More on Hillary’s emails
The details get worse and worse:
Highly classified Hillary Clinton emails that the intelligence community and State Department recently deemed too damaging to national security to release contain “operational intelligence” ”“ and their presence on the unsecure, personal email system jeopardized “sources, methods and lives,” a U.S. government official who has reviewed the documents told Fox News.
The official, who was not authorized to speak on the record and was limited in discussing the contents because of their highly classified nature, was referring to the 22 “TOP SECRET” emails that the State Department announced Friday it could not release in any form, even with entire sections redacted…
The official emphasized that the “TOP SECRET” documents were sent over an extended period of time — from shortly after the server’s 2009 installation until early 2013 when Clinton stepped down as secretary of state…
On ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, one day before the Iowa caucuses, Clinton claimed ignorance on the sensitivity of the materials and stressed that they weren’t marked.
It is hard to recall exactly when we entered looking-glass world, but I think it was sometime early in the Obama administration. But actually, I think it’s just been a long, slow slide that probably began long before that. That’s just when it reached critical mass.
I keep wondering why Clinton did this. Some of you may think the answer is purely, “Because she’s Hillary Clinton and she thought she could.” But that doesn’t really answer the question of “why.” Carelessness coupled with stupidity coupled with arrogance? Her desire to keep her emails away from investigation by Congress? I don’t think Clinton was a mole deliberately setting out to reveal our assets; there would be lots of other ways to do that, should she have wanted to do so, and I don’t see her as a traitor in that active sense.
At any rate, whatever the reason, the results are potentially catastrophic:
CIA and the entire Intelligence Community are in panic mode right now, trying to determine which of our intelligence officers and agents have been compromised by EmailGate. At a minimum, valuable covers have been blown, careers have been ruined, and lives have been put at serious risk. Our spies’ greatest concern now is what’s still in Hillary’s emails that investigators have yet to find.
And what about those 30,000 emails that Ms. Clinton had deleted? “I’ll spend the rest of my career trying to figure out what classified information was in those,” stated an exasperated Pentagon counterintelligence official, “everybody is mad as hell right now.” “The worst part,” the counterspy added,” is that Moscow and Beijing have that information but the Intelligence Community maybe never will.”
One of the most interesting things about the last decade or so is that actions by high public officials that one would have thought (at least, when I was growing up) would have engendered enormous and almost unanimous bipartisan outrage (such as what the IRS did, or this by Hillary) no longer do. It’s become Party Uber Alles, not just for politicians, but for way too many of the American people.
Why did she do it?
1. Avoid FOIA requests.
2. Run her bribery scam with the Clinton Family Foundation and her so-called husband.
Cornhead:
That’s why she had a private server. But my question has to do with why did she use that private email system to conduct official business that included this sort of information. She didn’t need to do that; could have used the other system for those.
I think she did because she wanted to operate with the knowledge that nothing communicated would be subject to the FOIA. I think Hillary truly believes she is better than all of us, in a different class, smarter and entitled. She and her small coterie of sycophants should have money, houses, travel and their finger in every international pie. She thinks she has the right to be president and the election process is probably very irritating to her. She is the definition of power hungry, power mad. She wants to be the first WOMAN president – she wants her bio next to Lincoln and Washington and FDR. She wants immortality and this is the only way you can really achieve that.
Clinton Uber Alles. She correctly identified The Government (which is still, at least in theory, bipartisan in that there are some who would prevent her rise to power) and People of the United States as her chief enemy and acted accordingly.
She may know herself better than anyone else, and hence distrusts her own ability to not write something personally damning, and therefore determined to take the chance to succeed in keeping everything she produced from prying eyes. Curses, foiled again.
I’m with Cornhead on this one. Just wait, if she becomes President, she and Bill are going to be billionaires from all the corrupt deals.
Clearly HRC violated the law with malice of forethought and knowledge of the penalties under law that others have been subject to over the years. Her reasons must have been strong, however, what ever they were, they were not for the public good, or in concert with her sworn duties as a public servant.
If our government has become so corrupt that she stands above the law, it is time for the people to take bold measures to correct the situation.
Will politicians of either party stand up and act in accordance with their oaths of office? There appear to be only two currently running that meet the required standard.
Ted Cruz and Ben Carson
Neo
Try lazy. Too much hassle and work to use two systems.
“But my question has to do with why did she use that private email system to conduct official business that included this sort of information.” [Neon@2:42}
I suggest that the “why” is an academic distinction. The bottom line is that whether she gave no thought to the consequences or didn’t care about them, either of these criticisms should resoundingly and immediately eliminate her from running for the presidencyl. Nixon was forced to resign over a much, much less serious offense than this.
The fact that she is still running and in contention is a very sad commentary on this country’s devolution.
neo-neocon Says:
February 1st, 2016 at 2:42 pm
Cornhead:
That’s why she had a private server. But my question has to do with why did she use that private email system to conduct official business that included this sort of information. She didn’t need to do that; could have used the other system for those.
