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A Family Story About Government Secrets
In 1996, my father was interviewed by the Naval Research Lab’s historian and another NRL employee, Jim XX, who has since become a friend. Jim told me that dad was cautious in some of his answers because he did not always know which documents had been declassified in the years since his retirement in 1980.
Contrast that with James Comey, who leaked documents in order to trigger the appointment of a special counsel.
It’s clear that the government intelligence agencies interfered with the 2016 election and people need to be prosecuted for these crimes. It’s no time to move on when egregious crimes have been committed. Obama obstructed justice with respect to Clinton’s private server. People need to go jail; at a minimum, some of these people should lose their pensions.
Published in Politics
This kind of thing was long thought to be unAmerican.
Which; prosecuting people for crimes they commit while in office, or having a two-tier justice system?
Yes.
There’s really a race with time here, in that whatever actions are going to be taken hinge on the release of the second IG report and its findings to be considered as grounds for prosecution, but the election’s 14 1/2 months away. If the report on how the FISA warrants came out of the Steele dossier doesn’t show up until around the end of the year, that’s going to be a tiny window to do anything on the legal front, especially if there are still some people at Justice wanting to kick the can down the road past November 2020, in hopes the entire thing will be dropped if the Democrats regain control of the White House.
Aren’t you beginning to think this is all delay by design?
My sentiments, exactly. I feel like we are watching a horror movie where the audience can see all the actors and the looming danger but can only shout at the screen telling the pretty young thing “look behind you” so she can save herself. But our shouts are ignored and the inevitable twists and turns occur as the screenwriters have dictated — including the ending. The audience votes with their feet, but the story is in the can. Are we a test audience that dictates a reshoot if the ending is not satisfactory? Or are we the end consumer who is simply left with a frustrating and unsatisfying story that awaits a remake in an uncertain future?
I want to believe this will all turn out OK. Justice will be done and things set aright. I want to believe that our system of justice can be returned to a place of respect, and not just some tool of the powers that be. I don’t want the chants of “black lives matter” and other anti-cop movements to become my silenced thoughts (just with different targets in mind). I don’t want to wish away my life, but I feel like I need to know whether it all turns out all right, or just turns.
I think there are definitely people within the system who want to drop-kick the whole thing past Election Day next year. I’m just not sure if that still includes any top people at Justice, or involves the second-level career bureaucrats.
I think this is a valid point. The Mueller Special Counsel was extended unnecessarily beyond the 2018 election and had an effect. Much of what has been taken to the courts to stop executive actions on immigration enforcement has the same kind of delaying effect.
One other point on the security classification subject. I personally believe that much wrongdoing is being classified to keep it hidden from the public view to start with and later redacted in documents that are released for the same reason. That purpose used for classification is itself a crime.
There is a great irony at play here: Truly professional law enforcement personnel pause at taking any action in a timeframe that would appear to influence (or be used to affect) an electoral outcome. But the heart of this investigation is whether law enforcement was used for that purpose. Thus if professional caution delays a reveal, the perpetrators (or beneficiaries) of this offense will be rewarded. So the better course is that if crimes were committed that they be speedily revealed and addressed so that the American people can be placed in a position to demonstrate affirmatively what form of government they wish (or not).
It seems that in a slightly difference context regarding interference with the 2016 election there was a sanctimonious group rather close to home that insisted on being conspicuous about their feelings on the importance of the uniform application of the laws…something like Republicans for the rule of Law. Where are those twits now and why are they so damn quiet.
Maybe they weren’t sincere.
For those who think America is founded primarily on white supremacy, that is a feature, not a bug.
Edward Snowden is still a hero to many.
(Quickly checks that thread; scans for any of his own posts that disagree with the premise; finds none).
Phew.
Years ago I was read in on things that I suspect is now so old and involved the now-defunct Soviet Union that it is likely declassified. But I do not know for a fact that this is so. I cannot divulge that information to anyone without them both possessing the required clearance and a bona fide “need to know”, and the conversation taking place in a location where classified discussions can be had. If I wrote out what I was told verbally I would be creating a classified document whether or not I properly marked it as such. And because of the briefings I received when I got a clearance and annually thereafter, I know the rules.
Some years ago in conversation with Mrs. Rodin we came to a place in the conversation about the day that I could no longer discuss. This was early in the marriage and she was a bit put off at the time by my demurring. “They can’t really mean you can’t talk with your wife!” she exclaimed. I assured her that they could and they did.
So, Comey is just a puffed-up POS.
Bravo! to @richardeaston ‘s dad.
Same here. Part of what I had to do involved going away to a place that I could not tell her about, not what I was doing , nor when I would be back. That was almost forty years ago and it may still be classified, so I can’t say more.
Here’s what I think. What we see here with Comey is now commonplace and the classification process itself is misused to keep information, that is not sensitive but is telling, from being generally available to the public. So, when it inures to their further advantage as they see it, the Comey’s of the world do this.
That’s been obvious for years. “Classified” is used to protect careers, not national security.
We should criminalize misclassification of records – in both directions.