2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumHillary 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 Clintons 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 Clintons unsecured emails.
But NSA contractor Edward Snowdens revelations starting on June 5, 2013 gave the lie to Clappers testimony, which Clapper then retracted on June 21 coincidentally, Snowdens 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 Clappers 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 Snowdens truth-telling a safer target for her fury than Clappers dishonesty and NSAs dragnet.
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It is altogether likely that Gen. Keith Alexander, head of NSA from 2005 to 2014, neglected to tell the Secretary of State of NSAs collect it all dragnet collection that included the emails and telephone calls of Americans including Clintons. This need not have been simply the result of Alexanders pique at her disdain for communications security requirements, but rather mostly a consequence of NSAs 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 NSAs 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 Clintons emails, its 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 dont 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.
CentralCoaster
(1,163 posts)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.
kgnu_fan
(3,021 posts)JSup
(740 posts)...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.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)pinebox
(5,761 posts)Wow why are we not shocked?
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
Skink
(10,122 posts)Has documentary written all over it.
aspirant
(3,533 posts)NJCher
(35,843 posts)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)universally considered safe for any nominee for the President of the United States of America.
silvershadow
(10,336 posts)LiberalAndProud
(12,799 posts)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)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.