Saturday, March 28, 2015

THE ULTRA VIRES SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON: Was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton [and/or her private operatives] running an Un-official, “Off-Book” or “Back Channel” Operation In Libya ?


Sidney Blumenthal’s E-mails to Hillary’s private account possibly show the existence of a “rogue network of ex-CIA types” and others “loyal to the Clintons” working in Libya prior to the 9/11/12 attack on the “U.S. State Department” compound where the U.S. Ambassador was killed

Where do these cover-ups begin and end ? 


A joint report by “ProPublica and Gawker says that  “[s]tarting weeks before Islamic militants attacked the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, longtime Clinton family confidante Sidney Blumenthal supplied intelligence to then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gathered by a secret network that included a former CIA clandestine service officer, according to hacked emails from Blumenthal’s account. ***   The emails, which were posted on the internet in 2013, also show that Blumenthal and another close Clinton associate discussed contracting with a retired Army special operations commander to put operatives on the ground near the Libya-Tunisia border while Libya’s civil war raged in 2011....” ( See “Private Emails Reveal Ex-Clinton Aide’s Secret Spy Network”
by Jeff Gerth & Sam Biddle, 3/27/15,  ProPublica & Gawker [http://www.propublica.org/article/private-emails-reveal-ex-clinton-aides-secret-spy-network]).

THE BLUMENTHAL E-MAILS WERE SENT TO HILLARY CLINTON’S PRIVATE E-MAIL ACCOUNT

Blumenthal’s E-mails to Clinton were directed to her private email account and included at least a dozen detailed reports on events on the deteriorating political and security climate in Libya, as well as events in other nations.

The Blumenthal E-mails came to light after a hacker broke into Blumenthal’s account. They  have taken on a new significance in light of the disclosures that Hillary Clinton conducted a mix of State Department and personal business on a single E-mail server that she controlled, kept at her home and kept secret from other State Department officials. All of those details only recently were discovered by congressional investigators and members of the national media.

The complete contents of that Hillary Clinton’s private account are presently being sought by a congressional inquiry into the Benghazi attacks. Clinton has handed over more than 30,000 pages of her E-Mails to the State Department, after unilaterally deciding which ones were government business; and the post-Clinton State Department has so far handed over almost 900 pages of those E-mails to the committee. A Clinton spokesman told Gawker and ProPublica (which are collaborating on the story) that she has turned over all the E-Mails Blumenthal sent to Clinton to the State Department.

A HILLARY CLINTON SECRET INTELLIGENCE OPERATION  —   A “BACK CHANNEL” FOR “PRIVATE” INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION ?

The contents of the Blumenthal memos [E-mails] raise new questions about how Hillary Clinton had been using her private E-mail account and whether she had tapped into an undisclosed back channel for information on Libya’s crisis and other foreign policy matters.

It is not clear who hired Blumenthal, known for his fierce loyalty to the Clintons, husband and wife, with preparing detailed intelligence briefs. It’s also not known who was paying him, or where the operation got its money. The Blumenthal memos were marked “confidential” and relied in many cases on “sensitive” sources in the Libyan opposition and various “Western” intelligence and security services. Other of his reports focused on Egypt, Germany, and Turkey.

There’s no indication in Blumenthal’s E-Mails whether Secretary of State Clinton read or replied to them before she left her post in the State Department on February 1, 2013.  However,  Blumenthal was clearly part of a select group with knowledge of the private clintonemail.com address, which was unknown to the rest of the State Department at the time; and/or to the public until Gawker published it long after Hillary left State. The Blumenthal memos/ E-mails do suggest that she continued to interacted with Blumenthal using the account after she stepped down.

STATE DEPARTMENT WOULD COMMENT “ON BACKGROUND” ABOUT ONLY A PART OF  THIS STUFF

When reached for comment about the ProPublica/Gawker dislosures, a State Department public affairs official said that he would only speak on background; and he declined to address questions about Blumenthal’s relationship to Clinton, whether she was aware of the intelligence network, and who if anyone had been paying Blumenthal.

Asked about the Tunisia-Libya mission covered in the Blumenthal memos/E-Mails, the official replied, “There was a trip with [Secretary of State Clinton] in October of 2011, but there was also a congressional delegation in April, 2011. There were media reports about both of these at the time.”

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ultra Vires !!

Isn't there a cream for that?

Anonymous said...

If you just type “Hillary Clinton” into the Google search engine, this is what comes back as the top responses:

“In the news

Trey Gowdy: Hillary Clinton wiped her server clean
Politico? - 21 hours ago
Hillary Clinton wiped “clean” the private server housing emails from her tenure as secretary ...

