Name:   Talullahhound - Subject:   MM - no, that's not what I am saying - and Hodja Date:   1/11/2016 4:48:59 PM

It's two different instances of involving classified data.  Both are wrong.  You seem intent on finding me sympathetic to Hilary, but that is not the case.  Nor am I sympathetic to Petraus.  I think he should have been reduced in rank over everything that happned with his "biographer".  I knew a man that went to jail for showing some rather inocuous classified data to a foreign national who was his friend.  Just let him look at it.  And he got 10 years, and the foreign national was expelled from the country.

I'm not saying that I don't think Hilary deserves jail time, I'm just saying that I don't think it will happen. Perhaps if I or everyone else knew exactly what classified data was transmitted via unsecure means, it would be easier to judge.  But as it stands, she's no longer a state department employee and the chances of her getting charged and jailed is remote.  If anything, she may be fined like Petraus was. 

Hodja, I have no idea who makes the determination of who has a need to know - except the person doing the transfer and the one receiving the information.  Inquiries are supposed to be made as to why that person has a "need to know" before the transfer takes place.  As you know, the higher the level of classification, there more paritions there are - and just because you have a level of security clearance doesn't automatically make you eligible to receive all data at that level.  You have to be read on to certain compartments before you can access information that is restricted in that compartment.  And the reason they do that is to prevent espionage.  The last big spy case involved a guy working for the CIA that was accessing files that he wasn't read in on and didn't have the need to know.  I still can't believe that a contractor at the CIA had so much access to files and was able to capture and release so much dmanaging information. Of course, if he is ever returned to the U.S., I hope he is convicted of high treason.  But there many that regard him as a hero.

But he a day to day basis, I agree with you that "need to know" can be tricky.  I guess that is considered part of the responsibility of having a security clearance.