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IG: Some Emails on Clinton's Server Were Beyond Top Secret

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I can't tell you. Because we aren't allowed to see them. Because they are classified.
Thanks, that was exactly my point. You don't know what's in the "classified" emails, but you nonetheless assert speculation and innuendo as fact. In particular, your claim that Clinton had "years of disseminating classified information" is not supported by the facts available to us. That why we need to wait for the FBI to weigh in before reaching any conclusions.

Of course, I suspect that's exactly what the RNC and its drones are afraid of. Once the FBI weighs in, the RNC's smear campaign against Clinton will collapse, just like Benghazi, the IRS, and most of their other "Huge Scandals!!!!" Wing-nut scandals are most scandalous when they aren't burdened with reality.


That appears to be sloppy reporting by CNN. I suspect they meant from Clinton's server. Here's a transcript of the actual press briefing. The relevant section begins at the third full paragraph of text, beginning with "I also want to address..." Note that Kirby does not say any of the emails originated from Clinton.

Some of the articles about this quote Diane Feinstein as asserting that none of these newly classified emails originated from Clinton. For example, from the Washington Post:
The State Department: Hillary Clinton’s email correspondence contained ‘top secret’ material
[ ... ]
Clinton’s position was supported Friday by Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, who said none of the emails in question originated with Clinton.

“It has never made sense to me that Secretary Clinton can be held responsible for email exchanges that originated with someone else,” she said in a statement. “The only reason to hold Secretary Clinton responsible for emails that didn’t originate with her is for political points, and that’s what we’ve seen over the past several months.” ...
Of course Feinstein is partisan, so you may choose to ignore her statements. If she's lying. however, she's likely to be exposed once the official investigation is released. That seems like an imprudent risk.


So we're now up to at least 33 which deserve our highest formal classification. Really want to argue that they were not considered classified at all when she sent them?
Do you really want to argue that published news stories are truly top secret, especially ones so highly publicized as our drone strikes? We've even had government officials, including the President, publicly acknowledge this program.


If so, then what is the point of having classified documents at all, if they can be sent to anyone without clearance at will until somebody gets around to reviewing them?
Beats me. It probably has something to do with your high-volume straw men generator.


Seems to me that system only protects the government from us voters knowing what they are doing,
That's certainly a frequent complaint, that government agencies misuse classifications to hide inconvenient or embarrassing information.


not from hostile governments with the resources to hack a server with amateur hour part time security. ...
Well, resources to hack a server or click on their New York Times bookmark. No secret is safe from those insidious scoundrels. And once again, we know the State Department email system has been hacked. We do not have evidence Clinton's server was hacked.
 
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I didn't work with them in that way. That being said, you appear to be referring to the nonpaper she asked to be created, which seemed perfectly fine to me.

Nonpaper is a document where headings, sources, and attributions are removed so it can be shared with another government. This means taking out all the classified info. What is your issue with that? Not trying to be snarky, but did you know what nonpaper was?

It was talking points prepared in advance for a diplomatic conference in London, iirc. They were created to be divulged at that conference anyway. She's the SoS. They're her talking points. She can do that. How they end up being transmitted to her is immaterial. They were apparently sent by secure fax, anyway.

It's.... just the same bullshit rebroadcast by the same easily manipulated believers.
 
You're doing a lot of dancing here. You claimed she should have known everything that was classified. I've asked you a very, very simple question. How would any person have that knowledge? It seems if anything you're invoking the underpants gnomes here.

'What' is classified is in most situations clearly marked and yes it all has specific procedures for handling. There are many situations though, like the ones in this case, where people are referring to classified information that's classification status is either not established or unknown at the time. You appear to think the Secretary has a magic viewfinder where she looks at things and this becomes clear, so I'm just interested to hear the details.

You appear to think of yourself as an authority on how this works so please share your knowledge.
I am very much NOT an expert. But once again, as agency head, Mrs. Clinton was THE designated authority for classifying State Department material. You have again ducked my questions about how you imagine that works, as well as ducking my question about your own supposed experience. You were the one who insisted that it is stupid to think that Mrs. Clinton was ever briefed on what is classified and what is not. Again, she was THE designated authority, being head of State. Again I ask: HOW does she know what should be classified within her own department, much less within all the other departments, unless she is regularly briefed? If that one is too difficult for your expert mind: By what authority did Mrs. Clinton avoid the briefings required at least yearly for EVERY person with such a classification?