Hillary Clinton email saga continues | MSNBC
MSNBC.com? - 7 hours ago

Hillary has history of Iranian fundraising to explain
www.wnd.com? - 4 hours ago .... ”

AND after hitting the link, “More news for Hillary Clinton,” the following responses pop-up on the “Hillary Clinton” page on Google:

“Emails Deleted From Hillary Clinton's Personal Server Late Last Year
Wall Street Journal-2 hours ago
WASHINGTON—Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails from her time in government were deleted off her server late last year, her ...

Hillary Clinton Permanently Deleted Her Emails
TIME-7 hours ago

Hillary Clinton deleted all email from personal server
CNN-18 hours ago

Trey Gowdy: Hillary Clinton wiped her server clean
Highly Cited-Politico-21 hours ago

Benghazi chair: Hillary Clinton wiped server clean of personal e-mails
In-Depth-Christian Science Monitor-5 hours ago

Clinton Wiped Copies of All Emails From Personal Server
Blog-Slate Magazine (blog)-3 hours ago....”


Does this Hillary Clinton email story have legs, or what?

Anonymous said...

Let me explain something to you: Hillary's personal emails are none of my business, none of your business and certainly none of that creep Trey Gowdy's business. They are called personal for a reason. Hillary's work emails have been turned over to the State Department. And that is the end of it. Gowdy has been on a witch hunt wasting tax payer money for three years and has found nothing against Hillary. He is a disgrace to the Congress. This whole e-mail controversy is nothing more than an effort by the GOP to destroy Hillary. It will not work. Before the email story, the GOP was obsessed with Hillary's weight and clothing style. Since she is looking fantastic these days, they now go after her private emails. The bottom line is that the GOP is terrified of Hillary - and well they should be because in 20 months she will trounce them.

And of course you continually avoid the question of who Hillary's challenger will be. Jeb we hear is imploding and Cruz is off the charts crazy. So who will it be?

Anonymous said...

No, let me explain something to you: Hillary's "personal" emails became my business when she put them together with other material, into which I and every other person had a right to look under FOIA, and it certainly is Trey Gowdy's business as the designated Chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi with oversight and investigative authority over all things Benghazi and related to it.

Neither Hillary Clinton nor any other person has any expectation of privacy when it comes to evasion of subpoenas, or the concealment or destruction of evidence of crimes.

Whatever "right of privacy" she might have had, and it isn't clear that there ever was any, once Hillary put everything together on one so-called "private" account, she waived that/ those right(s) to government oversight and "The People's right to know."

After all, Hillary waive her privacy when she chose to be our employee and servant, and she chose to make all of her emails one thing for her own convenience.

Anonymous said...

You are completely incorrect on the rules regarding FOIA and you clearly have a limited and incorrect understanding of privacy law. Additionally, from your comment I question if you know what a subpoena actually is.

And no Trey Gowdy does not have a right to personal private family information regarding Hillary despite what title or appointment he may have. You are wrong there too.

And that is the problem: Those without any legal training or understanding of statutory and case law governing issues seek to pontificate on these matters.

Hillary Now More Than Ever 2016

Anonymous said...

FOIA !!

Isn't there a cream for that?

Galewyn Massey said...

OVERALL RESPONSE: THE “MOMENTUM IS MOMENTOUS” EDITION

THINGS ARE SNOWBALLING AND THE TALKING POINTS BY HILLARY, HER CRIMINAL DEFENSE LEGAL COUNSEL AND HER OTHER SUPPORTERS ARE INCREASINGLY A DAY LATE AND A POUND SHORT

KENDALL’S REPLY TO GOWDY AND HIS COMMITTEE SEEMED TO HAVE STEPPED ON HILLARY’S “POLITICAL” MESSAGE TO THE PRESS ASKING FOR A FRESH START AND OPENESS

AND GUESS WHAT — IT’S BACK TO SQUARE ONE FOR HILLARY — MAYBE, IT’S TIME FOR SOMETHING LIKE ANOTHER “LISTENING TOUR”


Arguments about public officials “zones of privacy” against the public’s right to know are well passed the FOIL requests, which are already before the courts.... BTW, when Hillary’s guy Kendall prepared his Friday stonewall responses to Chairman Trey Gowdy, did he miss Hillary’s statements earlier in the week about “... I am all about new beginnings.... So here it goes: No more secrecy. No more zone of privacy. After all, what good did that do....”

