The FBI has said that all of her private/personal emails that she did not send to the govt archives to be archived, were NOT wiped off of her server and they have had them in their hands for review since last August, when her lawyer turned over her server to the FBI....if she was trying to hide something in her personal affairs, the govt has it all....EVERYONE KNEW she was using her own server...any one who worked with her, anyone who ever emailed her, everyone she had ever emailed KNEW she was using a private server. IT WAS NEVER A SECRET, the State dept discussed it openly before it was even set up....there was never anything secretive about it....there are emails released on an FOIA that shows the State Dept was also well aware, besides the fact that her email address shows that she was using a private server.I do understand that they weren't marked classified at the time, and the classified classification is uneccasarily thrown on the most ridiculous bits of info by the government (which is a whole different topic). But the four emails they mention I believe are considered top secret, a much higher level than classified. Granted top secret after the fact, but still top secret. Essentially the highest classification level, very sensitive info. While it's possibly she could not have forseen this, someone in her position should have definitely known. And from testimony I have been hearing from other government employees is that had this been them, they'd certainly be fired and probably be facing trial. Which is my biggest issue with the email situation. Along with the higher your posistion in office, the less privacy you should have in your work life, IMO. Being you are a PUBLIC SERVANT, and not only responsible with immense amounts of tax dollars, but also lives. So the whole personal server thing irks me a lot as well
Dear sakinago and 320 Years of History
I am thanking your posts as "informative" since you are going through the trouble of trying to cite exact sources and clarify what has been verified or not.
I am still told that there WERE emails marked as TOP SECRET and higher.
I was told to "research the internet" to find this, so I will try, but may need your help.
Are you sure there are no sources online confirming some emails/information WERE marked as "TOP SECRET or higher' and "this is why the information is being withheld".
I see from your posts that some INFORMATION in the emails is classified and is still being treated as such.
So that already tells me this was not safe to use emails for that.
At the very least, this is reckless and poor judgment to use private hackable email for any state business dealing with national security/defense.
I can understand personal emails for events like state dinners, where people might share personal information about people they know personally when planning social events.
But for anything involving issues of defense, security, and purely govt business, I don't care who did what before, that should clearly be on govt emails and servers so it is
ACCOUNTABLE to the govt and public and Freedom of Information requests can be applied to it.
People at "regular businesses" make mistakes all the time of mixing business with personal emails.
That DOES cause problems with companies when something goes wrong, and it is both personal
and affecting professional relations and responsibility.
For Govt business and especially when Defense/Security issues are involved,
Clinton and others should apply a higher standard, and they should know this.
Even if "other people" mixed personal emails before, I can understand that for
govt related "social events" and non-proprietary issues.
But CANNOT understand this for things that are even RELATED to classified/security sensitive matters.
Even if the actual information "may not have been classified" if the MATTER has some classified and
some not, then it is dangerous to start any emails on that if it COULD lead to some classified info later on.
Such matters should CLEARLY NOT be personal or nonproprietary, and should have been
restricted to the respective emails/servers if there is even a RISK of something that COULD be
misused or RISK of some information leaking that COULD jeopardize a classified matter.
So I agree with the gist of what
sakinago is saying about accountability.
I stlll want to dig deeper to find whatever sources are supposedly reporting that
some emails/information WERE marked as TOP SECRET or higher.
If I can't find that, even with your help, I'll try to get the original person who reported this to track down those sources and post what is being cited for that.
Thanks so much, I know this is a lot of trouble to avoid repeating the "he said/she said type of hearsay" circulating on the internet, instead of digging up and finding the original source links that can verify what was established and what hasn't been.
I will try to THANK all the msgs that make some sincere attempt to dig into the real sources and avoid hearsay.
If I miss one, please PM me and let me know so I'll go back and credit the poster.
Everyone else: I appreciate your help and contributions here, each of you. Thank you, too!I am still told that there WERE emails marked as TOP SECRET and higher.
there were NO emails marked top secret or higher on her server...you can google this and the State dept and Intelligence community agree, none were marked top secret or higher.
If Clinton had used the State.gov email system as all of her employees and as the right wingers claim she should have used,
that state.gov email system is an UNCLASSIFIED system just as her own server was an UNCLASSIFIED system. They were both secure systems, but still neither were Classified systems, but were UNCLASSIFIED systems.
NOTHING classified Top secret is suppose to be on the State.gov email system, nor her server....again, if she had a gvt email account, it would be no more safe than her own server for top secret stuff....in fact, the State.gov system is hacked frequently by both Russia and China, while the FBI said after reviewing her security logs for her system, there was no indication her system was ever hacked.
Top Secret classified information is on an entirely different system, that NEVER has access to an email system or the internet...top secret stuff is on a CLOSED in house system....which she does have an account with, along with her top aides...but nothing on the in house T/S system can be retrieved and emailed.
one of the lengthy email chains that is now being marked Top Secret and is now being put on the top secret system was an email chain among her aids where they communicated with each other giving ideas and thoughts on an unclassified gvt document....their comments contained classified information is what the IC IG stated. This email chain was on the State.gov email system which is the unclassified gvt system was passed back and forth on this system for 2 years, before 1 of her aids forwarded this email chain to Clinton.
Another 1 of the now classified T/S emails was an email from Syd Blumenthal, (a journalist and friend)...the information he sent her, which came from his own public sources and was information available from public sources for anyone to get their hands on is another of the email chains claimed to be top secret.
NONE, were on the govt's TOP SECRET system at the time she received them....
NONE of her aides took top secret documents off of the top secret govt system and forwarded them to her.
In fairness to emilynghiem, she stated she's not an IT "guru." I get that, and it's appropriate that she's share that. It indicates that her remarks are driven by what she does understand and not the full picture of things. That said, I also think when one knows one isn't fully aware of the whole "scoop" re: "whatever," one has an obligation to refrain from "adding fuel to a fire" by speculating about what might be.
Red:
In the interest of being precise and clear, the woman had multiple email address, even multiple ".gov" ones, so the only folks who would or could without question know are the folks who sent/received emails to/from that ".com" email address. There are scads of folks, at State and not at State, who may never have had any interaction with her personal email address.
Truly, I think some folks perceive "private server" to have entirely the same context as does "private memories in one's head," or that of things being private as in "what one does in one's bedroom is private." That's not the context in this situation. It just means, this case, her server rather than DoS' server, and it means the whole world doesn't inherently have access to it. It's not a server snuck in on the DL and nobody knows she's using it or any thing even close to that.
These days, the only thing that's truly secret, truly private, are things that have zero connection/interaction with the world outside itself. And IT stuff of that sort doesn't send or receive email to anything.
Dear 320 Years of History
Do you agree with the assessment that:
1. Clinton knew that by using private email this can't be recorded or reported for Freedom of Information requested as emails that go through the govt system.
2. And that this WILL create the APPEARANCE of "skirting" that?
That by conducting ALL state business this way is going to give the wrong impression.
Again, to be perfectly honest, I have ethical issues with a govt leader
who either doesn't know 1 and 2 or doesn't care what impression and consequences this has.
I guess I am used to working with honest legal professionals who, the minute they sense
that something can even RISK APPEARING as a conflict and raise questions, they refuse
and refer it to someone else. Are my standards too high to expect govt officials to avoid risks like this?
Either the risk of a security breach "that will be blamed on them if they don't use the govt system
so the govt can take the blame not them"
or risk of appearing to skirt accountability and possibly be hiding private dealings by private server?
AND the gvt rules are that no gvt employee should ever send strictly personal emails to the govt archives, to only forward to them govt documents and govt involved emails...