Fox News:
The intelligence community has now deemed some of Hillary Clinton’s emails “too damaging” to national security to release under any circumstances, according to a U.S. government official close to the ongoing review. A second source, who was not authorized to speak on the record, backed up the finding.
The decision to withhold the documents in full, and not provide even a partial release with redactions, further undercuts claims by the State Department and the Clinton campaign that none of the intelligence in the emails was classified when it hit Clinton’s personal server.
Fox News is told the emails include intelligence from “special access programs,” or SAP, which is considered beyond “Top Secret.” A Jan. 14 letter, first reported by Fox News, from intelligence community Inspector General Charles McCullough III notified senior intelligence and foreign relations committee leaders that “several dozen emails containing classified information” were determined to be “at the CONFIDENTIAL, SECRET, AND TOP SECRET/SAP levels.”
The State Department is trying to finish its review and public release of thousands of Clinton emails, as the Democratic presidential primary contests get underway in early February.
Under the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, there is an exemption that allows for highly sensitive, and in this case classified, material to be withheld in full — which means nothing would be released in these cases, not even heavily redacted versions, which has been standard practice with the 1,340 such emails made public so far by the State Department.
According to the Justice Department FOIA website, exemption “B3” allows a carve-out for both the CIA and NSA to withhold “operational files.” Similar provisions also apply to other agencies.
Fox News reported Friday that at least one Clinton email contained information identified as “HCS-O,” which is the code for intelligence from human spying.
One source, not authorized to speak on the record, suggested the intelligence agencies are operating on the assumption there are more copies of the Clinton emails out there, and even releasing a partial email would provide enough clues to trace back to the original – which could allow the identification of “special access programs” intelligence.
There was no comment to Fox News from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Office of the Intelligence Community Inspector General, or the agency involved. Fox News has chosen not to identify the agency that provided sworn declarations that intelligence beyond Top Secret was found in the Clinton emails.
Reached for comment by Fox News, a State Department official did not dispute that some emails will never be made public.
“We continue to process the next set of former Secretary Clinton’s emails for release under the FOIA process and will have more to say about it later,” the official said. “As always, we take seriously our responsibilities to protect sensitive information.”
And just to shoot down the trolls’ arguments that this is a Fox News report and therefore b.s., the not so conservative ABC News is reporting similar developments revealed by the not so conservative AP.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/apnewsbreak-govt-finds-top-secret-info-clinton-emails-36603441
And the suspect remains at large.
Whu… whu… WHAT?
You mean the State Department is part of the vast right wing conspiracy?
@Bill: She should have treated them better, after sifting out any emails pointing to a higher authority than her and redacting like crazy then congress can look at whats left.
Of course, “they weren’t classified when she sent them”. So, the information has been being tossed around up until lately and NOW it has become classified. So, will we be going and collecting this information everywhere it is around the world and hide it from public view, now that it is classified? Because, until now, it has been, apparently, OK to traffic it.
Whatever this information is, how do you make it classified after it has been public?
@another vet, #1:
There’s something new here?
Right. They’re so frickin’ secret that we can’t even show you a black box that hides the secret. Because, you know, people might use x-ray glasses or something.
Is it remotely possible that whether she sent them herself might be relevant? Nah. How could that possibly matter?
In other words, the cow really should have been kept in the barn, so we’re closing the door now and ignoring the fact that it may already have been wandering around in the meadow observed by the public at large before a Clinton e-mail commented on it.
I honestly don’t know what it is, at this point. This shouldn’t be taking so long with an election coming up. I’m beginning to wonder if it’s being purposefully drawn out.
@Bill: You see, the 1,300 plus classified emails will somehow find their way back onto the SIPRNET just like they found their way off of it. Emails can move around on their own you know.
Brian Fallon, Clinton’s campaign spokesperson, says that the e-mails in question originated on the State Department’s unclassified system, have only recently been classified, and that the material they contain doesn’t actually warrant it:
The problem with slapping a Top Secret classification on them is that it will make it impossible for Clinton to prove there’s nothing warranting such classification by making them public.
