Your not paying attention my friend. We do not disagree about any of this. The Obama case is different because he addressed the nation and made his decision public so considering that the entire nation knew what happened, I am sure that the other government agencies knew as well. In a less publicized event. Say Trump decided in the middle of a meeting with a foreign leader to declassify our contingency plans in the case of China attacking Taiwan. He has every right to do so. However, after his impulse decision to declassify said materials, how does it get back to the rest of the government? How does it reach the Department of Defense and all the agencies under their umbrella that the information is now declassified? Because if there is not some mechanism for ensuring all affected entities receive the declassification order, how are they supposed to know? If Trump just keeps it a secret between himself and his staff who are in the room at the moment, how does it get passed down the line?
i see so if would be ok if trump had published all the material instead of keeping it in his storage? its the act of displaying info to the public that makes it declassified? if obama had released the material more quietly it would have been illegal? we are trying to sort out what act actually makes the material declassified. you claim appears to be that making it public declassifies it, correct?
So you are now arguing that Trump could declassify our contigency plans for a counter attack should China invade Taiwan and never tell the department of defense so they just keep on thinking that's the plan? Even though now our enemies know this? That makes no sense. Further, if Trump were willing to do such a thing, or any other president for that matter, it would be borderline treasonous to reveal something like that and allow our military to operate in the blind. Mostly it's just stupid and I can't believe you are actually hitching your wagons to such a legally dubious theory.
this is a very good example. he has every right to do so, and has that right at the exact moment he decides to do so. he is not regulated in any way and needs to fill out no forms or follow any procedures.
yes. thats exactly what i am arguing. the issue in that scenario would be incompetence to not update his underlings. but as far as his right to declassify he is perfectly justified. and that would be true regardless of the info revealed was classified or not.
It doesnt matter that all other agencies know or not know. What matters is what the president does. What good is electing a president with powers but then getting mad when they use them? We have this thing called OPSEC wherein all information is created equal and protected unless otherwise directed by governing body. Therefore, if a president were to say, talk about Top secret shit on TV, it is still top secret internally until another agency directed by the president is told to do anything about it OR congress approves such a declassification. You see, the Supreme Court has stated that the president's powers in this area are such that he can talk about it therefore declassifying it and it be classified internally. Meaning, just because a president chooses to blabber, share, send, whatever document to anyone, the agencies all will treat it as whatever classification it previously had until your normal governing bodies trigger a downgrade. Yes, his powers are this absolute. Like, for example, the Obama case we are talking about. While Obama did declassify everything he talked about, there are still elements classified. So if you were to do a FOIA request, you would get what Obama spilled and everything else would be blacked out unless otherwise directed. Also, it is important to note that even when things are declassified, this doesnt mean we dump it on reddit for everyone to read. That is not how it works. It is still protected under OPSEC exactly where it was before declassification. I linked the Supreme Courts words stating there IS NOT such a mechanism and congress MUST create one if they wish to limit this power. Do you want me to quote it to you again? The real problem is you are listening to people who have no earthly idea how classified material is handled and stored. I quite literally worked in a SIPR bay.
answer my question? how does the department of defense know when Trump declassifies our contigency plan secrets? do we just let the entire department of defense operate in the dark? because that is exactly what you are arguing and it's stupid and laughable. Yes, I said laughable because no other emotion politely dismisses someone better than just laughing at them when they are talking nonsense.
didn't answer the question....according to you he doesn't have to tell the department of defense that he's given over our battle plans so we just let them operate in the dark. is that correct?
this would be true for any change of plan regardless of its classified status. yes, leaders should tell their underlings if plans are altered. that has nothing to do with declassifying.
that would simply be incompetent. nothing to do with declassification. the declassification does not require any forms filled out or procedures. i dunno how many times we have to repeat this.
