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Can someone explain why this is happening for us non-Americans (or possibly just me if I missed some major news event)?

by Blahah 11y ago

spydum 11y ago
Hillary Clinton used her on personal email server and address to conduct official business while serving as Secretary of State for the US (she's not the first to do this, Sarah Palin - former Governer of Alaska had similar problems I believe). Two problems (at least): - that is not permitted especially when handling Confidential/TopSecret material. You have to use their services/devices/etc so that they maintain control and accountability. - all communication with public officials is archived and made public (once vetted/redacted as appropriate I'd assume), and is part of public record. If using private services, those communications will also be made public.
- Pyxl101 11y ago
  > all communication with public officials is archived and made public Is that all communication period, or only communication with them while they're acting in their capacity as a public official? How do public officials keep their legitimately personal business private? (E.g., having an affair). Can their personal email accounts be opened up and made public at any time? I'm curious.
  - douche 11y ago
    > How do public officials keep their legitimately personal business private? (E.g., having an affair) If there's any grains of truth in House of Cards, I assume burner phones
  - comex 11y ago
    The latter. You can still use personal accounts for personal matters. http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/toolkit/pdf/ID317.pdf http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/toolkit/pdf/ID317.pdf http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/04/02/396823014/fact-check-hillary-clinton-those-emails-and-the-law http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/04/02/396823...
  - spydum 11y ago
    Pretty sure only when they are acting. I believe they can have personal email accounts/phones, but they cannot use them for official business. Of course, we all know how nearly impossible that is to pull of. For which, you'll have courts and analysts just like this, sitting there sifting the wheat from the chaff if it makes it this far.
  - tannhauser23 11y ago
    All government work related emails are archived. They're available to the public through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests - basically, you make a request to the federal government for certain types of information and they are required to provide it to you, subject to limitations for relevance, confidentiality, etc. Purely personal emails aren't archived. Government officials and employees use personal email accounts all the time, and their contents aren't turned over to the government PROVIDED that they relate purely to prsonal matters. But in Hillary Clinton's case, she used a personal email account (stored on her personal server) exclusively to conduct government business. She said she turned over government-related emails to the State Department (as is required by law) and permanently deleted the rest. She also says she never sent confidential info or received information marked as confidential through this personal email address. There are several investigations going on right now into her email practices. The focus primarily is on whether she mishandled confidential/top secret information. In response to FOIA and other legal requests, the State Department has been releasing her emails to the public. But the State Department has been withholding some documents on the basis that they contained confidential/top secret information after all. Clinton says the agencies are retroactively applying an overly broad definition of confidnetiality to her emails, but her detractors are saying that the confidentiality designations show that she mishandled government secrets in violation of the law. Hence the political firestorm. No matter how this turns out, using a homebrew personal email server to conduct state business was an incredibly foolish thing to do. I can't believe Clinton did this. I don't care if Palin or Jeb Bush or other people used personal servers too - she was the Secretary of State with presidential ambitions, and she's had a big red target on her since 1992. This reinforces the worst stereotypes that people have about her and the Clintons in general, that they are secretive, paranoid, conspiratorial, and completely willing to operate in the grey areas of the law.
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
    - Pyxl101 11y ago
      It seems like we could learn more about Clinton's emails by asking under FOIA for emails sent by a wide variety of other public officials to/from her? Do you know if this has or is already being done?
- analog31 11y ago
  Also, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, while he was Milwaukee County Executive.
shaftoe 11y ago
Hillary, illegally, maintained a private email server for official correspondence and transmitted classified materials over it. The email server was hacked and the contents stolen and later published. She is currently under investigation by the FBI for this.
- greeneggs 11y ago
  There's no evidence that the email server was ever hacked. The contents were not stolen and later published. They were released to the FBI by Clinton (after she deleted some "personal" emails), and now released to the public under a FOIA request.
