[XJarhead]

My relative asserted that he, at his relatively low level of things had clearances higher than the President's. Many have asserted such.

And I'm quite certain that your relative with his admittedly low level of things has personal knowledge as to exactly what the President has the ability and authority to see.

That is the worst type of self-important speculation imaginable on the part of your releative. Has he spoken to the President? Has he been present when the President was refused access to information he requested? If not, I submit that he is speaking from a portion of his anatomy better reserved for other bodily functons.

I'm sensing a pattern. It seems as though people on "your side" of this issue take concepts that may be applicable in a general sense and apply them to specific situations without any idea of whether they actually fit. Your relative gets told "only people with so-and-so clearance can view this." From that, he extrapolates that the President is not permitted to see it. What he ignores is that the person who gave him that general instruction obviously wasn't referring to the President, because your relative had no reason to know whethe the President was supposed to have access.

To put it in more concrete, military terms, lets say I'm the XO of a battalion, and my CO tells me "hey, we're going to be going to the field next week, but don't tell anyone." If I bump into my division commander, and he asks me if we're going to the field next week, of course I tell him yes. Only a literalist dimwit would assume that my battalion CO meant for his comments to apply to the division commander, because the context of the comment is that I'm supposed to keep it quiet from subordinates.

It's the same type of strained literalism that would lead your relative to conclude that general guidance applicable to dissemination of classified information was intended to bar access by the President.

[Quix]

You are welcome to construe it such that my relative's supriors could not have/would not have exhorted him about the highly specialized nature of his clearance.

Motivating newcomers to consider themselves an elite but also at serious risk for discounting the hazards, risks of discounting their new status would make a lot of sense to me.

I have no illusions of anything I say or believe making a lot of sense to you.

[Quix]

BTW, regarding the IKE thing.

There are convincing reports from Ike's associates that Ike was increasingly aware that he had lost control of the UFO field and that those who'd gained it were not to be trusted--and THAT THERE WAS NOTHING HE COULD DO ABOUT IT.

That's an awesome statement. But quite convincing given what Ike said and the source's relationship to Ike. No. I don't have that particular ref but it should be searchable on the web where I found it originally, I THINK. It may have been in a book.

CO's of Navy ships can be prevented from learning some things by skillful Chiefs or XO's. And that's small potatoes compared to the larger games in the larger arenas.