Its admittedly been a long time, but I never saw any such notation on classified documents I used to handle. I seem to recall that if a document contained a mix of classified and unclassified information, the whole document was classified at the highest level of security classification needed to protect the information in the document.

The Press has been arguing, persuasively, for years that information is over-classified. Although you can't blame the guy classifying the info, what's the safest action...classify.

That said, and though I think this Rove thing is a big nothing, I don't know that the fact of overclassification means its okay to disclose classified information which remains classified...so the fact of overclassification doesn't necessarily help (except in weighing the harm, if any, caused by divulging the information).

Yes, I was trying to make that point. Unfortunately, this might have been a bullshit sloppy overclassification, but if it was in fact legally classified, then someone might be technically guilty of revealing classified info, even though it should not have been classified.

And that could be trouble.

Brew,

I defer to your dimly-remembered expertise. But it did strike me that it's odd that a paragraph would be labled secret, and that furthermore Pincus can divine precisely what in that paragraph was the secret part.

It's also a little odd that a secret document was leaked to Pincus, who is, of course, not entitled to receive classified information.

The press just blithely ignores this irony.

Some leaks of classified information are more equal than others.

The inclination to give material classified status long after it had beome innocuous has been the driver behind many conspiracy theories. The whole Roswell idiocy is largely the result of a recce R&D project remaining classified long after it was found lacking in value.

I do not recall if the designation "For Official Use Only" is technically considered a classification; if it is, it's lower than "Confidential" (which is, as you correctly surmised, a low level of classification.) In any event, FOUO is not much of a classification, since anyone with a need can access it, with or without a background check.

BrewFan is right insofar as the entirety of a document is classified at the highest level appropriate.

However, sections of a document may be marked with lower classifications if, for instance, excerpts are needed for people not cleared for the higher level.

Leaving FOUO aside, there are only the three levels of classification. What gets complicated is the "codeword" access to material classified at the different levels. That's where all the really cool stuff happens.

Having a Top Secret clearance doesn't impress me. Having codeword access does.

You wingnuts keep laughing. This is gonna be as big as Gannon-gate!

This is gonna be as big as Gannon-gate!

We are in perfect agreement, Lefty.

I would like to see some verification of the practice of classifying paragraphs.

You can read about the US Security Classification System here.

I would like to see some verification of the practice of classifying paragraphs.

Would the evidence of my own eyes be acceptable?

Also below "Secret" is SBU - "Sensitive But Unclassified."

Would the evidence of my own eyes be acceptable?

You willing to pluck them out and post them?

Classified is the absolute lowest level. Nearly all government deskjob types are given secret clearance.

But one department's secret is not another persons secret, and as you point out -- exactly what is secret in the paragraph? and just slapping on secret (S) doesn't make it so.

Russ, it ain't that big a deal. I had TS codeword on 3 programs I worked on. But everything in the defense contracting world is "need to know", so I couldn't for example, see Secret docs on programs that I had no involvement in.

Brew, we always classified the entire document. The NIS boys liked our "over-diligence". I have never seen a doc that had sections labeled, but that doesn't mean I know they don't exist.

Dave, I too had TS codeword back in my MI days. I guess you could say the "coolness" is a function of the type of information the particular codeword is protecting.

"But it did strike me that it's odd that a paragraph would be labled secret"

That was exactly the point I was trying to make so we're on the same page.

(Oh, and in my former line of work, it was a Very Big Deal.)

Secret is about as low as you can go. When I was in ROTC in college, I was allowed to look at 'Secret' material.

Most of it was dull.

Most of what is considered secret doesn't rise to the level of "I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you."

Virtually all of it is "I could tell you, but then I'd have to contact the appropriate agency and have an Inadvertent Disclosure report made out, and they'd probably yank my clearance, in which case I might as well kill you, because my career is over."