  - sb057 11y ago
    While there is no evidence that her email server was hacked, she did have correspondence with Sydney Blumenthal, who's account WAS hacked, and emails from that account were published.[1] This, combined with the fact that Clinton's server didn't boast the best security (allegedly), and it's not a stretch to imagine that her server was hacked. [1] https://pando.com/2015/03/20/exclusive-interview-jailed-hacker-guccifer-boasts-i-used-to-read-hillarys-memos-for-six-seven-hours-and-then-do-the-gardening/ https://pando.com/2015/03/20/exclusive-interview-jailed-hack...
caseysoftware 11y ago
When Hillary Clinton served as Secretary of State, she used a private email server that was stored at her home and later in hosting facility not cleared for classified information (supposedly in a bathroom). Initially, she claimed there was no classified information on the server at any time. Further, when she was required to turn over records to comply with archival rules, she had her staff delete the personal messages and pass the rest along. In the current investigation, they've discovered classified emails - some classified after the fact, some not - which included KH-designated intelligence (aka detailed satellite images). In addition, when she delivered the data to the State Department, she gave a copy of all of it to her lawyer, who didn't have clearance for the classified data.. which shouldn't have been there anyway. Yes, previous Cabinet-level staff had used private servers but the National Archives explicitly recommended against it in 2006 (a recommendation, not law) and then President Obama signed an Executive Order making it the law in 2009. Secretary Clinton continued doing it until she left the State Department in 2013. At minimum, it was disregard for the recommendations and eventual law. At worse, it was flagrant disregard for protecting the means and methods - that includes people - who collected and needed that information.
- SeanLuke 11y ago
  > In the current investigation, they've discovered classified emails - some classified after the fact, some not "some not"? If you are implying that Clinton's server held messages marked as classified when sent, could you provide some evidence to this effect? The Clinton campaign is quite adamant that this is not true.
  - PKop 11y ago
    This is a red herring. It doesn't matter if it was marked or not. It is up to the sender to take the precaution. That there are now thousands of emails marked after the fact as classified, wouldn't that tell you the assumption should have been made to err on the side of caution, and assume most everything you are discussing has high probability to be classified information? And using your own insecure personal server for these emails essentially guarantees that it's been hacked by.. China, Russia, take your pick. In fact there is a term called "born-classified" which applies to information about foreign governments provided by foreign sources. Here's some evidence: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-clinton-emails-idUSKCN0QQ0BW20150821 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-clinton-email...
meric 11y ago
If it was a two star general who did this, he'd be in jail.
- dannyr 11y ago
  Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice also did the same thing.
  - brandonmenc 11y ago
    Powell and Rice did not operate their own private email servers.
    - epistasis 11y ago
      That seems somewhat worse, they used private email on servers they did not control?
      - brandonmenc 11y ago
        A rare lapse in following procedure, likely accidental, is not even on the same planet as setting up a private email server to avoid oversight. Those emails would still be safer on gmail than in some small IT firm's bathroom closet.
        jonknee 11y ago
        It wasn't accidental at all, they all knew they weren't on government email servers.
        wonderlust 11y ago
        But not in AOL servers, or yahoo. Private servers can be set up pretty freaking well for security. Not sure how hers were setup though.
        brandonmenc 11y ago
orionblastar 11y ago
Most government officials use the federal government's email system servers to classify emails. From time to time someone uses a private email server that they pay for hosting instead of federal government ones. It sort of complicates things when that happens because it is not seen as much secure as a government one. We have laws about classified emails and rules to follow. Hillary claimed there was no classified email on her server, and that she turned over all emails. The email of the private served was deleted, but now is being recovered. There is an FBI investigation into it that recovers emails. The Republicans have attacked Hillary over private email use, but Sarah Palin and other Republicans also used private email servers. I am sure in non-US nations this is no big deal, and you are wondering why it is being investigated. In the USA we want our government to be transparent and accountable for their documents and emails. Have have a freedom of information act that we can request documents and emails from the government on certain issues like Benghazi and the Embassy attacks. But if the email is deleted, how can we see it? Anyway it has become a political issue that Republicans are using against Hillary Clinton right now.