Cornhead Says:
February 1st, 2016 at 3:02 pm
Neo
Try lazy. Too much hassle and work to use two systems.
* * *
This is what has always bothered me the most: why not use both systems, so that there is a trail in the .gov that would actively HIDE the fact that she had a shadow comm system – which was only revealed because even a partisan Dem shill can tell that the SofS having NO EMAILS on the official system for 4 solid years looks suspicious.
Yes, HRC herself is too egotistic to bother sifting the content and putting safe stuff on the .gov and the rest on her own, but she had staff that could do it for her.
My bottom line is that not only is she a lazy and corrupt narcissist, she is also just too friggin’ STUPID to be president (or anything else with significant responsibility).
AesopFan
She is really stupid. Paid some IT guy $10k to set up a weak system. Considering the money she was making and the importance of her scheme, she should have spent $100k and done it right.
AesopFan:
But you have put your finger on why I’m asking why.
I don’t think Clinton is stupid. And definitely not that stupid. And I also think she could have sent emails like these on the official email system and the ones she wanted to hide on the other system.
So I can’t figure out why she did it this way. To me, it matters. Of course, it also matters that she did it at all, but to me it matters why, too.
You will probably say I give her too much credit for not being stupid. But I don’t read her as a stupid person.
This part is simple. She never thought she (almost all criminals never think they) would get caught. If she did get caught she would be able to cover it up as she has done so many times in the past.
Couple that with the fact the Clintons REALLY do believe they are too big to jail.
I suspect that it’s not just Clinton who had their own private email server. What about Obama? Jarrett? And others within the Obama clique…
If so, that would act as protection for Clinton. She may have made it known that if she goes down, they all go down.
Which would explain the slow, drip, drip of leaks, Obama wants her out but can’t overtly do it. Besides his picked successor will need the women’s vote.
If Sanders takes Iowa, it’s over for her, whether she admits it or not. Once she drops out, Biden and Warren sweep in with no taint attached to them for Clinton’s demise.
“I keep wondering why Clinton did this. Some of you may think the answer is purely, “Because she’s Hillary Clinton and she thought she could.” But that doesn’t really answer the question of “why.” Carelessness coupled with stupidity coupled with arrogance?”
neo, if you really are above the law, what is there to be careful or careless about? Smart or stupid about? I agree she’s not that stupid. But when she talks about the Republicans grasping at straws I think that provides a window to her soul (bring a magnifying glass if you want to see it, though).
This is the kind of thing that has never mattered before. She and/or her husband have always been able to wave these kinds of things away as nothing more than some weird obsession of the right. And let’s face it, her minions in the press and her loyal base have been successfully dismissing this as something that just doesn’t matter for the past year or so and she’s still the Democratic front-runner.
I’m sure she gives more thought to what kind of sheets she wants the help to buy than she gave to this.
If you go to the CNN website, you will not get a whiff of this. They seem more like a Hillary campaign site than a news site.
I like Jack’s theory. She has never been caught before, so why now?
It all started with the $100k she made trading cattle futures. She should have been jailed for that.
I believe she kept a separate system to keep stuff from Barack. She didn’t like the tactics he used during the campaign. He appointed her to freeze her from a possible run against him in 2012 and she felt obligated to take the job. But I don’t think she trusted him and wanted to keep not just the Foundation info from Obama, but even the SoS stuff from him in case she ever wanted to make side deals with Foreign leaders.
I also believe that not only did Hillary think she wouldn’t get caught, but even if she did a complaint press would run interference so she would never have to face the consequence. That later part may still come true even with the exposure of so much damaging information. Quitting is only for Republicans and people with a sense of shame, something Democrats don’t seem to have.
So Neo, Has your indictment index gone up from 10%? Just curious.
“She didn’t need to do that; could have used the other system for those.”
I think her State and Clinton foundation were so intermingled that keeping the communications separate was just not feasible. Keep in mind the some of Hillary’s closest aides were also Clinton foundation employees. For example, they were emailing intelligence analysis to Bills assistant to help him prepare a speech/meeting with a foreign donor. Also remember that Huma was juggling 4 jobs at once near the end – State Dept, Hillary campaign, Clinton foundation and Teneo consulting. That’s just one example that we know of – how many others, such as Mills and Sullivan, were doing the same thing?
To me, I see the email server as a cover-up crime, like money laundering and tax evasion; it was a crime to other, worse crimes.
* * *
Getting back to the “why”, there were a few AmericanThinker.com posts a while back where the writer speculated that, based on some of the released (or Sid’s hacked emails), Hillary was likely operating an off-the-books intelligence organization with some retired intelligence people, and also potentially placing blackwater types to cover the border in Libya. This is in line with her sharing classified Libya docs with Sid Blumenthal to assist in his Libya business consulting services.
Honestly, with the Clintons, we probably can’t imagine all the ways in which Hill and Bill managed to monetize her position as SoS. The server is just the symptom of larger crimes, not the only or even primary crime. Hillary may be fairly tech illiterate (couldn’t fax, couldn’t program her dvr) and overly reliant on aides, but she is *not* stupid. Don’t give in to her “lil’ old me was just a tad carless” routine.
