John R. Houk
© April 15, 2015
Former Secretary of State and Dem candidate for President in the November 2016 election has repeatedly (along with her acolytes) justified her use of private email servers with: “… Because past State Department Secretaries used private servers ergo she did nothing wrong in doing so.” (A rough from memory paraphrased quote of Hillary and
The reason this is important is due to a host of past scandals up to and including Clinton’s days as First Lady, her thoughts on the Benghazi massacre on September 11, 2012 and high probability of using her private servers for State Department sensitive work – some of which may have been classified.
Hillary’s Past Scandals
Both Slick Willie and Hillary have their scandal demons from the past. This post is not about Uncle Bill’s scandals though numerous with only one proven legally in which he skated away largely because Dem Party Senators refused to convict him after the House impeached him.
Hillary’s early scandals in which she has a direct link are often intertwined with her husband the former President. Nonetheless, even without the tarnish of any criminal convictions, Hillary undoubtedly had direct culpability with her husband Bill. Hillary and Bill have led a criminal Teflon life largely because evidence against has mysteriously disappeared, witnesses mysteriously changed testimony or just plain died under mysterious circumstances. The lack of convictions apparently is no ethical problem for Dems of either the Party elite or Party rack-and-file. Even with scandals both the President and Hillary have received favorable election results. In Hillary’s case she won a New York state Senate seat and finished behind Obama in the 2008 Dem nomination for President. In a side thought, voter favoritism is a demonstration of a lack ethics and intelligence especially among Dems but one has to include the large amount of gullible independent voters that join Dems.
Do you recall the slime that was Whitewater, in which the Clintons dissembled and lied while their former business partners went to jail? Do you remember Mrs. Clinton earning $100,000 in profit in 1979 on a $1,000 investment over the course of only 9 months in volatile cattle futures, about which she knew nothing, thanks to help from a highly placed Tyson Foods connection? Tyson profited handsomely in Arkansas, with state loans and appointments. We are to believe that Clinton studied the Wall Street Journal to achieve a feat against which the odds were one in 250 million. Do you recall the Rose Law Firm billing records that magically appeared in Mrs. Clinton's White House office, years after they had been subpoenaed? Or the death of Vince Foster under rather extraordinary and inexplicable circumstances, and the lies and cover-up that followed? Do you recall that while testifying before congressional investigators as first lady, she answered "I don't know" or "I don't remember" 250 times?
Do you recall Travelgate, in which the Clintons destroyed reputations and careers to reward campaign donors? What about the endless parade of women, long known to Mrs. Clinton and laughably passed off by her as "ministering" to a troubled young woman in the matter of Miss Lewinsky? Nevertheless, when the truth came out, she was entirely happy to exploit the illusion of victimhood for her own martyrdom in the cause of political advancement.
Wherever Mrs. Clinton goes, destruction follows. Of course, like the current president, nothing is ever her fault. She knows nothing. She is the innocent victim of all around her, endlessly bemoaning her fate as the victim of a vast right-wing conspiracy that somehow has directed the events of her life even before there was a vast right-wing conspiracy. (Hillary Clinton's Legacy of Scandal; By Jeffrey T. Brown; American Thinker; 6/15/13)
Other sources: THE HILLARY CLINTON SCANDALS: VOLUME 1 and Reports: Clinton email practices violated clear State Dept. rules, Clinton’s own directives
Hillary Clinton’s Part in Benghazi Scandal
“Americans are divided down the middle, in a foul mood and think the country’s going to hell in a handbasket. Hillary’s greatest strength is her experience, but every one of her opponents will try to use that experience against her,” said Mr. Varoga. “The candidate who eventually wins in November 2016 will be the one who does the best job of showing that he or she has the experience to be steady and strong, but also has the temperament to take the country in a new direction.”
Indeed, many of the questions swirling around Mrs. Clinton arose from her four years as American’s top diplomat under President Obama.
