ABC News is reporting today that State Department officials discussed sensitive information about the terrorist attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi in real time, including the locations of key Americans stationed in Libya.
Just recently, Fox News’ Catherine Herridge reported that one of the State Department emails that led the FBI to launch its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s server contained details of the whereabouts of Ambassador Chris Stevens, how he was “considering departure from Benghazi” amid deteriorating conditions in a nearby city, and his travel plans.
ABC News gives a couple of examples of emails that would have been passed through then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s unsecured private server:
An email from diplomat Alyce Abdalla, sent the night of the attack, appears to report that the CIA annex in Benghazi was under fire. The email has been largely whited out, with the government citing the legal exemption for classified intelligence information. The existence of that facility is now known; it was a secret at the time.
In an email sent at 8:51 p.m. on Sept. 11, 2012, Eric J. Pelofsky, a senior adviser to then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, gives an update on efforts to locate U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, who died in the attack.
The email was marked unclassified when sent. Later, part of it was deemed classified and censored before its release.
.@KenDilanianAP that's not what your article says. It says message was "later" marked as such – details matter
— Mark R. Jacobson (@markondefense) August 26, 2015
@markondefense Details matter, and yours are wrong. Classification doesn't work like that ffs.
— Kevin (@kevin_bowen) August 26, 2015
@markondefense Oh, FFS. Anyone who thinks those emails didn't have classified info in them… nm, they *knew* they did. @KenDilanianAP
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) August 26, 2015
As recently stated, classified information is “born classified.” For more on how the marked vs. unmarked argument “dodges the issue,” read Gabriel Malor’s tweets here. Clinton might have insisted in March, “I’m certainly well aware of the classification requirements and did not send classified material,” but as we know now, the story barely begins there.
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Related:
Did unclassified email put Chris Stevens’ life in danger? State Dept. won’t ‘get into hypotheticals’
Gabriel Malor counters spin that classified info was sent to Hillary Clinton, but not by her
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