Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Hillary Clinton’s Benghazi and E-Mail Scandals Are Ready to Blow-up Big Time

More Hillary Clinton Benghazi and E-mail Problems Have Turned-up in the New York Times In the last day or two

NY Times  —   Documents analysis disclosed another E-Mail address for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton  —   Tells some of the story of Hillary’s E-mails with her “private” business-intelligence operator, Sidney Blumenthal  

Second E-Mail account was in operation while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State  —   Evidence of E-Mails from second E-mail address contradicts what Clinton Attorney David Kendall had formally reported to Trey Gowdy’s Special Benghazi Committee

Other news sources quoting the NY Times-disclosed E-Mails  show     While Secretary of State, HILLARY CLINTON suggested to a longtime Clinton operative connected to the CLINTON FOUNDATION  that “private contractors” be used in a GUN-RUNNING OPERATION IN LIBYA 


Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been caught in another lie regarding her private email accounts that she used during her tenure at the State Department.  David Kendall, Hillary Clinton’s attorney, had told the House Select Benghazi Committee that Clinton’s “hrod17@clintonemail.com” email address “was not an address that existed during Secretary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State,” new emails obtained by the New York Times show that Clinton did indeed use that email address for official business. ( See “HILLARY CAUGHT IN ANOTHER EMAIL LIE: NEW DOCS REVEAL SHE USED SECOND PRIVATE ACCOUNT WHILE SEC. OF STATE” by Breitbart Staff Writers, 5/18/15  [http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/05/18/hillary-caught-in-another-email-lie-new-docs-reveal-she-used-second-private-account-while-sec-of-state/][with link to NY Times cache of Hillary Clinton E-mails]; see also “Selected Libya-Related Messages From Hillary Clinton’s Personal Email Account” – Document cache, 5/18/15, NY Times/ News Documents NYT/ Cloud [http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/05/19/us/politics/libya-related-messages-hillary-clinton-email-account.html?action=click&contentCollection=Politics&module=RelatedCoverage&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article&_r=1]).

PART OF THE NY TIMES STORY AS TOLD BY THE NY  POST

On Monday, the New York Post had a very succinct and direct take on the E-mails disclosed in the NY Times. They reported that a second secret email address used by Hillary Rodham Clinton while she was Secretary of State was revealed in E-mails released by the New York Times.  The E-Mail address was used in exchanges between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and longtime Clinton associate and adviser Sydney Blumenthal, and it is from the same private email server belonging to the Clintons and kept in Chappaqua that had been uncovered earlier this year.  Just two months ago Clinton’s office had insisted that the only private email address used by the former Secretary of State during her tenure was hdr22@clintonemail.com; now it has become obvious that the former Secretary of State also used email address HRod17@clintonemail.com  ( See “Hillary had second secret email address” by Joe Tacopino, 5/19/15, NY Post [http://nypost.com/2015/05/19/hillary-clinton-had-a-second-secret-e-mail-address/]). The NY Post specifically pointed out that “...  In a 2015 letter to Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), Clinton’s lawyer acknowledged that the HRod17 email address existed, but stated explicitly that it was “not an address that existed during Secretary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state.”

BLUMENTHAL E-MAILS  —  LIBYA  —   THE HOUSE SELECT BENGHAZI COMMITTEE

Yesterday the New York Times had two articles that dealt with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s E-mails with a long-time Clinton former Clinton Administration associate, family operative and Clinton Foundation employee Sidney Blumenthal (See “Clinton Friend’s Memos on Libya Draw Scrutiny to Politics and Business” by Nicholas Confessore & Michael S. Scmidt, 5/18/15 [appearing in the 5/19/15 print editions of the Times], NY Times [http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/19/us/politics/clinton-friends-libya-role-blurs-lines-of-politics-and-business.html]; see also  “What Sidney Blumenthal’s Memos to Hillary Clinton Said, and How They Were Handled” by Michael S. Schmidt, 5/18/15, NY Times [http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/19/us/politics/what-sidney-blumenthals-memos-to-hillary-clinton-said-and-how-they-were-handled.html?hpw&rref=politics&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well]).

The article by New York Times reporter Michael S. Schmidt entitled , “What Sidney Blumenthal’s Memos to Hillary Clinton Said, and How They Were Handled” said the following:   “In 2011 and 2012, Hillary Rodham Clinton received at least 25 memos about Libya from Sidney Blumenthal, a friend and confidant who at the time was employed by the Clinton Foundation. The memos, written in the style of intelligence cables, make up about a third of the almost 900 pages of emails related to Libya that Mrs. Clinton said she kept on the personal email account she used exclusively as secretary of state. Some of Mr. Blumenthal’s memos appeared to be based on reports supplied by American contractors he was advising as they sought to do business in Libya....”

