A Few Thoughts on Classified Documents at Home

As our media is consumed by the horror of classified documents being found at the homes of Der Furor, President Biden, and former Vice President Pence, I thought I'd add my unsolicited two cents to the discussion.

As you, my long-time readers, will know, I spent 23 years on active duty in the Air Force and another 20 as a contractor working on various highly classified Air Force projects. In every one of those years, I held a Top Secret security clearance and was adjudicated for access to Special Compartmented Intelligence, and for many of those years I was also approved for access to a number of Special Access Programs for which all of the previous accesses were a prerequisite for such access. I've been investigated, re-investigated, studied, adjudicated, monitored, and passed a polygraph exam. My finances have been examined in detail and my friends and neighbors have been asked about me. I've had to endlessly document and explain the fact that I am married to a (gasp!) foreign national and have foreign citizens (including Russians!) who are friends or family members. I've been required to sign my own weight in non-disclosure agreements and agreements that I would never (no expiration date!) divulge the smallest detail of some of the programs on which I worked under penalty of arrest and imprisonment. 

Got that? Okay. Now, let's review the requirements for access to highly classified information which apply to our Presidents, Vice-Presidents, and Members of Congress. Here is a detailed list:

Got that? Good.

So, here is my take on the furor around classified documents being found in the homes and offices of Der Furor, President Biden, former Vice-President Pence, and - no doubt - a raft of other former elected officials who have not yet been caught. Oh ... and their teeming swarms of staff members as well.

We've made it easy and painless for them to do it.

We do not require our national-level elected officials to pass any sort of formal security vetting or, indeed, anything even remotely close to what I and other intelligence professionals had to endure and agree to in order to hold our jobs. Almost all of these people have absolutely no concept of the importance of and reasons for security ... the only exceptions are those vanishing few who have served in the military or the intelligence services. 

We ignored the self-serving vanity and stupidity of Der Furor when he revealed classified information to the Russian Ambassador and Foreign Minister in the Oval Office. We ignored the fact that he had hundreds of highly classified documents he was not allowed to have stored without protection in various spots at Mar-a-Lago, that he fought every attempt to have them returned to the government, that it took an FBI search conducted under a search warrant to located additional documents after his attorneys stated in writing that everything had been returned ... and that after all that, none of his other properties has been searched.

Der Furor's supporters righteously thunder that the discovery of classified documents at the homes and offices of President Biden and former Vice President Pence vindicate the Mango Mussolini, and insist on searches of the President's other properties while ignoring the fact that both other men self-reported the presence of the documents and invited the FBI to conduct detailed searches without the need for a search warrant. I believe that the Biden and Pence cases, while serious, reflect poor security hygiene on the part of both men and their staffs, while Der Furor's case shows a stubborn and egotistical willingness proudly to hold himself above any standards and requirements of basic security and responsibility for the demands of his office.

But that's all beside the point I am trying to make.

The fundamental point is that we do not require our elected officials to meet the most basic security requirements for access to the nation's most important secrets, nor do we impress upon them the importance of handling those secrets properly. Can you imagine a serial, probably pathological liar like New York Representative George Santos gaining access to the nation's most vital information? He would never have passed the most basic background investigation. How about questionably balanced individuals like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Louie Gohmert, and Matt Gaetz? And consider that Der Furor, with vast debts held by foreign banks, a long record of bankruptcy and accusations of sexual assault, and a lifetime of demonstrated lies, as president had access to everything the military and intelligence services know and do.

If you believe for a single second that he wouldn't cash in on that, I have some prime swampland in DeSantisstan to sell you.

The time has come to make sure that everyone running for the presidency or Congress pass the same sort of background investigation we demand of our Service Members and those who serve in the Intelligence Community. The Constitution imposes only requirements for age and citizenship ... it is time to amend it to stiffen the requirements for elected office in a world very different from that of 1789. I'm working on the wording for such an amendment, and will share it here in a future post.

In the meantime, quit bleating about the simple fact of improperly-held documents, and focus on the issues of carelessness versus criminality.

After all, we've allowed it all to happen.

Have a good day.

More thoughts coming. 

Bilbo

P.S. - I apologize in advance for any typos or poor grammar. I was pretty fired up when I wrote this. I'll fix any mistakes later.