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Who would you say holds the MOST top secret in US?

Zeze

Zeze

Lifer
This got me wondering... definitely not President as he's just a figurehead politician that comes and goes every 4 years.

Who would that be? Director of FBI? Director of CIA? Someone else entirely?
 
I've wondered about that. Having a security clearance is not a requirement for being president. Yet access is restricted to people who have a clearance and a need to know. The president definately has a need to know. Maybe he has the authority to issue an executive order that supercedes the law or regulation in place so he can get access.
 
Security clearance and need to know are two different things. Also, the DoD and the DoE have different security clearance hierarchies.

You and I can get a DoD/DoE 'highest security clearance' if we had a job that warranted it. That doesn't mean we could just walk into the Pentagon and have a chat with an official about today's top secret events.
 
This man.

ali2.jpg
 
Rastus said:
I've wondered about that. Having a security clearance is not a requirement for being president. Yet access is restricted to people who have a clearance and a need to know. The president definately has a need to know. Maybe he has the authority to issue an executive order that supercedes the law or regulation in place so he can get access.
Click to expand...
The President has the power to classify and declassify.
 
arcenite said:
Security clearance and need to know are two different things. Also, the DoD and the DoE have different security clearance hierarchies.

You and I can get a DoD/DoE 'highest security clearance' if we had a job that warranted it. That doesn't mean we could just walk into the Pentagon and have a chat with an official about today's top secret events.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Even if you have the clearance high enough to learn certain things you aren't supposed to be given information unless you absolutely need to know.
 
Bignate603 said:
Exactly. Even if you have the clearance high enough to learn certain things you aren't supposed to be given information unless you absolutely need to know.
Click to expand...

Correct. Many assume the president knows everything but unless he has a need to know he isn't told.

My guess would be the heads of the NSA and CIA.
Security in the USA relies on compartments so that no one person knows everything.
 
Balt said:
I would guess the NSA.
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I was thinking the same thing, or perhaps the National Reconnaissance Office. It's probably the latter.

Take your pick: The 16 U.S. Intelligence Agencies

The first official acknowledgement of NRO was a Senate committee report in October 1973, which inadvertently exposed the existence of the NRO. In 1985, a New York Times article revealed details on the operations of the NRO. The existence of the NRO was declassified on September 18, 1992, by the Deputy Secretary of Defense, as recommended by the Director of Central Intelligence.
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Yeah, I'm sticking with the NRO for now. D:
 
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