Hillary Clinton's BlackBerry envy failed to impress the NSA - CNET

Enlarge Image

President Barack Obama wasn't the only administration official enamored of the BlackBerry phone.

When she was serving as the US secretary of state from 2009 to 2013, Hillary Clinton repeatedly tried to get her hands on "BlackBerry-like communications," but was denied by the National Security Agency out of conces for security and cost, according to a report Wednesday by conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch.

Emails obtained by the organization under a Freedom of Information Act request show that Clinton demanded access to the same type of secure BlackBerry device used by President Obama, and the NSA's subsequent rebuffs often led to heated exchanges between the two camps.

"Each time we asked the question 'What was the solution for POTUS?' we were politely told to shut up and color," or to mind their own business, according to one email sent in 2009 by Donald Reid, the State Department's coordinator for security infrastructure.

Once the de rigueur instrument of business communications, BlackBerry dominated the cell phone industry before losing its crown to Apple's iPhone and to Google's Android software. Corporate and govement types loved using BlackBerrys because they offered a level of data encryption that prevented everyone, including BlackBerry itself, from snooping into the phone's contents. Clinton has come under fire over the past few months for using her personal email on the BlackBerry she used while she was secretary of state.