Oh Those Pesky Emails *Open Thread*

Once again, on a Friday afternoon, a number of news-worthy emails of Hillary Clinton’s were released. Well, a lot of them were, that is. NOT the ones involving President Obama, though. Oh, no – the White House has made sure that THOSE don’t see the light of day until AFTER he is out of office. No, seriously. Isn’t that convenient?

But still, the emails that were released expand even more what was going on with Benghazi, and with Clinton’s State Department in general. But there was one in particular that paints a very clear picture. And what it reveals is the exact OPPOSITE of what the State Department and White House did. BizPacReview has the story:

Top U.S. State Department officials, including then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, were warned in an email not to blame the obscure “inflammatory” Internet video for the 2012 attack on Benghazi.

That email was sent from the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, Libya three days after the September 11 attack, which resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, and two days before then-United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice blamed the event on the video while speaking to five Sunday talk shows, according to Fox News.

“The film’s not as explosive of an issue here as it appears to be in other countries in the region,” the unknown sender wrote. “And it is becoming increasingly clear that the series of events in Benghazi was much more a terrorist attack than a protest, which escalated into violence.

“It is our opinion that in our messaging, we want to distinguish, not conflate, the events in other countries with this well planned attack by militant extremists.” […] (Click here to read the rest.)

Incredible. Just incredible. There is more on this as The Hill also covered this news bombshell:

[…] Despite the email, the House Select Committee on Benghazi said Clinton continued to blame the video on the attack.

“Secretary Clinton continued to associate the video with what happened in Benghazi in public remarks two and three days after the attacks, including at a transfer of remains ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base with family members of the victims present,” a statement from the panel on Friday said.

At a hearing with the House Select Committee on Benghazi last month, Clinton said she did not intend to “ascribe a motive to every attacker” by associating the video with the attack.
“I referred to the video that night in a very specific way,” she said. “I said some have sought to justify the attack because of the video.”

She added that she “still believes” the anti-Muslim video played a role in the attack.

“I still believe to this day that the video played a role,” she said at the hearing. “I think it is important to look at the totality of what is going on.”

Clinton told the Libyan president in a call the night of the attack that Ansar al-Sharia, a local terrorist group associated with al Qaeda, had claimed responsibility for the attack. […] (Click here to read the rest.)

Holy SMOKES. That is HUGE. Absolutely HUGE. You can see why they wanted to bury this on a Friday afternoon. That the video was discounted as the reason from the get-go by people who knew the truth but was precisely the meme pushed, speaks volumes. This is just staggering. As one commenter noted, why wasn’t THIS information available for the Hearing this past week?? No. Freaking. Kidding. And I would like to know what the House is going to do with this information NOW.

And not for nothing but, if Clinton “still believes” the video played any role whatsoever in this terrorist attack, she is either delusional or incapable of separating fact from lies. Come to think of it, maybe she is both, especially if she thinks we are buying her BS claim that the planned terror attack was in any way the result of some obscure video. Please.

But wait – there is more! These new emails also review the extent to which Sidney Blumenthal, a man the White House made quite clear was to have NO input into what happened at State, was involved with State. In fact, they BANNED Blumenthal from having input. Clearly, Clinton violated that ban, and now we are seeing by just how much. From IJ Review:

New emails released by the State Department on Friday suggest that longtime Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal may have reached out to a former British diplomat to assist in “setting up secret channels between insurgents and governments.”

Blumenthal, who is believed to have given the former Secretary of State advice on whom to blame for the crisis in Libya during the spring and summer of 2012, connected Hillary Clinton with Jonathan Powell, the chief of staff to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Blumenthal noted in his email that Clinton appeared to be receptive to Powell’s help.

The article went on to say that Clinton asked her aides to set up a meeting with Powell, but the Daily Caller noted that whether or not that happened is not known.

Seems to me that for someone who is supposed to have NOTHING to do with the workings of the US State Department had quite a BIT to say about the workings of the State Department. That raises a whole bunch more issues, doesn’t it? Like about Clinton’s willingness to trust our diplomacy to someone who is so on the outs with her BOSS that he is banned. Or that she would share so much information with someone who does not have top level security clearance. And she wants to be PRESIDENT?? Please…

One final note:Fred Thompson, actor, US Senator, and former candidate for President, has passed away. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.

That’s it for me. How about you? What do you think about this suspicious email dump on a Friday? Clinton’s warning not to use the video? The influence of Sid Blumenthal? This is an Open Thread.

Tags: Benghazi Terror Attack, Clinton emails, Fred Thompson, Sidney Blumenthal