Mrs. Clinton chose to bypass the normal State Department servers in favor of one over which she had complete control. Every single person here knows why. You guys' politically driven assertions of her ignorance and/or stupidity are laughable. Everyone knows this.

Thanks, that was exactly my point. You don't know what's in the "classified" emails, but you nonetheless assert speculation and innuendo as fact. In particular, your claim that Clinton had "years of disseminating classified information" is not supported by the facts available to us. That why we need to wait for the FBI to weigh in before reaching any conclusions.

Of course, I suspect that's exactly what the RNC and its drones are afraid of. Once the FBI weighs in, the RNC's smear campaign against Clinton will collapse, just like Benghazi, the IRS, and most of their other "Huge Scandals!!!!" Wing-nut scandals are most scandalous when they aren't burdened with reality.

That appears to be sloppy reporting by CNN. I suspect they meant from Clinton's server. Here's a transcript of the actual press briefing. The relevant section begins at the third full paragraph of text, beginning with "I also want to address..." Note that Kirby does not say any of the emails originated from Clinton.

Some of the articles about this quote Diane Feinstein as asserting that none of these newly classified emails originated from Clinton. For example, from the Washington Post:
Of course Feinstein is partisan, so you may choose to ignore her statements. If she's lying. however, she's likely to be exposed once the official investigation is released. That seems like an imprudent risk.

Do you really want to argue that published news stories are truly top secret, especially ones so highly publicized as our drone strikes? We've even had government officials, including the President, publicly acknowledge this program.

Beats me. It probably has something to do with your high-volume straw men generator.

That's certainly a frequent complaint, that government agencies misuse classifications to hide inconvenient or embarrassing information.

Well, resources to hack a server or click on their New York Times bookmark. No secret is safe from those insidious scoundrels. And once again, we know the State Department email system has been hacked. We do not have evidence Clinton's server was hacked.
Every single message from Mrs. Clinton's server is there because SHE set it up that way, regardless of whether any of the messages originated from Mrs. Clinton. Every single email message from Mrs. Clinton is FROM Mrs. Clinton; you don't get a pass on incorrectly disseminating classified information because "he started it."

You may choose to pretend that if we don't know what is in the classified messages then we don't know they are classified, but that's as laughable as it is transparent. Do we also not know a 707 exists since we don't know who is inside it? They can't be released, even redacted, because at least 33 are top secret. Not everything classified is classified top secret.

So far we've been told that ONE of the email chains is discussing a news article. Your assuming that ALL of them are such is much more of a jump than my assumption that were this the case, this kerfuffle would be over. I can't see the FBI spending months investigating chatter over a published news article, much less State classifying such conversations as top secret.
 
FBI is investigating this thoroughly. It's gonna run this course. I predict nothing will come of it, as usual. It's like Benghazi, her "killing" Vince Foster, Whitewater, etc and so on.
 
FBI is investigating this thoroughly. It's gonna run this course. I predict nothing will come of it, as usual. It's like Benghazi, her "killing" Vince Foster, Whitewater, etc and so on.
So assuming she gets away with it as we both think she shall:

Are you the next vote in favor of Hillary running the White House from her basement server?
 
So assuming she gets away with it as we both think she shall:
Are you the next vote in favor of Hillary running the White House from her basement server?

Gets away with what? FBI is investigating. If there is nothing illegal, she is not getting away with anything.
 
Has it ever been revealed which imbecile(s) allowed Clinton to even do this? Surely someone in Gov IT/Security knew about it when she was having her own box setup, which is when the stop should have been put to it - right at the beginning.

It just boggles the mind that anyone allowed this. From the overseers of Gov IT/Security, to Clinton, to anyone else involved. It's like one of those crazy things you hear about, laugh cynically at because you know no one is that dumb/careless (but in Reality you know there is, which is why it's so funny), and then, later, you actually find out it did happen, which makes it all the more crazy.

