the "SECRET/NOFORN"designation: does that mean it can’t be given to foreign governments, as the OP’s article says? My recollection from some spy novel or something was that it meant no foreign nationals could see it. I would think that the plain “SECRET” would be enough to imply that showing something to the KGB would be frowned upon.
At one place I worked, we had some SECRET/NOFORN data. One of the engineers was a South Korean national, and could not work with that data until she became a citizen.
NOFORN means the information may not be released to any foreigners. Some classified information is labeled so that it may be shared with certain countries - for example allies in a joint operation. That gets into the “need to know” realm of control. Some years back, I had a Top Secret clearance, but that didn’t mean I could look at just *any * TS stuff - if it wasn’t required for my job, I didn’t have a need to know, so I couldn’t see it.
Oh yeah , I forgot , but upon reading that article, the man was not caught , he realized what he had in his possession and then called the FBI himself. Since it was concidered evidence his CD’s were not labeled as Secret/NOForn and was returned to him, the FBI in this case did not vet the material on the Discs.
I dunno, given the long list of screw ups by the FBI and the various other Federal agencies (you know, 9/11, etc., etc., etc.) I vote that it’s just more of the same stupid screwups they’ve garnered such a rep for.