Here are the AmericanThinker posts about Hillary’s off-the-books activities she would want hidden from Obama and FOIA requests:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/nmbdf3v
http://preview.tinyurl.com/hkk7p2q
More from Gawker (an unlikely source for news, I know):
http://preview.tinyurl.com/p4kdmr7
Hillary leaned back and put her fingers on her temple as she contemplated the CIA jock’s request. Yes, she always wanted to serve her country in every way possible, and this was a new idea brought to her attention. Intriguing!
“So you provide the disinformation, and I make it look like we are discussing serious policy and intelligence background? And when the Russians and Iranians and North Koreans read it, they can’t tell which ones are real and which ones are the disinformation, right? Interesting, we will really be in control and have a lot of achievements because of their confusion.”
She turned her chair toward the operative, leaned forward and said, “Spies like me get paid, right? I mean you have resources that we can direct to the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation for doing your dirty spy work?”
The slightly goofy CIA assistant director smirked, “The best part is, we get the Koch Brothers to pay for it”, as he cackled. Hillary found his cackling laugh very annoying, but she smiled, “I’m in!”
A female, black, liberal, attorney general heading Justice will most likely give Hillary a pass.
Harry the Extremist:
No, because my indictment index isn’t based on what she’s done, it’s based on how I read the Democratic race. If she really starts going down precipitously in the polls, maybe Biden will come in. But I wouldn’t expect her to ever be indicted by the Obama DOJ. She was their SOS. The most they would do is pressure her privately to resign (maybe health reasons) if she really started tanking in the polls.
“I don’t think Clinton was a mole deliberately setting out to reveal our assets”
Well, an utter and completely incompetent disregard for national security is not unknown amongst those who support administrations like the one she served; I have first hand experience of that.
But….
The more interesting question, I think, is why this administration has leaked secrets like a sieve, and nobody who counts ever gets burned. Clinton’s email server is just the latest and worst case in a line of security failures; and I don’t buy for an instant that nobody in the admin knew about it.
And, yes, I’m implying the “T” word.
She was selling state secrets to North Korea, Iran, Syria, and who knows how many other countries. It was the perfect scheme: all she had to do was get sensitive information onto her server and our enemies would do the rest by hacking the server.
There was no reason whatsoever for Clinton to know any information regarding the NOC list. She sold the NOC list to our enemies. There is no other explanation.
Stupid, venal, lazy, or corrupt? Answer e.: All of the above.
Too lazy to use the FOUR e-mail systems she should have: private; unclassified government; SECRET government; TOP SECRET/SCI/SAP government.
Corrupt: yes, she was mixing up Clinton Foundation business with her position as SoS.
Venal: why bother, laws are for the little people.
And stupid: she actually thought keeping it all on her private server would enable her to keep all the e-mails from official records and enable her to wipe them out with no trace.
Lots of questions about HRC. Question is why this doesn’t bother her base.
Two reasons, I think. One is that a substantial part of the base hate the intel community and the military and think this makes perfect sense.
Others like the thrill of being close to crime. A frisson, if you will.
Then there are the clueless.
I think that about covers it.
Hillary’s abuse is not a bit different than the German fools who didn’t follow protocol during WWII.
Even with the Bletchley Park crowd — Ultra could not penetrate Enigma without sloppy Germans.
And – get this — it only took one fellow to give the game away.
Once the keyword was doped out — ALL of the other transmissions became breakable — if the reception // intercept was effective.
There can now be no doubt that Hillary broke the entire diplomatic code.
Lest we forget — the saga of Hillary’s server started when a young hacker in Romania penetrated it.
Just one fellow.
On a lark.
THAT’S how the world came to discover how Hillary operated.
This reflects very, very, poorly on the President — and all of his associates — as it HAD to be obvious that Hillary was running a rogue server.
There can be only one reason for this: to keep inspectors off her tail.
Whitewater
Travelgate
etc.
She’s the pack rat of corruption.
There’s an additional aspect of her private server that deserves to be in this good discussion of why Hillary did what she did: a number of senior administration officials have been shown to have aliases on government servers so their finger prints do not appear on their traffic. Secretary Kathleen Sibelius is the most notorious, but the Secretary of Labor and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency have also had their private email accounts publicized. There is even a strong suspicion that senior White House staffers resort to the same subterfuge to hide their emails from FOIA searches. We now now that Obama sent at least 18 emails to Hillary at her non-State address, so he cannot profess ignorance any longer.
Just about every administration I can remember has promised openness and transparency: it just doesn’t happen. I’m not excusing Hillary. I think she belongs in jail. What I’m saying is that she is not unique except perhaps in the very high level of classification she permitted to be put out for intelligence services world-wide.
Andrew McCarthy, NRO: Obama’s Growing Conflict of Interest in Clinton’s E-mail Scandal
In the nub, McCarthy sees where Obama himself is implicated in wrongdoing: