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

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."

Comments

Yep.

[ArmoredDragon]

Few people know this, but Hillary Clinton is the final boss of the Democratic party. Also called the Queen of Corruption, she is currently a level 100 Democrat. All level 100 Democrats have the the Corrupt Soul ability, which allows them to corrupt anybody 10 levels below them. If you want proof of this, Obama was a level 90 Democrat when he was elected. He's currently level 100, but because Hillary is a raid boss, her stats count as 3 levels above him, thus making her the final boss.

Bernie of course stands no chance against her, because he's only a level 34 Democrat with quest greens. Hillary's ass is so big, she can literally one shot him.

Re:Yep.

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, to be 14 again. Sigh.

This negates the entire email scandal

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:This negates the entire email scandal

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course it does.

Any time someone in IT thwarts your desires, you should immediately expose information that could get people in other countries killed.

And you absolutely be given a free pass for that, because reasons.

Re:This negates the entire email scandal

[93 Escort Wagon]

The facts behind this news item actually explains very little, other than she wanted a Blackberry-type device. If (as seems likely) she intended to use a Blackberry to read email from her personally run server - how does that change anything?

ThIs smells like a bizarre attempt at trying to somehow spin her request for a Blackberry-type device into "hey we tried to get Hillary a secure email solution and got turned down, so the personal server thing shouldn't be an issue".

Re: This negates the entire email scandal

[Anonymous Coward]

A better car analogy is that, when she was denied the right to speed on the highway with nitro, she built her own racetrack in her backyard. Of course she didn't intentionally use nitro there as it's dangerous if not done properly.

Several years later, an investigation revealed that a few gallons of gas she was shipped had a little nitro in them, even though they weren't labelled as such at the time.

Re: This negates the entire email scandal

[KenHansen]

ThIs smells like a bizarre attempt at trying to somehow spin her request for a Blackberry-type device into "hey we tried to get Hillary a secure email solution and got turned down, so the personal server thing shouldn't be an issue".

Exactly. What I see is the NSA telling Hillary that what passes as a 'secure' blackberry-type solution was in fact a very custom, labor-intensive, manual process that was deemed too expensive/hard to offer to anyone other than POTUS. Let's not forget the timeline: 1) confirmed as Secretary of State 2) hired consultant to establish private server 3) never asks for gov't email account 4) starts working as Secretary of State 5) requests Presidential-level secure device 6) request denied 7) goes rest of her career at State using private email server, keeping all emails private & out of reach for FOIA requests 8) a year after leaving state, amid public outcry, turns over 55,000 pages of printed (on paper) emails 9) declares herself most transparent Secretary of State...

Re: This negates the entire email scandal

[blindseer]

"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.

Totally justified

[31415926535897]

Ah yes, when you can't get your own way and get what you want, that totally makes it okay to break the law.

That's why a police officer who can't get his confession can keep bashing the suspect's head in.

That's why politicians can sell votes.

Following the law is for chumps who have no leadership potential.

Re:Totally justified

[Zero__Kelvin]

I see you are finally starting to understand how it really works.

Funny how this turned out?

[cashman73]

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?

Two of Three

[ZipK]

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?