She remains a key figure in the probe by the House Select Committee on Benghazi, which is investigating the 2012 terrorist attacks on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Libya that killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
The attacks, and the Obama administration’s response to them — including initially blaming them on a spontaneous riot over an anti-Islam YouTube video — left an indelible black mark on Mrs. Clinton’s record as secretary of state. She could be called to publicly testify before the Benghazi committee in the middle of the campaign and answer questions about her role in the episode, as well as her secretive handling of emails. (Clinton to face tough questions on Benghazi, email scandal with 2016 bid; By S.A. Miller; Washington Times; 4/12/15)
Hillary’s Private Email Server a Threat to National Security
Investor’s Business Daily published a long article on Tuesday night, collecting the opinions of current and former intelligence officials about the national security threat posed by Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
It feels like a floodgate bursting open. These experts are absolutely beside themselves over Clinton’s irresponsible conduct as Secretary of State. Former NSA officer John Schindler called it “a counterintelligence disaster of truly epic proportions.”
“She may have deleted 30,000 emails before turning her files over to the State Department,” observed former U.S. National Counterintelligence Executive Michelle Van Cleave, “but that doesn’t mean that the Russians and the Chinese don’t have them.”
…
“It’s a disaster for U.S. policy. It’s a huge boon for the former KGB and the Iranians,” said a veteran intelligence officer who spoke to IBD anonymously. The officer found Clinton’s claims that she never handled classified information through her private server laughable — “how the hell could she do her job without it?” (INTEL EXPERTS: HILLARY CLINTON’S EMAIL SERVER ‘A COUNTERINTELLIGENCE DISASTER OF TRULY EPIC PROPORTIONS’; By JOHN HAYWARD; Breitbart.com; 4/8/15)
Focusing on the Hillary email cover-up, does anyone realize that she broke government rules and thus against the law? In an investigation by Rep. Darrel Issa examining the Obama Administration usage of “personal email.” In that examination Rep. Issa sent a letter officially asking the Secretary of State Hillary asking if she conducted official business with a personal email account:
“Have you or any senior agency official ever used a personal email account to conduct official business?” Mr. Issa wrote to Mrs. Clinton. “If so, please identify the account used.” (Hillary Clinton Was Asked About Email 2 Years Ago; By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT; NY Times; 4/14/15)
That Issa letter was sent circa December 2012. Ironically this is around three months after the Benghazi massacre. The NY Times reports that Secretary of Hillary Clinton did not even respond to the official Issa letter! Hillary ended her position as Secretary of State on February 1, 2013. On March 27, 2013 the State Department responded to the official Issa query:
‘…all he got was a description of the department’s email policies. According to the letter, any employee using a personal account “should make it clear that his or her personal email is not being used for official business.”’ (Ibid.)
Can you say cover-up? Hot Air uses Politico data to demonstrate that Secretary Clinton was fully aware that using a private email server was a violation way back in 2005:
… Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state that appears to be at odds with her reliance on a private email for agency business, POLITICO has learned.
The policy, detailed in a manual for agency employees, adds clarity to an issue at the center of a growing controversy over Clinton’s reliance on a private email account. Aides to Clinton, as well as State Department officials, have suggested that she did nothing inappropriate because of fuzzy guidelines and lack of specific rules on when and how official documents had to be preserved during her years as secretary.
But the 2005 policy was described as one of several “clear cut” directives the agency’s own inspector general relied on to criticize the conduct of a U.S. ambassador who in 2012 was faulted for using email outside of the department’s official system.
“It is the Department’s general policy that normal day-to-day operations be conducted on an authorized [Automated Information System], which has the proper level of security control to provide nonrepudiation, authentication and encryption, to ensure confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the resident information,” the Department’s Foreign Affairs Manual states.
The Clintonista line, when it hasn’t been the utterly preposterous notion that Clinton is being extra-special transparent by hiding her e-mails in a private account, has relied on the idea that there was technically no prohibition on conducting business on an outside email account. This is almost equally preposterous, for reasons I laid out last night, but new reports from both Politico and Fox’s Catherine Herridge demolish it. Clinton herself told personnel to avoid personal email in 2011. You know, right before she canned an ambassador for doing it.
