That’s rich, coming from Fauxahontas, given her support for FATCA/FBAR which for those who do not know (I know YOU know.) spies on the financials of all U.S. persons who live abroad in the case of FATCA and forces all the same to spy on all they have financial dealings with in the case of FBAR.
Yep, it was the hacking of the OPM under Obama that China learned who among them were spying for us. It did not end well for our spies. Then we have Wasserman-Shultz (sp?) and the house IT scandal.
[Let’s ignore the admission about “a country whose intelligence agencies have stolen vast amounts of sensitive data about Americans, including U.S. government employee data by hacking U.S. government systems” and what that says about US government IT security practices]
Mr. Musk already carries a clearance to a certain level based on his satellite launching work for the US. But (I may be wrong) I believe that the president can cut through the red tape by saying give this guy the requisite clearance and access, yes he has a need to know, reference my EO blah blah blah.
True statement. The President is admitted to all compartments and can grant clearances as they see fit. Exceptions to clearance policies are delegated to cabinet officials, such as the secretaries of the armed services comprising the DoD.
According to Article II of the Constitution, "The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America." That means Trump has absolute power to decide what is classified and what is not. All such power is held by him and by members of the Executive Branch of the Federal government as it is delegated to them by the President, unless and until he revokes it. That's it. That's all.
That is why the Mar-a-Lago fuss over "classified documents" was a total joke, leaving aside the FBI's corrupt shenanigans.
While that is not relevant here, this is, the sum total of statute law covering security clearances (National Defense Act of 1947):
Sec. 801. [50 U.S.C 435]
(a) Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this title, the President shall, by Executive order or regulation, establish procedures to govern access to classified information which shall be binding upon all departments, agencies, and offices of the executive branch of Government. Such procedures shall, at a minimum—
(1) provide that, except as may be permitted by the President, no employee in the executive branch of Government may be given access to classified information by any department, agency, or office of the executive branch of Government unless, based upon an appropriate background investigation, such access is determined to be clearly consistent with the national security interests of the United States;
(2) establish uniform minimum requirements governing the scope and frequency of background investigations and reinvestigations for all employees in the executive branch of Government who require access to classified information as part of their official responsibilities;
(3) provide that all employees in the executive branch of Government who require access to classified information shall be required as a condition of such access to provide to the employing department or agency written consent which permits access by an authorized investigative agency to relevant financial records, other financial information, consumer reports, travel records, and computers used in the performance of Government duties, as determined by the President, in accordance with section 802 of this title, during the period of access to classified information and for a period of three years thereafter;
(4) provide that all employees in the executive branch of Government who require access to particularly sensitive classified information, as determined by the President, shall be required, as a condition of maintaining access to such information, to submit to the employing department or agency, during the period of such access, relevant information concerning their financial condition and foreign travel, as determined by the President, as may be necessary to ensure appropriate security; and
(5) establish uniform minimum standards to ensure that employees in the executive branch of Government whose access to classified information is being denied or terminated under this title are appropriately advised of the reasons for such denial or termination and are provided an adequate opportunity to respond to all adverse information which forms the basis for such denial or termination before final action by the department or agency concerned.
(b)(1) Subsection (a) shall not be deemed to limit or affect the responsibility and power of an agency head pursuant to other law or Executive order to deny or terminate access to classified information if the national security so requires. Such responsibility and power may be exercised only when the agency head determines that the procedures prescribed by subsection (a) cannot be invoked in a manner that is consistent with the national security.
(2) Upon the exercise of such responsibility, the agency head shall submit a report to the congressional intelligence committees.
I can actually see reasons to be concerned about Musk and classification access, that might be more than simply a broken classification system.
That said, while we can be sure that this new effort has not done all of the checkbox ticking for traditional government access control, we know that the traditional government access control has been grossly inadequate in preventing the politicians who oversee the methods from being able to just transfer all sorts of information to hostile foreign actors.
