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Karmadillo

(9,253 posts)
Sun May 1, 2016, 01:31 AM May 2016

Hillary Clinton’s Damning Emails: the potential for blackmail

https://consortiumnews.com/2016/04/30/hillary-clintons-damning-emails/

Exclusive: Before the Democrats lock in their choice for President, they might want to know if Hillary Clinton broke the law with her unsecure emails and may be indicted, a question that ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern addresses.

Hillary Clinton’s Damning Emails
April 30, 2016
By Ray McGovern

A few weeks after leaving office, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may have breathed a sigh of relief and reassurance when Director of National Intelligence James Clapper denied reports of the National Security Agency eavesdropping on Americans. After all, Clinton had been handling official business at the State Department like many Americans do with their personal business, on an unsecured server.

In sworn testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on March 12, 2013, Clapper said the NSA was not collecting, wittingly, “any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans,” which presumably would have covered Clinton’s unsecured emails.

But NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s revelations — starting on June 5, 2013 — gave the lie to Clapper’s testimony, which Clapper then retracted on June 21 – coincidentally, Snowden’s 30th birthday – when Clapper sent a letter to the Senators to whom he had, well, lied. Clapper admitted his “response was clearly erroneous – for which I apologize.” (On the chance you are wondering what became of Clapper, he is still DNI.)

I would guess that Clapper’s confession may have come as a shock to then ex-Secretary Clinton, as she became aware that her own emails might be among the trillions of communications that NSA was vacuuming up. Nevertheless, she found Snowden’s truth-telling a safer target for her fury than Clapper’s dishonesty and NSA’s dragnet.

<edit>

It is altogether likely that Gen. Keith Alexander, head of NSA from 2005 to 2014, neglected to tell the Secretary of State of NSA’s “collect it all” dragnet collection that included the emails and telephone calls of Americans – including Clinton’s. This need not have been simply the result of Alexander’s pique at her disdain for communications security requirements, but rather mostly a consequence of NSA’s modus operandi.

With the mindset at NSA, one could readily argue that the Secretary of State – and perhaps the President himself – had no “need-to-know.” And, needless to say, the fewer briefed on the NSA’s flagrant disregard for Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures the better.

So, if there is something incriminating – or at least politically damaging – in Clinton’s emails, it’s a safe bet that at least the NSA and maybe the FBI, as well, knows. And that could make life difficult for a Clinton-45 presidency. Inside the Beltway, we don’t say the word “blackmail,” but the potential will be there. The whole thing needs to be cleaned up now before the choices for the next President are locked in.
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CentralCoaster

(1,163 posts)
1. All the international good will that Obama cultivated.... Up in fuckin' smoke with this one.
Sun May 1, 2016, 01:34 AM
May 2016

Isn't that sad?

For all his flaws, Obama really restored a lot of the good will lost over several prior administrations.

How sad if we end up letting the wrong person take the helm, one who clearly has not been a friend of international peace.

JSup

(740 posts)
3. 'Cos I'm gonna believe...
Sun May 1, 2016, 02:03 AM
May 2016

...a story by a guy friendly with RT, Infowars and Russia-Insider, with obvious and public bias against Hillary, posted on a 'news' site with an obvious pro-Putin slant.

 

pinebox

(5,761 posts)
14. You have a problem with this? A Clinton supporter against an anti-war activist?
Sun May 1, 2016, 10:57 AM
May 2016

Wow why are we not shocked?

"Raymond McGovern (born August 25, 1939) is a retired CIA officer turned political activist. McGovern was a CIA analyst from 1963 to 1990, and in the 1980s chaired National Intelligence Estimates and prepared the President's Daily Brief. He received the Intelligence Commendation Medal at his retirement, returning it in 2006 to protest the CIA's involvement in torture. McGovern's post-retirement work includes commentating on intelligence issues and in 2003 co-founding Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity."

Arrested for silent protest at Clinton speech

"During a speech on February 16, 2011, at George Washington University by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton he stood silently with his back turned during her remarks, leading to his arrest for disorderly conduct and inclusion on the State Department's Diplomatic Security "Be On the Lookout" (BOLO) list of potential threats to Clinton due to his "considerable amount of political activism, primarily anti-war," with instructions to Law Enforcement to detain and question him.The charges were subsequently dropped, and in 2014 he won an injunction against the BOLO on First and Fourth Amendment grounds. The complaint leading to this injunction[16] also listed George Washington University and its Police Department as defendants for their arrest of him, and that part of the case against them was still in process as of September 2014


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_McGovern

NJCher

(35,427 posts)
6. Just one more big, fat handicap
Sun May 1, 2016, 02:21 AM
May 2016

To letting this very compromised person become president. Now we can all wonder if her choice in policy is due to something an agency has on her or whether it is an appropriate response to a situation.

Cher

 

99th_Monkey

(19,326 posts)
7. I'm sorry ma'am, but your baggage far exceeds the size & weight limits
Sun May 1, 2016, 04:00 AM
May 2016

universally considered safe for any nominee for the President of the United States of America.

LiberalAndProud

(12,799 posts)
10. I'm not speaking to the merits of the case against her when I say
Sun May 1, 2016, 04:42 AM
May 2016

that I am fairly certain that if elected Hillary will be the second Clinton to be impeached. The dysfunction of the culture of DC will see to it.

 

Onlooker

(5,636 posts)
11. Stupid article. The same would be true for Bernie's email.
Sun May 1, 2016, 05:22 AM
May 2016

Since the NSA can break into anyone's emails, the same would be true for Bernie or anyone else. If Bernie looks at porn, if Bernie wrote a drunken diatribe to a friend, if Bernie wrote fan mail to Castro, etc.

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