Russ,

That 'coolness' however meant not leaving the US for three years after discharge! Oh well, I probably wasn't going anywhere anyhow :)

I said that badly - basically my point was need to know goverened everything, and the different levels were based on the severity of disclosure to national security

BrewFan,

Yup. I've been out of the biz for ~15 years and AFAIK I still can't go certain places without notifying the appropriate people in advance.

Not that I'd actually want to go to any of those places, ever.

Dave,

Yes, you nailed it -- "need to know" is always the main concern.

Ace, I might not have made myself clear in earlier comments.

It is (or was) a normal practice to have material with individual paragraphs marked with the classification appropriate to that paragraph. The overall classification of the entire document, however, must be the highest classification assigned to any of the material contained in the document.

That said, a para with seven sentences might have just one phrase that is classified -- there's no way to know that any particular word, sentence, or name is classified.

Oh, and just to max out my daily comment quota, let me add: the name of a covert agent would almost certainly be classified a) higher than "Secret" and b) with a codeword.

On classification - yes and no.

Generally, SpewFan is right that the whole document gets classified. But when you are in a chain to a policy maker that must communicate and discuss info in a policy-making role, you specify what sections of the memo are open-sourced, may be freely discussed and what items are classified background elements important to the decision but which may not be openly discussed with those lacking clearance.

Such stuff in a general memo can be underlined and footnoted. It can be marked in the margins. It can be redacted from the memo and given to all decision-makers, but only left in for those with the appropriate level of security clearance.

The Presidents Daily Brief is an example of such a memo. It has wide distribution, copies have apppeared in the media, but whole paragraphs are redacted and only for selected eyes privy to it...

Russ has it exactly right. The entire document must be classified to the highest level of any of the information it contains. I just went through our annual security training today and we discussed this as we do every (boring) time.

PS: The stuff Sandy Berger stole from the archives? Codeword-clearance. The press didn't seem particularly interested in his theft (and admitted DESTRUCTION!) of original copies of genuine secret documents from the archives.

Make that "alleged DESTRUCTION". What proof has Berger offered that those documents were destroyed and disposed of in accordance with rules regarding the handling of classified documents?

What I'm curious about is why nobody's upset about the WaPo having classified info. Nobody in his right mind would have generated a classified document where the only piece of classified info is Plame's name. In the AF we used to constantly write around the information to avoid generating classified documents, which require special handling as well as documentation of their generation, delivery, and destruction.

I'd guess that there's a lot more info in the memo that is classified, making it: 1) likely that Plame's name is not the only classified item in the report, and 2) likely that whoever leaked to the WaPo should be in a heap more trouble than Rove could ever be.

"Make that "alleged DESTRUCTION". What proof has Berger offered that those documents were destroyed and disposed of in accordance with rules regarding the handling of classified documents?"

Ummm... the proof is that he admitted it?

Oh, wait, you're saying that maybe he didn't destroy them at all, but either disseminated them or lost them.

Well, he claims he destroyed them, which itself is illegal.

Whether he did or not I guess we don't actually know.

He could have destroyed the, he could have used them to wallpaper his bathroom, he could have faxed them to Beijing for all we know.

And thanks to our hard-hitting, investigative MSM, we never will.

Classification issue aside, this really doesn't add up to much unless it's later shown Rove, despite his claims to hearing it from reporters, actually came by his knowledge from a classified memo.

Speculation is now turning to Bartlett or Fleischer (I'm still sticking w/ Powell) as Novak's leaker - and that person may well have learned from the 'classified' report, but none of those names are Rove.

The left has invested to much psychic energy into their fever dream of 'getting Rove.' Anyone else is a let down. After all, he's the dark prince. He's everywhere. Ruining America and ruining their lives.

Rove's fooled America into not embracing Kerry. Rove's the reason their emo band can't get signed. Rove's the reason that hipster barrista won't give them the time of day. Rove, Rove, Rove.

Classification issue aside, this really doesn't add up to much unless it's later shown Rove, despite his claims to hearing it from reporters, actually came by his knowledge from a classified memo.