I hope you like Bernie Sanders.
@Greg: I like anyone that can take out HRC—Joe Biden my choice.
Likewise I like anyone who can take out Trump–Marco Rubio my choice.
I’m getting E-MAILS from Jim Webb—
I’d prefer Biden. Clinton is probably my third choice among the Democratic hopefuls. Trump and Cruz worry me to an equal degree. Rubio doesn’t seem unreasonable.
Tommy Chong has formally endorsed Sanders. The video made me smile.
Polls suggest Sander’s could beat Donald Trump.
Bernie’s pitch for Iowa voters plays very well, indeed, compared with the rubbish performances we’ve seen from other contenders. He’s got a clearly stated message that resonates across a lot of different demographics.
@Greg:
How did this intel get onto her server, Greg? Do you think these were born unclassified?
@Greg:
No, nothing new at all. It has been known from the first dump of emails that Hillary was lying, that she had placed her own desire to be able to get rid of any career-damaging information over national security and that she had, indeed, been trafficking classified information over an unsecured (and, therefore, ILLEGAL) private, secret server. No, nothing new about that.
No, it’s not relevant. All that is relevant is that it was HER server which SHE had installed and SHE used for State Department business. No server… no classified information illegally stored on it.
So, no one should bother following procedures when handling classified information because someone else is probably not following them. Yeah, that’s smart.
…. knowing full well that they will NOT be released. More blame game. Why is this taking so long? Blame Hillary and the State Department.
Another pointless excuse. Perhaps this is why everyone working in the State Department should not be using their own private email to conduct State Department business… so if classification changes, it has not already been scattered to the four winds over unsecured channels. However, as I said earlier, how do you belatedly classify information that has been existing and getting disseminated as UNclassified? Not much of an explanation. If the information went on Hillary’s secret, private, unsecured server from the outside, it was not classified because it never had the opportunity to be seen by State or Intelligence and classified. If it came from State or intelligence, the classification markings have been removed. Regardless, Hillary had no business conducting State business on a secret, private, unsecured server. THAT is the real issue. Hillary’s irresponsibility in order to cater to her personal, political desires is the real issue.
At this point, Bernie is showing the same disdain for US security has Hillary did. First, he said he was sick of hearing about the email; it could be commendable that he was not willing to use it as a political weapon, but disgusting that he is not as concerned with national security and how Hillary mishandled it as anyone else. Now he says he does not want to talk about it, cause me to conclude that, just like Hillary, when illegal activity gets in the way of political expediency, he, like Hillary, like Obama, will choose to sweep justice under the rug.
I hope YOU like Bernie, Greg. Or, I hope you like having a nominee that has tons of well substantiated accusations and a possible indictment hanging over her head and, if God hates us and she were to actually be elected, a government-constipating pursuit of justice to dog her throughout her term.
Unfortunate for your party that you choose to ignore ethics and justice in favor of ideology.
@Rich Wheeler: The way Webb has been treated should tell you all you need to know about the direction the Democrats have turned under Obama. If he is the kind of person you would like to lead the nation, you can kiss that goodbye if the party continues along the Hillary/Sanders/Warren/Biden path. I would say he looked like something of a dimwit on the debate stage, but he did not exactly get much of an opportunity to shine.
@DrJohn, #12:
How did what intelligence get on her server?
None of us actually knows what secret information was on her server, if any. The facts are few, and so appallingly vague that almost everything is left to the imagination. Some e-mails subsequently classified by the intelligence community as Top Secret have reportedly contained nothing more than information that was already public knowledge before being mentioned in the correspondence in question. Classifying documents retroactively as a result of screening preceding public release is evidence of nothing more than the fact that the U.S. State Department and intelligence community don’t want thousands of pages of internal communications between those at high levels of government to be made available for close analysis.
