Short-Circuit Damage to US Security: Hillary’s Lies and Amiri’s Execution
Sensational lying is nothing new for the former first lady
Amiri’s execution intersects with the 2016 U.S. political elections. As the linked article notes, two emails transmitted in 2010 through Hillary Clinton’s off-the-books and unauthorized server appear to refer to Amiri. Clinton senior adviser Jake Sullivan was involved in both emails: one he forwarded on July 5, 2010 (10 days before Amiri returned to Iran) and another (one he sent) dated July 12. The July 5 email said, “Our friend must be given a way out.”
For many good reasons senior official-level traffic is “born classified.” Access to a SecState’s unprotected email traffic provides enemy intelligence services with clues and indications regarding U.S. foreign and defense policy. In some cases, it may provide confirmation of suspected U.S. operations or, perhaps, U.S. intelligence assets and sources. Assets include human spies.
U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton told CBS’ “Face the Nation”:
“I’m not going to comment on what he (Amiri) may or may not have done for the United States government, but in the emails that were on Hillary Clinton’s private server, there were conversations among her senior advisors about this gentleman…That goes to show just how reckless and careless her decision was to put that kind of highly classified information on a private server. And I think her judgment is not suited to keep this country safe.”
(Cotton also discussed the Obama Administration’s $400 million cash payment to Iran that looks a lot like a ransom for hostages deal. Here is the entire transcript.)
Reckless and careless behavior by Hillary Clinton indeed. To say otherwise is to wage War on Honesty. Did her recklessness and carelessness have deadly consequences? Possibly. The mullahs may not have needed a SecState email to convince them Amiri provided the U.S. with intelligence data. As spy games go, Amiri could have been a double agent, providing the U.S. with disinformation. His execution indicates he wasn’t. We don’t know if Iran had access to Hillary’s email. FBI Director James Comey couldn’t confirm the system had been hacked, but everyone honest suspects it was.
However, the revelations of Hillary’s high-level recklessness with classified information related to human spies and Amiri’s life short-circuited by execution will make it that much harder for U.S. intelligence agencies to recruit spies and attract defectors.
In this respect, Hillary has damaged American national security—already damaged, not theoretically.
http://observer.com/2016/08/short-circuit-damage-to-us-security-hillarys-lies-and-amiris-execution/