I'm not sure, but I'll bet dollars to donuts it's not that black and white. I'm almost positive -- guessing, but informedly so -- that the law speaks of those who pass information they know, or should reasonably know, is classified, whether they got it directly from a classified memo or second hand.

So if you get it from someone who read the memo, and you have good reason to think the memo is classified, and you spread the info anyway, you can be found guilty.

As to top secert, when I was in the army stationed at Ft, Irwin, there was a color system used. Green was a mid-level clearence that allowed you access to combat readiness and deployment of combat units, big shit in that day. The real big honchos, O-6 and above, that had access to war plans for the USAEUR were given color code umbra, the highest that I knew of. As to confidental and secert, things like the training schedueles and supply amounts used,went under those classes.

Ace: Sure, but in your example you've set it up such that the non-memo holder receiver of the info knows/has good reason to know the info he's receiving is from classified sources.

The person with knowledge of the memo is liable, the person they pass it onto (possibly Rove here) isn't - unless they somehow know the info was classified, which was sort of the whole question: Did Rove pass on info he knew was classified?

Rove says he got the info from a reporter (can't remember which one.)

The question is: Who was Novak's original source? Still guessin it's Powell, through the INR report. He is likely affected by the classification status. Don't see that Rove is.

jeff,

You've probably got a little time before the FBI gets to your house to call your lawyer and get your affairs in order :)

As an otherwise familiar member of the Ace Of Spades menagerie, let me become temporarily "anonymous" (pshyeah, right) to note that I have, in a prior life, worked at America's Most Incompetent National Security Agency, aka the one at Langley.

And the classifcation protocols Pincus describes are indeed familiar to me. BrewFan and Co. are also correct, in that the document itself is classified according to the highest-classified material in it. That said, paragraph-by-paragraph breakdown of classifications is nothing new.

Pincus is getting played, big time. Note that this is State Department, stuff -- Foggy Bottom is leaking because one of their guys is going to get nailed, badly.

Powell or Armitage. I'll laugh my ass off.

Russ is on point. Individual paragraphs are classified based on their content, and the whole document carries the highest such classification. For example, a document might be called "(S/NF) Iranian Desert Warfare Training (U)", meaning that the document is classified "Secret/Noforn" (not releasable to foreigner nationals) but the title of the document is unclassified. There are also documents whose titles themselves will be classified.

(S) and (C) are basic classifications, and frankly there is little difference between the two. A secret clearance will get you general access to any of these. I used to leaf through the safe drawers reading on whatever topic struck my interest.

(TS) is different. The information is more tightly safeguarded, and most carries a codeword clearance. As others have noted, a codeword clearance isn't a "higher" classification; it means that even if you have a TS clearance, you don't necessarily have a need-to-know. The information is compartmentalized, hence the term "Sensitive Compartmentalized Information" ("TS/SCI").

BTW, the identity of a clandestine agent under NOC would be classified higher than (S), and should in any event include "/WNINTEL" in the classification. Without that, whatever was classified in a paragraph just marked (S), it wasn't Plame's name, since if she were under NOC, the WNINTEL ("Warning Notice, Intelligence Sources or Methods Involved") category would also be required.

What about Secret Squirrel? Is that codeword, or just TS with a cryptographic endorsement?

I'm with Dave, there should have been a WNINTEL and also possibly NOFORN (no foreign).

Let me clear up one thing that gets confusing for many people. The highest clearance level is Top Secret. So called code word material denotes special access. Once you are granted a particular clearance, you have it for life unless it is revoked. Your access is contingent upon need to know and additional security checks. It is very common for equally trustable people to have different access.

Now, a story of seemingly over zealous classification: While in college, I noticed a class that was taught by the president of the school. It was a class about intelligence in the U.S. I talked with him about it and found out that DIRNSA was going to give a talk. I attended for that talk (taking the class would have been too hard, given I couldn't talk about what I knew). DIRNSA proceeded to blithely tell the class many things I had been taught in training that were classified. There was a reception later and I asked (after explaining my background) about the slips without specifying them. He told me that much of the Confidential and some of the Secret classified information was classified just for "practice," so people who saw low level information would be in the practice of not talking about it.