This is another instance of someone being assumed guilty and expected to prove their innocence. It’s made even worse by the fact that the documents that supposedly prove guilt can’t be displayed by the accused to demonstrate otherwise, because they’ve subsequently been classified Top Secret. It’s a perfect catch 22 setup.
Evidence is not being presented. To date, none has been. It’s simply being repeated endlessly that Clinton is guilty. This is the same pattern we see with all other accusations against her. It’s the same with Benghazi. It’s the same with the IRS scandal. It’s the same b.s we see with the attack on Planned Parenthood.
The democratic ideology is built on ethics and justice. It is unethical that optimizing conditions for millionaires and billionaires should be placed ahead of the welfare of the poor, working people, and the middle class. If someone thinks that is not increasingly the situation, they need to open their eyes.
@Greg:
So, the IG, FBI and the State Department are all involved in a conspiracy to destroy poor, innocent Hillary? Perhaps Obama is driving this… after all, they all work for him.
Hillary thinks laws don’t apply to her. She has demonstrated that throughout her entire public life, beginning with when she wanted to withhold evidence in the Watergate investigations. It is simply finally catching up with her and, in a time when IRS abuse, border agents murdered with guns run by the DOJ, families lied to about the deaths of their loved ones, liberal policies resulting in illegal immigrants killing innocent women, those who expose barbaric activities being indicted and rancher trying to defend their life’s work, land and way of life being shot down, it would be nice to see one who disregards the law except to use it as a political weapon receive justice.
2000 emails with classified information on them… when she said there was not a one. She decided to use a secret, private, unsecured server for State Department business and she had it set up. She put on it or allowed to be put on it the nation’s classified information. She knew she was breaking the law… that’s why she’s been lying about it. If she didn’t know the information was classified, she should not have been Secretary of State. Either she was too stupid to know or did it knowingly… either way, she is in no way qualified to be President.
Liberals never accept evidence as proof of innocence… why would a liberal use that as an excuse?
@Bill, #16:
What I said was, None of us actually knows what secret information was on her server, if any. That’s an accurate statement. We don’t actually know what the IG, the FBI, or the State Department have seen. What they have said thus far is actually very vague.
It has been said that classified information was on Hillary Clinton’s server. That information may be nothing more than references to classified information that had already become public knowledge. It might, in fact, consist of nothing more than attached newspaper or magazine articles, or direct quotes taken from them. It at least one example, that was apparently the case.
Should we assume that republican presidential hopefuls would jump to conclusions like this during times of international crisis, acting impulsively without any need for evidence that their conclusions are correct?
Somebody is going to have a finger on a nuclear trigger. How reassuring would someone who acts without evidence be?
@Greg:
Wow….so how has the extreme leftist economic plan worked out for the lat 7 years?
94-95 million working age people unable to get full time employment.
46-48 million people on food stamps.
National almost doubled from $10.8 trillion when Obama took office to $19 trillion now.
Plunging bear market loosing millions from people’s pensions.
Camouflaged unemployment rate through use of U-3 numbers instead of U-6 numbers, erasing those unemployed for.greater than 3 months.
The collapsing death spiral of the obamacare exchanges.
Laughably, the claim that the democrat party stands for ethics and justice flies in the face of the reality of “Benghazi was a spontaneous protest (complete with mortars and RPGs) caused by a video”, hundreds of FBI agents investigating the DNC frontrunner for mishandling national security while SecState, the IRS scandal (including repeated hard drive destructions in violation of court order), Fast and Furious – where the AG was found in contempt of Congress for his lying testimony, and let us not forget one of the most blatantly egregious lies in the history of politics -“If you like your doctor and your plan, you can keep them.” Along those lines, let us not forget the videos of Gruber telling people that obamacare was written so that if a state refused to set up an obamacare exchange, they would forfeit any federal money – which he lied about even after the videos.showed up proving he said it. And for sheer brazenness of dishonesty, how about Obama’s adamant insistence that obamacare was not a tax, right up until he had his minions argue in the court system that it was legal AS A TAX.
