Has anybody considered how beneath the Office of Secretary of State this Email ‘Scandal’ Is?
I’ve been a bit mystified by one thing for a while, so I decided to do some checking. I looked up the Secretary of State’s duties and responsibilities. For your convenience, I have attached them:
“Duties and responsibilities (of the Sec. of State)
The specific duties of the Secretary of State include:[6]
- Organizes and supervises the entire United States Department of State and the United States Foreign Service
- Advises the President on matters relating to U.S. foreign policy, including the appointment of diplomatic representatives to other nations, and on the acceptance or dismissal of representatives from other nations
- Participates in high-level negotiations with other countries, either bilaterally or as part of an international conference or organization, or appoints representatives to do so. This includes the negotiation of international treaties and other agreements
- Responsible for overall direction, coordination, and supervision of interdepartmental activities of the U.S. Government overseas
- Providing information and services to U.S. citizens living or traveling abroad, including providing credentials in the form of passports and visas
- Ensures the protection of the U.S. Government to American citizens, property, and interests in foreign countries
- Supervises the United States immigration policy abroad
- Communicates issues relating the United States foreign policy to Congress and to U.S. citizens
The original duties of the Secretary of State include some domestic duties, such as:[7]
- Receipt, publication, distribution, and preservation of the laws of the United States
- Preparation, sealing, and recording of the commissions of Presidential appointees
- Preparation and authentication of copies of records and authentication of copies under the Department's seal
- Custody of the Great Seal of the United States
- Custody of the records of the former Secretary of the Continental Congress, except for those of the Treasury and War Departments”
Link to Wikipedia, United States Secretary of State
Now, you may have noticed nowhere in there does it say ‘Acts as Maven of Email and Internet Security’. Do you know why?
IT IS NOT THE SECRETARY OF STATE’S JOB!!!
I speak to you as someone with some experience handling, receiving and distributing classified material over the internet. I was part of the national effort to implement the Aviation and Transportation Security Act of 2001, which was termed ‘the largest security effort in the history of United States’ in our briefings.
We worked to make sure enhanced security measures were incorporated in all of our nation’s airports by the December 31, 2002 deadline. During that time I received sensitive materials, emails and other correspondence via the system’s server, my cellphone, my laptop and my desktop at home. At no time was I ever called out for inappropriate email use or opening up a possibility of having information hacked, because, you guessed it...
IT WAS NOT MY JOB.
My job was to manage my team, prepare the documents, conduct the meetings, interface with the various airport’s managers, TSA Federal Security Directors, security personnel and local and national government officials and make sure we hit all of our deadlines. My job was to ensure the traveling public, both U.S. and international, had the utmost security which could be afforded them. My job was to help ensure all our nation’s airports had enhanced security by the final deadline.
It was the I.T. department’s job to make sure the internet correspondence and system were secure. They were trained to do this. It was their responsibility to do this and there was AN ENTIRE DEPARTMENT DEVOTED TO THIS ONE CONCERN.
I can only imagine there was a similar setup in the State Department, seeing as it is one of the largest departments in our federal government. I’m sure they’ve got an I.T. department. Heck, there’s probably several of ‘em.
You’ve seen the list of Secretary of State’s duties and responsibilities and yes, I’ll grant the most anally retentive of you, the first line reads, “Organizes and supervises the entire United States Department of State and the United States Foreign Services’ but any SANE person would interpret that to mean administering to the duties associated with the position and not being responsible for the ordering of every paper clip, making sure the coffee machine is filled and personally overseeing internet security.
And when Hillary Clinton wanted to use her husband, ex-PRESIDENT Bill Clinton’s email, which is quite secure by the way, it should be the I.T. department’s job to make it safe or check that is was up to their standards. Hillary Clinton didn’t hide her intention to use the server nor was it illegal for her to do so.
"A State Department spokeswoman says Hillary Clinton did not break any rules by relying solely on her personal email account. Federal law allows government officials to use personal email so long as relevant documents are preserved for history."
'Fact Check: Hillary Clinton, Those Emails And The Law', NPR
The Clinton’s server wasn’t set up by the ‘Geek Squad’ or the guy that fixes the paper jams in the office, it was set up by professionals trained in government level Internet security, as it should be.
'How to Set Up a Clinton-Style Home Email Server', The Atlantic
It has been established Hillary Clinton wasn’t breaking any rules by ‘taking work home’. There is no indication her home server was hacked. No, full-time international jagoff and part-time ‘whistle-blower’, Julian Assange, didn’t get the emails he keeps bragging about and threatening to help get Trump elected with, through hacking. Those came from a ‘Freedom of Information Act’ request. But even if he had, that would not be the fault of then Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.
Wikileaks: Hillary Clinton Email Archive
In my mind it has been admirable that Hilary Clinton has stepped up and bore the brunt of this transparent, small minded and wasteful attempt to create a scandal for political gain but it should have been nipped in the bud. It is shameful that this farce has been aided and abetted at every step by corporate news media. And as usual the republicans show gross disrespect for our United States government’s institutions by attempting to redefine the Secretary of State’s duties to include maintenance issues that heretofore have been the purview of a staffer. They don’t care they may have permanently sandbagged the Office of Secretary of State by creating an unnecessarily rigid communication protocol which may prevent the Office from responding as quickly as they might in an emergency. They have done all of this for strictly partisan reasons as part of their 25 year long vendetta against the Clintons and they don’t give a damn if, in their quest to stick it to the Clintons, they permanently tarnish and handicap the Office of Secretary of State.
The State Department is huge, comprised of 13,000 Foreign Service employees 11,000 Civil Service employees 45,000 Foreign Service local employees with an annual budget of $65.9 billion and 294 embassies and offices all over the world.
As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton was the top managerial position, overseeing the top level issues of said organization. Not minding the inner workings of an entire I.T. department which was dedicated to internet security issues, not second guessing the security protocols they had in place.
She actually had important things to do, like responding to embassy terrorism threats and attacks without sufficient funds to do so, due to the republicans cutting embassy security, being grilled by the same republicans when an embassy attack did happen, in part, due to insufficient funding they had championed, ‘participating in high-level negotiations with other countries, either bilaterally or as part of an international conference or organization’, ‘Advising the President on matters relating to U.S. foreign policy, including the appointment of diplomatic representatives to other nations, and on the acceptance or dismissal of representatives from other nations’ and overseeing the insertion of a bullet into the eye of Osama Bin Laden.
You know, matters of State.
Sunday, Sep 11, 2016 · 8:30:02 AM +00:00 · jburtonprod
Okay, obviously I’ve assumed something was common knowledge that isn’t. EVERY computer network has ‘permissions’ built into them. The tech gets a list of who gets what clearance. That way there is no possibility of ‘mishandling’ anything. Likewise restricted email can get another level encryption. No mishandling can happen. criminal or otherwise. ALL solved by the I.T. department DOING THEIR JOBS, so the Sec. of State can do theirs. And if the State Department didn’t have this setup, as I’m almost sure they have, it would be the I.T. department’s problem and their mistake. NOT THE SECRETARY OF STATE’S.