Former Secretary of State Colin Powell's advice to Hillary Clinton about using email at the State Department was made public Wednesday by a top House Democrat.
The early 2009 exchange — itself conducted
via email — shows that Clinton sought guidance from Powell about how she could continue to use a BlackBerry in the executive suite at the State Department.
Powell's response warns Clinton's about some of the pitfalls of using email, but also appears to indicate that he defied instructions from security experts not to use such devices in State's offices designated to handle classified information and conversations.
"DS [diplomatic security] would not allow them into the secure spaces, especially up your way," Powell wrote. "When I asked why not they gave me all kinds of nonsense about how they gave out signals and could be read by spies, etc....I had numerous meetings with them. We even opened one up for them to try to explain to me why it was more dangerous than say, a remote control for one of the many tvs in the suite. Or something embedded in my shoe heel. They never satisfied me and NSA/CIA wouldn't back off. So, we just went about our business and stopped asking."
"I had an ancient version of a PDA and used it," Powell added. "In general, the suite was so sealed that it is hard to get signals in or out wirelessly."
The email exchange, obtained from State and released by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee ranking Democrat Rep. Elijah Cummings, also confirms claims in an FBI report last week that Powell warned Clinton that the BlackBerry messages could be considered official government records and made public.
"There is a real danger," Powell wrote, apparently referring to the possibility of the messages becoming public. "Be very careful. I got around it all by not saying much and not using systems that captured the data."
Clinton said in a July "60 Minutes" interview that "it was recommended that it would be convenient" for her to use a private email system, but she did not say who told her that. In her interview with the FBI earlier that month, however, she indicated Powell's advice did not affect her decision to use a private account.
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Powell advice to Clinton about email goes public
