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Emails Show NSA Rejected Hillary Clinton's Request For Secure Smartphone (cbsnews.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the another-day-another-email dept.

An anonymous reader writes from an article on CBSNews: Newly released emails show a 2009 request to issue a secure government smartphone to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was denied by the National Security Agency. Clinton's desire for a secure "BlackBerry-like" device, like the one provided to President Barack Obama, is recounted in a series of February 2009 exchanges between high-level officials at the State Department and NSA. Clinton was sworn in as secretary the prior month, and had become "hooked" on reading and answering emails on a BlackBerry she used during the 2008 presidential race. "We began examining options for (Secretary Clinton) with respect to secure 'BlackBerry-like' communications," wrote Donald R. Reid, the department's assistant director for security infrastructure. "The current state of the art is not too user friendly, has no infrastructure, and is very expensive." Reid wrote that each time they asked the NSA what solution they had worked up to provide a mobile device to Obama, "we were politely told to shut up and color."

5 of 229 comments (clear)

  1. This negates the entire email scandal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you ask me. She was going out of her way to do the right thing and getting cockblocked by our friends at NSA. I have to wonder in light of these revelations, whether perhaps Obama's phone is not susceptible to NSA tampering/eavesdropping after all, and they would absolutely not give such a thing to someone else.

    1. Re: This negates the entire email scandal by blindseer · · Score: 4, Interesting

      "It really sounds like she knew she might need a secure channel of communication, was denied it, and now is being raked over the coals for not having one. In short, the Republicans are playing dirty pool again, and using the media to make it look like Hillary is attempting to flaunt national security, when the NSA deemed information she received wouldn't be important enough to set up a secure channel."

      She was told she could use a secure laptop or desktop. She was not without secure e-mail, she was without secure e-mail on a device she preferred.

      I do not believe for even a nanosecond that she was denied a secure means to communicate with POTUS and ambassadors. It has been said many times and many ways that she was provided access to secure e-mail. When she could not get the e-mails she wanted on her insecure device she ordered her staff to copy sensitive data from the secure systems, strip it of the marks identifying it as secure, and send it to her on the insecure system. She knowingly violated the laws on protecting state secrets for her own convenience.

      You call this "dirty pool" by the Republicans. Here's something that bothers me, we have a public official that broke the law, where are the Democrats in enforcing these laws? Where is the press on this? I see the press covering up for her more than anything.

      Do you believe that if Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio had been accused of a similar violation of the law that they'd get the same treatment? Of course not, Democrats AND Republicans would be demanding they leave the race for POTUS. The press would be talking about this daily. I don't know if the press respects or fears the Clintons but they've been largely silent on the gross violations of the laws that the Clintons have committed. This CBS article is just further evidence of the mainstream press being little more than the PR department for the Democratic Party.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    2. Re: This negates the entire email scandal by Raenex · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Where is the press on this? I see the press covering up for her more than anything.

      Actually, I'm surprised they covered it as much as they did. She was raked over the coals for quite a while, especially when she tried to blow it off and the press was having none of it. The story has been on the back-burner since then, but if the FBI investigation results in criminal proceedings it's going to explode.

  2. Funny how this turned out? by cashman73 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Isn't it a little weird how they demanded a secure smartphone for President Obama when he took office, and he got it. And then Apple made one even more secure that even the government can't hack, and they raise hell? Kind of a double standard there, eh?

  3. Two of Three by ZipK · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So the only two options were (1) get a secure phone from the NSA, (2) cowboy? There was no (3) don't read government mail on a mobile device?