Part of the whole security clearance process is instruction on detecting misclassification, so the :%s/SECRET/SUCRETS/g defense doesn't work. At least 22 emails where later classified as top secret, there is no way to mistake top secret material for uncontrolled information. There were at least 22 chances to take a step back and wonder about the wisdom of the thing.

Lets not forget the handful (I don't recall the exact number) of emails that Colin Powell sent from his personal account and had clearance adjustments later on. Or the number of Rice's staff who received emails to their personal accounts that were deemed classified after the fact. Lots of chances for many individuals in the IC to step back and develop better procedures. Lets not put ALL the blame on Hillary.

Do we need to preface every discussion with a list of others' bad behavior? I imagine that would distract for the topic under discussion... and you wouldn't want to do that would you?

Well, we could be superficial and only talk about Hillary. OR, and this is crazy but stay with me, we could talk about how this issue happened way back in the early 2000's and no one at the NSA/House addressed the issue then.

A lot of people failed on this issue long before Hillary.

Congress addressed the issue of security of government servers more generally by passing the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) in 2002. Her use of a rouge external server violates this law on every level. Clinton's predecessors have the defense that their terms preceded this law.

Why stop in the early 2000's? Surely this is all superficial if we avoid the real issue - the control of privileged information! It should be obvious how unproductive this line of thinking is, eventually we'd find ourselves debating the original sin of man.

What do you mean "that server was for only unclassified data"? There was no other server. Clinton had a .gov account but entirely refused to use it. Meaning 100% of the email Clinton sent was sent through her insecure personal server.

Do you believe 100% of her email was entirely unclassified at the time it was sent?

As for innocuous, it's reported that her emails (unsurprisingly) included intelligence from "special access programs" which are actually classified beyond top secret.

There was another server for truly classified info + hard copies were used for sensitive stuff. Also, the official non-classified state department server was confirmed hacked during her tenure.

Excerpt:

How did Clinton receive and consume classified information?

The Secretary's office was located in a secure area. Classified information was viewed in hard copy by Clinton while in the office. While on travel, the State Department had rigorous protocols for her and traveling staff to receive and transmit information of all types.

A separate, closed email system was used by the State Department for the purpose of handling classified communications, which was designed to prevent such information from being transmitted anywhere other than within that system.

That is false. Sidney Blumenthal emailed her signals intelligence (which is top-secret at a minimum) on her unsecure server, after stripping classification markings. This has been covered pretty well, and if you want to see for yourself then you can grab a copy of the Guccifer data dump.

It appears you are quoting hillaryclinton.com is that correct?

I was unaware the clintonemail.com email server could differentiate between unclassified and classified content.

She still had a .gov e-mail address. It isn't difficult to imagine there was a "confidential to @gov, all else to @clintonemail.com" rule.

I'm not defending the practise, but let's not be glib.

> She still had a .gov e-mail address

She did, officially, but she's mentioned several times she never used it, and wanted to have her private email server for "convenience".

I love her values - personal convenience vs national security. This is just the sort of person we need in the White House. It reminds me of a president (I forget which one) who tied up Air Force One on a runway at who knows what cost to the taxpayer just so he could get a haircut.

2 minutes of runway delays, according to the wikipedia source, the FAA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton_haircut_controver...

I have more of a problem with idling the engines while your hair is cut than of the closed runways. Today the complaint would be ecological not economical.

However if idling of the engines is required by security protocols then you can't complain nearly as much.

I do expect to put a ridiculous time value of money on the Presidents time and even higher on security. But it should be done to minimize inconvenience to others.

I am constantly surprised at both the vehemence and the triviality of the ire that people direct at the Clintons. There is literally nothing that people will not attack them with.