Can someone explain why this is happening for us non-Americans (or possibly just me if I missed some major news event)?

by Blahah 11y ago

Can someone explain why this is happening for us non-Americans (or possibly just me if I missed some major news event)?

Hillary Clinton used her on personal email server and address to conduct official business while serving as Secretary of State for the US (she's not the first to do this, Sarah Palin - former Governer of Alaska had similar problems I believe). Two problems (at least): - that is not permitted especially when handling Confidential/TopSecret material. You have to use their services/devices/etc so that they maintain control and accountability. - all communication with public officials is archived and made public (once vetted/redacted as appropriate I'd assume), and is part of public record. If using private services, those communications will also be made public.

Pyxl101 11y ago
> all communication with public officials is archived and made public Is that all communication period, or only communication with them while they're acting in their capacity as a public official? How do public officials keep their legitimately personal business private? (E.g., having an affair). Can their personal email accounts be opened up and made public at any time? I'm curious.
- douche 11y ago
  > How do public officials keep their legitimately personal business private? (E.g., having an affair) If there's any grains of truth in House of Cards, I assume burner phones
- comex 11y ago
  The latter. You can still use personal accounts for personal matters. http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/toolkit/pdf/ID317.pdf http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/toolkit/pdf/ID317.pdf http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/04/02/396823014/fact-check-hillary-clinton-those-emails-and-the-law http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/04/02/396823...
- spydum 11y ago
  Pretty sure only when they are acting. I believe they can have personal email accounts/phones, but they cannot use them for official business. Of course, we all know how nearly impossible that is to pull of. For which, you'll have courts and analysts just like this, sitting there sifting the wheat from the chaff if it makes it this far.
- tannhauser23 11y ago
  All government work related emails are archived. They're available to the public through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests - basically, you make a request to the federal government for certain types of information and they are required to provide it to you, subject to limitations for relevance, confidentiality, etc. Purely personal emails aren't archived. Government officials and employees use personal email accounts all the time, and their contents aren't turned over to the government PROVIDED that they relate purely to prsonal matters. But in Hillary Clinton's case, she used a personal email account (stored on her personal server) exclusively to conduct government business. She said she turned over government-related emails to the State Department (as is required by law) and permanently deleted the rest. She also says she never sent confidential info or received information marked as confidential through this personal email address. There are several investigations going on right now into her email practices. The focus primarily is on whether she mishandled confidential/top secret information. In response to FOIA and other legal requests, the State Department has been releasing her emails to the public. But the State Department has been withholding some documents on the basis that they contained confidential/top secret information after all. Clinton says the agencies are retroactively applying an overly broad definition of confidnetiality to her emails, but her detractors are saying that the confidentiality designations show that she mishandled government secrets in violation of the law. Hence the political firestorm. No matter how this turns out, using a homebrew personal email server to conduct state business was an incredibly foolish thing to do. I can't believe Clinton did this. I don't care if Palin or Jeb Bush or other people used personal servers too - she was the Secretary of State with presidential ambitions, and she's had a big red target on her since 1992. This reinforces the worst stereotypes that people have about her and the Clintons in general, that they are secretive, paranoid, conspiratorial, and completely willing to operate in the grey areas of the law.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - Pyxl101 11y ago
    It seems like we could learn more about Clinton's emails by asking under FOIA for emails sent by a wide variety of other public officials to/from her? Do you know if this has or is already being done?
analog31 11y ago
Also, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, while he was Milwaukee County Executive.

shaftoe 11y ago

Hillary, illegally, maintained a private email server for official correspondence and transmitted classified materials over it. The email server was hacked and the contents stolen and later published. She is currently under investigation by the FBI for this.

