Does the POTUS have access to all classified information(vanity)

eastforker ^ | 12/10/2016 | me

[eastforker]

Does the President have access to all classified info ? Does anyone here even know??

Just wondering if anyone has access to all classified information.

[eastforker]

There has got to be somebody that knows and has access to everything, who is it?

[Wayne07]

Are you asking because you want Trump to reveal the real info about Area 51?

[eastforker]

Really, does anyone have full access to all classified info??

[Therapsid]

Wonder what he learned....at that 1st interview ....looks shook to me

[dadfly]

God.

[stylin19a]

discussion going on over here

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3503347/posts

[eastforker]

The question is not about revealing info, the question is, is there anyone with total access to all classified info.

[Timpanagos1]

He has access to all the classified information that he knows does exist.

[eastforker]

That’s a tempting statement, how about info he doesn’t know that exist?

You and I can google info that exist, how about info that we don’t know about.

[grateful]

Access to classified information is only given on a need to know basis, even if you have the proper clearance. At least, that’s how it was when I held a clearance.

[cynwoody]

The President is automatically cleared.

Of course, in exigent circumstances, officers, being mindful of Nuremberg, might want to remember their oaths.

[VisualizeSmallerGovernment]

"There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know."

-- Donald Rumsfeld

https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/d/donaldrums148142.html

[eastforker]

That’s my point, would the POTUS or anyone else have a need to know everything classified??

[eastforker]

Oh how I so remember that quote, however, that does not answer the question.

[greeneyes]

Interesting that you mention the oath. A General recently (before the election, IIRC), reminded the troops of their oath and obligations. He also referenced following all lawful orders of their superiors.

[Pontiac]

There has got to be somebody that knows and has access to everything, who is it?

I am just guessing but will say no.

There are 8 different foreign intelligence agencies so as a practical matter I doubt that anyone could have access to it all.

[keving]

Golfing?

[JPX2011]

It’s an interesting question and one I’ll take a stab at from a purely layman’s point of view (never having a security clearance)

From what I understand POTUS is cleared for everything but doesn’t need to know everything. But if he wanted he could sit down and say, “gimme all the classified info about everything” and the keepers of the secrets would give it to him. But as a practical matter I doubt he would have time for all of that.

I suspect there might be instances where those in the know would be upfront with POTUS and tell him that he really doesn’t need to know something pertaining to sources and methods. That conversation would be like, “we got a source here...” and it’s intentionally left vague. It would be up to POTUS to decide if he wants to let it lie or pursue the matter. Personally, if I was POTUS, I wouldn’t want to know too much about that. A guy like Obama, who always thought he was the smartest in the room probably wants chapter and verse because he’s a narcissist.

I also suspect there are those in the ‘deep state’ the career folks who deal with classified material that know things that a President will never know. Just by being in the job for so long.

Just my .02 cent WAG.

[poinq]

I think you are asking the wrong question. If you want to know if the President has the authority to see all classified information, the answer is yes, But that is a very lot of information. So it is filtered condensed and summarized for him. But then he has to read it. Many presidents don’t read it. Obama and Reagan did not read all that was given to them, but its likely that all presidents even Eisenhower falls into that category to some extent.

The national security committee (heads of different armed services and spy services) produces weekly reports. And the National Security advisors job is to point out things of interest for the president.

One of the biggest part of the intelligence service is to gather and process information. We pay people to do nothing but read foreign newspapers and watch foreign TV all day long and report the spin and interesting stories.

[cgbg]

If you read the UFO literature (Richard Dolan’s books, for example) it is _very_ clear that the President is not fully briefed on the topic.

It is a myth of our times that governments have full autonomy over the territory of their nations.

Multi-national corporations, secret societies and groups of various kinds, criminal organizations (oops, repeated myself) do not play by the “rules” of the people who write constitutions and draw maps.