Anyone who has ever tried to teach a parent how to use a newfangled electronic device is likely to be sympathetic to Hillary Clinton's apparent plight with her desktop computer. According to a sworn deposition by former State Department administrative official Lewis A. Lukens, Clinton was not ultimately set up with a computer in her office when she became secretary of state in 2009 because she was "very comfortable checking her emails on a BlackBerry, but she [was] not adept or used to checking her emails on a desktop."
The "I can't work a computer" excuse might have made sense in the early aughts... but it's pretty baffling for a high government official by 2009 (although one presidential candidate in 2016 has confessed he still doesn't even do "the email thing"). What's more, the release of the deposition follows an excruciating report from the State Department's inspector general earlier this week, which raised questions about Clinton and her aides' seemingly willful disregard for following proper cybersecurity measures.
The question of how adept Clinton was at computers is only the latest excuse from her camp; the Clinton team has also defended the former secretary of state for using her BlackBerry by saying two phones would have been a hassle, that she did not want a government account to mingle with her nonwork matters, and to keep information from the potentially prying eyes of Republican lawmakers.
The State Department has said 22 emails sent or received from her private email server while secretary of state were top secret, but not marked as classified. Clinton has since called the decision to use her private server "a mistake." Jeva Lange
Edward Snowden's book, Permanent Record, was only released Tuesday, but it's already causing trouble for the author.
The Justice Department filed a lawsuit the same day against Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked classified information from the NSA in 2013. The lawsuit is centered on Snowden publishing the memoir without approval, which the Justice Department is alleging violates non-disclosure agreements Snowden signed with the government.
The point of the lawsuit, however, is not to prevent the the publication or the distribution of the book; the Justice Department just wants to make sure Snowden doesn't get paid for it. Therefore, the department is seeking the proceeds Snowden earns from the book's sales. "Intelligence information should protect our nation, not provide personal profit," G. Zachary Terwilliger, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in a statement. "This lawsuit will ensure that Edward Snowden receives no monetary benefits from breaching the trust placed in him."
Permanent Record reportedly reveals new details about Snowden's decision to steal files from the NSA's collection of phone and internet metadata and release them to journalists. Read more at The Washington Post and NBC News. Tim O'Donnell
The U.S. might soon have a new old friend, Bloomberg reports.
U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale met with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk on Tuesday, and now the U.S. reportedly plans to return an ambassador to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, for the first time in 11 years, and vice versa; Hale called it a "historic" first step in restoring bilateral ties. The freeze in diplomatic relations between the countries began in 2008 because the U.S. made allegations of human-rights abuses by the Belarusian government, which has been led by Lukashenko, who has been called the "last dictator in Europe," for the last 25 years.
Hale said Lukashenko has taken "concrete steps" toward improving the relationship between Washington and Minsk, though it's unclear what those were. While there's no indication the disagreement over human-rights issues was resolved, Washington is reportedly keen on keeping Russia at bay in Eastern Europe. As it stands, Moscow is Lukashenko's "main ally and patron," Bloomberg reports, but Minsk has reportedly been reluctant to get much closer with Russia, which has its eyes on the formation of a "union state" with Belarus. So, perhaps, the renewed relationship is meant to serve as a buffer for Russian influence not just on Belarus, but the region as a whole.
Lukashenko also reportedly told Hale that as long as it doesn't undermine Belarus' security, he would not allow the deployment of short- or medium-range missiles in the country, which Moscow has hinted at in the past. Read more at Bloomberg. Tim O'Donnell