host: joining us is oona hathaway, a professor at yale law.he is also here to talk about the classification of government documents. thank you for giving us your time. guest: glad to be here. host: can you talk about your background at the pentagon when it comes to classified documents? guest: yeah. i worked for years at the pentagon -- and i had the highest level of clearance the u.s. government provides. in that role i had a chance to work with loss of -- lots of classified documents at all the locals, confidential, classified and secret double. and when i came back to work at yale, i was looking at all the classified documents i had seen and one of the most striking aspects was that realizing so much of what i worked with, so much of the classified material was kind of ordinary information and probably should not have been classified in the first place. host: you talked about the three levels of distinction when it comes to classification. can you describe what it means when you call some thing secret, top secret or confidential? guest: yes

democrats line for oona hathaway. good morning. when senator moynahan left the senate come out one of his last speeches before he left was about this idea that we classify way too much -- way too many documents. he thought we should ease away from that, get away from that. and i think there was momentum to do that and along came the 9/11, i think, probably, >> sandy berger took the document out after 9/11. it moved on. now, oona, you seem to think that we do way over classify things. the law is hard to comply with. i think that was hillary clinton's problem with the servers, separating her personal from the government things. she had conversations with former tecra terry of state colin powell about the issue. -- former secretary of state colin powell about the issue. having problems complying with the law. the exact law that we are talking about here, that classified these documents, i understand it is a new law that was put together by press people and everybody. they wanted everything generated in the government to stay in the go

. >> host: let's hear from tom in fort myers, florida, democrat's line for oona hathaway, former pentagon special counsel comic good morning, pedro. enjoy the conversation this morning. when senator moynihan left the senate it was like one of the last speeches before he left was about this idea that we classify way too much, way too many documents. he thought there should be, we should ease away from that, to get away from that. i think there was momentum to do that, and then along came the 9/11 i think probably, more than anything else, and sandy berger took the document out after 9/11 and he rest in peace now, he's died but that raised that issue. it moved on and now, listening to you this morning, oona, you seem to think that just your talk today is that we do way over classify things and that the law is hard to comply with. i think that was hillary clinton's problem with the server, separating her personal former government things. she even had conversations with former secretary of state colin powell about that issue, how he was having problems complying with the law. and that's my q

. >> what they are from tom and fort myers florida with oona hathaway the pentagon special counsel. >> good morning pedro. enjoy the conversation this morning. when pat moynihan left a senate it was one of his last speeches before he left with about this idea that we classify way too much, way too many documents and he thought there should -- we should ease away from adding get away from that. i think there was truth to there was truth to that and then along came 9/11 i think probably more than anything else and they took that document out after 9/11. that raised that issue and it moved on and now listening to this morning you seem to think your talk today is that we do weigh over classified things and that the law is hard to comply with. i think that was hillary clinton's problem with the server separating her personal from her government things and she even had conversations with former secretary of state colin powell about that issue having problems complying with the law. that's my question this morning is what is the exact law but we are talking about here that classifies these d