Slowly, they are catching up to Hillary

Vincent J. Curtis

26 Aug 15

Slowly, the media are catching up to Hillary.  As mentioned in a previous post, Hillary was not only a consumer of classified information, she was a generator of classified information as Secretary of State.  So far, the media have only focused on the material she consumed as Secretary, not on the information she generated, such a consultation with her staff.

The item below, taken from a Foxnews report of 25 Aug 15, shows that my earlier point that a generator of classified information has a responsibility to classify the material immediately upon its generation is slowly beginning to dawn on others.

That 2009 order, EO 13526, lays out the rules for "classifying, safeguarding and declassifying national security information." It states that the authority to declassify rests with the intelligence agency that originated the information.

"Information shall be declassified or downgraded by … the official who authorized the original classification ... [or] the originator's current successor," the order says.

The practice outlined above means that the generator of classified information has the responsibility and the authority to classify it and to declassify it.  That would include the Secretary of State when she generates classified information.

How can a Secretary of State generate classified information?  Obviously, her advice to the president on topics of immediate concern are either secret or top secret.  Her consultations with staff are likewise secret or top secret regardless of their substance.  If those consultations are substantive, they show the direction of thought of the Administration on sensitive matters.  If non-substantive, they provide foreign intelligence agencies with material against which to check and cross-check codebreaking and other matters that could be tell-tale.

For example, her seemingly innocent forwarding to her staff of Sidney Blumenthal's intelligence report with the notation to "look at this" places an importance upon a document that would not otherwise have been taken seriously by a foreign intelligence agency.  It would also show that Mr. Blumenthal is a person still close to Mrs. Clinton, and a possible point of exploitation.  Feeding Mr. Blumenthal false intelligence could be a way of influencing Mrs. Clinton in future matters, especially if the intelligence seems to confirm one of her prejudices.

Thus there is no reason whatsoever for Hillary Clinton to have used a server outside of the secure system used by the U.S. government.

It is only a matter of time before the media start asking questions about the classified information she generated, as well as that she consumed.  For the moment, the possession of classified documents from other agencies may be enough to bring her down; but her generation of classified material may become a point of contention also.

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