At least one of the emails on Hillary Clinton's private server contained extremely sensitive information identified by an intelligence agency as "HCS-O," which is the code used for reporting on human intelligence sources in ongoing operations, according to two sources not authorized to speak on the record.
Both sources are familiar with the intelligence community inspector general's January 14 letter to Congress, advising the Oversight committees that intelligence beyond Top Secret -- known as Special Access Program (SAP) -- was identified in the Clinton emails, as well the supporting documents from the affected agencies that owned the information and have final say on classification.
According to a December 2013 policy document released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence: "The HSC-0 compartment (Operations) is used to protect exceptionally fragile and unique IC (intelligence community) clandestine HUMINT operations and methods that are not intended for dissemination outside of the originating agency."
It is not publicly known whether the information contained in the Clinton emails also revealed who the human source was, their nationality or affiliation.
Dan Maguire, former Special Operations strategic planner for Africom, told Fox News the disclosure of sensitive material impacts national security and exposes U.S. sources.
"There are people's lives at stake. Certainly in an intel SAP, if you're talking about sources and methods, there may be one person in the world that would have access to the type of information contained in that SAP," he said.
It is not known what the impact was on the source, nor the findings of a damage assessment by the agency that controlled the source.
Separately, Fox News has learned that the so-called "spillage" of classified information is greater than the "several dozen" emails identified in the January 14 letter to Congress, which also acknowledged for the first time, that the Clinton emails contained intelligence beyond Top Secret, also known as Special Access Programs (SAPs).
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/22/2016 16:06 ||
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[RCP] The latest release of Hillary Clinton emails entails real risks for her, churning just beneath the surface of her successful primary campaign. True, Democratic voters have shown little interest, and the mainstream media only a bit more. Their focus, when they do look, is on the number of documents now considered classified, their foreign-policy revelations, and the political damage they might cause. These are vital issues, but Clinton faces a far bigger problem. She and her closest aides could be indicted criminally.
Secretary Clinton is exposed twice over. First, she used an unsecured, home-brew server to send and store reams of classified materials. Second, in her official capacity, she worked closely with major donors to the Clinton Foundation. Each poses legal risks, with potential ramifications for the Democratic frontrunner, her party, and the Obama administration.
To understand the gravity of these issues, it is important to recognize that this is not just an "email scandal." It is an "email + server + foundation" scandal." Secretary Clinton didn't just send sensitive (and now-classified) emails over open lines, she stored them on private servers that didn't meet the government's cyber-security standards for sensitive documents. On its face, retaining classified materials in such vulnerable settings is a criminal violation. Senior intelligence officials have been charged for less -- far less. Storing some 1,300 classified documents on a personal server, and doing it for years, poses a special problem because it shows the mishandling was not inadvertent. It was Clinton's standard operating procedure.
#2
I again ask the question: I have never been able to determine if there are limits on the ability of a President to pardon, Can he just wave a wand and an entire class of people be excused from criminal conduct? Illegal aliens, all black drug criminals, every member of the US government, all the members of the Democratic Party? Surely there must be some limiting factor beyond shame, cause this jackass doesn't know the meaning of the word!
[NEWSBUSTERS.ORG] Appearing on Wednesday's At This Hour with Berman and Bolduan on CNN to discuss the latest revelations that some of the email on former Secretary of State's server was considered highly classified, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin ended up downplaying her culpability in her behavior as he asserted that she was "suffering from" the tendency of government agencies to "overclassify" information.
Toobin: "She is now suffering from that because people are saying there's all this classified information she's dealing with, but there is not a bright line between classified and unclassified, and you can see, at least to a certain extent, why she was not clear on what was what."
There's actually a pretty bright line between classified and unclassified in almost all cases. I recall a particular conversation years ago that involved a guy telling his wife he had to work, after he'd had a conversation with his mistress telling her he'd be there for the holiday. The conversation itself was crap, but its classification level was way above routine top secret because of the way it had been obtained.
After Toobin explained that, even if classified information was not marked as classified, she could still be prosecuted if she should have known it was classified, co-host Kate Bolduan followed up:
And that question almost depends on who you're talking to. I suppose it might, if you're talking to some dimwit like her who'd never produced nor handled classified information.
Because when you talk to the Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as For a good time at 3 a.m. call Hillary and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Tallyrand ... campaign, they point out that this kind of gets to the heart of where this has been dispute between the State Department and the intelligence community over what was classified and what should have been classified at what point. I mean, this really gets into the weeds. Only if you're smoking them. In the Army we had Army Regulations that laid it all out pretty clearly, in tedious detail, in fact. Within the government there are pretty straightforward regulations, even in the State Department.
At the end of the day, I'm left wondering who's going to decide. Who gets to decide?
Federal lawmakers, for startsies, then the heirarchies within the organizations, in coordination with other branches of the intelligence community, probably under the guidance of the DCI. We're not talking about obscure, dusty tomes dating to Oliver Cromwell's time. We're talking about well-established federal law (Hillary's a lawyer, right?) as maintained, modified, and regularly updated, even under the Obama regime.
The CNN legal analyst called the overclassification of information a "minor but real scandal" as he began his response:
Well, the FBI is going to decide if she's prosecuted. I mean, ultimately, that's the decision I think everybody cares about. I mean, one of the, you know, minor but real scandals in the U.S. government has been for decades is that people overclassify things, is that a lot of information that is not all that sensitive is treated as classified.