greeneggs 11y ago
There's no evidence that the email server was ever hacked. The contents were not stolen and later published. They were released to the FBI by Clinton (after she deleted some "personal" emails), and now released to the public under a FOIA request.
- sb057 11y ago
  While there is no evidence that her email server was hacked, she did have correspondence with Sydney Blumenthal, who's account WAS hacked, and emails from that account were published.[1] This, combined with the fact that Clinton's server didn't boast the best security (allegedly), and it's not a stretch to imagine that her server was hacked. [1] https://pando.com/2015/03/20/exclusive-interview-jailed-hacker-guccifer-boasts-i-used-to-read-hillarys-memos-for-six-seven-hours-and-then-do-the-gardening/ https://pando.com/2015/03/20/exclusive-interview-jailed-hack...

caseysoftware 11y ago

When Hillary Clinton served as Secretary of State, she used a private email server that was stored at her home and later in hosting facility not cleared for classified information (supposedly in a bathroom). Initially, she claimed there was no classified information on the server at any time. Further, when she was required to turn over records to comply with archival rules, she had her staff delete the personal messages and pass the rest along. In the current investigation, they've discovered classified emails - some classified after the fact, some not - which included KH-designated intelligence (aka detailed satellite images). In addition, when she delivered the data to the State Department, she gave a copy of all of it to her lawyer, who didn't have clearance for the classified data.. which shouldn't have been there anyway. Yes, previous Cabinet-level staff had used private servers but the National Archives explicitly recommended against it in 2006 (a recommendation, not law) and then President Obama signed an Executive Order making it the law in 2009. Secretary Clinton continued doing it until she left the State Department in 2013. At minimum, it was disregard for the recommendations and eventual law. At worse, it was flagrant disregard for protecting the means and methods - that includes people - who collected and needed that information.

SeanLuke 11y ago
> In the current investigation, they've discovered classified emails - some classified after the fact, some not "some not"? If you are implying that Clinton's server held messages marked as classified when sent, could you provide some evidence to this effect? The Clinton campaign is quite adamant that this is not true.
- PKop 11y ago
  This is a red herring. It doesn't matter if it was marked or not. It is up to the sender to take the precaution. That there are now thousands of emails marked after the fact as classified, wouldn't that tell you the assumption should have been made to err on the side of caution, and assume most everything you are discussing has high probability to be classified information? And using your own insecure personal server for these emails essentially guarantees that it's been hacked by.. China, Russia, take your pick. In fact there is a term called "born-classified" which applies to information about foreign governments provided by foreign sources. Here's some evidence: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-clinton-emails-idUSKCN0QQ0BW20150821 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-clinton-email...

meric 11y ago

If it was a two star general who did this, he'd be in jail.

dannyr 11y ago
Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice also did the same thing.
- brandonmenc 11y ago
  Powell and Rice did not operate their own private email servers.
  - epistasis 11y ago
    That seems somewhat worse, they used private email on servers they did not control?
    - brandonmenc 11y ago
      A rare lapse in following procedure, likely accidental, is not even on the same planet as setting up a private email server to avoid oversight. Those emails would still be safer on gmail than in some small IT firm's bathroom closet.
      - jonknee 11y ago
        It wasn't accidental at all, they all knew they weren't on government email servers.
      - wonderlust 11y ago
        But not in AOL servers, or yahoo. Private servers can be set up pretty freaking well for security. Not sure how hers were setup though.
        brandonmenc 11y ago

orionblastar 11y ago

Most government officials use the federal government's email system servers to classify emails. From time to time someone uses a private email server that they pay for hosting instead of federal government ones. It sort of complicates things when that happens because it is not seen as much secure as a government one. We have laws about classified emails and rules to follow. Hillary claimed there was no classified email on her server, and that she turned over all emails. The email of the private served was deleted, but now is being recovered. There is an FBI investigation into it that recovers emails. The Republicans have attacked Hillary over private email use, but Sarah Palin and other Republicans also used private email servers. I am sure in non-US nations this is no big deal, and you are wondering why it is being investigated. In the USA we want our government to be transparent and accountable for their documents and emails. Have have a freedom of information act that we can request documents and emails from the government on certain issues like Benghazi and the Embassy attacks. But if the email is deleted, how can we see it? Anyway it has become a political issue that Republicans are using against Hillary Clinton right now.