“O what a tangled web we weave / When first we practice to deceive” — Sir Walter Scott.
These words could be used about Hillary Clinton and her private server (and there might be a second private server).
According to what has been reported, one of Ms. Clinton’s first acts as secretary of state was to set up, or have set up, one or more servers that circumvented the official State Department server.
If at the outset of her tenure she decided to avoid the government server, she obviously wanted to prevent having any of her emails subject to scrutiny.
Since the secretary of state holds an extremely high Cabinet position, it is apparent that part of her job would be sending and receiving classified, top-secret information relating to the secretary’s dealings with foreign heads of state. Those types of correspondence definitely are to be in the possession of the U.S. Department of State and accessed only by people with the proper level of clearance. However, Ms. Clinton has stated that she never sent or received such top secret messages. I wonder how she was able to perform the duties of her position.
I don’t purport to know the content of any of Ms. Clinton’s emails. And she reports that the “secret” server has been scrubbed. However, with an electronic server, even a supposedly erased server, a skilled technician can often recover files and tell whose fingers have accessed them.
I pray that her reasons for setting up the secret server or servers in the first place were not to purposely cause harm to the United States of America. Perhaps one day we will know the extent of her deceit.
CAROL HICKMAN
Green Tree
First Published: August 24, 2015, 4:00 a.m.