Much has been written about classified material, when, how, and what to do with it.
Material is classified by the organization that brings the information to the party. Usually this is because the information itself is worthy of classification. Sometimes the information is not particularly meaningful. It is the fact that by way of technical, human action or other methods the information has been discovered.
To divulge this information is a first step towards revealing the method used to obtain the information. The downstream readers may not have insight as to how the information they are reading came to be. That being the case, they have no yardstick to measure the sensitive nature of the information.
A case in point for the second, is GRU Col. Oleg Penkovsky. He was recruited by the British and run jointly with the Americans. He provided vital information regarding events leading to the Cuban Missile crisis. He was captured and tried by the Soviets in 1963.
His fate, whether dead or alive was classified until after the fall of the Soviet Union. But a funny thing happened along the way, some of the more prominent spy fiction writers of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s began circulating variations on the story of Penkovsky’s fate. Frederick Forsyth wrote about Penkovsky’s execution in The Devil’s Alternative. Tom Clancy referenced it three times, most notably in The Cardinal of the Kremlin. In one version, Penkovsky was executed in the basement of Lubyanka Prison. Another version has Penkovsky executed and cremated in the same prison. Still a third doesn’t give him a bullet in the head, just a feet first slide into the Lubyanka crematorium, while alive. There are rumors of a grainy black and white film documenting the event.
It’s a tough row to hoe, to make an example of somebody and still keep it secret. The two aims seem to be at odds with one another. If spies are like cops then a version of the Penkovsky story was on the street before the crematorium cooled down.
The gamesmanship came about in ensuring that the message, although garbled, had been received. The Gordian knot was to get the story circulated in such a manner that the route it took to public consumption was believable, yet the information was ultimately incorrect. Forsyth and Clancy both had reputations for incredible access, means unknown, into intelligence community. When their incorrect versions of the story made it to print the Soviets knew that the message was delivered and that the true facts were unknown to the West.
What difference does it make how one GRU Colonel met his fate in a basement so many years ago? Not much if one is swapping drinks and stories, in a bar just off Wilson Boulevard. It is everything, if one of the six witnesses to that execution is reporting on the fate of his predecessor to the CIA.
If Clancy is to be believed the last person Col. Penkovsky saw is the man he chose to carry on when he was gone.
“What difference does it make?” Is not a question. It is an admission made by the Hillary Clinton. She is admitting that she is compromised and untrustworthy. Anybody that would take the time to attempt to school such an individual loses both time and secrets with no appreciable gain.