I'd love to tell our Leadership something like this:

Me: Yeah, you know those NDA, SOX, etc. we need to adhere to? Well, I want to setup my own e-mail server in my downstairs bathroom, send my work e-mail to/from there. Why? Oh, because. You're cool with that, right?

Them: 😀 Good one Chuck! Now, what are we going to tell <insert $B company> about that 10min downtime when the deployment went over the downtime window last night? And when is <xyz> program going to finish the pilot and get into Phase 1 spend?

We're all tech orientated here most likely. Is there anyone here that has worked at any serious company that had to worry about SPI/trade secrets being shared where even the suggestion of something like this would be met with a 'fart in the elevator' enthusiasm level? Anyone???
 
Has it ever been revealed which imbecile(s) allowed Clinton to even do this? Surely someone in Gov IT/Security knew about it when she was having her own box setup, which is when the stop should have been put to it - right at the beginning.

It just boggles the mind that anyone allowed this. From the overseers of Gov IT/Security, to Clinton, to anyone else involved. It's like one of those crazy things you hear about, laugh cynically at because you know no one is that dumb/careless (but in Reality you know there is, which is why it's so funny), and then, later, you actually find out it did happen, which makes it all the more crazy.

I'd love to tell our Leadership something like this:

Me: Yeah, you know those NDA, SOX, etc. we need to adhere to? Well, I want to setup my own e-mail server in my downstairs bathroom, send my work e-mail to/from there. Why? Oh, because. You're cool with that, right?

Them: 😀 Good one Chuck! Now, what are we going to tell <insert $B company> about that 10min downtime when the deployment went over the downtime window last night? And when is <xyz> program going to finish the pilot and get into Phase 1 spend?

We're all tech orientated here most likely. Is there anyone here that has worked at any serious company that had to worry about SPI/trade secrets being shared where even the suggestion of something like this would be met with a 'fart in the elevator' enthusiasm level? Anyone???
Secretaries of State have a LOT of power. They also historically get a lot of freedom, since they are often traveling and often in areas without reliable secure networks to begin with. It isn't that some imbecile told her she could, it's that very few people have the juice to tell her she couldn't.
 
[ ... ]
Mrs. Clinton chose to bypass the normal State Department servers in favor of one over which she had complete control. Every single person here knows why. You guys' politically driven assertions of her ignorance and/or stupidity are laughable. Everyone knows this.
I believe the only people here asserting Clinton is ignorant or stupid are the RNC faithful like you. And yes, your assertions are laughable.


Every single message from Mrs. Clinton's server is there because SHE set it up that way, regardless of whether any of the messages originated from Mrs. Clinton.
So you're going to once again ignore the fact that it's irrelevant that these emails were on Clinton's personal server. It would be equally an issue were they on State Department servers. Why you have so much trouble grasping such a simple fact?


Every single email message from Mrs. Clinton is FROM Mrs. Clinton; you don't get a pass on incorrectly disseminating classified information because "he started it."
Speaking of which, I just showed you that claiming Clinton disseminated classified information is unsupported by the evidence we have. You nonetheless continue to repeat this assertion. Why do you have so much trouble sticking to honest arguments?


You may choose to pretend that if we don't know what is in the classified messages then we don't know they are classified, but that's as laughable as it is transparent.
It's also a straw man, typical for you. Why do you have so much trouble accurately representing your opponents' arguments?


Do we also not know a 707 exists since we don't know who is inside it?
WTF? That makes zero sense. Are you auditioning for the, "This is your brain on drugs" ad?


They can't be released, even redacted, because at least 33 are top secret. Not everything classified is classified top secret.
Yes, and has been explained to you, again and again and again, a news article mentioning a top secret program is itself then considered top secret, even though the article is in the public realm. We know at least one of the purportedly "top secret" documents that popped up in Clinton's email was a New York Times story about a drone strike. Maybe that is technically is top secret, but it sure as hell isn't a national security threat for the Secretary of State to have such a news article in her inbox.


So far we've been told that ONE of the email chains is discussing a news article. Your assuming that ALL of them are such is much more of a jump than my assumption that were this the case, this kerfuffle would be over.
Actually, we know that at least two of her top secret emails were for news stories. This was discussed last summer, though Republicans have recycled them before the Iowa caucuses. The second story was from the Irish Times about ground forces around some town in Libya. The CIA claimed this was intel one could only glean from their highly classified satellite imagery. The Irish Times said they got the same information from sources on the ground in Libya.

