Politics

I see comments like this a lot.

I think the most disturbing part of this is the issuing agencies don’t track the classified documents well enough to know that they are missing, and they don’t ask for them back.

So here’s a short primer on classified documents – my summary of Andrew McCabe educating all of us about classified documents, in episode 7 of the podcast Jack.  I wrote this up because I know some of you will not listen to podcasts no matter how useful they are.

I also have a 7-minute clip from the podcast below.  For what it’s worth, I think Jack is the best podcast out there for all things special counsel related.

CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS & CLASSIFICATION LEVELS 

After a background check, you can get clearance at one of the three levels:

1. Confidential
2. Secret
3. Top Secret

There are extensive rules at each level for how you are able to transport, store, and work with documents at all three levels.  You receive training, and your training has to be renewed every year if you have access to sensitive information.

A classified document that is somewhere that it doesn’t belong is called a spill.

Even with a clearance at any level, you have to have a need to know before you can access classified materials, plus there are additional limits to who can see some Top Secret materials:

• Sensitive Compartmentalized Information (SCI)
• Code Word Protected Information
• Originator Controlled (ORCON)

Sensitive Compartmentalized Information (SCI)

• SCI is a an additional designation given to SOME top secret information.
• SCI documents require a Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facility (SCIF).
• A SCIF is sometimes called a Vault.
• SCI documents must stay in a SCIF, unless you have permission to transport the SCI document(s) to another SCIF.
• SCI documents are not serialized or tracked.

Code Word Protected Information

• SCI is a an additional designation given to SOME top secret information.
• The most sensitive programs the government is involved in are protected by code words.
• You have to be on a very small list of people in order to have access to code word protected information.
• Only code word protected documents are serialized and tracked.
• When code word protected information comes to your office, it’s in the hands of an agency security officer.
• You have to sign for the document before you look at it.
• You typically have to look at it and then give it right back, even if you are working in a SCIF.
• Then it’s taken by the security officers and is stored in a special place.
• There is a list of all the people who are exposed to that particular code word protected information.
• Remember: code word protected documents are the only documents that are serialized or tracked.

Originator Controlled Information  (ORCON)

• SCI is a an additional designation given to SOME top secret information.
• ORCON documents require the creator of the document give permission to specific people before they can look at a document.
• Information that originates with a foreign government, for instance, requires permission from that foreign government before it can be shared with anyone.

Andrew McCabe also talks about how the way in which you interact with classified materials changes with your role.

DAY-TO-DAY DIFFERENCES, DEPENDING ON YOUR ROLE

As a mid-level person accessing Top Secret Sensitive Compartmentalized Information (TS/SCI)

As a mid-level person with top secret classification, his office was a SCIF.  He worked with dozens of top secret documents every day, he says he was “buried” in top secret SCI documents.  Receiving dozens of Top Secret SCI documents every day, he would have to read them all, and he could carry those documents out of his office to another agent’s office.

The other folks he worked with also had the same classification level, so those documents could be discussed with other agents that had a need to know.  At the end of the day, those documents never left the SCIF.

As a principal in an organization accessing Top Secret Sensitive Compartmentalized Information (TS/SCI)

At this level – as a principal in an organization like the FBI, as Vice President, as POTUS – you need access to Top Secret, SCI information all the time, 24 hours a day. Staffers are constantly carrying these documents around.

• At work.
• At home.
• When you travel in the US.
• When you travel overseas.

“There are people on your staff whose sole responsibility is to take those documents, transport them, carry it, store it, protect it, and give it to you when you need it.”

“As a principal, it is literally following you around everywhere you go.”

“Special security folks are responsible for taking care of all those documents.”

As President or Vice President, for instance, the documents follow you to the residence, to the office, as you get ready for the next briefing or a phone call with a world leader.

I have clipped the first 7 minutes of Andrew McCabe’s terrific explanation of classified documents.

Open thread.

 

Classified Documents: A PrimerPost + Comments (214)