Also other E-mails mentioned in this NY Times article talked about business partners of the Clinton Foundation who were going to be influential with the new government of Libya.

The second NY Times article about the Clinton-Blumenthal E-mails, co-authored by Nicholas Confessore and Michael S. Scmidt [with Jo Becker and Amy Chozick contributed reporting from New York, and David Kirkpatrick from Cairo. Alain Delaquérière and Elisa Cho contributed research], was a report and retrospective on the relationship between Hillary Clinton and Sidney Blumenthal — including the dealings shown in the recently disclosed E-mails.

Among other matters the Times team reports that “...  Now, as Hillary Rodham Clinton embarks on her second presidential bid, Mr. Blumenthal’s service to the Clintons is again under the spotlight. Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, a Republican who is leading the congressional committee investigating the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, plans to subpoena Mr. Blumenthal, 66, for a private transcribed interview....  Mr. Gowdy’s chief interest, according to people briefed on the inquiry, is a series of memos that Mr. Blumenthal — who was not an employee of the State Department — wrote to Mrs. Clinton about events unfolding in Libya before and after the death of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. According to emails obtained by The New York Times, Mrs. Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time, took Mr. Blumenthal’s advice seriously, forwarding his memos to senior diplomatic officials in Libya and Washington and at times asking them to respond. Mrs. Clinton continued to pass around his memos even after other senior diplomats concluded that Mr. Blumenthal’s assessments were often unreliable....”

WHAT THE TIMES TEAM SAYS ABOUT BLUMENTHAL AND HILLARY

“...[A]n examination by The Times suggests that Mr. Blumenthal’s involvement was more wide-ranging and more complicated than previously known, embodying the blurry lines between business, politics and philanthropy that have enriched and vexed the Clintons and their inner circle for years....  While advising Mrs. Clinton on Libya, Mr. Blumenthal, who had been barred from a State Department job by aides to President Obama, was also employed by her family’s philanthropy, the Clinton Foundation, to help with research, “message guidance” and the planning of commemorative events, according to foundation officials. During the same period, he also worked on and off as a paid consultant to Media Matters and American Bridge, organizations that helped lay the groundwork for Mrs. Clinton’s 2016 campaign....”

IN THESE NEWLY DISCLOSED E-MAILS  —   HILLARY CLINTON SUGGESTED A “PRIVATE” GUN RUNNING OPERATION IN LIBYA TO CLINTON FOUNDATION OPERATIVE SYDNEY BLUMENTHAL

According to the report in the New York Post, “...  Clinton wrote Blumenthal from [ E-mail  address,]   Hrod17@clintonemail.com....  The two were discussing strategies to help the opposition rebels oust Moammar Khadafy in Libya as that country descended into chaos in 2011....”

The Post’s report by Joe Tacopino indicated that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton specifically suggested the gun-running operation to the Clintons’ long-time insider, advisor and operative, and employee of the Clinton Foundation, as follows: “ ‘...  Fyi. The idea of using private security experts to arm the opposition should be considered,’ Clinton wrote Blumenthal from the email address HRod17@clintonemail.com....”  


NOTE: THERE ARE MANY AREAS IN THE NEWLY DISCLOSED E-MAILS BETWEEN HILLARY CLINTON AND SIDNEY BLUMENTHAL THAT WERE NOT COVERED OR DEVELOPED IN THE 5/18–5/19 NY TIMES ARTICLES  —   IT IS REASONABLE TO ASSUME THAT THERE WILL BE FOLLOW-UP FEATURES AND ARTICLES IN THE NY TIMES ON THESE MATTERS

3 comments:

Galewyn Massey said...

UPDATE: THE “MONTY PYTHON CROWD WOULDN’T TRY THIS — EVEN AS A SKIT” EDITION

NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FROM CBS NEWS — THE REPUBLICANS AND EVERYBODY ELSE THAT MENTIONED IT, HAVE IT ALL WRONG ABOUT THE TWO E-MAIL ADDRESSES — IT WAS ALL EXPLAINED BEFORE, YOU SEE...

Here’s the way the folks at CBS are choosing to spin today’s stories about Hillary and her E-mails — “Republicans are still firing away at Hillary Clinton's use of a private email account as secretary of state, but their latest shot seems to have missed the mark.... On Monday, the New York Times published several emails Clinton sent to an adviser in 2011 and 2012, while she was still secretary of state. Republicans noticed that Clinton's email address in the messages (hrod17@clintonemail.com) was not the same email she told congressional investigators she used during her time at the State Department (hdr22@clintonemail.com)....” (See “GOP fumbles latest attack on Hillary Clinton's email use” by Jake Miller, 5/19/15, CBS News [http://www.cbsnews.com/news/gop-fumbles-latest-attack-on-hillary-clintons-email-use/]).