Congressional oversight is already into even bigger problems with Hillary than “... What difference does it make ! Four dead Americans...”; the details of the 9/11/12 attack in Benghazi; and what was happening around Hillary’s Foggy Bottom during all of that.

Right now, Hillary’s criminal defense guy Kendall’s lower paid researchers are probably burning more of the midnight oil on the Clinon case about the case law and the statutes governing RICO, espionage and treason than they are about FOIA and State Department records retention.

Also this week, nobody knows what the hug-it-out session at the White House was all about — that is very strange indeed. Everybody has conjectured that it was about Hillary’s upcoming presidential campaign. Now, another real possibility is that Hillary was there to fess-up and maybe even talk about a presidential pardon — especially since, Hillary had first hand experience on how similar tough stuff played out with and for Nixon after Watergate.

But some things never do change — witness the Kendall stonewalling of Congress on Hillary’s behalf and Hill’s latest "campaign" gimmickry. With no clear message that has clicked with anybody, lots of the Clinton Team are talking about another roll-out, this time including that tried and true “listening tour," which worked so well when Hillary from who knows where carpet bagged into New York State. The problem with that is that by then Hillary will be hearing a lot more of the things that she doesn’t seem to want hear right now — you know, they’re called substantive questions.

Galewyn Massey said...

UPDATE & BACKFILL: THE “NATIONAL REPUBLICAN PARTY SAYS NIXON WAS BETTER >>>THEN<<< THAN HILLARY IS >>>NOW<<<” EDITION

REPUBLICANS’ NATIONAL CHAIRMAN REINCE PRIEBUS SAYS THAT “EVEN NIXON DIDN’T DESTROY THE TAPES”

THE NATIONAL GOP DEMANDS THAT HILLARY CLINTON TURN OVER HER E-MAIL SERVER FOR REVIEW — WHETHER IT HAS BEEN SCRUBBED OR NOT

HILLARY’S E-MAILS ARE NOW PART OF THE GOP CAMPAIGN FOR THE PRESIDENCY IN 2016

BENGHAZI COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN GOWDY SAYS IT LOOKS LIKE HILLARY CLINTON SCRUBBED HER SERVER SOME TIME AFTER THE STATE DEPARTMENT DEMANDED HER E-MAILS


According to a Saturday report in “The Hill” by Jesse Byrnes, “Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus blasted Hillary Clinton on Saturday for wiping her server and permanently deleting all emails. *** ‘Even Nixon didn't destroy the tapes,’ Priebus said in a statement....” (See “RNC on Clinton: 'Even Nixon didn't destroy the tapes' ” by Jesse Byrnes, 3/28/15 [http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/237296-rnc-on-clinton-even-nixon-didnt-destroy-the-tapes]).

The article in “The Hill”concluded with this: “Priebus on Saturday echoed calls from Republican lawmakers for Clinton to turn over her server. *** “It's imperative an independent third party review the server immediately. Unless Mrs. Clinton went to extreme lengths to wipe this server, there are ways to recover this data,’ Priebus said.” This would appear to indicate that the national GOP has decided that formally raising the issues surrounding Hillary Clinton’s use of her private E-mail account while she was Secretary of State will be part of the Republican Party’s early campaign strategy, even though that might make the ongoing congressional inquiry appear to be solely a political exercise..

Hillary Clinton's lawyer, David Kendall, who specializes in defending white-collar criminals, informed a congressional committee on Friday that the former Secretary of State no longer had copies of any E-Mails from her four-year tenure aat the State Department, which ended early in 2013.

After receiving that information from Kendall, Congressman Trey Gowdy, Chairman of the House Select Committee investigating Benghazi, said in a statement that "[Hillary] Clinton unilaterally decided to wipe her server clean and permanently delete all E-mails from her personal server." Gowdy also made the charge that Clinton apparently decided to delete her E-Mails some time after Oct. 28, 2014, when the State Department first asked her to turn over the public records in her possession. the House Select Committee investigating Benghazi had subpoenaed Mrs. Clinton’s server earlier this month.

Anonymous said...

This is comical. Really, Gale the jokes against the GOP just write themselves. Aren't you embarrassed for your party that all you can "make" into part of a campaign discussion are your opponents emails? You do that and discuss it til the cows come home. Because Hillary and the Democratic Party will be engaging the American people in a conversation about the economy, better and secure jobs for lower wage workers, immigration reform, national security and threats to our safety, better living conditions, education and the ramifications of the core curriculum. These are the issues that matter and must be addressed to restore our nation to greatness. And the GOP lol - nationally now - too funny - is planning to discuss Hillary's emails to her daughter. How long will that last with the voters?

