My Corner of the Web
SUBJECT: (U) Security Classification Markings for Dummies: A guide for Democrats and Republicans
(U) On September 2nd, 2016 the FBI released their notes from an interview with Hillary Rodham Clinton from their investigation of her use of a personal email server to conduct government business during her tenure as Secretary of State. See: https://vault.fbi.gov/hillary-r.-clinton .
(U) In the notes of the FBI interview, “Clinton stated that she did not know what the ‘(C)’ meant at the beginning of the paragraphs and speculated it was referencing paragraphs marked in alphabetical order.” (Page 20 of 47). Unfortunately for the nation, Mrs. Clinton’s speculation was incorrect.
(U) In response to the above, on September 4th, Donald Trump tweeted “Lyin' Hillary Clinton told the FBI that she did not know the "C" markings on documents stood for CLASSIFIED. How can this be happening?” Unfortunately for the nation, Donald Trump was incorrect.
(U) In response to the above, social media exploded with faulty memes around the idea of “C is for Classified” (see: https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/517sx5/c_is_for_classified or query facebook and twitter for “C is for Classified”). Unfortunately for the nation, social media was incorrect.
(U) To correct all of the above inaccuracies, this simple guide will explain to you (in less than 5 minutes), the key points you need to know about security classifications.
(U) 1. What are Security Classification Markings? Security classification markings are tags placed on every paragraph and every header and footer of a document to indicate the classification level of that portion of the document. A marking is a metadata tag similar to tags in your web pages (called HTML tags) that give you additional information about the text (like <b> for “make this text bold”). In this document you see classification markings in front of each paragraph that state all of this material is “Unclassified”.
(U) 2. What are the levels of Security Classifications? There are four levels of security classification: UNCLASSIFIED, CONFIDENTIAL, SECRET and TOP SECRET. The markings for those classification levels are ‘U’ for UNCLASSIFIED, ‘C’ for CONFIDENTIAL (Hillary and Donald please take special note of this), ‘S’ for SECRET, and ‘TS’ for TOP SECRET. Besides security classification levels there are special “compartments” that can further restrict access to information to only a specific group of individuals who have a “need to know.”
(U) 3. Why are documents marked with Classification Markings? Simply stated, to either protect the content of information and/or to protect the “sources and methods” for gathering information (see: http://fas.org/irp/offdocs/nscid11.htm). The classification level corresponds to the degree of damage the United States would suffer if that information was divulged to our adversaries. The release of “Confidential” information would cause “damage” to the United States, the release of “Secret” information would cause “serious damage” and the release of “Top Secret” information would cause “exceptionally grave damage” (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classified_information).
(U) Please share this simple document so that Hillary Rodham Clinton, Donald J. Trump and social media do not make these mistakes again! Thank you.
(U) Sincerely, A Concerned Citizen, former Government official and former Intelligence Officer.
Classified by: Michael C. Daconta
Reason: Nothing in this document can do harm to the United States or its interests. This material is in the public domain.
Downgrade to: N/A
Declassify on: N/A