The folks at CBS went on to tell the story this way: “In a press release sent Monday afternoon, the Republican National Committee cried scandal.... ‘This is the latest example of how Clinton has attempted to mislead the public about her use of secret email for public business and raises further questions about where else she is attempting to hide the truth on this and other matters,’ the release exclaimed.... But Clinton's presidential campaign had a quick explanation - After Gawker published Clinton's old address when she left the state department, she changed her email address to hrod17@clintonemail.com. Any messages printed after that time, even if they were several years old, reflected the new address....”

CBS goes on to say, “It wasn't a new explanation. They'd made it several times before. [The Clinton] personal office [said it all before in a] Q&A document after Clinton's use of a private email account first became an issue in March....”

The rest of the CBS report is just like that — it looks like it’s 100% the Clinton talking points about the whole E-mail investigation being conducted by Trey Gowdy and his House Select Committee on Benghazi.

Even if that all turns out to be 100% true — what about the rest of the stuff that was in the news about Hilary Clinton’s E-mails today ?

Galewyn Massey said...

UPDATE: THE “WORST DAY FOR HILLARY CLINTON’S CAMPAIGN ” EDITION

MONDAY, MAY 18th, WAS THE WORST OF MANY BAD DAYS FOR HILLARY CLINTON’S CAMPAIGN SINCE SHE ANNOUNCED HER CANDIDACY FOR THE PRESIDENCY

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING RIGHT ON THE RIGHT ABOUT HILLARY — THE RIGHT WING MEDIA NEEDS TO DO GOOD ANALYSIS OF WHAT’S ACTUALLY GOING ON WITH HILLARY CLINTON AND IN HER CAMPAIGN

STEPHEN HAYES’ ARTICLE IN THE WEEKLY STANDARD IS ONE SUCH PIECE OF GOOD WORK


One of the things that writers, commentators and other spokespersons on the Right need to do is dispel the notion of Hillary Clinton’s invincibility and inevitability. Notions like those are the underpinnings of her whole campaign for the presidency. Yesterday’s article by Stephen F. Hayes is just what the doctor ordered in that regard.

According to Stephen F. Hayes writing in the Weekly Standard, “[Hillary Clinton has] had a series of bad days since she announced her presidential bid April 12. But Monday [May 18th] was the worst of them.... In a bombshell report, the New York Times reported that Clinton, as secretary of state, used her private email to share private intelligence reports from noted conspiracy theorist and political hitman Sidney Blumenthal, at a time when Blumenthal was being paid by the Clinton Foundation and liberal political organizations that helped lay the groundwork for Clinton’s presidential campaign.... The emails included reports on Libya at a time when Blumenthal was seeking business in the country and included dubious information. The Times reported that Clinton nonetheless ‘took Mr. Blumenthal’s advice seriously” and “continued to pass around his emails even after other senior diplomats concluded that Mr. Blumenthal’s assessments were often unreliable.’...” ( See “The Worst Day of Hillary Clinton's Campaign – So far!” by Stephen F. Hayes, 5/19/15, The Weekly Standard/ The Blog [http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/worst-day-hillary-clintons-campaign_950416.html?page=2]).

Stephen Hayes’ article went on to recount, “A second story about Clinton and Libya broke the same day, this one casting further doubt on the Obama administration’s narrative about the attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi on September 11, 2012, and specifically on claims Clinton made about nature of those attacks and motivations of the attackers. An intelligence report prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency and sent to Clinton and other senior administration officials on September 16, 2012, just days after the attacks, concluded that the attack ‘was planned ten or more days’ in advance and was meant to ‘kill as many Americans as possible.’ The report identifies al Qaeda-linked terrorists believed to have been involved in the assault....”

Stephen F. Hayes closed his excellent article by saying that even the main stream media, ideologically sympathetic to Hillary Clinton, is showing increasing frustration with her games. And that means — Hillary Clinton will be having more bad days ahead.

Galewyn Massey said...

UPDATE: THE "NY TIMES REPORTS WHAT HILLARY ACTUALLY KNEW AND WHEN" EDITION

BASED ON HILLARY'S E-MAILS ---TODAY'S NY TIMES SAYS THAT HILLARY KNEW THE BENGHAZI ATTACKS WERE PRE-PLANNED WITHIN TWO DAYS OF THE 9/11 ATTACK

Other Hillary E-Mails show real reason for false narrative about Benghazi attack was partisan considerations and election year politics.