But, we do NOT know that all of Clinton's "top secret" emails were news stories. We also do NOT know that they weren't. That is and always has been my point. We. Don't. Know. That includes you.


I can't see the FBI spending months investigating chatter over a published news article, much less State classifying such conversations as top secret.
Umm, how does the FBI know what's there until they investigate? Do you think before you post?
 
I am OK with her server in the White House basement. I don't have strong IT preferences.
Thank you for your honesty. Most of her ardent supporters just ignore that question.

So, tell us again. I kinda forgot with all the bullshit flying around.
So that she could exercise that complete control to make herself look better when needed, by deleting or editing the record. To control the message. Which we absolutely know she did.
1. Mrs. Clinton claimed she had turned over all work-related emails.
2. Congress has Sid Blumenthal's emails.
3. Some of Mrs. Clinton's email messages to Sid Blumenthal were not turned over and so by her own admission were destroyed. Others were turned over, but with parts edited out.

It's as simple as 1 2 3.
 
Look at the whole WikiLeaks, Snowden, etc. All leaked from highly secure government servers at places like NSA who should be number one in security? Why? Because of human factor. How many leaks from Clinton's servers? Zero.
I strongly suspect that email on her basement server is MUCH safer than storing it on State Dept servers, because it limits the amount of people with access to it.
 
Secretaries of State have a LOT of power. They also historically get a lot of freedom, since they are often traveling and often in areas without reliable secure networks to begin with. It isn't that some imbecile told her she could, it's that very few people have the juice to tell her she couldn't.

And very few were stupid enough to tell her that she couldn't use the limited tools at her disposal to do her job. The chickenshit back biters are all over it now, of course, telling her how she should have done it.
 
Thank you for your honesty. Most of her ardent supporters just ignore that question.


So that she could exercise that complete control to make herself look better when needed, by deleting or editing the record. To control the message. Which we absolutely know she did.
1. Mrs. Clinton claimed she had turned over all work-related emails.
2. Congress has Sid Blumenthal's emails.
3. Some of Mrs. Clinton's email messages to Sid Blumenthal were not turned over and so by her own admission were destroyed. Others were turned over, but with parts edited out.

It's as simple as 1 2 3.

Which, as I've pointed out, was her power and the power of her predecessors to do regardless of the server in question. As it turns out, she actually opened herself to greater scrutiny than anybody else has endured & she's holding up fine, other than in the minds of Birther/Benghazi believers. They'll believe anything confirming their own bias.
 
I believe the only people here asserting Clinton is ignorant or stupid are the RNC faithful like you. And yes, your assertions are laughable.
You are claiming she did not know the messages she received and sent should have been classified. As SecState, she was THE final legal authority on classifying information from her department. If she cannot know what material should be classified, what options are left beyond ignorant or stupid? There is no category for "intelligent and competent and clueless about her job".

So you're going to once again ignore the fact that it's irrelevant that these emails were on Clinton's personal server. It would be equally an issue were they on State Department servers. Why you have so much trouble grasping such a simple fact?
How exactly is it irrelevant? Using the State system, with every email message a classification must be selected.

Senseamp went ahead and admitted he'd be fine with President Hildabeast running the White House from private servers. Are you ready to admit the same?

Speaking of which, I just showed you that claiming Clinton disseminated classified information is unsupported by the evidence we have. You nonetheless continue to repeat this assertion. Why do you have so much trouble sticking to honest arguments?
She had numerous email chains which are classified. We absolutely know that because it has been widely reported. Email chains equal disseminated material, otherwise it wouldn't be a chain. You may argue that they SHOULD NOT have been classified, but numerous examples have been given for materials which are inherently classified from day one. Again, we are left with ignorant or stupid.

It's also a straw man, typical for you. Why do you have so much trouble accurately representing your opponents' arguments?
It is NOT a straw man. You are claiming we don't know if the messages are classified because we don't know what is in them. We DO know they are classified. We will likely NEVER know what is in most of them BECAUSE they are classified. If you know something is classified, you don't have to know what is in it to know it is classified. Everyone knows this. You too know this, else you would long ago have choked to death on your mouse or strangled yourself with your keyboard cord. If we the public can't know that a document is classified until we know what is in the document, then no one could ever be prosecuted for improperly handling or divulging classified information.

