Need-to-Know

                                  

How? Why?  Does an Airman First Class in the Massachusetts Air National Guard get access to so many Top Secret documents?  Was his security clearance in order?  Did he have a need to know this stuff?  Which superior officer[s] made all this stuff available?  In addition to prosecuting the leaker, let’s find and prosecute those who made the stuff available. 

I also heard that we have nearly three million people with security clearances.  That’s entirely too many.  The more people have clearances the greater the chance that one of them will leak classified. 

 

Security, Rules for.

 The massive leak of classified documents to an internet gamer’s site has convinced all America’s friends to never share anything with the Americans because it will be leaked all over the world.

Years ago the US Congress passed a law that declares the US has only three classifications for anything, Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret.  This was done because the intelligence services and the armed services had dreamed up all sorts of different classifications of stuff, and when Congressmen asked to see the stuff, they were told that they didn’t have to proper clearance to see it.  So Congress installed the “Only-Three-Levels” system we still have in order from them to see anything they wanted to see if they possessed a Top Secret clearance.

Another security principle is “need to know”.  Unless you have a need to know the information, you don’t get to see the information unless it relates to your mission.  For instance an Army general planning a campaign has a need to know about the enemy.  The same Army general does not have a need to know intelligence on navies.  There was one notorious case where an Army private had access to State Department classified and passed to the Russians.  Need to know was violated in that case.

Back when I was on active duty with USAF the FBI had to do a background check on me to get a mere Secret clearance.  They even visited my old high school and interviewed Fred Swan, my physics teacher and swim team coach.  That was a long time ago.  I don’t know how things work now.  How was this “OG” character that WaPo said did the entire recent massive leak given a security clearance?  What was his need to know all those documents?

Classified is safest on paper and locked in a safe.  Putting the stuff onto Windows computers is asking to have it stolen.  Windows is like Swiss cheese, full of holes. High school kids can break into Windows.  I wonder where the stuff in this week's leak was stored. 

Hardcopy

I am dong my income tax, using TurboTax.  I get to end, TurboTax tells me I have not made any mistakes, and my chance of getting audited is low.  So I print out my tax return.  I don’t efile, that makes it too easy for IRS weenies to feed my tax return into their computers.  I mail ‘em hard copy.  My printer hummed and clattered but the ink ran out after a few pages.  Ink cartridge went empty.  So I drove into the Littleton Staples to get a fresh ink cartridge.  Arrgh, Staples does not carry #74 black ink cartridges any more, they are obsolete now.

   Since my old HP printer was at least 15 years old, I decided to buy a new one.  Only $99 for a genuine HP.  I get it home, get it unpacked, and plug it in to the computer.  I down load the HP driver for the printer.  Arghh, 133 Megabytes.  For just a driver.  Will software fatness never end?  The new driver announces that it can tell genuine HP ink cartridges from competitors ink cartridges and will refuse to print with non-HP ink.  Arghh. 

Banning TikTok

I don’t use, or even have TikTok, so all I know is what I see on the web.  I see a lot of bad stuff about TikTok and little to no good stuff.  So I am fine with banning it. 

   This might be a little hard to do.  TikTok is a website.  If we pass a law outlawing the website, TikTok could merely change the name of their website and carry on as before.  We could speak to the Face books and Twitters of the world and tell them if we see any TikTok material on your sites we will use the Sherman Antitrust Act to break up your company into at least 5 pieces, maybe more.  We would have to get all the websites, not just to biggies, but it could be done. 

   I hear that 100-150 million people have the TikTok down load on their smart phones and computers.  If we shut down all the TikTok websites then I assume the TikTok down loads won’t be able to do anything.  Unless China opens up a TikTok website to feed all those hungry down loads. 

   Or, we could talk very firmly to Micro$oft.  Their Window Update program can remove any kind of app from a Windows hard drive.  We could insist that Micro$oft use Update to clear those 100-150 million TikTok down loads off every hard drive in the land.  Micro$oft won’t want to do that, and I have no idea what sort of pressure could be brought to bear on the Micro$ofties to get on with it.

Trump is indicted

New York DA Alvin Bragg finally got around to doing it, after threatening to do it for weeks.  I hear some TV newsies decrying it for charging a president with a crime. I hear other TV newsies claiming that the backlash will assure Trump gets elected.  I have no idea which, if either, of these two ideas will work out. The charges Bragg has leaked are Mickey Mouse to the extreme.  Paying off a bimbo to keep her mouth shut is not a crime, never has been a crime.

Does it matter if the Nashville massacre is called a hate crime?

The shooter is clearly guilty of first degree murder.  That used to deserve the death penalty years ago, but Democrats and lawyers have almost eliminated the death penalty in America.  Why confuse things by calling it a hate crime instead of murder?

   And since the shooter was shot dead by the Nashville police, it doesn’t really matter.  We aren’t going to try the killer since she is already dead. 

   TV news spent a lot of time discussing this issue today. 

   I hear the shooter was undergoing some sort of “medical” procedure on account of her psychological problems.  I would love to learn the name of the doctor whose treatment was so tragically ineffective.  

It isn’t the guns, it’s the homicidal maniacs.

    The Nashville school shooting was horrible.  Three nine year olds are dead, shot by the shooter.  That is too terrible for words.  Three adult school staff members are dead, also shot by the shooter.  

   Biden is using this horrible case to call for more gun control, this time he wants to outlaw and confiscate all semi automatic rifles and pistols.  Most guns out there are semi automatic, so Biden is calling for confiscating everyone’s guns.

   Guns are not the problem and not the cause of the Nashville massacre.  The true cause is the large number of homicidal maniacs that we allow to run around loose.  We should have mental hospitals and homicidal maniacs should be involuntarily committed to a mental hospital until they are cured of their homicidal mania. 

   We used to do this back in the old days.  Unfortunately the 1960’s reformers declared that involuntary commitment was like putting people in jail without a proper trial.  The inmates were released to become homeless street people and the mental hospitals were closed.

   Until we round up the homicidal maniacs running around loose we will continue to have horrible shooting cases like Nashville.