Opinion – David Wiswell: Cases of classified documents raise the question of whether US leaders are reckless or stupid

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A country that devours as much digestively compromising fast food as the United States and rejects the metric system like it’s a salad might not be able to control its shit — either literally or figuratively.

This was evident with the recent spate of revelations that our senior leaders illegally kept sensitive documents in unsecured and random locations. The fact that they can’t even pinpoint where the papers are forces us to ask: are politicians reckless, dumb, or something worse?

But amidst all the cross-party play of blaming others, new information adds additional color to the story.

The turmoil began with Trump’s refusal to return all of his confidential documents, as required by law, prompting the FBI to search his residence, a highly populated resort, and recover more than 13,000 papers, 103 of which were marked classified and 18 as top secret.

Questions remain about the empty folders found in a storage area and in his workroom. Was all of this the fruit of Trump’s usual incompetence or Trump’s usual Machiavellianism? Were the documents found incriminating? Were they taken by a maid or a guest? Did Trump sell them or trade them for something else?

His son-in-law and senior presidential adviser’s inexplicable $2 billion deal with the Saudi prince, his income statements revealing dubious earnings from around the world, and his unscrupulous reputation make these fears as real as the election outcome.

All this is reminiscent of Trump’s attacks on Hillary Clinton, his rival in the 2016 presidential race, for using an unauthorized cell phone on an unsecured server in her home when she was secretary of state.

A reckless protocol violation that allowed his emails to be hacked and released by Wikileaks. Emails that ranged from sensitive discussions with powerful donors to the hidden partisan favoritism that would have helped her land the Democratic nomination for the presidential race, to actually classified information.

Trump then quipped, saying that she “placed classified information within the reach of our enemies, which disqualifies her for the Presidency.” And, speaking of the subsequent investigation opened by the FBI, he said that “anyone who is investigated by the FBI is not qualified to be president.” Speech that Trump left behind after being the target of four FBI investigations and since his recent nuclear meltdown (hopefully not literal) due to the documents.

Having mocked the Trump scandal, Biden too was forced to eat his words, as several batches of his own confidential documents were found in a former (non-governmental) office and in his current garage, where they were evidently in an irregular manner.

So when documents in the possession of Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, were recovered, in addition to giving me a good laugh, it gave me an odd bit of hope. Our political parties can’t seem to see eye to eye on practically anything these days, other than the bipartisan antics of their own neglect of national security. Alive!

Is this how all American leaders treat our secrets? Could it be that the secret of who killed Kennedy is forgotten in the gap under the stairs of Obama’s house? And the answer to whether or not extraterrestrials exist is lost in that dusty, gooey space on top of Bush’s fridge? Are there bits and pieces of the original Declaration of Independence stuck between George Washington’s wooden teeth?

It appears that 1.3 million people in the US are authorized to access “highly classified” documents. It’s not really “top secret”. With about 300 million citizens in the country, statistically speaking this means that, of the 500 students who gathered in my high school assemblies in adolescence, 2 had access to highly classified government information.

Information that I can now only assume was largely made up of files explaining how to make a fart sound with your armpit. Another thing: Experts say that every second three documents are marked as confidential. As they say that men think about sex every seven seconds, out of every 21 documents the last one must deal with breasts. Secret boobs.

How much harm is ultimately done by this arrogant negligence, and how much of it is due to the bloated bureaucracy of an idiotic system, exploited by both sides to attack the other, gain more influence, and portray itself as morally superior? I’m not sure about the answer – it’s highly classified. Maybe we’ll find it in Ronald Reagan’s attic.

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