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The Washington Pissed er,... Post Editor needs to learn is that access to classified information is granted after an extensive background investigation and then a security clearance level appropriate to the security level that the individual will need to do their job is granted. But the task isn't done yet. The individual must then be formally briefed on the proper safeguarding of the information at that level and sign even more documents attesting to their understanding of the restrictions that come with the clearance level as well as the ramifications of making unauthorized disclosures of classified information. Then they are allowed to see only that information specifically need called need to know to do their job at the security access level that they have been granted. The levies on the individual are not done yet for every year they must undergo refresher training on protecting classified information and the ramifications of unauthorized disclosure and the hammering in again of the meaning of need to know. Depending on the security clearance level granted the individual goes through the whole process again every 5 or ten years.

In all the time since 1972 that I've held a security clearance I have never, let me repeat that NEVER once seen anything where the "Pressies" have either the appropriate security level or the critical need to know.

So, to the Editor you are wrong! FLAT WRONG!

Here's hoping that for your involvement in this affair of without proper authorization receiving and disclosing classified information you get to enjoy as a prisoner bagging groceries, cutting the grass, shoveling the snow, cutting and delivering firewood, repairing shoes, repairing office furniture, all at the Fort Leavenworth Federal Prison.

I was approved for a top secret clearnace in 1959 at the age of nineteen. We were told that an accidental disclosure of classified information would get us twenty years in prison. That was a time, however, when the pride of having such trust placed in us and the dedication to the mission was enough for us to protect the secrets under any circumstances. I am no longer bound to keep those secrets, but I sill do. We were watching a foreign enemy, now they are within.