To the editor:

Americans should not take lightly the recent behavior of their elected officials in Washington for the stunt some of them conducted when they “stormed” the SCIF where the House was conducting classified impeachment hearings with officials from the Defense Department. In a couple of previous lives I worked in SCIFs, shor for Sensitive Compartment Information Facility. We were required to leave cellphones outside in a lock box, sign in when the SCIF opened for the day and sign out when the last person left. It’s designed as a facility where highly sensitive topics are freely discussed among those who are cleared and have a “need to know.” GOP members who forcibly entered the SCIF (not quite sure how one would “storm” a SCIF as they are locked tight even when occupied so getting into one isn’t an easy task) violated a whole host of rules and laws that govern those types of facilities. If anyone I worked with had “stormed” into a SCIF where they weren’t supposed to be, well, let’s just say they’d be an expert in making license plates right now. National security may seem like a crutch explanation to some, but when we’re talking about actions involving a foreign power (take your pick — Russia, Ukraine, etc.) those who do that work, whether they be the House of Representatives or elements of the federal government, need to be able to do so in a secure fashion and not have where they work turned into a political tool ripe for TV broadcasting (or live streaming on Facebook).

David L. Teska,

Lawrence