On hold: State Department’s Afghanistan rescue program had 325,000 unread emails (updated)
From CNN’s Jim Sciutto, who spent two weeks on the ground in Afghanistan
(CNN) — The State Department’s embattled “Afghanistan Recovery Office” says its secret email chain had 325,000 unread emails — a majority more than a year ago.
But in the wake of multiple embarrassments for the office and for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the State Department is not commenting on the latest scandal.
The scandal began last week when The Washington Post published a report that the office had deleted and ignored classified emails over the last two years. Several State Department officials stepped forward, saying they had seen or used classified material in the messages. The message was traced to several senior career employees and three current employees.
In a statement Tuesday, Clinton said it was “shocking indeed” but again declined to comment on the latest email flap.
“It is my hope that with any such revelations it will finally be possible to put this chapter of Secretary Clinton’s service to a close,” Clinton said in the statement.
The State Department said the email system, created under the previous secretary, has not been shut down, as critics suggested. There is no system for automatically moving emails to a different system or deleting them.
Instead, the secretary has directed that the Office of Information Programs and Services “maintain a working process to determine whether to retain, move, or delete messages for which there is classified information and a privacy assessment indicating that the classification of the information can be protected.”
In addition, the Office of Information Programs and Services will identify the records it may need to reclassify as well as those that may need to be deleted.
The department also said it is not deleting any unclassified documents at this time and that it must still be “determined what actions, if any, to take against any classified information and who should have the authority to do what,” a reference to the controversy over whether Clinton used a private email server for official business, which she has repeatedly denied.
During the scandal, several employees left the State Department and the office has been led by a chief counsel.
In addition to the 325,000 emails, the State Department has also faced internal criticism.
In January,
