FBI Director James Comey flat out lied to the American people yesterday, when he described Hillary Clinton and the State Department’s staffers as “extremely careless” and declined to refer her case for prosecution. What they actually did was far more serious than “careless”. Without a doubt, they willfully, criminally, treasonously carried out deliberate steps to copy classified paragraphs to an unsecure private server, and then they lied about it and also tried to delete files and confound investigators to cover their tracks.
By not confirming this perfidy with a criminal referral, Mr. Comey just made himself an indirect party to their crimes. Let me explain why I know this with certainty:
First, all classified documents are kept on dedicated independent encrypted computer systems and networks that do not cross over into the unclassified world. These computers are all very carefully air gapped–meaning that they NEVER have a physical connection to computers on unclassified networks. Therefore, there were only three ways that those 2,100+ classified paragraphs (some of them TS Codeword!) could have ended up in unclassified e-mails:
- While reading one screen, someone laboriously keyed them in by hand, to appear on another screen. (This is unlikely, or human transcription errors would have been obvious.)
- Someone “bridged the air gap” with an Ethernet cable or other data cable. Also unlikely, but that is possible in a worst-case security breach.
- Someone copied classified files (or excerpts from them), using a memory stick or other removable memory media. (The most likely method used.)
Second, even if the Air Gap Rule violations could somehow be explained, then there is still the issue of the systematic removal of the classification markings on the documents. Not only does the top and bottom of each page carry a classification marking, but each individual paragraph contained within the document carries a classification prefix. These paragraph prefixes include:
(U) Which stands for Unclassified
(C) Which stands for Confidential
(S) Which stands for Secret
(NF) A secondary marking which stands for No Foreign (NOFORN) dissemination (So, for example, in might read: S/NF”)
(TS/Codeword) Which stands for Top Secret and the initials of a SCI compartment codeword.
Note: There are also other variations of these markings. And I can’t even mention any of those codewords or their initials because they themselves are considered classified!
The inescapable and inconvenient truth is that those top, bottom, and paragraph classification markings don’t disappear without someone taking the time and trouble to painstakingly remove them! Again, this could not have been any sort of carelessness.
Conclusion
If anyone else in government service (whether military or civilian) had done what Hillary perfidiously ordered her staff to repeatedly do, then if detected they’d be immediately arrested and within a few short months they’d face trial and probably be serving 10+ years of hard time in a Federal Pen. But apparently Hitlery Clinton is so witchy special that laws don’t apply to her–at least in the eyes of the politically-appointed FBI director.
As a former Intelligence officer, I am absolutely sickened and appalled to see Director Comey sell out the way that he did. Curse you, Mr. Comey! If J. Edgar Hoover were alive today, he would spit in your eye.- JWR
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