Ugh. Off-Books Clinton Libya Adviser Had Business Interest in Libyan Regime Change

[cali]

In March, I wrote that one of the more concerning aspects of Hillary Clinton's private-email scandal was what it might reveal about her working relationship with Sidney Blumenthal, a longtime Clinton-family advisor who corresponded with her about Libya while she was Secretary of State even though the Obama White House had (reportedly) forbidden him from taking an official role in the government. (In doing so, Blumenthal may have violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act.)

On Monday, a New York Times story demonstrated more specifically why Clinton's interactions with Blumenthal may have been a bad idea. Blumenthal, the Times reports via solid sources, was advising the Secretary of State both before and after former Libyan autocrat Muammar Qaddafi's death while also advising a group of private individuals who hoped to make money by obtaining reconstruction-type contracts in a post-Qaddafi Libya.

Much of the Libya intelligence that Mr. Blumenthal passed on to Mrs. Clinton appears to have come from a group of business associates he was advising as they sought to win contracts from the Libyan transitional government. The venture, which was ultimately unsuccessful, involved other Clinton friends, a private military contractor and one former C.I.A. spy seeking to get in on the ground floor of the new Libyan economy ...

<snip>

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/05/18/hillary_clinton_sidney_blumenthal_libya_unofficial_adviser_represented_business.html

More from Vanity Fair:

The State Department’s review of Hillary Clinton’s e-mails will not be completed until January, meaning reporters and the public will not have access to the approximately 55,000 pages of documents Clinton’s team handed over to the department.

Clinton came under fire when The New York Times revealed that she had exclusively used a personal e-mail address during her time in Foggy Bottom. The server for the e-mail, which used the domain “clintonemail.com,” was located in her personal residence, and the e-mails that Clinton did not elect to turn over to the State Department have been erased.

In March, when the Times first reported on her use of the personal e-mail address for government business, the State Department said it was in the process of reviewing the 55,000 pages it received after asking Clinton to hand over any work-related e-mails. That was in March, and according to a court filing reported on by Vice News, the process will not be finished until next year—just two weeks before the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.

That does not mean, however, that some of Clinton’s e-mails are not already starting to cause her political trouble. Intelligence reports regarding Libya that the then secretary of state received from longtime Clinton ally Sidney Blumenthal landed in the Times today, suggesting that Clinton maintained a relationship with Blumenthal long after President Barack Obama’s aides had forbid Blumenthal be granted a position at the State Department.

Blumenthal would send Clinton intelligence reports that drew on his business contacts and others within Libya, and Clinton would often forward them on to her deputy, Jake Sullivan, sometimes directing him to distribute the information to other officials within the department. Others at State sometimes met the information with skepticism, and Clinton herself wrote that one of Blumenthal’s e-mails “strains credulity.”

<snip>

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/05/hillary-clinton-sidney-blumenthal-emails

[Autumn]

1. Those are some ugly blurred lines that little fucker Trey Gowdy can play with.

[cali]

2. yet another example of bad judgment. yet another unforced error.

this isn't going away. this isn't just coming from the right- though let the Super-Pac defense/attack and the 'it's all right wing smears', begin.

Autumn, read the whole of the first article-

[polly7]

12. I'm still disgusted (sorry!) by how she helped spread the 'Viagra and mass rape' lies.

I thought it was absolutely horrible to use rape as a propaganda weapon for war, while ignoring the reality of it for all those brutalized, raped and some, murdered by the NATO supported 'rebels' - just one example of their many atrocities.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2174087

http://andrewgavinmarshall.com/2011/08/26/lies-war-and-empire-nato’s-“humanitarian-imperialism”-in-libya

In early March of 2011, news headlines in Western nations reported that Gaddafi would kill half a million people.

<1> On March 18, as the UN agreed to launch air strikes on Libya, it was reported that Gaddafi had begun an assault against the rebel-held town of Benghazi. The Daily Mail reported that Gaddafi had threatened to send in his African mercenaries to crush the rebellion.<2> Reports of Libyan government tanks sitting outside Benghazi poised for an invasion were propagated in the Western media.<3> In the lead-up to the United Nations imposing a no-fly zone, reports spread rapidly through the media of Libyan government jets bombing the rebels.<4> Even in February, the New York Times – the sacred temple for the ‘stenographers of power’ we call “journalists” – reported that Gaddafi was amassing “thousands of mercenaries” to defend Tripoli and crush the rebels.<5>

Italy’s Foreign Minister declared that over 1,000 people were killed in the fighting in February, citing the number as “credible.”<6> Even a top official with Human Rights Watch declared the rebels to be “peaceful protesters” who “are nice, sincere people who want a better future for Libya.”<7> The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights declared that “thousands” of people were likely killed by Gaddafi, “and called for international intervention to protect civilians.”<8> In April, reports spread near and far at lightning speed of Gaddafi’s forces using rape as a weapon of war, with the first sentence in a Daily Mail article declaring, “Children as young as eight are being raped in front of their families by Gaddafi’s forces in Libya,” with Gaddafi handing out Viagra to his troops in a planned and organized effort to promote rape.<9>

