Hillary Clinton sought secure smartphone, was rebuffed by NSA, emails show

[txradioguy]

Newly released emails show a 2009 request to issue a secure government smartphone to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was denied by the National Security Agency.

A month later, she began using private email accounts accessed through her BlackBerry to exchange messages with her top aides.

The messages made public Wednesday were obtained by Judicial Watch, a conservative legal advocacy group that has filed numerous lawsuits seeking the release of federal documents related to Clinton’s tenure as the nation’s top diplomat.

The Democratic presidential front-runner has come under intense scrutiny for her decision to use a private email server located in the basement of her New York home to route messages, including some containing sensitive information. Security experts have raised concern the arrangement could have left the messages vulnerable to attack by hackers, including those working for foreign intelligence agencies.

Clinton’s desire for a secure “BlackBerry-like” device, like that provided to President Barack Obama, is recounted in a series of February 2009 exchanges between high-level officials at the State Department and NSA. Clinton was sworn in as secretary the prior month, and had become “hooked” on reading and answering emails on a BlackBerry she used during the 2008 presidential race.

“We began examining options for (Secretary Clinton) with respect to secure ‘BlackBerry-like’ communications,” wrote Donald R. Reid, the department’s assistant director for security infrastructure. “The current state of the art is not too user friendly, has no infrastructure at State, and is very expensive.”

Reid wrote that each time they asked the NSA what solution they had worked up to provide a mobile device to Obama, “we were politely told to shut up and color.”

Resolving the issue was given such priority as to result in a face-to-face meeting between Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills, seven senior State Department staffers with five NSA security experts. According to a summary of the meeting, the request was driven by Clinton’s reliance on her BlackBerry for email and keeping track of her calendar. Clinton chose not to use a laptop or desktop computer that could have provided her access to email in her office, according to the summary.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/mar/17/hillary-clinton-sought-secure-smartphone-was-rebuf/

[txradioguy]

[SVPete]

Because of the timing, I think this refusal was concurrent and coincidental to her use of the private email server. I think it probable that the decision to have one set up, planning, getting the hardware, setting it all up, and getting it running would take more than a month. Security obviously wasn't too great a priority, and the request for this secure device seems as much a prestige move, plus getting her Crackberry-like device onto the government's dime rather than her own (the one appropriate, tiny, aspect of this mess).

But no way was this refusal justification for her not using the State Department's email server. That was a control-freak's move to control information availability and avoid accountability. An inept move, given the server's lack of better than rudimentary security. Probably the only reason she didn't have unexpected and unpleasant visitors at one of her many globe-trotting destinations (my memory is that she was kept outside of the US much of the time by BHO, probably so she couldn't build up much of a support base until after the 2012 election) was that she was too valuable as an unwitting information source!

[Carl]

What it boils down to is she was demanding something extraordinary which was not supported.
Her legal options at that point were to follow protocol but not surprisingly she said **** that I am doing what I want. 

[txradioguy]

What it boils down to is she was demanding something extraordinary which was not supported.
Her legal options at that point were to follow protocol but not surprisingly she said **** that I am doing what I want.

I'm honestly surprised she wanted a government issued BlackBerry...especially with all the security controls and software installed on them. I mean with all the backdoor deals and donation solicitations she was/is asking for...why give the Feds an avenue by which to monitor what she was doing.

Better to do it the way she did. Then just encrypt the phone and SD card then install PGP

[Carl]

I'm honestly surprised she wanted a government issued BlackBerry...especially with all the security controls and software installed on them. I mean with all the backdoor deals and donation solicitations she was/is asking for...why give the Feds an avenue by which to monitor what she was doing.

Better to do it the way she did. Then just encrypt the phone and SD card then install PGP

I could be wrong but if this was a device and situation that has only been allowed the CIC then essentially if granted to her there would be no possible oversight other then maybe the President.
All in all the same as what her plan B ended up being.