at Foggy Bottom, was using her personal Blackberry for work, including the transmission of classified email. That alone is a crime. Then, in a move worthy of a dark comedy, Ms. Mills proceeded to lose that Blackberry. This would be a career-ender, at best, for any normal U.S. Government employee. Ms. Mills, a longtime Clinton insider, naturally suffered no penalties of any kind for this astonishing security lapse.

Of course, the loss of classified information is bound to happen when the nation’s top diplomat refuses to use government communications systems for government business, as Ms. Clinton did, intentionally rejecting State.gov email, as has been established, and her staff did the same, with awful consequences.

[EarlG]

4. And John R. Schindler's opinion should be taken seriously because...?

Conservative pundits and scholars alike have made Schindler their go-to authority on national-security matters. He’s featured regularly on conservative talker Hugh Hewitt’s popular radio show, and his blog posts are often cited in top Republican consultant Rick Wilson’s commentary. Claude Barfield, a resident scholar at AEI, points to Schindler in his writings on international trade and technology policy.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/423958/john-schindler-nsa-intelligence-analyst

[Fawke Em]

11. I'm not a right-winger and I agree with that position.

I DO work in cyber security, though, so I think I have slightly more of a handle on the issues here than Schindler or most media pundits.

[madville]

5. I don't think Hillary will get indicted

Her aides at the time on the other hand, who were producing and forwarding these emails, they have got to be sweating. Someone may have to fall on the sword.

Huma, Jake Sullivan and Cheryl Mills seem like they are the most likely to get recommended for charges at this point. No way the DOJ actually indicts Hillary though and turns the Democratic Party inside out in the process.

[VulgarPoet]

16. The party's already going inside out.

Only people I feel sorry for in the emailgate scandal are the staffers themselves... "Befehl ist befehl" will not save their careers.

[elias49]

18. I'm sure it's immaterial to Hillary who takes the fall...

as long as it isn't he.
What a doll.

[DanTex]

6. LOL. The right-wing's favorite NSA employee John Schindler? Y'all crack me up.

Tell me you're not for real.

[NCTraveler]

7. Clinton is helping our enemies. Lol

Solid stuff.

[farleftlib]

8. Wow. They're gonna have a field day with this

if, God forbid, she gets the nomination. Better get used to hearing it because it'll be on endless loop in the GE.

What a mess! I don't care how much her supporters laugh about who it comes from, this has legs.

[NCTraveler]

9. That's what a certain group keeps telling me.

I've heard it has had legs for a while. Keep us posted.

[Fawke Em]

12. A while?

The investigation just started this fall.

This isn't Benghazi.

[farleftlib]

13. So none of this ever happened?

Because if even a portion of it is true, I won't have to post anything, it'll be on blast 24/7.

[Purveyor]

15. Their not going to be able to 'wish THIS one away to the

cornfields'...

[JudyM]

14. This issue is what finally pushed me over the edge to feel the Bern.

A couple of months ago I was undecided. Leaning toward Bernie because of his bold anti-corporatism/anti-corruption platform (my core issue in the election) but still appreciating Hillary's strengths.

I believe now that I would've ended up on Bernie's side anyway, having delved deeper into his positions and history that are well-integrated and high integrity. But the day I spent reading up on her private server issue it just all came together for me vividly that Hillary seems ultimately more concerned with supporting her political aspirations than with the best interests of the country. I stopped trusting her judgment.

I hope Bernie stops giving her a pass on this now that evidence is accumulating that national security interests were in fact compromised.

[Dovidoff]

17. Sanders doesn't think so nt