US declares 22 Clinton emails ‘top secret’

[Rosa Luxemburg]

oh oh!

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration confirmed for the first time Friday that Hillary Clinton’s unsecured home server contained closely guarded government secrets, censoring 22 emails with material requiring one of the highest levels of classification. The revelation comes just three days before the Iowa presidential nominating caucuses in which Clinton is a candidate.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/whitehouse/apnewsbreak-govt-finds-top-secret-info-in-clinton-emails/2016/01/29/824269a8-c6c1-11e5-b933-31c93021392a_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_clinton-emails-315pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

who let the dogs out?

[Ed Suspicious]

1. Nothing to see here. Move along. Bernie wore buttons!

[AtomicKitten]

2. I don't think there's any question she mishandled classified information.

The question is what is our government going to do about it.

My first response would be "nothing" but with Patraeus's prosecution in the recent past, all bets are off.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

5. This is coming from the Whitehouse

[AtomicKitten]

8. I'm having a hard time believing they're going to do anything about it.

This administration is big on blustery talk but not a single banker went to jail.

It's stunning she has the audacity to run for president with this looming over her. Same with Chris Christie running with the tangled mess he's in in New Jersey. It's as if they think they can do anything they want unscathed.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

10. It is awkward if one said that one would be best for the Commander in Chief job

[AtomicKitten]

11. BOOM. Excellent point.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

12. A commander in chief should be squeaky clean

look what happened when we got Dubya

[Skwmom]

21. I agree. Could the Admin setting it up to agree with her bogus "explanation"

to portray her as the victim?

"Department officials also said the agency’s Diplomatic Security and Intelligence and Research bureaus will investigate whether any of the information was classified at the time of transmission, going to the heart of one of Clinton’s primary defenses of her email practices."

Is it this agency that really has the final say? And there were other emails...

[AtomicKitten]

25. The prima facie evidence is there, but it sounds like they are moving the goalposts.

There is an email in which she instructs an aide to delete identifying headers and send classified data over the nonsecure channel. That's an order to violate the laws of handling classified material. In the real world, that is pretty damning. I suspect TPTB are butting heads over what to do about it. Watch this space.

[HereSince1628]

35. What do you think the deep government wants? HRC fighting the socialist tax-raiser, or

HRC being indicted?

This is problem with an obvious solution.

[Skwmom]

43. I will thanks. But I still think this is intended to help her play the victim of the Republicans

card. They've always had her back.

[Skwmom]

66. This is not about evidence. This is about manipulating public opinion for the Iowa vote. n/t

[Fairgo]

3. There must be an explanation

I was assured that no such thing was possible.

[cali]

4. How can her supporters not see that this is toxic?

[Fairgo]

6. We will have that answer shortly

Someone call the nurse! The Patient is in De-fib!

[Rosa Luxemburg]

18. no smoke without fire

[Fumesucker]

19. Nurse Jackie to the ER, stat!

[Fairgo]

23. There may be second degree Berns as well!

I know its a bit tangential, but I may not get a chance to use that pun again.

[progressoid]

14. Yep. This is going to be a problem.

Her guilt or innocence doesn't really matter at this point. The suspicion alone is going to hurt.

[arcane1]

15. Instead, they call Sanders a commie and say "But this is what repubs will do to him!" n/t

[frylock]

30. Can't see what you don't want to.

[deathrind]

7. Hmmm...

No wonder the alleged misused letterhead and union kerfuffel were being pushed so hard against Sanders.

[frylock]

31. No doubt. That all came out of nowhere..

and now we know why.

[Matariki]

9. Uh oh.

This spin should be interesting to watch

[Jarqui]

13. This story has legs

It's going like a brush fire

Lots of comments of condemnation of Hillary below the articles on mainstream news sites.

[Warren DeMontague]

16. LA LA LA LA LA LAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[beam me up scottie]

17. Whoops! There goes the Buttongate scandal.

[ejbr]

49. !

[Skwmom]

20. Is the Dept setting it up to agree with her bogus explanation

to portray her as the victim?

"Department officials also said the agency’s Diplomatic Security and Intelligence and Research bureaus will investigate whether any of the information was classified at the time of transmission, going to the heart of one of Clinton’s primary defenses of her email practices."

Is it this agency that really has the final say?

[Dreadpirate]

22. For the public good Hillary, say goodnight

First post on this site. Decided to get more political since I started feeling the Bern.

If the email issue is true or fabricated. A regular person would, at a minimum, lose their security clearance until further review based on what is currently been announced.

If there was any SAP "special access programs" stuff in her emails "which the insiders are hinting at" a normal person would already be sitting in a cell.

Hillary, even though I am no fan, was my backup if Bernie crashes.

Believe she should just drop out now though. All she can do is hurt Bernie's chances and we end up getting Trumped.

