I have two questions about the email controversy

[leveymg]

83. I doubt she needed Blumenthal to access materials on the interagency classified system.

Clinton and a couple of her top aides had a security clearance that allowed them to read any classified materials that the State Dept. had involvement at any level with. That includes military-political, counterterrorism, psychological warfare operations.

Blumenthal and the Clintons go back at least 20 years. Sid worked on and off with Drumheller since 2005, when Tyler went free lance after leaving the Agency. They had been feeding her political intelligence out of channels since at least her 2008 campaign. In Libya, he was doing business as part the Osprey group which was competing with Blackwater/Xe seeking State Dept. contracts. An associate of Drumheller is reported to have been the source of the TS/SAP NSA materials. It will be interesting to learn if he was, indeed, deposed before he died last August, and what he told investigators.

There were other occasions when her aides were instructed by her to strip off classification headers and send "unsecure." That wasn't one of Blumenthal's messages. It appears that she simply too lazy to go to the secure portal and sit down and look things up. This sometimes slowed things down for her when she had to rely on aides to print things out for her. She was highly impatient with declassification protocols and tended to want things right now, even materials that originated with other agencies.

Sid may have been more useful as a fixer on the commercial side of her affairs. Tyler was valuable as someone who understood the politics of intelligence and how to steer information to the right people at the top for effect.