OPINION:
I am a former employee at the CIA, and since the topic is being so distorted by politicians I feel compelled to give the American public a better understanding of how classified material is handled in the intelligence community. Material is usually classified Confidential, Secret or Top Secret due to its content, but some material is automatically classified upon collection due to the collection method used. These classifications start at Top Secret and rise above that level according to the collection method and material. They are identified by words that are also classified and accompany the Top Secret identification.
I can say without hesitation that material at that level would have been automatically classified above the Top Secret Classification upon collection. Some of this intelligence material is shared with other agencies, such as the State Department, but the original classifications must stay with the material and can only be downgraded by the agency that collected it.
Taking into account the media coverage, FBI press releases and especially the fact that not many people are even allowed to see the material, it is obvious that some of the Clinton emails have extremely high classifications. Some people are trying to cloud the issue by saying that certain material is over-classified, but in this case that argument only applies in politics, not the real world.
The next two items go hand-in-hand and a real investigation would have the answers. First, who stripped off the Top-Secret-and-above classifications at the State Department? That alone is a federal offense that must be prosecuted, but no one was even charged. In fact, no one is even talking about it. Second, what was the reason for sending that material in the first place, especially outside of normal channels to person or persons who didn’t have the proper security clearances? The material in question is so highly classified, the FBI and Congress cannot see it.
Hillary Clinton is claiming no classifications were on the material, but the material would not have left the CIA without being classified. So who stripped it off and why was it stripped off? Have things decayed to the point where a person can say some of the nation’s most highly classified material had no security classifications and the investigators basically say, “OK, sorry we bothered you”?
RON WOOTTERS
Lambertville, N.J.
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