Defending America still means defending freedom, and requires keeping secrets.

Austin Bay writes at Observer,

Clinton’s rogue communication system could have compromised the identities of U.S. intelligence officers and human intelligence assets (HUMINT, human intelligence sources, i.e., flesh and blood, people who risk their lives to provide the U.S. with intelligence information).

...Covert intelligence work is difficult. Intelligence officers—who by the very nature of their work are fully engaged in protecting U.S. national security—are vulnerable.

In Hillary Clinton’s judgment, protecting her political viability was more important than protecting U.S. national security. Keeping her work-related communications from the clutches of federal record maintenance laws and the Freedom of Information Act was more important than following the laws protecting the handling of national security-related information.

...It’s now evident to all but the willfully stupid that in their 2012 presidential campaign debate Mitt Romney was right about Russia and Barack Obama wrong: Russia led by Vladimir Putin is a geo-political adversary, if not quite a dyed-in-the-wool enemy.

Obama mocked him. In February 2014, Putin-led Russia invaded Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. In March 2014 the Kremlin annexed the region. That smashed the 1994 Budapest Accord, one of the documents that provided the diplomatic framework for political stability in post-Cold War eastern Europe. The Clinton Administration backed the Budapest Accord.

I think Vladimir Putin has demonstrated a willingness to do anything that gains him an advantage, especially with little risk.

Russian blackmail classifies as a potential threat, and another reason I believe a full and complete investigation of Hillary Clinton’s national security crime requires a special prosecutor. By the way, on June 14 U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan referred to the FBI investigation as a “criminal investigation,” confirming what White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said June 9. The executive and judicial branches are now in agreement.

So. Will Vlad blackmail Hillary? Or, “When Will Vlad blackmail Hillary?” Sure, it’s speculation. It’s a scenario. It’s like a radio-era detective serial.

Stay tuned for the next episode.

Read more here.