I read a hilarious article posted today on The Washington Post’s website. The title and reporter: Why the Clinton Email Scandal and Petraeus Leak Are Not Really Alike Reporter Michelle Ye Hee Lee©(washingtonpost.com feb 24 2016)
Okay, as a security clearance holder, with clearances both for US and NATO countries, let me parse this for Miss Lee:
General Petraeus used his position to allow unauthorized access to another clearance holder to information, not from his current position, but from when he was in charge in Iraq and Afghanistan. Arguably, the information was dated, however, the information was, and still is, classified. As such, the general, who should have held himself to a higher standard, became a victim of his own pride, and thus, gave unauthorized access. This resulted in his being convicted, and he voluntarily turned himself in.
Hillary Clinton set up her own personal email server, and had her staff send all of her emails to this server, maintained by people who had no credentials or clearances authorized by the State Department. More so, Hillary transmitted and received information, including up to TS, special access programs, on this server, including confidential communications between other Foreign Ministers as well as high ranking officials in other countries. Miss Lee says that the information was retroactively classified. This is where Miss Lee is wrong. There is an email from Hillary DIRECTING her staff to remove classifications from the emails and forwarding or sending them to her email address. This is the smoking gun for the bullet that shows Hillary and her subordinates willfully participated in a program to willing deceive the government and people of the United States. With this one email, the entire program of deception becomes apparent, as this shows a desire, and a willingness, to avoid having information that Hillary has, stored in a government repository available to anyone with an FOIA request. This also prevented the government from having archived information from Hillary’s stint as Secretary Of State.
Hillary Clinton signed non-disclosure agreements, and signed that she would protect classified information in her custody. She then set up her own personal email server to circumvent the laws and regulations she was supposed to support and defend.
Miss Lee, before you attempt to protect someone who is clearly guilty of the same crimes as Snowden, I would suggest you delve deeper into what is and isn’t a crime. Both David Petraeus and Hillary Clinton are accused of not protecting classified information. The only difference is the level of information both allowed to be compromised. One compromised information about his career. The other compromised information that could cause grave and serious continuing damage to the United States of America, her people, her allies, and her military forces. In a wartime situation, which we are under, the general penalty for such is the death penalty.
“We Should All Stand Together, Or Most Assuredly, We Shall All Swing Separate…”