A woman's I's

The best way to evaluate a woman is by her “I’s” – Intelligence and Integrity. The same holds true for evaluating men. My work, when I was in the aerospace industry, often involved classified material. One job included comparing work done by other engineers to the security classification manual to properly mark each paragraph (Unclassified, Confidential, Secret, etc.). The engineers knew the overall security, but needed each paragraph marked.

It does not please me that one candidate running to become president appears to lack either intelligence or integrity (or both). To say that she could not recognize that specific content would make a document (or email) Secret, Top Secret, or even higher level implies that she is either “fence-post stupid” or lacks the integrity needed to handle classified information. Does she think the average American citizen is so lacking in intelligence that we automatically cherish every word that falls out of her mouth without consideration as to whether it is truthful?

FBI Director James B. Comey stated on July 5, 2016, “Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.

“For example, seven email chains concern matters that were classified at the Top Secret/Special Access Program level when they were sent and received. These chains involved Secretary Clinton both sending emails about those matters and receiving emails from others about the same matters. There is evidence to support a conclusion that any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton’s position, or in the position of those government employees with whom she was corresponding about these matters, should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation. In addition to this highly sensitive information, we also found information that was properly classified as Secret by the U.S. Intelligence Community at the time it was discussed on email (that is, excluding the later “up-classified” emails).”

Note Director Comey’s words above, “any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton’s position...” I think it is reasonable to draw the conclusion the director of the FBI does not consider former Secretary Clinton as a “reasonable person.”

Thomas Fancher

Moses Lake