I thought the whole email issue was just bull. Does not matter now if it is fabricated or real. She's done.

[farleftlib]

24. Welcome

She won't bow out gracefully or otherwise. I just hope this is enough she won't have a say.

[thereismore]

32. Never had a chance to welcome someone's first post. Welcome. nt

[ms liberty]

52. Welcome to DU, Dreadpirate -arrrgghh! n/t

[Metric System]

26. They weren't classified at the time they were sent, which is what we've heard all along.

[randys1]

28. Dont intefere with the celbration here that the LEADING DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE is being

talked about in a negative way.

They want to celebrate, I bet we have to let them if we want to continue our posting privileges.

[2pooped2pop]

33. They said it didn't matter if they were marked or not

But that some areas have a standing classification of classified. (Per one of Sunday shows)Plus there is that email instructing her aides to remove the classification markings so they could be sent through her personal server.

Also, I wonder how one knows if email they have not yet received will be classified? Or not? So surely she did at least receive emails that should never have been on an unprotected server. Anyone else would be doing time even if nothing was classified. She will surely be handing the POTUS job to Trump if she is the nom. They will make Benghazi look like a pat on the back compared to this.

Should she actually get elected, they will basically shut down government for her impeachment trials.

Even IF no classified emails were ever sent she has already screwed it up with her poor "experienced" judgement.

It's a disaster.

[Metric System]

36. Your concerns are noted, Sanders supporter.

[2pooped2pop]

40. "Your concerns are noted" = we can't even try to deny that

[Metric System]

41. Your post is full on conjecture. What is there to deny or counter?

[2pooped2pop]

42. My post States the obvious.

You cannot counter it.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

44. Irrelevant. Classified info is classified even if not marked as such.

[Metric System]

45. Even if it's retroactively classified?

[Nuclear Unicorn]

48. Let's not insult one another.

[Metric System]

50. I guess you've never heard of it.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

51. I have and it's the sort of pointless parsing that doesn't make one iota of difference.

[catnhatnh]

57. That is what Clinton alleges

When 100 FBI agents are on your case it means they do not accept what you are alleging...

[randys1]

27. Dont celebrate the destruction of the leading candidate for the Democratic Party just

yet, as much as some want to do.

[frylock]

29. I don't see a problem, so long as no organizational logos had been misappropriated..

Now that would be terribly disappointing and unethical.

[Autumn]

46. Indeed, almost criminal.

[jillan]

34. This is never going away, is it?

Hillary needs to recuse herself. If she becomes the President this will still be hanging over her head.

[Renew Deal]

38. If she becomes president, this is a non-story.

But it could keep her from becoming president.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

47. I have a sneaking suspicion Obama doesn't want to have to confront the unenviable task of

having to prosecute a former administration official. If I were the President and it looked like this had legs it would be better to undermine the former colleague in the hopes that the primary voters do the dirty work instead. Once the primary is lost punishment has been rendered, the opposition has its scalp and hopefully things can go back status quo ante.

[Renew Deal]

37. The story is getting traction.

[libdem4life]

39. I'm going to bet the Impeachment group of Republicans has already had their first meeting.

My own perspective is that we don't know it all, and there are those who know a hell of a lot more than we do.

But she knows she is gambling with a Republican...god help us President Cruz ...who awaits his coronation. That's inexcusable. Thus, Bernie bails us out.

[BellaKos]

53. Please, take a cold hard look.

Can we take the rose-colored glasses off now? The issue is quite simple.

1. Hillary deliberately set up a private server in her own home to handle government business. This was not only against regulations, it was against the law.
2. There is an ongoing FBI investigation concerning this (and other issues).
3. More than one person, entity, and government agency have confirmed that not only were there confidential, sensitive, secret, top secret, top secret SCI emails on this server, but also there were top secret SCI/SAP emails on the server. For someone given the responsibility of being allowed the see/read classified material, negligence in regard to the proper handling of such material is no excuse. No excuse. It is a crime under Title 18.

The question now is how does Loretta Lynch handle the indictment that the FBI WILL submit to the Justice Department. Also, when will she be officially informed?

That's all there is to it. All the rhetoric from the campaigns, the punditry, the bloggers, and the general public means nothing. First of all, the issue is difficult to understand unless you have both an IT background along with experience in the Intel World. And for those who have that kind of expertise and knowledge, there is no question that Hillary should be indicted.

Furthermore, a decent, honorable person of integrity who has a genuine concern for her party and her country would suspend her campaign until this matter is fully settled.

[awake]

54. Well said

This now about not letting Hillary's actions bring down the whole party and if someone is not ready to back Bernie then get behind some one else.

