Tuesday, July 20, 2004

I don’t know what to make of the news about Sandy Berger’s brouhaha, but my first thoughts mirrored Citizen Smash.

Every time I go up for a periodic security review, the inspector impresses upon me the seriousness of not violating security protocols. At the end of the review, I sign a document acknowledging the criminal penalties for mishandling or unauthorized disclosure of classified information: up to $50 thousand in fines and 10 years in prison for each incident.

My first job out of college was as an admin on a defense contract. I worked at our company site, but I was required to hold a SECRET clearance. I was given extensive training on how to handle secure documents and materials. I was shown the procedures for our vaults. I was assured time and again that if I violated the security regulations as set forth in US law, that I would not only be fired, but fined and prosecuted. And I was thankful that I never had to handle secure information.

Until the day that our HR director asked if I would help her to shred some sensitive documents. She led me to our shredder room, which was really a closet. I was to shred some CONFIDENTIAL documents and there was one bag of SECRET level documents. Once it was all shredded, I needed to transfer the stuff to burn bags for further destruction. This stuff doesn’t end up in the regular trash even after it’s shredded to confetti. I was to be locked in the room, no one could come in except those with keys (I think there were maybe three people in the company who had keys to that room). I could leave, but I had to check in with her every time I left the room and, of course, she had to let me back in.

To be honest, I never understood why some of those things were deemed SECRET. There didn’t seem to be anything warranting such security on any of those papers. But that didn’t matter, the reality is that they were classified and I had to follow regulations. And I did follow those regulations to the letter. I was completely paranoid that whole time.

So it makes me wonder just how complacent you get when you see the super secret stuff on a daily basis. A man at the level of National Security Advisor sees classified stuff way more important to national security than the random documents I shredded. I can’t help but wonder what on earth Berger was thinking when he was so careless with classified documents at the Library of Congress National Archives. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt about his motives, but something sure is fishy about the whole thing.