State Department cables are seldom unclassified. Intelligence analysis (end product) seldom is, and then almost always after redaction. Raw intelligence information never is. Pretty simple rules to live by, eh?
He then suggested an excuse for Clinton as he added:
She is now suffering from that because people are saying there's all this classified information she's dealing with, but there is not a bright line between classified and unclassified, and you can see, at least to a certain extent, why she was not clear on what was what.
'Splain that to a federal prosecutor who's not been dropped on his or her head.
Bolduan recalled the Clinton spin as she concluded the segment:
Even if it's not legally clear, we'll see what the political ramifications are with all of this coming out. And definitely the campaign has been pointing out, they believe this is an inspector general with an axe to grind, is kind of the way they're pointing to it.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
I wonder if Petraus' lawyers considered this angle.
#4
Oh, there is a 'bright line', alright. Hilly doesn't have to follow the rules for the stamp on the cover of the document. She gets to make her own rules, and the compliant MSM get to explain her rules.
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/22/2016 7:55 Comments ||
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#5
I have recently realized how she can defend herself - insist that only people who have security clearance for each classified document which MIGHT be on her server can be allowed to search for them. Otherwise if they found one they wouldn't be allowed to see it or tell anyone they found it. Sounds like an appropriately Clintonian defense, right?
...which is, to the discerning, proof positive of where he actually ranks.
[DAILYCALLER] Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who served during the B.O. regime, has turned into a harsh critic of the president, saying that Barack Obama The point I was making was not that Grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn’t. But she is a typical white person... always thinks he's the smartest person in the room.
Gates also bashed Obama for bringing on advisers who do little else but constantly agree with his proposals, fostering a group-think environment where dissenting opinion essentially does not exist, The Free Beacon reports. In other words, there are no "strong" people around the president. And when there is dissent, Obama tries to crush it. Back in October, Politico reported that Obama's advisers urged him to deal with Syria more aggressively, but the president refused to listen to advice. Now, the administration has been forced to acquiesce to Russian demands that Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... remain in power. Additionally, Russian Arclight airstrikes, which have proved to be far more effective than U.S. strikes, continue to stomp on the B.O. regime's foreign policy objectives.
"You know, the president is quoted as having said at one point to his staff, 'I can do every one of your jobs better than you can,'" Gates told Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC's Morning Joe, on Tuesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2016 00:00 ||
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#4
Gatesalso bashed Obama for bringing on advisers who do little else but constantly agree with his proposals, fostering a group-think environment where dissenting opinion essentially does not exist,
Interesting, coming from a Bush administration hold-over, and intelligence professional who should have made a very early assessment of the Champ and found employment elsewhere.
#5
should have made a very early assessment of the Champ and found employment elsewhere.
Alternate theory- he made his assessment, and decided to hang on in a vain effort to minimize the damage to the country & 'stupid proof' his area of responsibility.
#7
Alternate theory- he made his assessment, and decided to hang on in a vain effort to minimize the damage to the country & 'stupid proof' his area of responsibility.
Posted by Nguard
I'll accept your alternate theory, but there's still the question of timing.
#10
Actually it says far more about the people he surrounds himself with. His ego can't stand having smarter people around. Thus the calamity that entailed.
Part of excellent leadership is identifying men/women who can do the job better and focusing and coordinating their efforts.
[NYPOST] The new documentary about Carlos Danger's ill-fated mayoral campaign was chopped to remove scenes showing Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as For a good time at 3 a.m. call Hillary and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Al Haig ... 's team urging wife Huma Abedin to dump her sexting-obsessed husband, according to a new report.
The movie, meant to document Danger's redemptive run for office after resigning his House seat in a sexting scandal, ended up chronicling embarrassing revelations of Danger's online flirting.
"When we started this, we thought this could be a remarkable comeback story, but obviously things took an unexpected turn," filmmaker Elyse Steinberg told the Hollywood Reporter.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
"Dump him". If Hillary had taken her own advice...
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/22/2016 6:32 Comments ||
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A Carlos Danger link to the FBI's 'Operation Playpen' could provide an added dimension. Elyse Steinberg, please take note.
[Breitbart] The price tag for implementing President Obama's executive gun controls is $80 million, Attorney General Loretta Lynch declared during her January 20 testimony before the Senate Appropriations subcommittee.
Lynch said the administration will begin pushing for the money in Obama's 2017 budget request, due next month, according to ABC News,
She's already meeting some opposition. "This subcommittee will have no part in undermining the Constitution and the rights that it protects," subcommittee chairman Senator Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) told Lynch.
[Breitbart] According to Gohmert, Trump could be saying what he needs to say to win and that he could go back on those remarks and disappoint. How extraordinary, something we seldom see in politics. Thank you, Louie, for this tantalizing insight.
#4
Gohmert is one of the few people who is conservative after arriving in DC. He is also going to be one of the few who will vote against impeachment if Trump or Cruz win. The "Establishment" will be working hard to "trump up" some high crimes and misdemeaner charges before the next mid-terms. Welcome to 33 A.D.
Posted by: Unelet Protector of the Sith2424 ||
01/22/2016 9:31 Comments ||
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#5
Picture Bill Clinton but with a wall on the border. That's Trump.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
At least one of the emails on Hillary Clinton's private server contained extremely sensitive information identified by an intelligence agency as "HCS-O," which is the code used for reporting on human intelligence sources in ongoing operations, according to two sources not authorized to speak on the record.
Hillary Clinton
[DAILYCALLER] Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who served during the 
Hillary Clinton