DOGE has not proven in advance that it is okay. (1) I'm not sure that it's planning is gonna prove excellent and wise. My feeling is that it has not only seen some oversight from Musk, and from Trump, but also has probably survived Vance asking questions. I would not fully trust any of these men seperately, but together they may cover some of the blind spots. Still not fully trusting, but eases concerns that develop when I consider the details abstractly.
Bednar is not a disinterested party. Law schools have a serious problem going forward, and in general American universities may be so fully captured by the federal government that they are now propaganda organs. Certainly, a lot of faculty have been specialists that respond mostly to federal funding (and federal political factions), and have probably lost track of generalism within their field, to a dangerous degree. I don't know that specific law school, and I do not know its law faculty, or Bednar.
Yet, everyone who has wanted to turn university contact into trust, respect, and job opportunity has an interest in the fall out of how badly the henwits in academia are managing loss of trust in academia.
One of the less discussed lessons of 2020 was how letting MDs decide "LOL, everyoen is remote now" directly caused security breaches, such as the Russian pipeline hack that prepped for the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Obama was malicious or impaired, and at his direction people leaked a lot of info. Biden was not _less_ impaired, and shutting out remote access and shutting out his people would be step one in any sort of emergency plan to try to control the damage.
That we haven't seen this with some of the more sensitive bureaucracies may mean those bureaucracies were less corrupted, or that DOGE has a more delicate process for those, or that DOGE just has not gotten started on those yet.
The actual aftermath of all this will probably take years to fully understand. I dunno. We shall see.
(1) Trying to prove in advance is one element of the traditional method.
Security clearances are poorly understood. In general, the difference between classified material and unclassified material revolves around specificity about time/location/sometimes strengths involved and sources for the information.
Things like satellite photos are another animal and are mostly classified to hide what we know and the capabilities of our technical means.
For instance, a movement order might be Secret because it will specify where the soldiers are supposed to go and when. A press report will say "US Troops headed to Bumfuck" and indicate it'll happen in the next few months.
An intelligence report generated by HUMINT or National Technical Means (aka satellites, intercepted traffic) might be Secret in terms of relevant details and TS and compartmented if it specifies the precise way we got the information. An Unclassified version of it may someday be generated which could be 'leaked' to the press. If, in the judgement of the owners of the classification authority, it would not damage ongoing efforts.
Security classification is not a good means of actually preventing information from appearing about a topic. It's a way of fuzzing the details and keeping ambiguity about the hows and whens of government activity. As such, most of the insider threat training is focused on people taking actual timely details of classified material and passing it to foreign powers, which is the real threat to ongoing activities. It's also why we use things like airgapped networks, crosscut shredders and then burning the material, and insist on decommissioned computer mass storage devices not just get wiped but also get physically destroyed before being disposed of.
If you think this is likely in Musk's case, then that's fine, but that seems a stretch. Also, giving him actual classified material outside of a SCIF doesn't seem likely.
"But I don't want my wfh job of subverting America while collecting huge paychecks for minimal work and excellent benefits paid for by other citizens taxes to end" - every corrupt government employee crybaby
Damn that's alotta words to say you don't know how the national security apparatus works. You could've just written a note that says "I'm a retard who likes the taste of Musk's balls."
Excellent piece Francis! Thank you for putting it together. My prediction, not going out on too long a limb, is that Bondi and Patel's team are under siege, but not only from the deep state and MSM. I suspect that whistleblowers are coming out of the woodwork as we speak. Bondi, Patel and their teams are building airtight cases that will have the traitors and thiefs shaking in their boots and apt to plea out because they know that. If they fight they will lose. Also, Bondi and Patel need to make sure their prosecutions are completely free of the kind of lawfare practiced against the R's for the last 17 years.
Thanks for this very good write-up.
That’s rich, coming from Fauxahontas, given her support for FATCA/FBAR which for those who do not know (I know YOU know.) spies on the financials of all U.S. persons who live abroad in the case of FATCA and forces all the same to spy on all they have financial dealings with in the case of FBAR.