As it turned out, these claims – as posterity notes – turned out to be largely false and contrived. Doctors Without Borders and Amnesty International both investigated the claims of rape, and “have found no first-hand evidence in Libya that rapes are systematic and being used as part of war strategy,” and their investigations in Eastern Libya “have not turned up significant hard evidence supporting allegations of rapes by Qaddafi’s forces.” Yet, just as these reports came out, Hillary Clinton declared that the U.S. is “deeply concerned by reports of wide-scale rape” in Libya.<10> Even U.S. military and intelligence officials had to admit that, “there is no evidence that Libyan military forces are being given Viagra and engaging in systematic rape against women in rebel areas”; at the same time Susan Rice, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, “told a closed-door meeting of officials at the UN that the Libyan military is using rape as a weapon in the war with the rebels and some had been issued the anti-impotency drug. She reportedly offered no evidence to backup the claim.”<


Untrue, says US

US says Gadhafi troops issued Viagra, raping victims
Allegation suggests troops encouraged to turn to sexual violence, envoys say

By Louis Charbonneau
updated 4/28/2011 9:31:26 PM ET

UNITED NATIONS — The U.S. envoy to the United Nations told the Security Council Thursday that troops loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi were increasingly engaging in sexual violence and some had been issued the impotency drug Viagra, diplomats said.

Several U.N. diplomats who attended a closed-door Security Council meeting on Libya told Reuters that U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice raised the Viagra issue in the context of increasing reports of sexual violence by Gadhafi's troops.

"Rice raised that in the meeting but no one responded," a diplomat said on condition of anonymity. The allegation was first reported by a British newspaper.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42809612/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa#.TqXeG96ImU8


US intel: No evidence of Viagra as weapon in Libya

http://www.msnbc .msn.com/id/42824884/ns/world_news-mide...

UN Ambassador Rice reportedly had said drug was being used in systematic rapes
NBC News and news services updated 4/29/2011 1:52:00 PM ET

UNITED NATIONS — There is no evidence that Libyan military forces are being given Viagra and engaging in systematic rape against women in rebel areas, US military and intelligence officials told NBC News on Friday.

Diplomats said Thursday that US Ambassador Susan Rice told a closed-door meeting of officials at the UN that the Libyan military is using rape as a weapon in the war with the rebels and some had been issued the anti- impotency drug. She reportedly offered no evidence to backup the claim.

While rape has been a weapon of choice in many other African conflicts, the US officials say they've seen no such reports out of Libya.

[cali]

15. whoa. missed that charming episode. HRC's "killing babies in incubators" moment

trying to gin up support for war.

[polly7]

17. Yeah ...... it literally made my stomach sick. That 'anyone' would do it. nt.

[cali]

3. day in and day out, and Clinton actually fuels this shit by

avoiding the media- not that that's not understandable.

The last line of the the slate piece:

Politically speaking, this isn't a fire yet. But it's getting hard to see that through all the smoke.

[geek tragedy]

8. Clinton answered press questions today nt

[cali]

16. Good. Better than avoiding them.

[BrotherIvan]

4. It all comes down to the argument of can Clinton win in the general

Republicans won't be hands off, they will be playing for blood, and this many scandals--true or not--will make for endless attack ads.

[cali]

6. that is for sure. but the thing is that plenty of it is true

that some of it may or may not have crossed legal lines, is almost irrelevant. We know that there are big honking appearances of conflict. We know she broke her agreement with the WH about disclosure of donorss to the WH. We know about her use of a private email address and co-mingling private and official email. We know about this Blumenthal business. That is hopefully the end of it, but these items are bad enough.

[BrotherIvan]

14. Agree

Her credibility is often called into question and these stories do nothing to help that.

[hifiguy]

20. She went to Yale Law and passed several bar exams.

She should know that even the appearance of conflicts of interest is something to be avoided like a plague rat,

Oy,

[Capt. Obvious]

5. Slate and Vanity Fair are well know discredited RW rags

[cali]

10. I don't know if you're serious with that claim... or not.

[KoKo]

7. I'd wondered

if those e-mails to and from Blumenthal would get another look.

Thanks for the links.

[NCTraveler]

9. She listens to a lot of people and takes things seriously.

Something we should all applaud from a possible Presidential contender. Gowdy has nothing. He keeps digging and pushing bullshit with his witch hunt.
"Clinton herself wrote that one of Blumenthal’s e-mails “strains credulity.”

"suggesting that Clinton maintained a relationship with Blumenthal long after President Barack Obama’s aides had forbid Blumenthal be granted a position at the State Department."

Why are they suggesting it. She doesn't deny it, does she?

With the outcome in Libya, did he come away with his contract? If not, are you saying Hillarys work did not end in his best interests?

According to you op, she questioned his credulity and he didn't get any contract.

[cali]

11. he is a real sleaze and whatever else this looks like shit

and the email exchange is pretty damn extensive and evidently went on for some time.

trying to spin her association with this guy as something good is absurd. One more reflection of her bad judgment and yet another unforced errror.

[NCTraveler]

13. I am not trying to spin her email. I took things directly from your op.

"and the email exchange is pretty damn extensive and evidently went on for some time."

What does that have to do with anything.

"trying to spin her association with this guy as something good is absurd. One more reflection of her bad judgment and yet another unforced errror."

Gowdy and his supporters are spinning it. I took two facts out of your own op and you are calling it spin.

Both of my points are factual and from your op. You cannot call it spin without being dishonest.

Slate? Vanity Fair? And you are saying I am putting spin on it.

[cali]

19. Are you actually claiming that Slate and VF are right wing? wow.

[AtomicKitten]

18. The Clinton State Dept promoted the rightwing Honduran coup & her BFF Lanny Davis profited off it.