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| (Photo from the indictment) |
It's all fun and games with this public corruption stuff so long as it stays with gold bars and sweetheart deals for halal meat imports, but Menendez crossed the line when he compromised the security of official personnel overseas.
See this section of the Justice Department indictment of my least-favorite corrupt public official (here):
As part of the scheme, MENENDEZ provided sensitive, non-public U.S. government information to Egyptian officials and otherwise took steps to secretly aid the Government of Egypt. For example, in or about May 2018, MENENDEZ provided Egyptian officials with non-public information regarding the number and nationality of persons serving at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt. Although this information was not classified, it was deemed highly sensitive because it could pose significant operational security concerns if disclosed to a foreign government or made public. Without telling his professional staff or the State Department that he was doing so, on or about May 7, 2018, MENENDEZ texted that sensitive, non-public embassy information to his then-girlfriend NADINE MENENDEZ, who forwarded the message to HANA, who forwarded it to an Egyptian government official. Later that same month, MENENDEZ ghost-wrote a letter on behalf of Egypt to other U.S. Senators advocating for them to release a hold on $300 million in aid to Egypt. MENENDEZ sent this ghost-written letter to NADINE MENENDEZ, who forwarded it to HANA, who sent it to Egyptian officials.Mind you, Menendez was Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when he sent that information to the Egyptian government. He had previously abused that position to badger an ambassador into reversing a consular officer's refusal of visas to the girlfriends of Menendez's business partner and biggest financial contributor, but hey, that's just boys being boys, amiright?
Compromising the security of embassy employees is, well, what's another word for traitorous?
12 comments:
I agree with you, but note in the indictment it says the info was sensitive but not classified.
Exactly. Sensitive but not classified is all it takes to commit an offense and, not incidentally, give the Egyptians a lock on Menendez should they want to squeeze him in the future. The Marine Security Guard in Moscow (SGT Lonetree) started by showing the Russians an embassy phone book, which in itself was of no real value but was enough for them to start developing him and expanding his self-imposed limits.
Abusing his office to get crooked deals for shady contributors was pretty much par for the course for M (and other office-holders), but his willingness to give a foreign nation personal info on the USG staffers resident in their country is a different type of corruption that we haven't seen much of since the Cold War ended.
the course, money
I have a problem with the use of " sensitive" vs " classified". It seems that a government agency could declare almost anything sensitive, do you sign an agreement not to divulge such info. By the way I'm in total agreement with you about the seriousness, all
Personel working in embassies should be totally classified.
I'm trying to say all info related to embassy personnel should be considered classified not just sensitive.
Point taken. Thanks.
That "sensitive but unclassified" info - an actual formal category of information with its own administrative rules - is required to be protected the same as classified info, since its disclosure could damage national intrests, but it isn't as arbitrary as it might seem. Not just anything could be declared sbu.
In the case of personal information about employees we also have separate laws and regulations to protect personal privacy, and those might have been violated here as well.
Well it shows how up to date I am. An ironclad rule " No matter how smart you think you are the opposition is smarter".
We ought to be suspicious of government secrecy. The late Senator Moynihan used to pretty much carry that load singlehanded, making the administration report on it, getting old secrets declassified, etc., especially VENONA. He'd have a beef with gov't interference with social media if he were around today. No one on the left follows in his footsteps, except Glenn Greenwald.
Newsom' has made his choice.
And a bold choice. The fact that the nominee lives and votes in Maryland instead of California just adds to the fun.
Heh
Newsom' could've picked Menendez!!
Now, THAT is some truly fourth dimensional chess! Great idea.
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