Hillary’s ‘Special Access’ Server More evidence that she mishandled highly classified information.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/hillarys-special-access-server-1453336486
When Team Clinton warns of a vast right-wing conspiracy, it’s a sure sign of political distress. Hillary Clinton’s accusation that even an independent federal watchdog is conspiring against her is another sign that her email problems are escalating.
The Clinton attack is a response to a Jan. 14 letter from the intelligence community’s inspector general, Charles McCullough, to Congress’s intelligence committees. Mr. McCullough said he has received sworn declarations from the intelligence community that former Secretary of State Clinton’s private email server contained intelligence about the government’s most important secrets. Reviewers have found “several dozen emails” containing information deemed to be at “confidential, secret, and top secret/sap” levels.
The SAP—special access program—reference in particular is ringing Washington alarms. A SAP usually refers to a highly covert technology program, often weaponry. Knowledge of these programs is usually restricted to small groups of people on a need-to-know basis.
NBC News first reported that the SAP reference on Mrs. Clinton’s server is so sensitive that Mr. McCullough had to get special clearance before he could even view the intelligence-community declarations. Later on Wednesday NBC quoted “senior U.S. officials” as saying that the information was “innocuous” chatter about U.S. military drone strikes.
This quote looks like an attempt at political damage control because the SAP news undermines Mrs. Clinton’s previous claim that the emails on her server weren’t classified “at the time.” The fact of drone strikes may have generally been known to the public, but classification levels often involve specific details—such as targets and timing. Mrs. Clinton would surely have recognized the sensitive nature of such a program—the details of which were sitting on her unsecured email server, affording “special access” to any quality Chinese hacker.
This is probably why Mrs. Clinton’s campaign decided to smear Mr. McCullough as a partisan. Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon complained: “It is alarming that the intelligence community IG, working with Republicans in Congress, continues to selectively leak materials in order to resurface the same allegations and try to hurt Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.”
As it happens, President Obama nominated Mr. McCullough to be the nation’s first IG of the intelligence community after a lifetime in law enforcement and intelligence. The Senate confirmed him unanimously.
The Daily Caller and watchdog group Cause of Action have also reported on other emails showing that top State Department officials, including Under Secretary Patrick Kennedy, knew about Mrs. Clinton’s private server as early as August 2011. The emails show that a State official suggested to Mrs. Clinton’s aides that she move to a government-issued BlackBerry and email address given “malfunctioning” on her “personal unit” and “personal email server.” Mrs. Clinton’s confidante, Huma Abedin, rejected the request.
All of this is relevant to the FBI probe into Mrs. Clinton’s intentions and negligence in handling classified information. Mrs. Clinton put U.S. secrets at risk for the selfish political purpose of hiding her correspondence from public view. She should be held accountable.
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