If back a few years ago Bill Clinton said to the military and security agencies "make anything about my Affair with Monica Lewinski regarded as a state secret classified", Could they do it?
Why not? Didnt the affair hurt our country? Arent things that make the USA lose their credibility damaging to the country? So why wasnt it made classified top secret?
2007-11-14 06:55:10 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Military
That's ridiculous. Clinton couldn't make something like that a "state-classified secret"; some yokel didn't slap an orange "Top Secret" sticker on Lewinski's dress before throwing it in a vault.
His affair hurt HIS credibility--at least with people who had any modicum of common sense. There are still many, many people enamored of him, despite him lying point-blank to the camera and the American people about it.
Information that could be potentially harmful to the security of the country in the wrong hands is what gets classified. Clinton being the laughing stock of European tabloids or something doesn't count as being "harmful to national security"--and in any case he has only himself to blame. His supporters have already somehow shifted the blame for his indiscretions from him to his critics (I don't know why, considering he's the one who couldn't keep it in his pants), so he seems to have been pardoned for his infidelity by many in this country anyway.
2007-11-14 07:05:55 · answer #1 · answered by ಠ__ಠ 7 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Such classifications apply only to information over which the government of the United States and its agencies can exercise control upon. The 'affair' (If that is what you would like to call it, between former President William Jefferson Clinton and Ms. Lewinski is public and common knowledge. It has been written about in great detail as well as being a media sensation for well over a year and a half, it would be rather difficult to make this incident disappear.
2007-11-14 15:09:38 · answer #2 · answered by oscarsix5 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
That's a very frivolous thing to classify as a secret. I've been told by people close to Clinton that Hillary and the entire white house knew about the affair well before the public did, and everyone did everything in their power to keep it quiet. If he would have made it a classified secret, it would be part of the record for the next president to review, and if he hypothetically got out of office without the secret being exposed, it could have been exposed by the next president if they so chose.
It did hurt our credibility to some extent, more likely it painted Clinton as a womanizer and an adulterer (that is after all, what he is). However, those are personal things, and while they are problematic I think we can all agree Clinton did have better qualities in him as a president than his affair(s).
2007-11-14 15:04:12 · answer #3 · answered by Pfo 7 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Top Secret level information is defined as:
"Information that would cause exceptionally grave damage to national security if disclosed to the public."
Do you think it fits the criteria?
2007-11-15 03:28:34 · answer #4 · answered by Kirkaine 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Although I may be wrong, I don't think the President is a classification authority.
2007-11-14 16:14:08 · answer #5 · answered by DOOM 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Honestly, so many men run around on their wives, American and otherwise...I don't really think the affair cost him creditability...BUT lying about it sure did.
2007-11-14 19:04:01 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are guidelines for what can be classified and at what level. This certainly didn't meet those guidelines.
2007-11-14 15:03:58 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 1⤋