Yep, it was the hacking of the OPM under Obama that China learned who among them were spying for us. It did not end well for our spies. Then we have Wasserman-Shultz (sp?) and the house IT scandal.
[Let’s ignore the admission about “a country whose intelligence agencies have stolen vast amounts of sensitive data about Americans, including U.S. government employee data by hacking U.S. government systems” and what that says about US government IT security practices]
This is my favorite line in a long while!
Mr. Musk already carries a clearance to a certain level based on his satellite launching work for the US. But (I may be wrong) I believe that the president can cut through the red tape by saying give this guy the requisite clearance and access, yes he has a need to know, reference my EO blah blah blah.
True statement. The President is admitted to all compartments and can grant clearances as they see fit. Exceptions to clearance policies are delegated to cabinet officials, such as the secretaries of the armed services comprising the DoD.
According to Article II of the Constitution, "The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America." That means Trump has absolute power to decide what is classified and what is not. All such power is held by him and by members of the Executive Branch of the Federal government as it is delegated to them by the President, unless and until he revokes it. That's it. That's all.
That is why the Mar-a-Lago fuss over "classified documents" was a total joke, leaving aside the FBI's corrupt shenanigans.
While that is not relevant here, this is, the sum total of statute law covering security clearances (National Defense Act of 1947):
Sec. 801. [50 U.S.C 435]
(a) Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this title, the President shall, by Executive order or regulation, establish procedures to govern access to classified information which shall be binding upon all departments, agencies, and offices of the executive branch of Government. Such procedures shall, at a minimum—
(1) provide that, except as may be permitted by the President, no employee in the executive branch of Government may be given access to classified information by any department, agency, or office of the executive branch of Government unless, based upon an appropriate background investigation, such access is determined to be clearly consistent with the national security interests of the United States;
(2) establish uniform minimum requirements governing the scope and frequency of background investigations and reinvestigations for all employees in the executive branch of Government who require access to classified information as part of their official responsibilities;
(3) provide that all employees in the executive branch of Government who require access to classified information shall be required as a condition of such access to provide to the employing department or agency written consent which permits access by an authorized investigative agency to relevant financial records, other financial information, consumer reports, travel records, and computers used in the performance of Government duties, as determined by the President, in accordance with section 802 of this title, during the period of access to classified information and for a period of three years thereafter;
(4) provide that all employees in the executive branch of Government who require access to particularly sensitive classified information, as determined by the President, shall be required, as a condition of maintaining access to such information, to submit to the employing department or agency, during the period of such access, relevant information concerning their financial condition and foreign travel, as determined by the President, as may be necessary to ensure appropriate security; and
(5) establish uniform minimum standards to ensure that employees in the executive branch of Government whose access to classified information is being denied or terminated under this title are appropriately advised of the reasons for such denial or termination and are provided an adequate opportunity to respond to all adverse information which forms the basis for such denial or termination before final action by the department or agency concerned.
(b)(1) Subsection (a) shall not be deemed to limit or affect the responsibility and power of an agency head pursuant to other law or Executive order to deny or terminate access to classified information if the national security so requires. Such responsibility and power may be exercised only when the agency head determines that the procedures prescribed by subsection (a) cannot be invoked in a manner that is consistent with the national security.
(2) Upon the exercise of such responsibility, the agency head shall submit a report to the congressional intelligence committees.
I can actually see reasons to be concerned about Musk and classification access, that might be more than simply a broken classification system.
That said, while we can be sure that this new effort has not done all of the checkbox ticking for traditional government access control, we know that the traditional government access control has been grossly inadequate in preventing the politicians who oversee the methods from being able to just transfer all sorts of information to hostile foreign actors.
DOGE has not proven in advance that it is okay. (1) I'm not sure that it's planning is gonna prove excellent and wise. My feeling is that it has not only seen some oversight from Musk, and from Trump, but also has probably survived Vance asking questions. I would not fully trust any of these men seperately, but together they may cover some of the blind spots. Still not fully trusting, but eases concerns that develop when I consider the details abstractly.
