state department Protecting email info discussed

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Hillary Rodham Clinton and her aides at the State Department were acutely aware of – and occasionally frustrated by – the need to protect sensitive information when discussing international affairs over email and other correspondence.

One example came in a February 2010 message, when an aide noted a draft of innocuous remarks about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was on the State Department’s classified messaging system. Clinton replied: “It’s a public statement! Just email it.”

Sent a moment later, the statement merely said that U.S. and British officials would work together to promote peace. “Well that is certainly worthy of being top secret,” Clinton responded sarcastically.

The message was among roughly 7,121 pages of emails the State Department released Monday as part of a monthly court-ordered release, including 125 emails censored before their release because they contain information now deemed classified. The vast majority concerned mundane matters of daily life at any workplace: phone messages, relays of schedules and forwards of news articles.

In total, the State Department has now released 13,269 pages of Clinton’s emails, more than 25 percent of the total that she turned over from her private server, said State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner.

A look at some of the messages:

SECURITY

In a few of the emails, Clinton and her aides noted the constraints of discussing sensitive subjects when working outside of the government’s secure messaging systems.

In an exchange from Feb. 6, 2010, Clinton asks aide Huma Abedin for talking points for a call she’s about to have with the newly appointed foreign minister of Ecuador. “You are congratulating him on becoming foreign minister, and purpose is to establish a personal relationship with him,” Abedin replied. “Trying to get u call sheet, its classified. ...”

BILL & CHELSEA

After the devastating Haiti earthquake in January 2010, Clinton wrote about her efforts to involve Bill Clinton in the disaster response. After an unnamed party assumed that former President Clinton’s pre-existing role as a United Nations envoy to Haiti would sideline him from the reconstruction effort, Hillary stepped in.

“I just spent an extra hour explaining the architecture” of the relief organizations, Clinton wrote. “Will fill wjc in on the plane.” Bill Clinton, who is often referred to by his initials “WJC,” ended up as co-chairman of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, a body with significant power over reconstruction funds.

TECHNOLOGY

In a July 2010 exchange, Clinton quizzed former staffer Philippe Reines on how to charge the Apple tablet and update an application.

Reines asks Clinton if she has a wireless Internet connection, and she replies: “I don’t know if I have wi-fi. How do I find out?”