APNewsBreak: US declares 22 Clinton emails 'top secret'

[VulgarPoet]

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/e19abf78b6fe43e7b7719f059901630d/apnewsbreak-govt-finds-top-secret-info-clinton-emails

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration confirmed for the first time Friday that Hillary Clinton's home server contained closely guarded government secrets, censoring 22 emails that contained material requiring one of the highest levels of classification. The revelation comes three days before Clinton competes in the Iowa presidential caucuses.

State Department officials also said the agency's Diplomatic Security and Intelligence and Research bureaus are investigating if any of the information was classified at the time of transmission, going to the heart of Clinton's defense of her email practices.

The department will release its next batch of emails from her time as secretary of state later Friday.

But The Associated Press learned seven email chains are being withheld in full for containing "top secret" information. The 37 pages include messages a key intelligence official recently said concerned "special access programs" —highly restricted, classified material that could point to confidential sources or clandestine programs like drone strikes.

There are claims of overclassification by surprise surprise, someone in the Clinton camp-- but whether overclassified or not, the regulation is to report any slippages. Still want us to trust this woman with at least the next four years?

ETA: Funny what just a bit of digging will uncover about this.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-clinton-idUSKCN0PZ0S920150726

"I did not send nor receive anything that was classified at the time," Clinton said at a campaign stop in Iowa.

The email controversy has dogged Clinton's bid for the presidency, fuelling worries that the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination has tried to sidestep transparency and record-keeping laws.

At least four emails from the private email account that Clinton used while secretary of state contained classified information, Inspector General Charles McCullough, who oversees U.S. intelligence agencies, told members of Congress in a letter on Thursday.

Clinton said on Saturday she had "no idea" what were the emails mentioned in the letter.

McCullough's letter said a sampling of 40 of about 30,000 emails sent or received by Clinton found at least four that contained information the government had classified as secret.

The information was classified at the time that the emails were sent, McCullough said.

[Metric System]

1. The State Department said just today that the emails were classified after the fact.

[retrowire]

2. Source please!

I want to know for certain what the hell is going on.

[Metric System]

3. Here:

“I am not going to speak to the content of this e-mail traffic,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said at a briefing in Washington. While the information wasn’t marked as classified when it was sent, the e-mails are being withheld “at the request of the intelligence community because they contain a category of top secret information.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-01-29/some-clinton-e-mails-being-classified-as-secret-release-denied

[Mika]

5. "While the information wasn’t marked as classified when it was sent..."

Sent by whom? To who?

[retrowire]

6. I kind of find it troubling

That emails can shoot around with no label, and then in the middle of transit, be upgraded to TOP SECRET.

Shouldn't it be TOP SECRET from the moment it's created?

Unless the Top secret part is added later on. Does that mean the Top Secret part was added while in her possession?

Ugh...

[Metric System]

7. No, from my understand, they were only marked as TOP SECRET during the recent review, at the

request of the intelligence community.

[retrowire]

8. During the review?

what the fuhhhh...

So, they're emailing each other about the proof that Aliens exist and that we've decided to do business with them and it's all okay just being sent back and forth between secure and unsecure servers and only when the FBI starts investigating we NOW mark that as top secret?!??

That can't be the way it works.

[Metric System]

9. Retroactive classification happens frequently and it can even include something as benign as

a newspaper article discussing drones.

[Human101948]

4. The Secretary of State has the power to classify or declassify as they see fit...

Only the President has more power in classifying info.

Authority to classify information resides at various levels. People low on the administrative totem pole, including field operatives of all sorts, can classify information they convey if they believe that secrecy is required, but their decisions will be reviewed by specifically responsible officials. The government's highest classification authority is the President. Not only is the President's decision final if there is an interagency dispute about whether information should be classified, but the President can classify or declassify any information regardless of agency objections. On occasion, the intelligence community has shuddered when Presidents revealed sensitive classified information in speeches or conversation. No wrong was committed, however, because no matter what harm disclosing information may cause, the President has the authority to reveal it.

Presidents seldom get involved in the classification process, however. Rather classification authority is delegated down to the federal agencies that deal with security and diplomatically-relevant information. Within each agency, the agency head is the highest classification authority. Thus, if the allegedly classified information in Clinton's e-mails had been labeled Secret or Top Secret by some lower ranking State Department official, there would be no issue beyond one of Clinton's good judgment if she decided to declassify and discuss it. An agency head cannot, however, declassify information first classified by a different agency. Thus according to news reports, the e-mails provided the Justice Department apparently mention only information classified by CIA and NSA.
http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/fixgov/posts/2015/08/13-hillary-clinton-classified-emails-lempert