All that said, the press and politicians get away with murder as far as revealing classified information is concerned. I find it very suspicious that the press fights very hard to shed light on government, but fights tooth and nail to avoid the same level of scrutiny.

I just retired after 24 years active service in the Navy.....I had a TS for all 24 years. You can have paragraphs classified at different levels than the entire document.....but no paragraph can be marked HIGHER than the overall classification. Not all the information in classified documents is classified - hence the sub markings. If a paragraph is marker as (U) or unclassified, it can be released following PAO guidelines. Sub paragraph markings do become a hassel when working with large documents, OPLANS, OPORDERS or classified technical manuals.
As for Sandy Berger - I think he should be Clayton Longtree and JImmy Walkers cellmate at Levenworth.

Standard practice was to classify each separate paragraph or subparagraph. The basic classification hierarchy is Unclassified (U), Confidential (C), Secret (S) and Top Secret (TS). Kudos to commentoers who mentioned oddball classifications like SBU and NOFORN. As indicated, the overall classification of a document is the same as the highest level of classification it contains.

PiZero is correct about TS Codeword classifications. This is top secret information with limited and carefully controlled access. This is the type of classification used, among other things, to protect the identities of covert agents. Pincus is just wrong concluding that the paragraph where Valerie is mentioned was classified (S) to protect her identity.

Just for practice, here's the body of a classifed memo

1. (U) On 1 Jul 98, USA Today reported that Kim Il Jong announced that North Korea had a nuclear capability. Similar reports have been published in other newspapers in recent weeks.

2. (C) Photos obtained from commercial surface mapping satellites revealed several potential sites.

3. (S) Military satellite photos confirm sites are consistent with nuclear storage depots. SIGINT confirms high security shipments to one of the sites.

4. (TS) The sites are x, y, and z. Site x currently has 3 warheads.

5. (TS/Crazy Kim) Presence of warheads supported by photographic evidence taken on site by Madeline Albright during recent trip, after sedating her host.

6. (TS/Crazy Kim/Clinton Eyes Only). I told Kim to show me something that would knock my socks off. I didn't think he'd fall for it, but I have my ways. It was that thong snapping tip that did the trick. That, and the rophynol on top of the champagne.

Ace:

Basically agree but two points:

1. I didn't say it was unlikely anyone read the memo; the article says that Powell read it and that it was written for an undersecretary. I just said it was unlikely Rove would have read it.

2. Don't confuse clearance with classification. I had a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information clearance as an Army officer. That meant I could easily be read into a codeword protected program. Clearance ain't a library card, though. Even "Secret" information is released only on a need-to-know basis.

"Top Secret" stuff is usually actually pretty sensitive. Goodness, my artillery unit's Cold War battle plans, which showed the location of my launchers, were only "Secret."

I have to correct a slight misunderstanding PiZero has. I was in the Navy for a number of years on a fast attack submarine. We had a few missions that were code word TS. Before these missions everyone on the boat was given clearance and a breifing on the mission and materials were could have access to. Once we returned home we were debreifed and told our clearance was no longer valid. It wasn't "revoked," but we were no longer on a need-to-know basis. So you can have conditional clearance on a need-to-know basis.

People are confusinf clearance level with granting access. Once a security invesitgation is completed, a person is granted a clearance upto and including a certain level. This level never changes unless the person is found to be a traitor, a criminal or other drastic reason. Most of us that had TS/SCI/Code word clearances still have them after exiting the service. You would have to activate them again before being granted access. This is the periodic review that occurs every 5 years.
Access to classified information is granted by the parent command. If you had a TS/SCI codeword clearance, but your current assignment only requires a Secret - then the command would limit your access to Secret material only. You still have the TS/SCI CW, but don't need it for your current job. Once you transfer (or if the job you're at requires it) your ACCESS can be raised to your highest clearance level needed to do your job.