Posted on 03/04/2025 9:07:17 AM PST by cgbg
I was surprised she gave us that little look behind the curtain—but glad she did.
This issue should be openly discussed.
The secrecy has gotten out of control.
It’s a Sucky Cabbage Icy Freeze. And they’re pretty gross. My least favorite summer treat.
(Yes, I know what a SCIF is. I’ve had a security clearance for some time now.)
Anyone involved in preventing her presence needs to be arrested post haste.
It is long past time to stop pussy-footing around on this.
Access to a SCIF has three requirements. First is proper ID; second is proper clearance and third is need-to know. AG Bondi should have the first and third requirements met but she may still be in the process of obtaining all of the clearances needed for her job. If she lacks the 2nd then it would have been correct to bar her from having complete access to the SCIF. However, she could have been escorted in once the SCIF was sanitized to the level of her current clearance level.
Do you remember the opening scenes of that show while the theme song was played with all the different doors that Maxwell Smart had to go thru to just get in, ending in a phone booth?
The real NSA HQ is practically just like that, without the phone booth!..................
The very fact that Trump nominated Bondi and the Senate confirmed her is all the security clearance and need-to-know that she needs. Quit propagating the Deep State’s lies.
The Attorney General is often called America's Top Cop.
Do you think what you wrote would apply to that role?
Secret policing so secret that even the Top Cop can't know about it?
I don't think so.
-PJ
Good post—legalism is what got us where we are today.
SCIF security protocols are a part of that—and have created a climate where secret operations against the American people can be taken with senior official deniability.
That must stop.
It’s like the “cone of silence” from Get Smart, I think.
“Compartmentalized” is an important part of “SCIF”. If you have not been read in to a specific program, you do not have access. Period.
To make up an example, if something is “TS Cat Poo”, only people who have been certified as needing to know about “Cat Poo” AND with a TS clearance could read about it. If it is “Secret Cat Poo”, then you could have a TS clearance and not be allowed access. Period. Unless you had been certified as needing to know and “read in” to “Cat Poo”.
All in accordance with the law.
SCIF is where you go to discuss stuff when you have nothing to hide.
I would have to assume you have zero experience with security clearances whereas I’ve had a TS/SCI w/ Poly since 1982. I’m not condoning the actions that took place but offering a plausible explanation of what might have transpired.
“Cabinet officials must have total access.”
No. It is important for some things to have very limited access. If Trump wants his cabinet head to have access to the “Cat Poo” program, he can authorize it. Until he does, they are NOT allowed access because they do not need to know and because when something is known by enough people, even people with a TS clearance, it DOES leak.
The President of the United States gets to decide who can have clearance as soon as he says so. He doesn't need a "process" to grant security clearances.
What you describe seems like the bureaucracy of paperwork. Bondi had all the clearances she needed the moment she was sworn into her role. What you described is just the paperwork catching up with Bondi -- it can't be the other way around.
-PJ
The Wife and I were assigned to an MI unit our only tour of Korea. We both hated being in MI Puke unit, the only bright spots were my Motor Officer a CE CW2 and the Commander.
The Commander called my boss one day to ask us to check out the electronic lock on the SCIF. The lock was broken and would be months before parts came in. MI troops were standing guard 24/7 and Christmas was coming up.
Chief went with me and one of my E5s to check it out. The MI CW2 threw a hissy fit and wouldn’t let us in, even though we all had clearances. Chief called the CO who jacked up the MI Dweeb and we found the receiver side of the lock broken. I told chief we couldn’t weld or braze it because it was pot metal. We took it off and went back to the Motor Pool to brainstorm.
We went to the PX and found some sandbox sand, built a box and jury rigged a vacuum cleaner to it. We went to the Ville and bought an old lawn mower engine, broke it up and melted it down and did a sand cast. We spent hours with files and Dremel tool and finally took it to the SCIF to try it out. A little fine tuning and the SCIF lock was working.
MI Dweeb CW2 says “That won’t get it, it has to come from an official source and this won’t do.” Chief went up to the CO and had a pow wow. The CO told the MI Dweeb CW2 that if it wasn’t good enough for him to move a cot to the SCIF and stay until the “right” part came in. Suddenly our part was good enough. F’n MI Pukes!
That is the issue.
My view is that a Cabinet official has a need to know everything that is going on their department.
Otherwise the agency can go rogue in a hurry.
Who decides the Attorney Generals clearance?
POTUS.
Unless she has been flagged somehow as a risk to national security.
POTUS IS National Security.
Not some agency bureaucrat descended from cross-dressing Herbert Hoover.
Were you nominated by the President and confirmed to the top position of a department?
-PJ
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