Speechless. Just Speechless.
You know how they say “lightning never strikes twice”? Well, they’re wrong.
Apparently another cabinet-level official in the current clown krewe running the show in DC Administration has been using a private email account to conduct official government business. Word is that they’ve now quit.
Who was it, you ask? A guy named “Ashton Carter”.
Yeah – that Ashton Carter. The SECDEF.
Apparently for a few months after his appointment, Carter continued using a private email address vice his government email account to conduct at least some official business. Reportedly copies of any such emails were also forwarded to his government account for record purposes – though how one would verify that without examining ALL of his personal email from the time frame in question is a good question.
Carter reportedly continued to use his private account for about two months after the fact that a certain former SECSTATE had done the same was publicly revealed. Further, Carter’s use of his personal account was often enough that at least some “members of his staff feared he would be hacked and worried about his not following the rules”. But of course, that’s a misplaced concern – no foreign intelligence service would ever take an interest in a US cabinet secretary’s personal communications, right?
(I do hope the sarcasm in the last sentence above was obvious.)
Fox News as well as the New York Times have articles with more info (the NYT broke the story). IMO they’re worth a few minutes to read.
Sheesh. Do these people simply quit freaking thinking when they take office?
Category: "Teh Stoopid", "The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves", WTF?
Apparently they don’t have to do all the online and classroom training the rest of us do before being granted access to any information. That’s what you get when the clueless (or those who are superior to us peons) get appointed to positions of authority.
No words, I am just speechless .
Well let’s see, here we members of the privileged political caste doing things that we working taxpaying untouchables would be jailed for, but hey, like George Orwell wrote, “Some animals are more equal than others.”. NOTHING to see here (or so the DNC Pravda media says), they’re part of a dhimmirat administration this any and all criticism of them is racist, sexist, homophobic, islamophobic,…
I pray for January 20, 2017 to be THE END OF AN ERROR.
No, they just hit a certain point where they honestly believe their shit doesn’t stink and that rules no longer apply to them.
Then karma comes along….
I saw that on Reuters. My first thought was ‘Well, s(- -)t.’
Every time I think there are no surprises left, a new one shows up.
The bar for “Teh Stoopid” keeps going lower and lower and lower with this bunch of ne’er do wells…
They don’t quit thinking Hondo, they just keep thinking they are above the laws that you and I would be jailed for a compliance failure of this nature.
That’s the part that pisses me off the most, and I suspect what pisses most Americans off. We all understand that really rich people and really powerful people already have a better deal than most of us will ever achieve during our lifetimes.
As long as the rules apply fairly equally in instances like this most of us are comfortable enough with that disparity to accept the fact that America isn’t really a single entity the same for each of us. It’s when the rules are blatantly ignored and zero consequence applied to those of wealth, privilege, or power that the realization that not only are there multiple versions of America but some of those versions don’t carry the burden of compliance with the legal consequences of our actions and that is what sits hardest for me.
If you have a billion dollars I realize you can get a new 100′ sailboat every year instead of settling for a 20 year old 30′ weekend sailer like the rest of us…I’m not stupid after all, but there seems to be something patently unfair and distasteful knowing that same prick can walk for something I would be incarcerated for doing.
I have a hard time knowing Hillary Clinton skates along with her rat bastard of a husband while some single mom in my area is facing 10 years in jail for a minor drug charge….that smells of an inequity that is too far beyond the pale for my liking.
Well said!
“Do as I say, not as I do!”
The mantra of progressives/socialists/communists everywhere…
Given Carter’s record, are you surprised?
I think NYT ran the story to try to defend Hildebeast by pointing out that “everyone else does it – why are you picking on her?”
Our secrets are safer being sent via the USPS…
so is this some type of ploy bye the current clowns to make what billary look legit ????
I would propose “less guilty”.
I agree… I feel like I’ve been drunk for seven years and I’m just now waking up….
Bhwhahahahahahahaha
Did and is probably still doing
This will probably result in all DoD employees having to complete information protection training again and this bastard won’t even get a slap on the wrist. If rank and file did shit like this they would get screwed, and hard. Wonder why no one in the military respects the “leaders” in DC? Look no further…………
Using private email accounts for official business is common in government service.
It is not a crime, and in most organizations there is no policy preventing it.
It is only a crime if you are using it to transmit classified information. And in some agencies it is policy violation.
From an NPR piece (http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/04/02/396823014/fact-check-hillary-clinton-those-emails-and-the-law)on Hillary:
“–The Federal Records Act requires agencies hold onto official communications, including all work-related emails, and government employees cannot destroy or remove relevant records.
–FOIA is designed to “improve public access to agency records and information.”
–The NARA regulations dictate how records should be created and maintained. They stress that materials must be maintained “by the agency,” that they should be “readily found” and that the records must “make possible a proper scrutiny by the Congress.”
–Section 1924 of Title 18 has to do with deletion and retention of classified documents. “Knowingly” removing or housing classified information at an “unauthorized location” is subject to a fine or a year in prison.”
So, Carter MAY have violated FRA (we don’t know, do we?). DID violate FOIA and NARA by using the private e-mail, and MAY have violated 18 USC 1924.
But, like Hillary, we won’t know until we can look at the e-mails.
In the DoD if a private device is utilized for official duties all official data transmitted by that device must be maintained as an official record by the organization’s records manager. That device also becomes reportable if lost, damaged or disposed of. Also it becomes subject to monitoring by the USG. So the DoD has pretty clear cut guidance and policy regarding this.
Mostly wrong again Lars, on all of your points above.
We are talking about the Federal government here.
I might suggest several of the TAH cadre have some direct experience in that dicipline.
Why are you so wrong so often.
Lars, go drink a spiked glass of eggnog, enjoy its noxious wonderment and get back to me!
