Page 25 - Special Access Programs News Today

Security. so those are the three levels of classification. within those three levels there are compartments of segmentation of specific types of information which are restricted for the most part on a need to know basis. so just because somebody has a top secret clearance does not necessarily mean they have access to everything thats top secret. within that layer, particularly secret and top secret, there are categories, sub categories, compartments or what are called special access programs. sc...

Classifications is the degree of damage that can be caused if they get into the wrong hands. so, confidential would cause damage. then you move up to secret, which would cause serious damage, if compromised. and then finally, at top secret, you are causing whats caused exceptionally grave damage to the national security. now a lot of folks will say -- and then theres something above topsecret which is compartmented or special access. its actually, no, for nerds like me with regards to classifica...

The justice department were documents that had to do with special access programs. now, these are the nations most closely guarded national security secrets. nuclear weapons programs would be among those types of documents. so, again, this is what "the washington post" is reporting. but it sort of falls in line with what we know has already been found. highly classified documents that should never have left the white house, should never have left washington, and were sent down to the former pres...

Republicans who days ago were near-united in blasting the Justice Department are allowing that nuclear weapons-related materials at Mar-a-Lago might be problematic.

Love notes to other world leaders and that might be the case, but something triggered enough alarm within the intelligence and law enforcement communities that has led us to this point today. >> and andy, you ran the fbi. you had to be at the top making these incredibly hard decisions. can you explain to us the significance of what it means that our reporting at cnn is that some of the boxes retrieved from mar-a-lago had materials that were part of the, quote, special access programs or s.a.p., ...

A former president to have that level of classification, those kinds of documents specifically pertaining to nuclear secrets what, are the risks entailed there? >> well there is -- the risks are immense. nuclear weapon secrets are not only classified, but beyond where things are normally classified. so, i worked for 25 years on the defense department. we have secret, top secret, top secret compartmentalized information, special access programs and then nuclear weapons which could fall into their...

Nuclear weapons. now, that gives anyone in their right mind, pause if thats true, what are we learning tonight? >> exactly right. the idea that these documents -- nuclear weapons programs would be one of the things the fbi was concerned about are looking for, would be a dramatic step. weve reported today on cnn, we reported that among the disputes, the items that were in dispute during these months and months of back and forth between the trump lawyers and the national archives and the justice d...

If theres anything else in those documents as well. >> lets go to jessica now, and this "the washington post" reporting on the fbi search potentially for documents related to nuclear weapons. tell us about that. >> victor, everything is dovetailing here. katelyn reported what "the wall street journal" said is in these boxes. "the washington post" says its related to nuclear weapons. our team was told that investigators had this evidence, that potentially classified documents were still at mar-a-...

The justice department and the fbi. >> so the challenge in our business always is to sort the facts from what he throws up into the air, which is a lot. i just want to read again from the "new york times." the person briefed in the matter said investigators have been concerned about material from what the government calls special access programs. a designation even more classified than top secret. this is typically reserved for extremely sensitive operations carried out by the united states abro...

A special place to look at them, right, is that what youre saying? >> well, i think for any of these documents. certainly anything that is top secret you need to be in a certain facility to be able to review those documents. >> right, but -- >> sci is just a different level that is more restricted. >> okay. thats -- i got that right then. phil rucker, i want to come to you. you know, the thing that we all woke up to this morning was two pieces of reporting. one before the "wall street journal" g...