the day a 13-year-old girl brought a folder with state secrets to school

by time news

It was in 1984. The folder contained reserved material from almost all world conflicts. Story of an incredible find.

When seeing the incredible episodes that are taking place these days in the United States around the discovery of secret documents in the possession of Donald Trump, as well as Joe Biden, one might be tempted to think that This is an unprecedented incident in the history of the country..

However, nothing could be further from the truth, and it is enough to dig a little to discover that the rulers who released classified documentation are many more than one would imagine.

One of the most notorious episodes of this kind occurred one winter morning in 1984 at a Pittsburgh elementary school, when a briefcase full of classified government documents appeared in the hands of someone who certainly had no authority to possess them.



Secret documents found at Donald Trump’s residence in Florida. Photo: AP

It was Kristin Preble, 13 years old. She brought her papers to school as a curious project that she wanted to show her eighth grade class. Her father had found in his hotel room from Cleveland several years earlier and had taken them home as souvenirs.

The long road of a portfolio with State secrets

The documents, which belonged to the government of Jimmy Carter, came into the hands of the young woman through a path certainly undulating.

Two days after the 1980 debate between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, businessman Alan Preble found the documents in his Cleveland hotel room. Apparently, they got there because of an oversight of the press secretary de Carter, Jody Powell.

Preble took them to his home in Franklin Park, where stayed for more than three years Like an unappreciated memory.

The episode of the young woman in Pittsburgh was based on classified documents from the Jimmy Carter government.  Photo: EFE


The episode of the young woman in Pittsburgh was based on classified documents from the Jimmy Carter government. Photo: EFE

“We had taken a look at them, but we didn’t think they were important,” Carol Preble, Kristin’s mother, said then, apparently unimpressed by the markings that said she was classified material. Kristin, however, “thought they would be very interesting” for her Social Studies class.

“I thought they would be cool too,” Preble completed.

On January 19, 1984, the girl went to Ingomar High School with the locked briefcase.

Al professor Jim DeLisio his eyes popped out when he saw the warnings in the documents inside. Between them, Classified, Confidential, Executive, y Property of the United States Government.

“I really didn’t want to look at it,” he said then. “I was too… scared. I didn’t want to know.”

Curiosity got the better of him. That night, he said he, his wife and his daughter pored over the documents, which contained “everything you would want to know from A to Z” about US and world events. One folder was marked “Iran”. Libya was also in the mix.

Joe Biden's Delaware home where classified documents were discovered.  Photo: AP


Joe Biden’s Delaware home where classified documents were discovered. Photo: AP

The next day, unable to reach Kristin’s family by phone, DeLisio called the FBI, who quickly recovered the documents.

A Justice Department official who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity said that the package of documents he was 10 centimeters tall.

Despite returning the secrets to their place, DeLisio was reprimanded by school officials for calling authorities before reaching or reaching the Preble family.

The discovery fueled a broader investigation by a Democratic-led congressional committee into another set of classified Carter administration documents obtained by the Reagan campaign ahead of the Reagan presidential debate, an episode known as Debategate.

Both the eighth grade incident and the Debategate involved the misuse of classified documents that Democratic President Jimmy Carter used to prepare a discussion with his Republican rival Ronald Reagan in Cleveland on October 28, 1980.

In the latter case, the Reagan campaign obtained — some said it stole — Carter’s briefing materials for the debate.

Reagan’s Justice Department rejected the committee’s requests to appoint a special counsel for the matter. A judicial process to force that appointment failed and no criminal case was initiated. The Debategate The concern about the handling of classified documents by the rulers vanished, but not.

As for Kristin, she got an A in history and an 8 on her school project.

Source: AP

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