Hillary Received Now-Classified Information In Her Unsecured Private Emails

She had claimed there "is" no classified information in her emails.

Well, there was, before she deleted them.

When she originally received the email, it was merely "sensitive" information. The FBI later classified it as "secret."

Here's the interesting thing: We know this is now secret because it is redacted in the emails released by State.

And what's it about? The Benghazi Attack.

It just so happens that the emails are going to be redacted whenever they're about Benghazi, I guess.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton received information on her private email server about the deadly attack on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi that has now been classified.

The email in question, forwarded to Clinton by her deputy chief of staff, Jake Sullivan, relates to reports of arrests in Libya of possible suspects in the attack.

Because the information was not classified at the time the email was sent, no laws were violated. But Friday's redaction shows that Clinton received information considered sensitive on her unsecured personal server, which came to light just as she was beginning her presidential campaign.

Clinton, campaigning in New Hampshire, said Friday she was aware that the FBI wanted some of the email to be classified, "but that doesn't change the fact all of the information in the emails was handled appropriately."

Asked if she was concerned it was on a private server, she replied, "No."

...

[The FBI] said 23 words of the Nov. 18, 2012, message were redacted from Friday's release of 296 emails totaling 896 pages to protect information that could harm national security and damage foreign relations.

A little context: The New York Times had previously questioned Hillary's claim that "no" classified information "is" in the emails, because the US Government routinely classifies lots and lots of things.

WASHINGTON — Anyone who has tried to pry information from the federal government may have been surprised on Tuesday by Hillary Rodham Clinton’s assertion that in all her emails in four years as secretary of state, she never strayed into the classified realm.

After all, a consensus among Republicans and Democrats for many years has been that the government routinely overclassifies information, reflexively stamping "secret" on mountains of documents with marginally sensitive content. The government classified more than 80 million documents in 2013, according to the Information Security Oversight Office, which publishes an annual count.

...

But some secrecy experts and former government officials on Tuesday were skeptical, noting the interesting turnabout that had a former top official insisting, for once, that none of her exchanges were secret.

Update: Hillary's unsecured emails announced, in 2011, the locations and travel plans of American officials serving in Libya.

Chris Stevens could not be reached for comment.

Noah Rothman quotes The New York Times:

Mrs. Clinton's emails show that she had a special type of government information known as "sensitive but unclassified," or "SBU," in her account. That information included the whereabouts and travel plans of American officials in Libya as security there deteriorated during the uprising against the leadership of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in 2011. Nearly a year and a half before the attacks in Benghazi, Mr. Stevens, then an American envoy to the rebels, considered leaving Benghazi citing deteriorating security, according to an email to Mrs. Clinton marked "SBU."

posted by Ace at 03:08 PM

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