Fox News has exclusively obtained an internal 2011 State Department cable that shows Secretary of State Clinton’s office told employees not to use personal email for security reasons, while at the same time, HRC conducted all government business on a private account. Sent to Diplomatic and Consular Staff in June 2011, the unclassified cable, with Clinton’s electronic signature, makes clear to “avoid conducting official Department from your personal e-mail accounts” and … READ ENTIRETY (Reports: Clinton email practices violated clear State Dept. rules, Clinton’s own directives; By MARY KATHARINE HAM; Hot Air; 3/5/15)
I wonder how stupid America’s voters are if Hillary even wins a Democrat Party Primary?
JRH 4/15/15
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Hillary Clinton Was Asked About Email 2 Years Ago
APRIL 14, 2015
WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton was directly asked by congressional investigators in a December 2012 letter whether she had used a private email account while serving as secretary of state, according to letters obtained by The New York Times.
But Mrs. Clinton did not reply to the letter. And when the State Department answered in March 2013, nearly two months after she left office, it ignored the question and provided no response.
The query was posed to Mrs. Clinton in a Dec. 13, 2012, letter from Representative Darrell Issa, the Republican chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Mr. Issa was leading an investigation into how the Obama administration handled its officials’ use of personal email.
“Have you or any senior agency official ever used a personal email account to conduct official business?” Mr. Issa wrote to Mrs. Clinton. “If so, please identify the account used.”
Mr. Issa also asked Mrs. Clinton, “Does the agency require employees to certify on a periodic basis or at the end of their employment with the agency they have turned over any communications involving official business that they have sent or received using nonofficial accounts?”
Mr. Issa’s letter also sought written documentation of the department’s policies for the use of personal email for government business. Mrs. Clinton left the State Department on Feb. 1, 2013, seven weeks after the letter was sent to her.
When Mr. Issa received a response from the State Department on March 27, all he got was a description of the department’s email policies. According to the letter, any employee using a personal account “should make it clear that his or her personal email is not being used for official business.”
Mrs. Clinton acknowledged last month that she had exclusively used a personal email account, which was housed on a server that had been specially set up for her, when she was secretary of state. She said that she used the private account for convenience purposes because she did not want to carry more than one electronic device. By using the private account, many of her emails were shielded from inquiries by Congress, the news media and government watchdogs.
The revelation has set off the first major test of her early presidential campaign, as she seeks to assure the public and the news media that she was not seeking to hide her correspondence.
A congressional official provided The Times with a copy of Mr. Issa’s letter and the response from the State Department on the condition of anonymity because the official did not want to jeopardize his access to such information.
A spokesman for the State Department declined on Tuesday to answer questions about why it had not addressed Mr. Issa’s question about whether Mrs. Clinton or senior officials used personal email accounts.
“The department responds to thousands of congressional inquiries and requests for information each year,” said the spokesman, Alec Gerlach. “In its March 2013 letter, the department responded to the House Oversight Committee’s inquiry into the department’s ‘policies and practices regarding the use of personal email and other forms of electronic communications’ with a letter that described those policies in detail.”
An aide to Mrs. Clinton said in a statement Tuesday that “her usage was widely known to the over 100 department and U.S. government colleagues she emailed, as her address was visible on every email she sent.”
Mr. Issa had sent letters to the State Department and other executive agencies after it was discovered that some administration and Environment Protection Agency officials had used private accounts to conduct government business.
In the State Department’s letter back to Mr. Issa, Thomas B. Gibbons, the acting assistant secretary for legislative affairs, described the department’s records management policies and guidelines.
He said “employees may use personal email on personal time for matters not directly related to official business, and any employee using personal email ‘should make it clear that his or her personal email is not being used for official business.’ ”
The State Department offered training on its record management programs to its employees, he said.
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What Kind of Idiots Vote for Hillary?
John R. Houk
© April 15, 2015
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Hillary Clinton Was Asked About Email 2 Years Ago
A version of this article appears in print on April 15, 2015, on page A15 of the New York edition with the headline: Mrs. Clinton Was Asked About Email 2 Years Ago. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe
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