Letter: Defense of Clinton misleading

Mindless prattle is expected from children, but when it is offered by a retired Air Force senior officer, the truth needs to be provided.

In his March 10 column, Lotz elaborated on how Republicans are using the “Big Lie” to falsely hammer Hillary Clinton.

I also am a retired Air Force colonel, and I was always taught that Priority 1 is the control and maintenance of classified material. His logic is so deeply flawed that some factual points are required:

Mixing personal and government systems is never allowed. I have terminated individuals for doing so, and even as a government contractor, we were repeatedly reminded of this by the Air Force.

There is a system of coding that always allows administrative offices to determine a document’s classification — not having such would lead to complete degradation of the security system itself.

If I or my peers were accused of Hillary’s charges, we would face courts-martial.

Her actions did damage national security and could have cost lives.

The level of her breach could threaten the government’s entire security system.

Some of her documents required a Special Access clearance where all discussions must be held in special compartments. All levels of security require storage in at least a marked safe.

Politics has no place in the discussions of security, and Lotz’s explanations are unprofessional and completely misleading.

Robert G. Guin

Hilton Head Island

This story was originally published March 31, 2016 at 5:13 PM with the headline "Letter: Defense of Clinton misleading."