Politics

What Levels Of Secure Information Were On Hillary’s Server And What Do They Mean?

Derek Hunter Contributor
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The FBI has now seized former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s secret private email server. The Inspector General for the Intelligence Community (IG IC) found that the current frontrunner for the Democratic Party’s nomination for president had unsecured emails on her server which “included information classified up to ‘TOP SECRET’//SI//TK//NOFORN.” But what do those mean?

Intelligence Community Classification and Control Markings Implementation Manual defines each of these terms.

The manual states, “There are only three classification levels defined in EO 13526: CONFIDENTIAL, SECRET, and TOP SECRET. UNCLASSIFIED is a marking that indicates the information did not meet the threshold for classification as defined in EO 13526.”

TOP SECRET – Defined as “Under EO 13526, TOP SECRET shall be applied to information, the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security that the original classification authority (OCA) is able to identify or describe.”

SI – Special Intelligence. It is defined as “Special Intelligence, or SI, is technical and intelligence information derived from the monitoring of foreign communications signals by other than the intended recipients. Under the purview of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), the SI control system protects SI-derived information and information relating to SI activities, capabilities, techniques, process and procedures.”

TK – Talent Keyhole. According to the manual, “DNI Security Control System for compartmentation of information and activities related to space-based collection of imagery, signals, measurement and signature intelligence, certain products, processing, and exploitation techniques, and the design, acquisition and operation of reconnaissance satellites.”

The guide says TK “May be used only with TOP SECRET or SECRET.”

NOFORN – Not releasable to foreign nationals.

IG IC Charles McCullough, III, declared “IC classification officials reviewed two additional emails and judged that they contained classified State Department information when originated.” That means the information was deemed classified at the time the email was sent.

Clinton has previously stated that she never sent or received any classified information via email. She later revised her statement to say she never sent or received any information that was classified at the time. This revelation from the IG IC contradicts those claims.

The IG IC said, “This represents the most accurate accounting of the emails identified to date,” concluding, “We will provide updates as we learn more.”

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