[winter is coming]

63. All true, but I don't see HRC suspending her campaign until there's an indictment.

And perhaps not even then. I just wish the Justice Department would go ahead and indict her if they're going to indict her. Which they should, but "should" and "will" don't always coincide in DC.

[DCBob]

55. Still a minor issue since none were marked as classified when they were sent/received.

The media loves this stuff since it grabs eyeballs but in reality its much ado about nothing.

[SunSeeker]

56. ALL 22 emails were also already sitting on the unclassified State Dept.email system..

This is CIA overclassification. One of the emails involves the forwarding of a newspaper story about a US government drone program. Even though the news story was available to millions of people, the CIA still wanted it classified secret for purposes of withholding it in the FOIA production the State Department is doing per various FOIA request, including the Benghazi committee.

As Congressman Adam Schiff (one of the few people who has actually seen these emails) said today, this is taken out of context and is a lot less serious than people are portraying. He gave the example of the forwarding of a news story when he spoke about this on one of Fox's Sunday news shows last week. And all of the emails at issue were already sitting on an unclassified server at the State Department.

The same thing happened with Condoleezza Rice's email when the State Department had to respond to FOIA requests for them. It is a routine thing that reflects an agency turf battle over classification.

[BellaKos]

58. Obviously, you have had no eperience in the Intel World.

Your argument -- which is what the Hillary campaign is trying to put forth -- doesn't matter according to the law.

First, the notion that "all of the emails were sitting on an unclassified server at the State Department" can't be true. And this assertion reveals the level of obfuscation that is being deliberately put forth by Clinton surrogates. It serves her interests for people to be ill-informed and therefore, confused about this matter.

Also, no one in government has sent classified information on a *private server* which is far different from using a private email account for unclassified or even sensitive communication.

Granted, there may be a turf battle among the agencies which might be of interest if Hillary had used the classified servers and other devices available to her as required by law in the first place. If, for instance, she had sent a classified email by mistake via her private server account, then she could have used the turf battle as an excuse.

But the issue is that *all* of her State Department email was sent through an unsecured server. And if that would have been limited to confidential, sensitive, secret, or even occasional top secret material, then she could possibly wiggle out of that level of law-breaking. But that's not the case. Not only was top secret material sent with regularity, but also there were top secret SCI and top secret SCI/SAP emails found. And unless you have experience in the Intel World, you cannot possibly grasp how very, very, very serious that is. And Hilliary, as a former First Lady and Senator, surely understood the profound gravity of handling information at that level of classification.

[SunSeeker]

59. None of this was marked classified at the time it was sent.

Nor was it labeled top secret nor "top secret SCI/SAP." No amount of "experience in the Intel World" changes that fact. Hillary did not break any laws. She is not even the target of an investigation.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

60. Are you in a position to say that?

[SunSeeker]

61. That is what the people who have actually seen these emails have said.

Are you in a position to dispute that?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

62. I thought that you may work for the government?

[BellaKos]

64. Doesn't matter.

If one is given the responsibility to see/read classified material, that person is responsible for it -- regardless of the markings. And at the level of Secretary of State, Hillary is knowledgeable enough to be able to discern if a message is classified and at which level.
And although as Secretary, she had the authority to classify information herself, she did NOT have the authority to declassify a message sent from one of the Intel agencies. Those messages are classified at the source and only the originator can declassify that material.

As I've said earlier, it serves the interest of her campaign to obfuscate this issue. Not only does one have to have an understanding of Information Technology to grasp the complicated IT issues, but also one has to have some experience in Intel to grasp how very serious exposing top secret SCI and top secret SCI/SAP is. She's banking on the ignorance of the public to lawyer-speak her way through this. She's also banking on getting enough delegates to have some leverage when the FBI issues its report to Loretta Lynch, which would make Lynch's decision all the more difficult because of the political ramifications.

The problem for the party is that Hillary pushed other potential candidates out of the way early on, so there is no one left other than Bernie. Had that not happened, the Democrats might have had other candidates running by now.

All the lawyer-speak and pontificating and tall taking don't matter at this point. So, hang on. As Bette Davis once said, "Fasten your seatbelts. It's gonna' be a bumpy night."

[felix_numinous]

65. Nominating someone with too many issues

will put the Democratic Party on the defense. There will be ENDLESS INVESTIGATIONS, and it is selfish to hold not only our party but the whole country hostage taking care of past mistakes instead of the pressing issues of the presidency!

I respect everyone who follows Hillary Clinton, but her candidacies and career has been spent having to explain her actions, putting the focus on her, and burdening her followers and representatives to interpret and iron out her conflicts for her. Too much energy, MONEY and TIME will be spent defending her--period.

Nominating her would put the Democratic party on a DEFENSIVE FOOTING-- giving the crazy fascist Republicans the upper hand. America cannot afford this kind of risk, our very future is at stake.