Classified Markings

[Hootowl]

One of the things I've been waiting for one of the talking heads on television to discuss is the matter of headers on classified documents or messages. I've worked with classified information off and on for 40+ years. One of the requirements is that if there any of the paragraphs in a document has a classified portion marking, then the entire page/message must have a classified header/footer. If the messages in Clinton's e-mails had a (C) marking, then the message header should have had the same. That it did not indicates to me that someone removed the header. Who did that? Enquiring minds want to know!

[M-cubed]

Stripping a Header does NOT declassify it!!! and I think its illegal to do so...

[luckystarmom]

Also, if you create the classified material you are responsible for putting the headers on.

And if you find something that is classified and it is incorrectly marked you are responsible for reporting that to security.

[mass55th]

This is an article from January of this year. I remembered reading about it back then. Your thread title jogged my memory, and this is what I found.

Bombshell: In Email, Hillary Ordered Aide to Strip Classified Marking and Send Sensitive Material

[sparklite2]

Are there classified messages missing headers? Or is Hillary just lying to cover up the fact that she ignored the classification?

[TigerClaws]

I remember that article.

Hillary lies so often it’s tough to keep up!

[PLMerite]

“Are there classified messages missing headers? Or is Hillary just lying to cover up the fact that she ignored the classification?”

Anything classified that ended up on Hillary’s server or devices started out on a classified system and was transferred illegally onto the unclassified public internet system. Either Hillary or a minion copied the document onto a removable storage device (disc or drive) and used that to enter the data onto the unclass system. Or it was hand-typed into the unclassified system from a classified original source.

[CivilWarBrewing]

Someone PROBABLY HUMA or CHERYL MILLS was cutting and pasting classified information from classified systems into Hillary's unclassified server. This is how classified headings disappeared. There's probably lots of 'here's the info you are looking for' emails where someone forwarded those classified excerpts to Hillary for her AND OTHERS to use in her/their emails.

Does the enemy care if something classified is marked as such? Hell no they don't. It's what they LEARN that they're NOT SUPPOSED TO KNOW that matters to them. Hillary knew better.

[CivilWarBrewing]

Comey-the-Clown is a Co-Conspirator who Covered-up and Concealed Clinton’s Crimes.

[Innovative]

The point is that you are NOT supposed to send classified information via unclassified email. Period.

Hillary and her people took off highly classified, properly marked classified information from classified servers and computers and sent it via unclassified email.

Most people actually can go to jail for that, literally.

[tbw2]

1. Content is classified with and without headers. And your training for working with classified data is so you know what is classified if it comes up in conversation or a presentation.
2. All of the documents are supposed to have headers, and they have classification markings by the paragraphs in case the sections have different classifications. So even removing the header doesn’t remove these secondary markings.
3. Classified documents have declassification instructions on the bottom. So removing the header means someone also removed the bottom.
4. Anyone at the level to create classified documents knows human intelligence, spy reports, movements of the military and sensitive people are SECRET, marked or not. This included her own travel schedule and things she emailed about others’ whereabouts. She had to have known this, because it was classified for her own safety. But she shared sensitive human intelligence and spy report info in exchange for bribes. Absolutely illegal and she had to know it.
5. Giving classified data in exchange for money is spying, giving State Department approvals in exchange for “donations” is bribery. Everyone with any clearance has to take training on “no gifts over $25 bucks from suppliers to avoid appearance of impropriety”, and she’s got a husband paid $1000 a minute or more for speeches in exchange for access? She had to know it was illegal, and if her judgment were affected, every one of her staff had to know. Failure to block it - conspiracy for bribery or spying, take your pick.

And having had more than a decade in classified IT:
* Moving data from classified to unclassified systems without permission is a data leak, and doing it deliberately is an offense that threatens your job even if still at a defense contractor. Knowingly removing headings is another offense, and sending it to unsecured external systems is an offense - per MESSAGE.
* To create any system to bypass security protocols is a MAJOR offense. Sending 10 emails to an unclassified system, even if you were in the classified space holding it in your hand to the one unclassified system used for timekeeping and then typed it up yourself and sent it.
To have a private server and organized process of subordinates doing something like that is a federal crime, and lady/freak Manning still sits in military prison for exactly that. So should Clinton and many of her subordinates.

[UCANSEE2]

Someone PROBABLY HUMA or CHERYL MILLS was cutting and pasting classified information from classified systems into Hillary's unclassified server.

That is why Hillary had so many LOST WIRELESS DEVICES.

Her 'aides' could take one of the LOST phones and get her emails, then retype the info into their cellphone and send it to her private server.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

You say you work w/classified info, I don’t, and I have no reason to doubt you.