WTF? That makes zero sense. Are you auditioning for the, "This is your brain on drugs" ad?
It's an analogy. You can look it up. It's a real thing.

Yes, and has been explained to you, again and again and again, a news article mentioning a top secret program is itself then considered top secret, even though the article is in the public realm. We know at least one of the purportedly "top secret" documents that popped up in Clinton's email was a New York Times story about a drone strike. Maybe that is technically is top secret, but it sure as hell isn't a national security threat for the Secretary of State to have such a news article in her inbox.

Actually, we know that at least two of her top secret emails were for news stories. This was discussed last summer, though Republicans have recycled them before the Iowa caucuses. The second story was from the Irish Times about ground forces around some town in Libya. The CIA claimed this was intel one could only glean from their highly classified satellite imagery. The Irish Times said they got the same information from sources on the ground in Libya.

But, we do NOT know that all of Clinton's "top secret" emails were news stories. We also do NOT know that they weren't. That is and always has been my point. We. Don't. Know. That includes you.
Your point is that we've been told that TWO of her classified email chains are from news stories. Why on Earth would we have been told that TWO of her email chains are from news stories if ALL of her classified email chains are from news stories? Can you imagine for us a scenario where that even makes sense? Can you quote us some event where that happened?

Umm, how does the FBI know what's there until they investigate? Do you think before you post?
How long does it take to investigate if all her classified email chains are from news stories? Wouldn't Mrs. Clinton's many powerful Democrat supporters (including within the FBI) be demanding her immediate vindication were that the case?
 
I am very much NOT an expert. But once again, as agency head, Mrs. Clinton was THE designated authority for classifying State Department material. You have again ducked my questions about how you imagine that works, as well as ducking my question about your own supposed experience.

You've made an awful lot of very strong assertions for someone who admits they have no idea what they are talking about. Do you usually hold such strong opinions about topics you are ignorant of? If not, why is this one special?

I haven't ducked anything, you're just desperately trying to back out of your own arguments and I'm not letting you.

You were the one who insisted that it is stupid to think that Mrs. Clinton was ever briefed on what is classified and what is not.

I see we've now reached the point where you feel threatened and the usual blizzard of lies starts. Let's look at what you actually said and what I said in response:

Your "point" was that Petraeus knew which documents were classified and the Hildabeast did not. I'm pointing out that she was regularly briefed on what is and what is not classified, as a part of her job. Ergo if you maintain that she did not know, the only logical conclusion is that she is too stupid to understand her briefings.

This clearly states if there was something classified on her server that she didn't know was classified then she was too stupid to understand her briefings. Therefore, her briefings must encompass literally everything that is classified. (somewhere north of 50 million things are classified each year, btw. Must be quite a briefing!)

Wait, you actually think that the Secretary of State gets briefed on everything that is or isn't classified on a regular basis? Is this a joke? Can you describe to us what you think those briefings would look like?

Here I am calling you out for your bizarre and wildly wrong idea of what the Secretary of State would be briefed on. You will notice I never said she didn't have briefings, just that those briefings weren't even remotely close to what you were claiming they must be. This isn't complicated. Did you forget what you wrote?

Again, she was THE designated authority, being head of State. Again I ask: HOW does she know what should be classified within her own department, much less within all the other departments, unless she is regularly briefed?

She will know some of the things that are to be classified and have a broad idea of other areas that are classified. It would be impossible for one person to know everything that should be classified.

If that one is too difficult for your expert mind: By what authority did Mrs. Clinton avoid the briefings required at least yearly for EVERY person with such a classification?

As I already mentioned, nobody claimed this. Please don't repeat this lie again.

Mrs. Clinton chose to bypass the normal State Department servers in favor of one over which she had complete control. Every single person here knows why. You guys' politically driven assertions of her ignorance and/or stupidity are laughable. Everyone knows this.

I like how me telling you that you're saying ignorant and stupid things is somehow other people's fault instead of yours. You and you alone are responsible for your statements.
 
