Although the particulars of this episode are in dispute (State Department Spokesman Glyn Davies insists that Smith received an unclassified briefing and was shown the secure area without actually being admitted to it), the episode bespeaks an insensitivity to prudent information and personnel security practices that has characterized much of Toby Gati's service in the Clinton Administration.
At the end of 2005, a single consolidated data base of personnel security clearance information was established and is easily accessible by authorized users to confirm who already has what clearances.
Unfortunately, as grievous as the damage Mr. Hanssen might have done appears to be, even it could pale by comparison with the cumulative effects of eight years of malign neglect towards personnel, information and physical security that was the leitmotif of the Clinton-Gore Administration.
The Transportation Security Administration said personnel granted security clearances are educated about their responsibility to protect classified information, sign a non-disclosure agreement and take annual refresher training.
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The only effort that I made in discussing -- the only effort that I made with the Times -- who I will say came to us, I think handled this story in a responsible way -- I passed a message through the writers at the New York Times to the head of WikiLeaks to redact information that could harm personnel or threaten operations or security.
Mr. Panetta said they spent roughly 20 minutes of the session briefing the president on the chaos at the American Embassy in Cairo and the attack in Benghazi, which eventually cost the lives of Ambassador Christopher Stevens, security personnel Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, and information officer Sean Smith.
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The EO actually does a couple of good things: It authorizes government agencies to share classified and unclassified threat and technical information with critical infrastructure owners and operators and allows for the expedited processing of security clearances to personnel within these entities.
"Vital information has already been removed from the report by the de Silva review team prior to checking by security officials, MOD personnel and the PSNI, " she said.
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