You know your Hillary bashing and me defending her is wearing me out. You spew forth nothing. I'm a Hillary supporter - we spend our time on the real issues that matter and will help our country.

May the best woman win. Au revoir.

Galewyn Massey said...

UPDATE: THE "GOP NEEDS A CANDIDATE THAT WON'T PULL >>> HER <<< PUNCHES ON HILLARY'S E-MAILS AND BENGHAZI" EDITION

ON FOX NEWS, CARLY FIORINA SAID THAT REPUBLICANS NEED A CANDIDATE THAT WILL MAKE IT A CENTRAL PART OF THEIR CAMPAIGN TO BRING UP THINGS LIKE BENGHAZI AND HILLARY'S E-MAILS

Fiorina says that it is now obvious that it was always part of the Clintons' plan for Hillary to conceal ALL her E-Mails on the Clintons' private server and to delete whatever material they might choose when and if caught.

Fiorina says that whoever the GOP candidate is, they need to be willing to make things like the Hillary E-Mails and Benghazi a part of their campaign and tell Americans what was wrong with what Hillary Clinton was doing or did while she was Secretary of State --- if Hillary actually were to become the Democrat's nominee.

Anonymous said...

Benghazi !!

Isn't there a cream for that

Galewyn Massey said...

UPDATE AND BACKFILL: THE “WHICH SIDE WAS SHE ON WHEN HILLARY WAS SECRETARY OF STATE ?” EDITION

HILLARY’S CLOSEST OPERATOR IN GAME OF ‘SPY VS. SPY’ WAS ALSO AN OUTLAW LOBBYIST — SIDNEY BLUMENTHAL, HILLARY CLINTON’S TOP CONTACT WITH THE SECRET SPY NETWORK WORKING FOR HER, PROBABLY BROKE THE LAW BY “LOBBYING” CLINTON ON BEHALF OF SOME "GEORGIANS" CLOSE TO VLADIMIR PUTIN

THE REAL THREAT TO HILLARY IN ALL THIS — “SLATE” ARTICLE POINTS OUT HOW THIS PART OF THE E-MAIL SCANDAL IS A REAL THREAT TO HILLARY CLINTON’S FUTURE PROSPECTS


Sidney Blumenthal may have lobbied then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton throughout her tenure on behalf of a Georgian billionaire with close ties to Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin. In one email analyzed by Sam Biddle of “Gawker,” Blumenthal, who was also serving as “an unofficial confidant” to Hillary Clinton, passed along a memo to Hillary from an advisor to Georgian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili asking for Mrs. Clinton’s support in the Georgian election ( See “Clinton Advisor Accused Of Illegally Lobbying For Putin Ally” by Alex Griswold, 3/30/15, Daily Caller [http://dailycaller.com/2015/03/30/clinton-advisor-accused-of-illegally-lobbying-for-putin-ally/]).
The legal experts involved with the “Gawker” analytic team indicated that Blumenthal most likely broke federal law [The Foreign Agents Registration Act requires that those who lobby the government on the behalf of foreign actors to register with the Justice Department. Violations of the act are punishable by up 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine].

According to an article in “Slate” about the Clinton-Blumenthal connection described in ProPublica and Gawker, “...Hillary Clinton isn't accused of doing anything illegal in the Gawker stories. And Blumenthal's advocacy appears to have been pretty tame, consisting of passing on the statements of a third individual who, it was acknowledged openly, worked for Ivanishvili. But the White House, as Gawker notes, had rejected Clinton's efforts to hire Blumenthal in an official capacity. So you have the Secretary of State using an off-books email account to discuss national policy with someone who wasn't a government employee, was known to be disliked by the president's staff, and who might have been violating an actual law by participating in the conversation. That's probably not something Clinton is going to brag about in campaign commercials. It's also exactly the kind of foreign entanglement that critics have warned she is susceptible to—of being unduly influenced by financial connections, via the Clinton Foundation, to foreign interests. Blumenthal is a longtime Clinton-family ally and appears to have described himself as an adviser to the Clinton Foundation on more than one occasion....” ( See “Leaked Message Demonstrates How Email Scandal Could Get Worse for Hillary Clinton” by Ben Mathis-Lilley, 3/30/15, Slate [http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/03/30/sidney_blumenthal_hillary_clinton_and_the_foreign_agents_registration_act.html]).