[ExI] Who is safe?

[Dave Sill]

On Sun, Dec 12, 2010 at 3:05 PM, Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I don't have a security clearance, never have had one.  I do know a
> number of people who have security clearances, including some who are
> currently under orders not to access Wikileaks.  Was talking to such a
> person not long ago and mentioned how silly such orders seemed to me.
> The orders have backed off to let people in the government read the
> NYT Wikileaks based stories.

Some of the wikileaks documents are (supposedly) classified. Public
disclosure of a classified document doesn't automatically make it
unclassified. We were warned against accessing wikileaks from work
computers because it could potentially result in classified documents
on a system not cleared for them, which, if you've ever worked in
environments that process classified information, you know is a Big
Deal, requiring a careful and expensive clean-up.

Furthermore, everyone with a clearance knows that being cleared at the
appropriate level is necessary for access for classified information,
but it's not sufficient. You may be cleared for access to Secret
documents, but if your job doesn't require accessing diplomatic
cables, you have no business reading them, and could certainly lose
your clearance for doing so. Not to mention that if you need access to
diplomatic cables, you need to do it through approved channels on
equipment approved to handle classified information--none of which
involves wikileaks.

-Dave