Yeah, the left stands for about as much honesty, ethics and being for the “little guy” as the whip in a slave trader’s hand….
@Bill: If the resident troll had listened, I have continued to relate that much of what the State department emails is classified just by originating by the State Department. I needed a TS SCI clearance to send messages to State Department employees on SIPERNET. I was not allowed to use NIPERNET at all when State was involved.
While any one email by itself may not be of concern, multiple emails on the same or similar subject when taken together causes a situation where the whole line of communication should be classified. That is why certain offices are required to use classified systems to protect information. We do not usually find these servers in a bathroom closet. Anyone who continues to believe there is no security violations by Hilary Clinton must also believe in the tooth fairy, the shooter on the grassy knoll (Borrowed that from Steven Hunter!) , that you can keep your doctor, Clinton did not have sex with that woman, oral sex is not sex, it was the video not terrorists, and Iran will not use our bribe money to support terrorism!
@Randy, #19:
Allow me to point out for a third time that it isn’t known what sort of logic the intelligence community is applying when they insist that e-mails that begin life unclassified should now be elevated to Top Secret, along with any related messages in the communication chain. There may be very little logic to it at all. As the article linked below explains, our nation’s classification system is pretty much totally screwed up. If in doubt, classify seems to be the prevailing approach, because it’s the easiest way to cover your butt. One result is an increased level of bureaucratic complexity that’s estimated to cost the nation around $7 billion per year. Another is that critical information becomes compartmentalized and departmentalized to the point where it isn’t shared with all the people who need to respond to it or act on it.
The Hillary Clinton top-secret email controversy, explained
It never ceases to amaze me how often people become totally convinced they know something with absolute certainty, when they can’t cite any factual evidence that supports what they believe. The faulty logic in this case is almost comical: Well, we can’t show you the evidence that Clinton’s unclassified e-mails should have been Top Secret, because they’re all Top Secret.
Just out of curiosity, do you ever wonder what was in the several million vanished e-mails that the George W Bush administration was channeling through private RNC servers? Does it bother you that official correspondence relating to 5 separate investigations mysteriously blinked out of existence? Maybe all memories of that have also mysteriously vanished from the republican collective consciousness.
@Greg:
@Greg:
Democrats ideology built on ethics and justice. What a joke. Democrat history is one of slavery, Jim Crow, segregation and the KKK. What president showed the movie Birth of a Nation at the White House? A Democrat.
Yes it’s also built on optimizing conditions for millionaires, many of which are elected to congress and walk the halls of wall street and are predominately Democrats.
You just don’t seem to get Democrats wanting illegals flooding in and getting them the vote. It’s just a big vote buying scheme for rich Democrats. If illegals were going to become Republican voters we would have the biggest wall you’ve ever seem on the southern border. Bottom line it’s about power what they can do with it.
Isn’t it wonderful when a troll who never had a TS SCI security clearance with the State Department knows more about those security clearances than those who have held those clearances? I am surprised that our resident troll was ever trusted with the key to the burn-out latrine.
@Greg: IF ANY would be the key phrase. Do you think they haven’t found any, but are only saying they have? Of course we don’t know WHAT it is… it’s classified, you know.
Why don’t you show us where Hillary gets the power or permission to decide what needs to be classified and handled per the regulations and what doesn’t. There are roads with posted speed limits that I don’t agree with, but as far as I know, I don’t get to decide what the speed limit SHOULD be, to suit my desires. Or, has Hillary been right all along… that Hillary gets to decide what laws she abides by and which ones she simply does not have to honor.
Why doesn’t Congress investigate it? Why didn’t they when the Democrats had control of both Houses? Find some impropriety, such as lying about having 2000 emails containing classified information illegally stored on a server and we’ll talk. Until then, kindly stick to the subject of a candidate for President thinking she is worthy of the office when she allowed highly classified national security information to hang out on her clothesline. She would sell nuclear launch codes for a contribution to the Clinton ATM Fund.
