Government Security Levels???

[HYPERBAND]

I have heard that the Government has Security levels that are even above that of the President. Does anyone know if that's true? And if so does that not suggest that there are people within our Government that have more power than the Commander and Chief of the United States?? And also would that not basicly give them the abilty to do just about anything with out fear of reprisal??

 

[JoojooSpaceape]

as far as we know , no. But once again there are a whole bunch of theories and things of that ilk.

 

[Sci-Phenomena]

Well.. I believe there are such levels of security.. but they are in the name of "national security". (national security acts: In my mind these were just made to make some normally illegal things legal.. or deamed constitutional)

 

[JoojooSpaceape]

the government decides what is illegal and what is legal, the government decides illegal and legal, thus defining societies description of right and wrong, whatever the government does is not only legal, but also right

 

[Zero]

Well, now we know we can't ask the president about it then.

 

[SpyMoose]

in the executive branch of our government the presedent gets to appoint a good number of people. The presedent and these good number of people he gets to appoint change every 4 to 8 years and they all have thier own ideas about how things should be done. The large majority of the executive branch though are lifetime career beurocrats who manage things like the department of agriculture and many many other departments relating to the executive branch. I dont think its crazy that some of these beurocrats, whos careers will last much longer than any presedential term, have systems set up to keep certain things out of the controll of this uncertain bunch of people that comes and goes with each presedential administration.

 

[dinokg]

Not exactly sure. Maybe ULTRA class might count.

 

[SkinWalker]

There are only three primary classifications (other than "Unclassified") used by the Government:

Top Secret is information which, if disclosed without authorization, could reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security.

Secret is information which, if disclosed without authorization, could reasonably be expected to cause serious damage to the national security.

Confidential is information which, if disclosed without authorization, could reasonably be expected to cause damage to the national security.

All other "classifications" are added to one of the three, usually the Top Secret designation. For instance, the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 provides Restricted Data and Formerly Restricted Data monikers that can be added to any of the three. Monikers of this type are usually specific to the type of government institution. In the Army, we used COMSEC, or Communications Security, to indicate that the document or equipment was SECRET/COMSEC --> as with documents that were used to indicate frequencies and callsigns as well as passwords.

The government also uses Need to Know as the basis for all security. Just because someone has Top Secret Clearance, did not mean that they could view any document they wanted, even at the Secret or Confidential levels. They had to have a Need to Know the information.

I would suggest that the President does not have the need to know everything. In fact, it would be a national security risk if he did.

 

[moving]

SkinWalker,
Do you think there is someone or some group at the top of the pyramid that decides what goes into which category, and who has the need to know? Or, if each department has it’s own head wouldn’t they be in touch with each other anyway? And do you know how the heads of theses departments get there? i.e. CIA, FBI, NSA, FTC, FDA, FCC etc. It seems these department have all the power, an example is the FCC recently changing media ownership rules. It seems the voter has very little influence on what’s really going on. Sorry about all the questions SkinWalker, it’s just that you sound knowledgeable in this area. Input from anyone is welcome.

 

[SkinWalker]

I think that's both one of our failings in government and one of our triumphs.

That the various departments and institutions don't talk to each other and are competitive is very evident, especially in recent times. In fact, it is one of the public changes that the "Homeland Security" division is supposed to make.


Still, there's a bit of logic to cellular information. It is more easily maintained as secret.

I know for a fact that each institution, division, agency, etc. classifies their own information and reports to whom they feel accountable to or are mandated to be accountable to.

Occasionally, congress has to demand information... that's a bit telling, in my opinion.

Part of that is due to secrecy, part due to need to know, part due to competition between agencies.

 

[kmguru]

If the President needs to know something for the security of the country or the people, he will be presented with the information. Otherwise, heads could roll no matter what security clearance someone has. An example is the case of Iraq's attempted purchase of nuclear material from South Africa. Someone did not ask the right question perhaps under "need to know" constraint, and what a mess!

 

[marfle]

From http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2003/03/31/story3.html

To do business with the General Services Administration and State Department, there are at least five levels of security clearance, including confidential, secret, top secret, Yankee White and a new one identified as "Q,'' sources familiar with the government's policy said.

I know that there was one above top secret when I worked for the navy on my coop, but damned if I can remember (it wasn't 'Yankee White") and it was an acronym or a series of like 3 letters.