Bednar is not a disinterested party. Law schools have a serious problem going forward, and in general American universities may be so fully captured by the federal government that they are now propaganda organs. Certainly, a lot of faculty have been specialists that respond mostly to federal funding (and federal political factions), and have probably lost track of generalism within their field, to a dangerous degree. I don't know that specific law school, and I do not know its law faculty, or Bednar.
Yet, everyone who has wanted to turn university contact into trust, respect, and job opportunity has an interest in the fall out of how badly the henwits in academia are managing loss of trust in academia.
One of the less discussed lessons of 2020 was how letting MDs decide "LOL, everyoen is remote now" directly caused security breaches, such as the Russian pipeline hack that prepped for the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Obama was malicious or impaired, and at his direction people leaked a lot of info. Biden was not _less_ impaired, and shutting out remote access and shutting out his people would be step one in any sort of emergency plan to try to control the damage.
That we haven't seen this with some of the more sensitive bureaucracies may mean those bureaucracies were less corrupted, or that DOGE has a more delicate process for those, or that DOGE just has not gotten started on those yet.
The actual aftermath of all this will probably take years to fully understand. I dunno. We shall see.
(1) Trying to prove in advance is one element of the traditional method.
Security clearances are poorly understood. In general, the difference between classified material and unclassified material revolves around specificity about time/location/sometimes strengths involved and sources for the information.
Things like satellite photos are another animal and are mostly classified to hide what we know and the capabilities of our technical means.
For instance, a movement order might be Secret because it will specify where the soldiers are supposed to go and when. A press report will say "US Troops headed to Bumfuck" and indicate it'll happen in the next few months.
An intelligence report generated by HUMINT or National Technical Means (aka satellites, intercepted traffic) might be Secret in terms of relevant details and TS and compartmented if it specifies the precise way we got the information. An Unclassified version of it may someday be generated which could be 'leaked' to the press. If, in the judgement of the owners of the classification authority, it would not damage ongoing efforts.
Security classification is not a good means of actually preventing information from appearing about a topic. It's a way of fuzzing the details and keeping ambiguity about the hows and whens of government activity. As such, most of the insider threat training is focused on people taking actual timely details of classified material and passing it to foreign powers, which is the real threat to ongoing activities. It's also why we use things like airgapped networks, crosscut shredders and then burning the material, and insist on decommissioned computer mass storage devices not just get wiped but also get physically destroyed before being disposed of.
If you think this is likely in Musk's case, then that's fine, but that seems a stretch. Also, giving him actual classified material outside of a SCIF doesn't seem likely.
You really can’t see what is happening, can you?
No one elected the people that the Trump administration is shutting down, Elizabeth.
No one elected the people doing the shutting down either. Let’s see how it plays out
Excellent. Thanks Francis. 👍
They’re actually going to drain the swamp aren’t they.
BRILLIANT!
Egad, man, you have outdone yourself!
I may print this out and frame it. It deserves a timeless reverence!
glad you like it
This is the most exciting Presidency since Israel killed JFK!
Hell, it's the most exciting since Andrew Jackson!
"But I don't want my wfh job of subverting America while collecting huge paychecks for minimal work and excellent benefits paid for by other citizens taxes to end" - every corrupt government employee crybaby
If the deep state wanted Trump dead, he would be.
Damn that's alotta words to say you don't know how the national security apparatus works. You could've just written a note that says "I'm a retard who likes the taste of Musk's balls."
Excellent piece Francis! Thank you for putting it together. My prediction, not going out on too long a limb, is that Bondi and Patel's team are under siege, but not only from the deep state and MSM. I suspect that whistleblowers are coming out of the woodwork as we speak. Bondi, Patel and their teams are building airtight cases that will have the traitors and thiefs shaking in their boots and apt to plea out because they know that. If they fight they will lose. Also, Bondi and Patel need to make sure their prosecutions are completely free of the kind of lawfare practiced against the R's for the last 17 years.