Fmr CIA Dir: Word ‘Classified’ Not Used to Mark Documents

Thursday on Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” former CIA Director Ambassador James Woolsey punched a hole in Hillary Clinton’s latest email claims that she did not send or receive documents marked “classified,” by explaining, “The word classified doesn’t appear on the document. The word would be confidential, secret or top secret and it may have a code word attached to it because it comes from say, a photo reconnaissance satellite. But anybody who has been at senior levels of government knows that.”

Woolsey said, “I think the key thing to watch here is the State Department inspector general because he has come out on the same side as the inspector general for the intelligence community. They have both say there were classified materials in these emails. Particularly, they emphasize there is material about signal intercepts and photo reconnaissance satellites and that is classified clearly. There is no real argument about things that come from those sources or quoted from those sources. They are. The word classified doesn’t appear on the document. The word would be confidential, secret or top secret and it may have a code word attached to it because it comes from say, a photo reconnaissance satellite. But anybody who has been at senior levels of government knows that anything from those sources is classified.”

He continued, “What is really wrong here was setting up this separate email system and using it for government work. If anybody wants to set one up and use it for yoga appointments, wedding planning, okay, fine. But to have a server in a bathroom closet in Colorado that is dealing with potentially extremely classified material because it is material that is passing through the secretary of state’s conversations with her staff, that’s really very irresponsible.”

“It is a felony. I think and there are some ways of dealing with this, putting something in the wrong place and making a mistake that are only a misdemeanor. But we’ve had now several of my successors in the intelligence business at senior levels plead to charges and, be in situations where it is clear they violated the law, around some of those things look very similar to what has happened here,” he added.

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

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