But I will return to something I have said previously, which is, that not having a secure-server as the means by which her email was sent, not even having any such account set up, means in all effect that 1: She thereby assumes that ZERO incoming emails will be classified, and 2: She eliminates the possibility that something she herself originates is of classified grade. Neither of those are coherent occurrences or conditions.

I myself have no idea how a doc becomes “classified”. Where does that designation originate? (I ask as a rhetorical question but if anyone has a brief answer I am pleased to know it) I have suspicions, guesses, but do not know.

If spy #1 talks to spy #2, literally every piece of commun between them is de facto classified. There is no outside authority who vets the information and stamps it with a big rubber stamp.

There is an inherent obligation and duty on the part of someone who has been granted access to classified info to know when something is of that nature. And most likely, said duty extends to erring on the side of caution. This idea that the lack of a header on something the receiver knows damn well is “sensitive but not quite classified” gives him/her free rein to blather it at will is utterly absurd.

[ThunderSleeps]

I think you (like me) are thinking of DoD classification marking guidelines. Are the rules/procedures different in the State Dept? Because you're right, by DoD regs, there should be headers & footers, a title page (or info at the front) with classified-by and declassification date etc. Also, as I understand it, if you portion mark at all, you're supposed to mark every paragraph, even just (U) for the unclass stuff. So any kind of markings like that are a BIG RED FLAG that there is classified information in the document.

[ThunderSleeps]

I myself have no idea how a doc becomes “classified”. Where does that designation originate? (I ask as a rhetorical question but if anyone has a brief answer I am pleased to know it) I have suspicions, guesses, but do not know.

Short version, there are three basic ways (and probably lots of subtle nuances and variations on these) something ends up classified:

1. It comes from other classified material. Maybe you're restating something or paraphrasing or citing/extracting information from another source. In that case, you cite the source as the classification authority. You see this most often in briefings where information is being pulled together and presented.
2. Classification guidelines. For major programs etc. there are published guidelines. "XYZ and information pertaining to it is to be protected as ..." In this case you cite the CG as the source/authority for classification. You see this most often in engineering works where information generated (specs etc.) needs to be protected.
3. Original classification authority. Rarest of all. All classification authority starts with the Executive Branch - ie. the President. The President can (and does) delegate "original classification authority" to various high ranking officials. This means they can deem any information as being protected by classification rules.

Oddly enough, Secretary of State (ie. Clinton) typically (always?) has original classification authority. So her excuse that documents and information wasn't marked doesn't hold up. As SoS, with OCA, she is supposed to have the good judgement to look at information pertaining to her field and determine it should be protected. Her excuse is merely an admission by her that she demonstrably lacks such good judgement. This disqualifies her from ever holding an OCA position again, probably should disqualify her from ever holding a clearance again. (they're real big on that good judgement thing)

[TADSLOS]

This is header drill is all moot anyway. We are talking about the US Secretary of State, the senior most cabinet member to the POTUS, someone by definition of their title deals in highly sensitive confidential information on a regular basis. It doesn't matter what the header indicates or whether it is even present. At that level, with as many aides and assistants briefing the details, you shouldn't get a pass for releasing classified information either inadvertantly or deliberately based solely on whether there was a header or only abbreviated with a (C) in the body of the text. The nature of the information being passed should be the primary indicator of it's classification sensitivity. Besides, you shouldn't even be considering sending official US government correspondence by private e-mail anyway. Even a junior enlisted member of our armed forces understands that basic concept.

It's just more weasel word Clinton crap from the self proclaimed smartest woman in the room, which means she deliberately and willfully committed a felony by ignoring security protocols and installing her own private server and operating off of multiple unsecure Blackberries to send and receive official US government classified information back and forth to/from her lackies without being accountable to Federal Records archiving and FOIA requirements.

[WildHighlander57]

Many thanks for the insights into how classified markings etc work!

Lucyt, whenifhow

Ping to:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3468737/posts?page=11#11

Also see #12 thru #15; h/t attention surplus disorder, thunderdleeps

Best overviews on how this stuff works...

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

Well then I would say we are sort of paraphrasing each other albeit very indirectly.

For her NOT to even have a secure pipe means she thinks that NOTHING she ever says/writes could EVER be classified. More egregiously, it means she thinks she could never be the recipient of such info and that is just blitheringly impossible.

Suppose one day she needs to transmit some classified info. What is she supposed to do, poll some other Dep’t of State worker, presumably with a secure PC sitting on their desk, determine somehow if they have the authority to view what HRC is about to send, then ask to sit at their desk?

I’m just saying, as is obvious, literally any one of her excuses, if taken as valid, immediately generates an impossible quandary in the next cel of the cartoon.

[Whenifhow]

PING!!!

See #11
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3468737/posts?page=11#11

Also see #12 thru #15; h/t attention surplus disorder, thundersleeps. tbw2

Best overviews on how this stuff works...

thanks, WildHighlander57

[freds6girlies]

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