@Bill: Bill, you have a better chance of maintaining your sanity by not replying to the ignorant trolls. Remember that analogy about wrestling a pig in the mud. The pig loves it! You just get muddy! (By the way, I remember from my farm days, there is more than mud in the mud.)
@Randy: Pretty amazing isn’t it? Knows more about security clearances than those of us who had them for 30 years including at TS SCI level. Knows more about the responsibilities of handling classified material than those of us who did it for 30 years. Knows more about mountain warfare, river crossing operations, and other types of warfare than those who actually trained in and used those skills in the real world. Knows more about Iraq than those of us who were there. Knows more about Tora Bora than someone who actually fought there. Knows more about federal employment law than those who enforce it. Knows more about biology and human fetuses than doctors. Knows more about satellites than those who actually worked with them etc, etc. etc.
Looks like the trolls were wrong as usual!
@Randy: Do you think they are waiting to press charges til its too late for a democrat pardon?
@Bill, #23:
John Kirby: “The documents are being upgraded at the request of the intelligence community because they contain a category of top secret information. ”
That’s about as vague as a statement gets. What “category” of top secret information would that be? The category consisting of references to top secret information that has already appeared in The Guardian and the New York Times?
That this might be so is not mere supposition. At least one such e-mail that an intelligence community IG previously cited as top secret turned out to contain nothing that hadn’t already been openly discussed in the media at the time the e-mail was received.
The republican tactical advantage in this matter is that correctly understanding the situation requires that a person have more than sawdust for brains, and that a person actually wants to correctly understand it.
PRISM is a top secret program. Any official NSA communication referencing that program would be reflexively classified. That said, enough is known about it—thanks to Edward Snowden—that you can probably look it up on Wikipedia. If that fact were mentioned on an e-mail sent to Clinton, the intelligence community would insist that it contained a category of top secret information.
@Greg: One thing the government has never been accused of is being efficient. This is one of the reasons they should be kept out of health care, the economy or the military. So, it is understandable that over-classification occurs.
But the fact is, Greg, that classified information is to be protected. Those that handle it are charged with keeping it secure. Innocuous information combined with what the enemy knows or suspects can add up to a serious breach.
Hillary does not get to decide what should or should not be classified. Her “convenience” is immaterial; if it is too much trouble to follow the rules, she should keep her fat ass at home. Her “convenience” can lead to deaths.
She deserves and should be shown no mercy. She is despicable.
@kitt: I think they have “high cover” from this President and his administration. Obama sent at least 18 emails to Clinton. He should have know and can be considered complicit in this issue.
I think that when the threat of retaliation by the president goes away, there will be all kinds of information becoming public. We may even see the real birth certificate.
@Randy: The birthplace doesn’t matter, he lost his license to practice law when he lied about not using any other name ,fraud about being a foreign student and collecting aid money. Attacks on conservative groups using the US government as a weapon. Well the list goes on and on. You are right the list will get much longer after he is out of power.
He wont know he sent e-mails til he sees it in the news.
@Randy: What do you think the “real” birth certificate will reveal?
BTW Do you think Cruz? Rubio? eligible.
@Rich Wheeler: That he was born in Kenya. That his father is/was British citizen, he was born of dual citizenship and a foreigner so is/was not eligible to be president.
But if Cruz or Rubio (both ineligible) get elected, they can just seal the records as Obozo did.
@Redteam: Welcome back–I thought Randy had taken your place. Now I see you are Randy’s mouthpiece,—Interesting.
@Rich Wheeler: Who is Randy?
@Rich Wheeler: You don’t know FA’s Army Colonel Randy #30? You’ve been away too long..
Are you an LSU b-ball fan?
@Rich Wheeler:
Is there a coded message there that tells that he is an Army Colonel? I haven’t been anywhere.
b’ball as in Basketball? a little, not much. I especially like most ACC for basketball.
@Greg:
Government messages do not start out as ‘unclassified’ and then get raised in classification. It’s usually the other direction.