[ExI] my unified theory on what really happened at the state department

spike spike66 at att.net
Wed May 11 18:36:07 UTC 2016


 

 

From: extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Adrian Tymes



>>… The secure world isn’t like criminal court where the prosecutor must prove that the defendant committed the act.

>…You speak of felonies.  That is the criminal justice system.

>…The secure world is concerned with whether the info was, was not, or might have been compromised, not directly with punishments (beyond loss of access) for said compromise.  It does not have a concept of "felon".

 

This will be good news for former CIA guy Jeffery Sterling.  He knows that his current imprisonment (for which his actual conviction was deleting ONE email) was all a big mistake, and that all that really should have happened to him was loss of his tickets.  What a relief that must be, as he sits in prison.  At least he will not need to worry about having to share a cell with Mrs. Clinton.  On the other hand, he wouldn’t perhaps mind sharing one with Cheryl Mills, and would welcome doing so with Huma Abedin.

Snarkiness aside for a moment: on the contrary, if you are a clearance holder, you damn sure can end up in prison, even for sufficiently gross negligence.  

Story: I have a friend and former colleague who was known to have a temper on him.  For some unexplained reason, the security people called him in more often than usual, just to talk.  He had reached economic escape velocity so he really didn’t need the job anymore, and his patience was wearing thin with having to come in often to chat with the friendly ossifers, and would often come back pissed (so we knew what was going on.)

One day he went off for a chat.  Couple hours later, no Joe.  A couple hours later, still no Joe.  Meetings were missed.  An hour later, four security guys showed up with cardboard boxes, packed his desk, hauled away his safe.  Next day his cube was empty without a trace.  Some months later, we had dinner.  He explained he was just tired of the bullshit, got pissed, threw his badge on the floor and shouted “THAT’S IT!  I am TIRED of this goddam treatment, get these goddam instruments off of me, I am FINISHED with this job, you can HAVE it, I QUIT!”  etc, Joe being Joe, something I had seen at least twice before.

OK Joe, calm down.  You are free to quit, and you would anyway probably because you just had your tickets put on hold.  However… you still aren’t going anywhere.  You still need to answer a few questions…

They investigated him, and eventually they let it go and he is a real estate guy now.  

The secure world damn sure does have a concept of felon, and they remind you of that in very explicit terms at every opportunity, such as every time you log on and acknowledge that you understand, mishandling what you just logged on to is a felony and you could end up sharing a cell with Mr. Sterling.  He is lonely in there.  He misses his wife.  You will do as a temporary bride in the meantime.

spike

 

 

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