Posted on 12/30/2007 10:01:38 PM PST by doug from upland
NOTE:
Although Hillary Clinton touts her foreign policy experience, being right there with her husband, the New York Times' Patrick Healy reports that she did not have a security clearance and did not sit in on NSC briefings.
Now recall this from the late David Hackworth. Monica Lewinsky did have TOP SECRET clearance. Perhaps she should be the one in the Dem primaries touting her experience.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
DEFENDING AMERICA
David H. Hackworth
17 March 98
LOOSE LIPS, SINK SHIPS..
While at the Pentagon, Monica Lewinsky traveled with Defense Secretary William Cohen, sat in on briefings where the highest secrets were discussed and routinely handled highly classified documents top-secret documents, which, if they fell in the wrong hands, could put America at high risk and cost the lives of our warriors.
But no sweat. Lewinsky had all the appropriate clearances, right?
No doubt her background had been thoroughly checked out by investigators. Or perhaps she'd been given a top-secret clearance in a hurry on order of a high White House official, thus expediting her transfer from the White House firing line to safer turf in the five sided puzzle palace.
Bet on the second scenario and you've got a winner.
A Pentagon source says that Lewinsky was given an instant top-secret clearance, that "they rushed her clearances through and she didn't get the normal fine-toothed security combing."
Another Pentagon security source reports the White House is "spy heaven."
He says "Bill Clinton delegates clearance approval to White House flunkies who waive all sorts of criteria. A standard background investigation would have picked up Monica's promiscuity and devious nature in a heartbeat."
Normally, a security background investigation takes months. Investigators dig into every corner of your life. Did you cheat at marbles when you were 10? Were you a straight arrow in high school? Did you drink too much beer while at college? Were your mother and father stable and all-the-way-with-the-U.S.A.?
Yet, Lewinsky received her top-secret clearance in days. All her dirty laundry was left in the basket. Nothing came out about her college affair with a married teacher who says she "stalked" him using "emotional blackmail" to trap him into continuing their romance or her mailing him White House documents that could have national security implications or her being accused of being a "scheming truth-mangler."
Lewinsky was awarded one of the Pentagon's highest security clearances even though she was considered by White House insiders to be a flake with poor work habits.
And now the same White House gang that got her a quickie top-secret clearance is whispering she's an "unstable air head."
Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., providing the overworked White House Spin team with fire support, said "The poor child has serious emotional problems." He went on to say that she lives in fantasyland. "And I haven't heard she plays with a full deck."
Those in power should have checked out her background and where her head was at rather than where her body had been prior to hiding her in the Pentagon to shuffle through secrets of state like they were pages in her date book.
A former CIA agent says "The Clinton administration has played fast and loose with the rules. Given their politicized approach to intelligence and security matters, it wouldn't surprise me if a lot of people at the White House besides Monica Lewinsky had not been properly vetted for security clearances."
CIA Director George Tenet recently said "The executive branch leaks like a sieve." He told a Senate committee that "there are people all over this executive branch who have violated a trust."
According to former CIA and FBI agents, there are hundreds of security political appointee timebombs inside the Beltway. Take John Huang, formerly of the Commerce Department and now inches away from the slammer. He also had a top secret clearance. During an 18 month period, Huang received 37 personal briefings from the CIA and eyeballed thousands of secret documents. Frequently after a briefing, he was quickly on the phone to Indonesian, the land of his birth. When he was reassigned to the Democratic National Committee to raise money, he set a new record: the only Commerce Department employee ever to retain his top secret clearance after departing.
With such a loose security program, it's no wonder that an Iraqi spy recently passed information from the Pentagon to a senior intelligence official in Baghdad about the planned February U.S. air attack on Iraq or that a well dressed dude popped into an office near Madeline Albright and carted off a briefcase full of secret documents.
Congress should give Sexgate a miss. The real issue should be Securitygate. Right now it's wide open and our secrets are taking a walk.
THE END
If I recall correctly, when GWB first occupied the office, he was getting hell from the MSM for being slow in filling the open posts. Proper vetting causes that.
How ironic is it that Lewinsky had security clearance but not "door" clearance? ; P
roflmao and bookmark for later use
thanks doug!!!
Monica Lewinsky did have TOP SECRET clearance. Perhaps she should be the one in the Dem primaries touting her experience.
...............................................
That’s under the table politics, but did she do it for the children, as Hillary did.
Yesterday, during Hillary’s interview with George Stephy, she was doing her best to turn her role as ‘First Lady’ into ‘experience’ that qualifies her to be President. As she talked, I could have sworn I heard her tell Stephy she had access to ‘classified’ materials. I’m sure she had access to anything she wanted to see, in one way or another, but it’s interesting that she had no security clearance.
Is John Huang in PRISON??? I really can not remember what happened to that scandal of him giving the Chinese OUR SECRETS!
Wayland: "Madame, do you smoke after sex?"
Madame: "I don't know ..... I never looked!"
Check to see if there are any in her Humador ;-)
I wonder if De De Myers ever got hers before she left?
There were many who just didn’t apply for the longest time. I don’t know how many were able to continue working without one.
In the old days, no one from Clintoon to Monica would have gotten a security clearance.
This has been a very troubling question the day the Clintoon criminals took over the White House.
I would think everybody in the West Wing who works that close to the Oval Office would have to have a security clearance.
And I have not read that previous first ladies had clearances so I’m missing this guy’s point.
I once asked a Boston cop for directions from China Town to the Expressway (to Ft. Devens.) I have no clue what he said.
Let’s just say if I had the need to know, I am cleared to access a great deal of information. Virtually everyone I know in the military has a security clearance (because I work in MI). Some of whom wold surprise you to know they have a security clearance. I don’t know, but it seems to me that those in uniform have an easier time getting a security clearance than civilians. I only know one guy who didn’t get his security clearance, and that was because he lied at MEPS.
I gave a link to the NY TIMES article to put things in perspective. Hillary has claimed great foreign policy expertise because of sleeping in a room adjacent to the president’s bedroom (my words). She never attended NSC meetings and never had a security clearance. Hackworth points out that Monica (the crazed stalker) had a security clearance. The comparison is interesting.
Read Aldrich’s book “Unlimited Access.”
It wasn’t just the “Bimbos.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.