Judicial Watch, the conservative political action group that has largely driven the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's e-mails, has obtained documents through a Freedom of Information Act request indicating that Clinton tried and failed to get the National Security Agency to give her the same secure BlackBerry that President Obama used. Donald Reid, the State Department's coordinator for security infrastructure, reported in a 2009 e-mail, "Each time we asked the question 'What was the solution for POTUS,' we were politely asked to shut up and color."

Reid was trying to solve a problem for Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security Eric J. Boswell—the problem being that the new secretary of state was a certifiable BlackBerry addict but wasn't much of a computer user. Clinton became hooked on the BlackBerry in much the same way that President Obama did during the 2008 presidential campaign but found her preferred method of checking e-mail was banned from the secure office space at State's "Mahogany Row," the 7th floor at the State Department's Foggy Bottom headquarters in Washington. Use of wireless devices was banned in the space, which is designated as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF).

But Reid found that using the desktop computer within the SCIF for e-mail was not in Clinton's comfort zone:

As I had been speculating, the issue here is one of personal comfort… [Secretary Clinton] does not use a computer, so our view of someone wedded to their e-mail (why doesn't she use her desktop when in the SCIF?) doesn't fit this scenario... during the campaign she was urged to keep in contact with thousands via a BB... once she got the hang of it, she was hooked... now every day, she feels hamstrung because she has to lock her BB up... she does go out several times a day to an office they've crafted for her outside the SCIF and plays email catch-up. [Clinton's Counselor and Chief of Staff] Cheryl Mills and others who are dedicated BB addicts are frustrated because they too are not near their desktop very often during the working day... at this 2PM meeting CheryI indicated she last checked her email at 8:30... they are used to having the BB on their hip and staying closely in touch with developments during the day.

So Reid was tasked with trying to find a "BlackBerry-like" solution that would allow Clinton to be able to check her e-mail while in the secure office suite. The problem was that the solution supported by the NSA—its SME PED (Secure Mobile Environment Portable Electronic Device)—was hardly BlackBerry-like. SME PED devices are based on a secure version of Windows CE, and they're only rated up to "Secret" classification. And as Clinton was taking over at State, the SME PED was only just becoming available. "The current state of the art is not too user friendly, has no infrastructure at State, and is very expensive," Reid noted in one e-mail.

The NSA refused to give Clinton a device similar to the one used by Obama: a modified BlackBerry 8830 World Edition with additional cryptography installed. And while Clinton's predecessor Condaleeza Rice had obtained waivers for herself and her staff to use BlackBerry devices, Clinton's staff was told that "use [of the BlackBerry] expanded to an unmanageable number of users from a security perspective, so those waivers were phased out and BlackBerry use was not allowed in her Suite," an e-mail from the NSA's senior liaison to the State Department noted.

The NSA offered a number of alternatives and security "mitigations" to allow the use of BlackBerry devices, but the proposals "would remove the very functionality desired… while others might take time to develop."

Given the NSA's refusal to give Clinton what she wanted, the secretary apparently decided to continue to use her personal e-mail server for State Department business, while her staff was fully aware of the security risks associated with using her BlackBerry.