(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . I found classified docs in w my overdue library books & only got a notice 4 the books! Way2goNA! [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-01-26 I found classified docs in w my overdue library books & only got a notice 4 the books! Way2goNA! Growing up, I was an avid patron of our local public library. Aside from first hand observation, smart adults, TV and school, books were a place to go for quenching my insatiable curiosity. Having always been afflicted with absent mindedness, I can still remember clearly the efficiency with which the library keep track of the material I borrowed from them (because I couldn’t). Over the nearly 20 years before I moved away, they never once ‘dropped the book’, even though I might have dozens of items (books, records and even art prints) out on loan. With a writhing tangle of returns and renewals over varying periods of time, I struggled to keep track of it all. But the library managed with officious clarity. No strays ever turned up later in the sock drawer or the dust ball colony in the far back corner under my bed. When classified documents were found by the FBI at Mar-a-Less Lago and it topped the news for a while, I posted an article on DK questioning how documents of the most confidential nature could wind up in the Traitor’s possession ‘off campus’. In the comments various readers offered a variety of informed speculations, with the suggestion of some kind of ‘inside help’ seeming to be the most plausible. A recent post on DK focused on the Purloiner & Chief’s latest explanation, which amounts to the ‘souvenir’ defense. Two ‘insider’ insights conclude the post and I attach them here, as they shed light on a question they don’t answer. "This kind of inadvertent spillage of classified information happens fairly frequently, and it is typically handled administratively — the individual self-reports, the relevant agency conducts a damage assessment, and the employee responsible might get some sort of reprimand or flag for their clearance," Matt Miller, a former Obama administration DOJ spokesperson, told Business Insider. “This kind of thing unfortunately happens a lot, and I'm struggling to think of previous examples where the government agency informed the public, absent some sort of egregious spill, major disciplinary action, etc.” Ty Cobb, who served as White House special counsel under Trump, also noted that Biden’s situation is fairly typical: “You could go into any presidency, years after their service, and probably in every presidential library there's a handful of things that were classified at the time that they were taken.” For my local public library, their only means of keeping track of loan material, was through communication with borrowers by telephone or mail or if they visited the library. All of the necessary tracking data was on hand recorded paper records, which had to be reviewed on a daily basis by the staff. If I moved to Kathmandu without returning my loans first, they would have made every effort to find me, despite the fact that there were no computers or any other of the techno marvels which are now used to keep track automatically or track down deadbeats. All of this begs the question as to how and why Top Secret confidential and potentially dangerous information can stray and go missing for extended periods of time. Since I am assuming that in previous administrations nefarious causes for this were not a problem, it would appear that classified material was not tightly controlled even then. So what the hell is going on with the National Archives? We’ve been told that this messy methodology has, at the very least, endangered some of our agents overseas, but this does not seem to have spurred urgency for retrieval. That nuclear secrets can ever be allowed to escape the perimeters of surveillance that should be tight enough to protect and shield them, has remained unexplained to the best of my knowledge. It would seem to me that keeping track of this material is not rocket science, but it appears to be beyond the capabilities of those assigned with this task at the ironically named Information Security Oversight Office. Of coarse, the most logical explanation for this failure would be that it is systemic bureaucratic negligence, facilitated by incompetence and entrenched detached indifference to the serious ramifications of un-monitored classified information. Moreover, somehow this glaring failure never quite seems to be called out in the various articles I have read, as it appears to get lost in the shuffle of warring political factions and more provocative personalities on which to rest the blame. Perhaps some one needs reminding that ‘classifying’ and ‘safeguarding’ are two separate actions?…and that “CLASSIFIED” increases potential jeopardy? It appears that despite the fact that this has been going on for many years, previous incidents have apparently not provided incentive to ‘batten the hatches’. I find it deeply concerning that the Traitor was not only able to take what he wanted, but once gone, these documents were not ‘classified’ well enough to know exactly what was missing. The protocol for retrieval is laudable only for its perfect consistency with the high degree of ineptitude shown start to finish. Meanwhile, as more documents keep turning up, hither and yon, it’s starting to look like we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg, which, if left unchecked, might sink us. Perhaps the people ‘in charge’ should study the tracking and retrieval methods of my mid-century public library branch. As far as I know it is not classified information. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/19/2148066/-Trump-s-latest-excuse-for-his-classified-document-theft-He-just-really-likes-souvenirs-okay?utm_campaign=recent https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/24/2149018/-Classified-documents-found-in-unprotected-area-at-Indiana-home-of-Mike-Pence [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/26/2149379/-I-found-classified-docs-in-w-my-overdue-library-books-only-got-a-notice-4-the-books-Way2goNA Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/