Leaking classified material is a long, proud tradition in the Navy. When you’ve got incredibly disgruntled 20-somethings right next to nuclear reactors, the odds that one of them is going to try and sell invaluable military secrets to the Chinese approaches one pretty quick.
Is there anyone more disgruntled than a Nuke?
Kristian Saucier (FBI)
As reported by the Chicago Tribune, Machinist’s Mate Kristian Saucier just discovered he’s going to be spending the next year at Fort Leavenworth for taking pictures of a highly-classified nuclear reactor. I say “highly classified” for the benefit of our civilian readers. For those of us who’ve dealt with secret material before, this is filed somewhere between “Top Secret” and “Holy Shit Don’t Let the Russians See This Secret.”
His court case was interesting, to say the least. He and his lawyers maintain that he never intended for the pictures he took to be disseminated to anyone. Years from now, he wanted to show his friends and family what he did in the Navy. I call BS with a capital B and a capital S.
I’ve been an instructor in a classified Navy course. Rule number one, before every single PowerPoint: THIS STUFF IS SECRET. DO NOT TELL YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY, OR SIGNIFICANT OTHER ABOUT THIS. As a nuke, as someone who deals with top secret information that could seriously harm this country day in and day out, he knew the repercussions of his actions. He deserves to be punished, because he was told hundreds of times to not do one thing, and then he totally did that one thing he was told not to do.
What about a Navy SEAL?
You might recognize this guy:
That’s Matt Bissonnette, the SEAL who wrote bestseller “No Easy Day” and famously participated in the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden.
As reported by The New York Times, Bissonnette is to forfeit almost $7 million in book royalties and speaking fees as a result of failing to vet his book through the Pentagon. Many have come to his defense, because the guy’s a hero, right? You’re not getting any argument from me on that front, the guy’s got brass balls for sure. The problem is, he was ringing those brass balls until the cash cow came to pasture.
Classified? Never heard of her.
SEALs have to endure an incredible strain for this country. They really do. They always operate in secret, and everything they deal with is absolutely classified, from their gear to their tactics to their support structure. They’re paid better than the average sailor, but they’re destroying their bodies as much as any NFL player, and with applied skills that far exceed their athlete counterparts. They all love what they do, but you’d better believe they’re not paid enough.
Enter “No Easy Day.” Coming right on the tail of the operation, as patriotism and interest in the SEALs was at an all-time high, it was the perfect time to publish that book. Bissonnette had the option to vet the book through the Pentagon, but with the operation being so fresh, it likely wouldn’t have seen the light of day. I’m sure he knew that, and the book was published under the pseudonym “Mark Owens.”
Here’s the deal: there was stuff in the book that gave valuable insight to America’s enemies as to how our SEALs operate. This potentially puts operational guys at risk, and I get that the Pentagon is pissed about it. Hell, if I was a SEAL, I’d be pissed on principle. I’m not a SEAL, though, and I loved the book. Go read it.
Who cares?
One guy got a year in the brig for taking pictures, but has not been proven to have disseminated them to anyone. Another guy is losing $7 million after failing to vet a book through the Pentagon. One other person, however, disseminated classified material and faced zero repercussions. You probably know who I’m talking about.
The Great Email Leak of 2015
Now, let’s put this stuff into context: Hillary Clinton routed email from her unclassified server at work, to a private server at home. She did this for 30,000 emails, which allowed them to be hacked. Of those emails, actual classified information was found in about three of them, with a further three believed to have been retained by her, and not submitted to the FBI as ordered.
Anybody in the military right now knows, if it’s on a government computer, even if it’s classified, don’t remove it from that network under any circumstances, even if it’d be more convenient for you to read them at home. If, say, a Navy IT1 was caught doing it, you’d better believe he’s getting busted down, if not sent to the brig.
Why am I bringing it up?
Much of Kristian Saucier’s court case revolved around the fact that the information he collected, with no intent to disseminate, paled in comparison to the information released negligently by Hillary Clinton, who has faced no repercussions to date.
You know, the kid’s got a pretty damn good point.
Whether the information was particularly damaging or not, she released information we didn’t want other countries knowing about. They now have that information. Saucier shouldn’t have taken the pictures, and he knew that, but he never released the pictures, nor does it appear he ever intended to. Still, the net cost to the United States is greater on Hillary Clinton’s side, isn’t it?
Whether you agree or not that Hillary Clinton should be punished for releasing classified information, as a result of her ignorance we’re about to see a lot more of these cases pop up. Someone takes a picture of a ship from a passing tour boat: “Hillary got away with it!” A sailor takes a selfie in a space with a classified screen in the background: “Hillary got away with it!” Someone caught with classified paperwork in their car: “Hillary got away with it!”