I bet that Lars’s brain always feels brand new to him because he never uses it!
Ha! You are all giving them way to much credit. These morons are just that, morons. They have know idea about email, security policies in place and the rules. They are the poor suckers we here about who show up at some location to meet the underage male/female only to be arrested by a fifty something police officer – total lack of awareness, total lack of understanding, totally ignorant of anything to do with information technology and stupid enough to be manipulated by a police officer via chat or email. This is why when they open their mouths about anything cyber – do the opposite and get it into your head they know nothing of what they say.
Oh, and there is always a lackey to take the fall; a dude named Ben who handles their IT; never their responsibility.
In Carter’s case, no. He literally was a Rhodes Scholar, and has a PhD in quantum physics. He’s served in the Pentagon as either USD/ATL, DEPSECDEF, or SECDEF since 2009.
The man may be many things, but “dumb” is not one of them.
I remember another brilliant person who was also a Rhodes scholar… and he was impeached, and for what? Being all those things does not make a man smart; it may make him educated but not smart. Again see above about Billy Jeff ex-Rhodes scholar.
I would caution against mistaking character flaws or lapses in judgement for stupidity. Either can lead incredibly intelligent people to do things that make no sense at all after the fact.
Hondo, really? I thought they were the same not separate. Because when I have a lapse of “judgement” or my “character flaws” rear their ugly head, – after the fact I don’t say to myself, “Damn, that stupid character flaw,” or “that was a lapse of judgement.” No what I say is, “Boy that was stupid. I knew better than to do that.” The difference between smart and stupid people is smart people know their character flaws and lack of judgement avoid them like the plague and when they occur realize after the fact they were not thinking – thus being stupid. I would hypothesis that by saying character flaw or lack of judgement this implies – not thinking (Reflexive or subconscious.) I believe both character flaws and lack of judgement require decisions – thinking, thus stupid. I was also going to argue – to avoid mixing “stupidity” and “incredibly intelligent.” But Marion Webster defined stupidity: “the state of being foolish or unintelligent : the condition of being stupid.” So how does an “incredibly intelligent” person loose their intelligence? Can a person be in the state of intelligence and then be not in the state of intelligence? Or how does one think intelligently and then think not intelligently – even if they consider themselves elite and not required to do what others are required to do? This kind of thinking, in itself, appears to be unintelligent.
A known character flaw, or a lapse in judgement, is decidedly not the same as being stupid. History is filled with examples of very smart people making decisions that later made people ask, “What in the hell were they thinking?”
Equating a mental error or giving in to a character flaw with stupidity, on the other hand, can often lead to grossly underestimating an adversary’s intelligence. History is filled with examples of that as well.
My point is that assessing someone to be “stupid” simply on the basis of a single mental error or lapse in judgement is very risky – particularly if that individual is an adversary. You need more of a track record to make that call.
The concept is quite simple: for any one of a number of reasons, even very smart people can make mistakes. That doesn’t negate their intelligence; it simply means that in a particular case, they erred. It’s only when a long-term pattern of apparently “stupid” decisions emerges that one can with any confidence assess them to be “stupid”.
However, failing to grasp a simple concept like the above could in fact be evidence that someone is not particularly bright, Perhaps you’d prefer I put it this way: “That kind of thinking, in itself, appears to be unintelligent.”
Nah, they just quit thinking that the rules for ordinary mortals apply to them. After Manning and Snowden, ya think they would be a little more thorough in enforcing the rules.
Mark my words, it’ll lead down the road to a flunkie staffer having sensitive info compromised, and we’ll hear the excuse “Well, the Boss was doing it, so I thought…”.
My initial reaction was a bit different from others, apparently. It seemed rather refreshing that a member of this gaggle actually ‘fessed up to wrong doing, stopped it fairly quickly, and doesn’t seem to be blaming others for his error. To me, that made others look very bad in comparison.
(My response in no way condones the violation of the rules by our self-professed political betters or anyone else. Hang them all, or at least bury them under a very large stack of federal rules.)
I am beginning to think we need to modify both UCMJ and the general officer review process.
Subordinate review of flag officers (Generals and Admirals).
If enough of the tribe think you are an embarrassment or incompetent, you get relieved. I am not sure how exactly to work this, but it might address the “loyalty down” issues.
Update of the UCMJ to enhance penalties for Flag-rank misconduct.
Longer sentences, plus restoration of corporal punishment for egregious cases. Meaning: flogging in a public and disgraceful manner. Again, process needs details, but the principle is greater power = greater liability.
That cushy job post-retirement job with a defense conglomerate or lobbying firm is a lot less tempting if it comes at the price of a badly striped back, 10 years of making gravel with a sledgehammer, and a Dishonorable Discharge, instead of simply retiring a bit down from one’s peak rank.
All that would assume a CIC who was relatively intolerant of senior officer misconduct, and willing to revisit the shenanigans under predecessors.
And there’s our word for the day: Shenanigator
(noun)
A person who instigates shenanigans.
A Shenanigator is most easily taken out by a Sergeant with a Shillelagh.
This is actually the third time. Several EPA officials were using phony addresses as well.
Arguable – the EPA Administrator did exactly that, but is technically not a member of the Cabinet per se. However, she is considered to be “of cabinet rank”, so I won’t quibble.
Those below him will pay the price through extra briefings online training etc.
reminds me of ou.r 5th ID NTC rotation in 87. The bn S4 lost his 45 riding around, but he didn’t do the rock walk. When we got back to Polk E5 and below had to dump rucks and A bags
Just trying to calculate the months of my life lost to mandatory briefings on OPSEC, ELINT, HUMINT, SAEDA, COMSEC, etc. – good to see it was really all done to check the box.
This shitbag brought the military to its knees.
And now he is doing the same thing to his own career.
Fuck him.