I’ve been away from the net all day, and just was alerted to jrooth’s excellent and fair diary: A potential real problem in the Clinton emails www.dailykos.com/… Unfortunately, this diary did not get the attention and respect it deserved and has slipped into the ether of “old” diaries.
Here’s the crux of it: l
Secure fax is a pain in the ass. It’s only used when you have to, and there are no other good choices. You have something both classified and hard copy, need to get it to somebody who probably doesn’t have immediate access to a classified email system, so you struggle to make it work. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. It’s much easier to just use SIPR email, if it’s CONFIDENTIAL or SECRET, or JWICS email if it’s TOP SECRET. Classified fax is a last resort.
So, I’m less nice than jrooth, who wrote a very impartial and fair diary, and wasn’t sure exactly what it might mean. I’m nowhere near that nice. We are way over the 1200 classified email total with classified emails sent to Hillary. They have ranged from CONFIDENTIAL to TOP SECRET SI TK NOFORN. The TS messages have been reviewed and at least two seem to have been confirmed by CIA and NGA as TS, and originating in their agencies, not DoS.
Defenders of Hillary have kept bleating “But they weren’t marked!!! How was poor Hillary to know if her staff sent her classified emails and they weren’t marked?”. Well, now I don’t have to keep explaining that it doesn’t matter if they were marked or not. I don’t have to keep pointing out that she was an OCA, and received special training in recognizing classified material, and was both one of less than two dozen with that high authority and was mandated by law to receive yearly refresher training in recognizing and correctly classifying classified material. I don’t have to repeatedly link that IC IG and DoS IG have said that the material was classified when written and sent. No longer will I have to mention that it is the responsibility of everyone with a clearance to recognize classified material, even when unmarked or merely spoken, and insist it be handled properly. Those days are over. Hillary has solicited her aides to remove headings and use nonsecure email to send documents that were too difficult to send by secure fax. There are not alternate ways to explain that order/request: she was ordering her minions to break the law. Impartial people at DoJ and FBI now have no choice on the way ahead with the Clinton email controversy: if the law applies to everyone, Hillary and aides are in violation of it.
If Biden or Gore or someone else wants to jump in….now is the time. If not, the Democratic nominee for the general election will be Bernie Sanders. Flag me, argue with me, or concede the point. How I wish the smartest of you on this issue, Armando, was available to spar on this one.