Official: Withheld Clinton emails contain 'operational' intel, put lives at risk
the U.S. government official’s description provides confirmation that the emails contained closely held government secrets. “Operational intelligence” can be real-time information about intelligence collection, sources and the movement of assets.
The official emphasized that the “TOP SECRET” documents were sent over an extended period of time
^the crime"There is no way that someone, a senior government official who has been handling classified information for a good chunk of their adult life, could not have known that this information ought to be classified, whether it was marked or not,” he said. "Anyone with the capacity to read and an understanding of American national security, an 8th grade reading level or above, would understand that the release of this information or the potential breach of a non-secure system presented risk to American national security."
^ the botched attempt at a cover up, dissembled to the point there isn't any coherent responseClinton was pressed in the same ABC interview on her signed 2009 non-disclosure agreement which acknowledged that markings are irrelevant, undercutting her central explanation. The agreement states "classified information is marked or unmarked … including oral communications."
Clinton pointed to her aides, saying: "When you receive information, of course, there has to be some markings, some indication that someone down the chain had thought that this was classified and that was not the case.”
But according to national security legal experts, security clearance holders are required to speak up when classified information is not in secure channels.
^ the stubborn facts that cannot be parsed away"Everybody who has a security clearance has an individual obligation to protect the information," said national security attorney Edward MacMahon Jr., who represented former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling in the high-profile leak investigation regarding a New York Times reporter. "Just because somebody sends it to you … you can't just turn a blind eye and pretend it never happened and pretend it's unclassified information."
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