Do "mid-level" office workers at Pentagon have access to top secret info?

[kentuck]

I would think not. But does anyone know if the person in question had access to secret info? I guess the answer is in the question? He wouldn't be a spy if he didn't have access to our top secrets, would he? And that means he shouldn't be minimized as some "mid-level" office worker....just a thought to further the discussion.

[daa]

1. No

Its on a "Need to know" basis.

[H2O Man]

2. Good question.

Let's think .... in terms of the Plame case, as an example .... the grand jury has apparently identified John Hannah as one of the Plame "leakers" (and Hannah has apparently "turned over") ..... would a mid-level official have decided on his own to expose Plame? Of course not .... only possible to have been done under the direction of the fellow above him (Scooter Libby).

To call the person in this case a "spy" misses the point. He was working for the same small group of neocons that are in a few departments, and are coordinated out of the same office -- VP Cheney's.

If you watch this unfold, you will see it involve Hannah and Wurmser; they lead to John Bolton at State; he leads to Libby-Cheney. They were operating an unelected shadow government which had been organized well before 9-11, but who has been pulling almost all of the strings since then.

[napi21]

3. It depends on what job this person had.

ie: a mid-level secretary often knows more than some of the executives! If the reports are right, this guy worked for Doug Feife. If he compiled reports etc. for Doug, then he had lots of info.

[Minnesota_Lib]

4. Oh what a tangled web we weave...

The most likey suspect, Larry Franklin, is more than a mid-level office worker if Laura Rozen is to be believed.

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/001067.html

Some highlights:

"A source told me that some time in July, Larry Franklin called him and asked him to meet him in a coffee shop in Northern Virginia. Franklin had intelligence on hostile Iranian activities in Iraq and was extremely frustrated that he did not feel this intelligence was getting the attention and response it deserved."

"A couple weeks ago, my source told me, he was visited by two agents of the FBI, who were asking about Franklin."

"A second source I met with this past week told me another story. A couple weeks ago, he got called by a consultant to the Pentagon he knows. A small group of Air Force reservists who speak Persian were being trained by the Pentagon at a camp in Virginia in a kind of Iran immersion course, that involved not only language immersion, but “how to play Iranian card games.” The consultant called my second source, an Iran expert, to see if this small elite group could meet with him. He said among the group of four that was supposed to come was Larry Franklin."

[newyawker99]

7. Hi Minnesota_Lib!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[woofless]

5. I had a TS/Crypto clearance as a mere lad

of 20, and worked in the Pentagon. I got the clearance when I was 19. One would need a clearance commensurate with the material one handled, no matter what level one was employed at. Who says they were cleared? Could they have not just stolen the material, or been given it by someone in cahoots?

[comradebillyboy]

6. quite possibly

when i was in graduate school i worked for the air force and later the department of energy

i held a 'Q' clearance which is the doe version of top secret, and i was a lowly researcher