Why has Congress been Allowed to Head this Investigation?
I found something shocking in researching for this article. Brace yourself. NOBODY in Congress is required to have a security clearance background check, you and I would have to have, in order to access classified material.
You read that right.
“Members of congress – even those in sensitive committee positions – do not receive or obtain security clearances in the same way that a member of the public would go about obtaining a security clearance based on job or military requirement.” Lindy Kyzer for ClearanceJobs.com, May 16, 2012
“All Members of Congress have access to intelligence by virtue of their elected positions. They do not receive security clearances per se.
Congressional staffers who require access to intelligence in connection with their official duties receive security clearances based on background investigations conducted by the FBI. They are not required to take polygraphs. As a general rule, only committee staffers receive clearances; those in Members' personal offices do not.”
So, the staffers are subject to screening, the Congresspeople ARE NOT.
Okay, but then you would think there would be rigid protocols for who and how one gets access to classified material, right? WRONG. The C.I.A C.o.I. continues:
“There are no written rules, agreed to by both branches, governing what intelligence will be shared with the Hill or how it will be handled. The current system is entirely the product of experience, shaped by the needs and concerns of both branches over the last 20 years. While some aspects of current practice appear to have achieved the status of mutually accepted "policy," few represent hard-and-fast rules. "Policy" will give way when it has to.”
WE, ordinary citizens, would ALL have to be subjected to security clearance as required in a standard SF86 (form) as follows.
“The application form, Standard Form 86—SF86 (Questionnaire for National Security Positions), requires personal identifying data, as well as information regarding citizenship, residence, education, and employment history; family and associates; and foreign connections/travel. Additionally, it asks for information about criminal records, illegal drug involvement, financial delinquencies, mental health counseling, alcohol-related incidents and counseling, military service, prior clearances and investigations, civil court actions, misuse of computer systems, and subversive activities. The number of years of information required on the form varies from question to question—many require 7 years, some require 10 years, and others are not limited to any period of time.”
Here’s the kicker, ALL STAFFERS and UNELECTED OFFICIALS are required to have a background check to get security clearance only CONGRESSPEOPLE ARE EXEMPT.
There are three security clearance levels:
Confidential
Secret
Top Secret
Congress is exempt from screening for even the lowest, ‘confidential’ level.
Everybody Who has access to Classified Material Should have Passed a Security Check
This should an ironclad requirement of all members of government sent down from the C.I.A, F.B.I and N.S.A. themselves. It shouldn’t be something that has to be passed into law by a group of people who may have something to hide. According to The Atlantic, “Sixty-eight members of Congress have been convicted of crimes while in office.” This doesn’t count what crimes might have been committed BEFORE they were elected.
Call me a cynic but I’m guessing the number of people seeking office might dramatically decline if they know they would be subjected to a security screen pending taking office.
Hell, it should be a requirement to run. That would scare off the riffraff.
It is absolutely astounding to me that a group of congresspeople who have NEVER been subject to a security check can have access to, leak and 'investigate' matters dealing with classified materials, then be able to publicly harangue people in the State department, ALL of which have been subjected to security checking.
All of the people who worked on Clinton's home server had to be screened. Every Paige and non-elected officials in government who handle classified material have to be screened.
Congress is the only entity in all this email nonsense who has never been given a even a minimal screening for trustworthiness and possibility of compromise. How are they even allowed to view classified material??? I worked designing airports and I had to have a security check ran on me. How in the wide, wide world of sh!t was this allowed to happen? This is beyond strange, it is ridiculous. This is the REAL email scandal.
The question NEVER should have been ‘why was Hillary Clinton allowed to use a home server?’. It should have been why have Trey Gowdy, other republicans and members of Congress been allowed to read and distribute and LEAK classified material WITHOUT SECURITY CLEARANCE???
And here’s another kicker that almost warrants another article. Congresspeople aren’t bound by the Freedom of Information Act. So, they are a body that can request any records they want but they are not bound by law to produce their own records.
Why in the hell is Congress privileged with all these exceptions to the rules??? This should not be something they can vote on themselves. This should be a REQUIREMENT of a transparent government that we should be able to KNOW what, why and how things are being done.
How in the WORLD can you have one group who has NEVER been screened for worthiness to even access classified material ‘investigating’ with full access to said materials of a department of the government whose every member MUST be security screened for access? Isn’t this sending exactly the opposite message the republicans have been trying to beat into us?
Isn’t this the most sloppy handling of classified material you could possibly imagine???
Congress should be bound by the same rules and be able to be held accountable just like the State Department. Nobody voted that they should be above the Law, to which, they are trying to hold us or a Secretary of State.
It’s time for Congress to be held accountable to see if they are conforming to the standards they are trying to force on others.