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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body bgcolor=white lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'> extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Anders Sandberg<br><b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, May 11, 2016 11:05 PM<br><b>To:</b> extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org<br><b>Subject:</b> [ExI] Security clearances<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Since I will be working on information hazards this summer, I am curious about the world of security clearances. How do they *actually* work?<br><br>Practically, it seems to be a combination of (1) getting people to acknowledge that they will deal with Important Stuff and are responsible (a psychological effect), (2) creating a cultural environment where information flow is shaped (a social effect), (3) creating penalties for doing things wrong (an incentive effect). I assume there is also an assumed (4): that cleared people are less likely to leak or mishandle information (a selection effect). Does anybody know if there have been any proper studies of how well 1-4 actually work?<span style='color:windowtext'> Anders</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'>Anders, your question has me thinking deeply about so many aspects. Do let me offer this commentary in regard to the current critical situation:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'>Item 1 does not apply to Mrs. Clinton. She never used the secure server, so she wouldn’t have ever acknowledged dealing with Important Stuff.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'>Item 3 does not apply to Mrs. Clinton if she hadn’t acknowledged legal liability and carefully refused to do so. Then perhaps she is betting that if everything goes really wrong, the holder of the deck of get-out-of-jail-free cards would offer one, perhaps in exchange for one in return when she is holding that deck.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'>Item 4 does not apply in this case. Those responsible for issuing clearances have no control or say in the matter, in a very few instances: they must clear a president (and we have had three in a row who were not clearable by the traditional criteria.) They must clear a VP. A Secretary of State, now that’s an oddball case. The people do not elect those. But still they must be cleared if they are to do their jobs. Nearly everything they touch in the line of duty is born classified. What happens if a Secretary of State is doing something that would cause anyone else to lose their tickets? We don’t know. We shall see.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'>Item 2. Hmmm, create a cultural environment where staff members, to whom all three of the above definitely do apply, will retrieve information and send it down to an unsecure server illegally.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'>This question just gets deeper and deeper.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></body></html>