Meanwhile David Petraeus stole classified information and leaked it to his biographer, then lied about it to the FBI, and got a slap on the wrist. Let's see if Harold gets such a plum deal.
Only a crazy Intel officer would leak damaging privileged info to the press given the amount of money they invest in counter intelligence.
This is the line General Petraeus crossed. No info goes to the press that results in uncontrolled blowback or merely for personal gain.
But otherwise taking info out like a hoarder is just really bad security and a different matter that should be considered within that context.
>The leakiness of the Trump White House has been a boon to the press corps, who find themselves feasting on the juicy insider details that were hard to come by during the “No Drama Obama” years.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/318621-trump-whit...
This seems to have spanned 2 decades and was a much larger trove of docs. Petraeus certainly avoided much more substantial punishment due to his position but that doesn't make this incident legit.
Or if we are to swallow the intended implication of the article without much investigation. The hot-button term "steal" doesn't fit how an average person would describe the situation even if "theft" is the charge he's facing.
This is the contractor who was hoarder. He took documents home and kept them. There's no implication he did anything beyond keeping them and considerable reason to think he very intended to keep the information otherwise secret.
Sure, it was a violation of protocol. It was a potential disaster if some entity found out and could take advantage. But so far, there's no implication of any information being leaked.
Do I think this is the "official story", No. Of course not. But in terms of actual national security threats; not just the ISIS/Russia/ect propaganda-- a contractor bringing home terabytes of data is worrying. This is actually a huge threat to NatSec. This isn't whistleblowing this isn't treason; it's incompetence. Whether this is where the shadowbrokers kit came from or this is a patsy, this is irresponsible.
The information this guy had is almost certainly leaked. Whether he had a "convenient" penchant for bringing his work home and became the fall guy, or whether his home was compromised, or whether he outright sold them, its obvious this was dumb.
I don't love the NSA/FBI ect. But they are gonna do what they do so they might as well do it securely.
It's especially interesting to me because I'm currently writing a novel that involves an NSA employee, and in my novel any bags are controlled for documents and electronic devices at the entrance to NSA Headquarters, Fort Meade, and employees have to go through airport-like scanners both when they enter and exit the building. Obviously, this is fantasy and I've never been there.
Am I being unrealistic? Should I instead assume that everybody with a green employee badge can just walk in and walk out with a trove of documents under his arm, as long as they are in a nice envelope?
Also, I should mention that I feel sorry for Harold. He just seems to be a pathological hoarder with no evil intentions.