Look at the whole WikiLeaks, Snowden, etc. All leaked from highly secure government servers at places like NSA who should be number one in security? Why? Because of human factor. How many leaks from Clinton's servers? Zero.
I strongly suspect that email on her basement server is MUCH safer than storing it on State Dept servers, because it limits the amount of people with access to it.
So President Hillary should just move all the government's servers to her basement. We don't need checks and balances, we need concentration of power. We can also get rid of all those IT experts that government uses. No need for monitoring for/dealing with intrusions, it's safe in Hil's basement.
 
You are claiming she did not know the messages she received and sent should have been classified. As SecState, she was THE final legal authority on classifying information from her department. If she cannot know what material should be classified, what options are left beyond ignorant or stupid? There is no category for "intelligent and competent and clueless about her job".

At least in the case of the drone strike article it appears that the information was generated by another department. (DoD I think) Why on earth would the Secretary of State be aware of what the DoD had deemed classified just because someone emailed a news article to her?

You're right about one thing though, for your argument there are no options I can think of other than ignorant or stupid. This is why you shouldn't make strong statements about something you have functionally zero understanding of.
 
You've made an awful lot of very strong assertions for someone who admits they have no idea what they are talking about. Do you usually hold such strong opinions about topics you are ignorant of? If not, why is this one special?

I haven't ducked anything, you're just desperately trying to back out of your own arguments and I'm not letting you.

I see we've now reached the point where you feel threatened and the usual blizzard of lies starts. Let's look at what you actually said and what I said in response:

This clearly states if there was something classified on her server that she didn't know was classified then she was too stupid to understand her briefings. Therefore, her briefings must encompass literally everything that is classified. (somewhere north of 50 million things are classified each year, btw. Must be quite a briefing!)

Here I am calling you out for your bizarre and wildly wrong idea of what the Secretary of State would be briefed on. You will notice I never said she didn't have briefings, just that those briefings weren't even remotely close to what you were claiming they must be. This isn't complicated. Did you forget what you wrote?

She will know some of the things that are to be classified and have a broad idea of other areas that are classified. It would be impossible for one person to know everything that should be classified.

As I already mentioned, nobody claimed this. Please don't repeat this lie again.

I like how me telling you that you're saying ignorant and stupid things is somehow other people's fault instead of yours. You and you alone are responsible for your statements.
So please be clear for all us non-experts out here. Is your current position that Hillary DID get briefings on what is and should be classified?
 
-snip-
So you're going to once again ignore the fact that it's irrelevant that these emails were on Clinton's personal server. It would be equally an issue were they on State Department servers. Why you have so much trouble grasping such a simple fact?

Honest question: Why would it equally be an issue if the classified emails were on a State Dept server?

Isn't that where they should be?

Edit:

Section 1924 of Title 18 has to do with deletion and retention of classified documents. "Knowingly" removing or housing classified information at an "unauthorized location" is subject to a fine or a year in prison.

Possession at an "unauthorized location" appears to be (one of?) her problems.

I have heard and read of attorneys who claim to specialize in this area of law express annoyance at the "send and receive" verbiage, instead they emphasise the term "possession".

Fern
 
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So President Hillary should just move all the government's servers to her basement. We don't need checks and balances, we need concentration of power. We can also get rid of all those IT experts that government uses. No need for monitoring for/dealing with intrusions, it's safe in Hil's basement.

I know you think it's tyranny if Hillary keeps her servers in the White House basement as president, but most people don't know or care where White House email server sits.
 
I know you think it's tyranny if Hillary keeps her servers in the White House basement as president, but most people don't know or care where White House email server sits.
Honest question: Will you be willing to extend that same level of trust to President Trump or President Cruz?
 
So please be clear for all us non-experts out here. Is your current position that Hillary DID get briefings on what is and should be classified?

Of course she did. That in no way means she would have anything even remotely close to a comprehensive understanding of all the classified information she might come into contact with. That would be literally impossible.

So now that you're an admitted non-expert, can you explain to us why you've felt so comfortable deciding that the only possibilities for how Clinton could be unaware of classified information was ignorance or stupidity? Take your time if you need to.
 
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