“My experience was somewhat different than Secretary Clinton’s use of her commercial account, yet I was ‘fired’ for the use of Gmail in the US Embassy, my insistence on improving our physical security posture, and other twisted and false allegations,” Gration wrote from Kenya, where he now works in the private sector. “I’ve chosen to move on and to be better, not bitter.” …
“It is true that I used my Gmail account to access my alerts and unclassified personal emails. I had subscribed to three ‘alerts’ programs that sent me breaking news stories, analysis of important events, and Africa-related articles…I use Gmail because these services were not available on the State Department’s OpenNet computer network,” the former ambassador wrote. “Over the years, I had also built a professional network that used my Gmail address. I wanted to have access to these capabilities and contacts while at work.”…
“Soon after becoming Ambassador, I tried hard to have my unclassified State Department emails and my Gmail messages displayed as separate accounts on the same State Department Blackberry. I had done this on BlackBerries in the past to eliminate having to carry around two devices. After four months of trying, I gave up and used two Blackberries to read my unclassified email traffic that could easily and safely been displayed on one,” the former ambassador added.
“I used Gmail for unofficial business...”
What is unofficial business?
Open Net is not email, but a type of file sharing system.
One thing that I don’t understand....
In my experience when you join an organization nowadays the IT people automatically create stuff for you - accounts and access rights - and an email account. Now you may not use that account but it is still there. I would think that the only way that there wouldn’t be one is if the IT folks were instructed NOT to create the mailbox. And I would think that someplace there would be a record of that conversation.
Ousted ambassador sounds off on Hillary email flap
SCOOP: Hillary's State Dept. Forced The Resignation Of An Ambassador For Using Private E-Mail