The latest travesty involving our government took place when FBI interviewed Hillary Clinton, and the FBI Director James Comey's announcement afterwards. Comey recommended that no charges be filed on her misuse of private email for sensitive government business. He admitted that that she was negligent and careless in her use of her private server email and that there were hundreds of classified emails, ranging from "confidential" to "secret" to the highest category "top secret." He also stated that it was possible that "hostile actors" (those were his words!) had access to Clinton's classified emails owing to her careless use! That, my friends, is an admission that some hostile foreign group, be they countries China, Russia, and North Korea, all of whom have repeatedly tried to hack into our government computers, more than likely read her emails! This does not include smaller "actors" such as Al Qaeda or ISIS. You can bet they have been trying to hack into our sensitive computer systems. But in case of North Korea, they would not be above passing information to Al Qaeda or ISIS or some other terror group. Hell, they sell weapons to terror groups, why not enemy secrets! Hillary's private server must have been a snap to hack!
We all know that had it been anyone else, they would have not only been punished by dismissal, a fine, but possibly even gone to jail. I know of cases where someone who committed an infraction not anywhere as serious as Hillary and they were fired! A case in point was what happened to my friend who was the Consul General in Rome. He did not divulge any classified information, and he did not abuse the email system. He merely criticized (much deserved!) some congressmen who came on a boondoggle to Rome and wasted tax payers' money and Embassy Rome's critical personnel resources. He complained to a friend in a private, unclassified email. Somehow the email got into the hands of OPM (Office of Personnel and Management) and he was unceremoniously fired within a few days! He may have used bad judgement, but nothing he did was classified or contained any classified information! But then, his name was not Clinton.
Let's not forget the General who was disgraced and also dismissed (fired) when it was discovered that he had shared some classified information with his mistress. Now the mistress was not a foreign agent or an ISIS or Al Qaeda wannabee. The information that the General shared with his mistress had to do with the war in Iraq, since at the time he was the Commander in Chief of U.S. Forces in Iraq. I doubt very seriously if any lives were lost or if our national security was seriously damaged. But, the very same people that were screaming for his head are now saying things like, "what's the big deal over some emails! It's over and done with, let's move on! It is a witch hunt!" Stuff like that. Funny, how Hillary's cavalier attitude about classified information, information that covered a whole range of topics (remember, she was the Secretary of State, not a General in Iraq!), was permissible, but the General's sharing of some information with his mistress was not. But then again, his name was not Clinton.
Ironically, just prior to Comey's announcement that FBI wasn't going to do anything, Bill Clinton had a little private chit-chat with the U.S. Attorney General, a person known to have expressed desire to stay in the office for more than one term! Now there were some alarms and complaints raised over the incident. But most Democrats "pooh-poohed" the whole thing claiming it was simply Republican paranoia. After all, Bill just had a friendly conversation with the Attorney General, nothing more! Lest people forget, FBI is part of the Justice Department. But because FBI is so big and has a reputation for doing things on their own, most people seem to think that it is an independent agency like the CIA. No such thing. FBI is part of Justice Department and FBI is subject to Justice Department's ruling! So, to say that the two incidents, Bill's meeting with AG and Comey's announcement that no charges will be filed against Hillary are not connected, would be like saying that former AG Holder knew absolutely nothing about the disastrous ATF "Operation Fast and Furious." Oh, wait a minute! Justice Department investigated that incident and announced that AG Holder knew absolutely nothing about the horribly conceived and mismanaged operation. Yep, Holder didn't know what was going on during his watch. By the way, ATF, like FBI, is answerable to the Attorney General and such large scale operations have to be approved by the AG. But never mind, Holder didn't know anything just as the current AG had nothing to do with FBI's refusal to file charges against Hillary.
Sadly, I am afraid that nothing will come of this latest travesty! Comey just faced a Congressional hearing and although there were some heated exchanges, nothing seems to have come from it as a result. The main problem that we have is that the elected representatives, the ones we send to Washington, really are not as bright and knowledgeable as the voters think. I was appalled at the result that came of the so-called Benghazi Investigation by Republican Congressmen. They asked the wrong questions and looked in the wrong places for answers! In a federal agency such as the State Department, nobody is going to come forward, risk their jobs and careers over something that is obviously being poorly handled. If you think the Congressmen went personally and interviewed and read files, perish the thought. All the foot work was done by a bunch of Congressional aids. The task was first assigned to the staffers who used their juniors, the aids, to do the work. Congressional staffers and aids are highly disliked by professional, career Federal employees, regardless of the agency! You can bet that cooperation was not at its highest level!
Frankly, to get an accurate picture and assessment of the situation, all they had to do was read the classified diplomatic traffic (called cables) from post, Embassy Tripoli and then read the responses from the State Department. They would have been able to determine who did what and when. However, it seems they relied more on interviews and god knows what else. Nobody asked the simple question of why were not requests for more security help ever fulfilled? There were some run around answers from State Department, like no funding etc., but nothing definite. I can assure you that since the bombing in Nairobi (the first Al Qaeda bombing), the State Department made it a priority to respond to security requests. So, I don't buy this stuff about various reasons given. To me, it seems simply that no one wanted to authorize, and such authorization usually comes directly from the Secretary's office. Oh well, I shouldn't be surprised. We are really turning into a Third World Nation with corruption and mismanagement taking over our government.
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