Category Archives: Presidential campaign

The Hillary Morocco Money Thing was Real with Twists

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While there is the matter of Hillary and Bill with the Morocco thing, we cannot dismiss lil miss Michelle Obama and her relationship with the King as noted in the summer of 2016.

King Mohammed VI hosted an iftar meal in honor of the First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, on Tuesday night in Marrakech.

King Mohammed VI Hosts Iftar in Honor of US First Lady Michelle Obama

Using vague words, twisting sentences and altering priority of facts is all part of damage control within the Hillary inner circle.

When it comes to the Hillary event with this Morocco King, wow even the press operating on a tip or two gets places on a spinning wheel. The Clinton Foundation and it seems the Hillary inner circle as well as the State Department certainly placed their attention on the King. Why:

King Mohammed VI    King Mohammed VI  More from Forbes

 

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Inside the Clintons’ Moroccan money ‘mess’

Aides publicly downplayed Clinton’s role, while privately doing damage control and working to keep foreign money.

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A portrait of Moroccan King Mohamed VI is on display as then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets with Foreign Minister Saad Eddine Othmani in Rabat, Morocco, in 2012 on her whistle-stop diplomatic tour. | AP Photo

Politico: Hillary Clinton’s top advisers downplayed her involvement in arranging a lavish Clinton Foundation conference in Marrakech last year, but behind the scenes they acknowledged her pivotal role and worked to minimize fallout from it.

After media inquiries about the role of Clinton and the king of Morocco in setting the stage for the conference, Clinton confidants, including her husband, Bill, scrambled to craft a new foreign contribution policy that looked tougher but still let them accept the Moroccan cash, according to hacked emails released by WikiLeaks.

The picture that emerges from the emails — as well as from interviews with a half dozen people familiar with the foundation’s inner workings and other contemporary reporting — shows Clintons’ confidants becoming acutely sensitive to criticism of the foundation’s foreign fundraising around the time Clinton was preparing to launch her presidential campaign.

The Moroccan saga also provides a window into the Clinton teams’ internal decision-making process on thorny ethics issues, as well as the occasionally less-than-forthcoming manner in which they deal with scrutiny.

It’s an approach that is familiar to longtime Clinton watchers and one that will be tested immediately if Clinton emerges victorious on Tuesday in her closer-than-expected race against Republican Donald Trump. Congressional Republicans have vowed to launch a series of investigations from Day One of a Clinton presidency, possibly starting even before she’s sworn in, including into whether she accorded special treatment during her time as secretary of state to donors who wrote huge checks to support her family’s foundation, its meetings, operations or endowment.

When it comes to Morocco, there’s no evidence that Clinton provided special treatment to the royal family or companies in which it’s invested as a result of their donations to her family’s foundation.

But there is evidence that Clinton’s aides sought to downplay a long and lucrative relationship between her family and that of Moroccan King Mohammed VI, even as her aides were trying to bring in a huge sum of cash through the monarch. And human rights watchdogs contend that the relationship played a role in the Clinton State Department — and the Clinton Foundation — turning a blind eye toward abuses by authorities in the Moroccan-occupied territory of Western Sahara.

Clinton’s own State Department advisers in 2011 flagged human rights concerns and the Western Sahara push for self-governance as among the “issues of sensitivity with Morocco when it comes to the Western Sahara,” according to an email released this year by the State Department in response to Freedom of Information Act litigation.

The Marrakech meeting of the foundation’s Clinton Global Initiative (or CGI) promised to increase attention on this thorny relationship, given that it was scheduled for early May 2015 — less than a month after Clinton would announce her candidacy. The timing sparked a vigorous debate among Clinton’s aides about whether she should go, which was revealed by emails hacked from the Gmail account of Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta and disseminated starting last month by WikiLeaks.

Clinton’s right-hand aide, Huma Abedin, argued forcefully that her boss was obligated to attend the CGI conference because “her presence was a condition for the Moroccans to proceed so there is no going back on this.”

Buttressing Abedin’s argument, the Morocco meeting was included in a 2014 internal foundation memo released by WikiLeaks about “Secretary Clinton’s Foundation work.”

After a bit of pushback from other aides questioning the wisdom of Clinton’s attendance, Abedin in a January 2015 email made the financial case for Clinton going to Marrakech, suggesting that she had helped arrange a massive contribution for the foundation from the king of Morocco.

Referring to Clinton by her initials “HRC,” Abedin wrote that the meeting “was HRC’s idea, our office approached the Moroccans and they 100 percent believe they are doing this at her request. The King has personally committed approx $12 million both for the endowment and to support the meeting. It will break a lot of china to back out now when we had so many opportunities to do it in the past few months. She created this mess and she knows it.”

On the other side of the debate was Robby Mook, who would go on to become Clinton’s campaign manager. He argued that Clinton needed to back away from her commitment to attend the CGI meeting in Marrakech, as well as other foundation events and paid speeches, while also distancing herself from the foundation, as a whole.

“We really need to shut Morocco and these paid speeches down,” Mook emailed Podesta in February 2015. A few days later, he emailed Podesta and Abedin a Wall Street Journal article about ethical questions arising from an increase in foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation. The article did not mention the Morocco meeting or its funding, but Mook, alluding to Clinton’s impending campaign launch, asserted “This is why Morocco would be such a problem — more of this the first week she’s out selling her story.”

The following week, Mook in a memo to Podesta, Abedin and ex-Clinton State Department chief of staff Cheryl Mills flagged what he called “Foundation vulnerability points.” While he did not expressly single out the Marrakech CGI meeting, it would seem to have triggered several of the vulnerabilities he listed, including “Money from foreign governments” and “Overseas events with foreign leaders or government,” as well as “lavish/high-end hotels for events” and Clinton “attending Foundation events.”

After the vulnerability memo, the WikiLeaks email trail on the Morocco meeting fell silent.

That changed on April 7 — just five days before Clinton would announce her candidacy. POLITICO, acting on a tip about the role of Clinton and the king in arranging the conference and a $1 million sponsorship from a Moroccan-government-owned phosphate company active in Western Sahara called OCP, emailed a foundation spokesman with a number of questions. Did Clinton plan to follow through on her commitment to attend the conference and would the foundation continue holding overseas conferences during a then-imminent Clinton presidential campaign, POLITICO asked.

The spokesman immediately forwarded the email to top aides to the Clintons. Within minutes, Bill Clinton’s chief of staff Tina Flournoy sent an email with the subject line “Morocco” to Podesta and Mills. “We have press calls on their contributions,” she wrote.

The spokesman responded to POLITICO’s inquiry saying “it’s unlikely that Secretary will attend,” but requesting not to be named in the resulting story revealing OCP’s $1 million sponsorship.

The anonymous spokesman did not answer follow-up questions about the king’s role in arranging the donations.

In fact, the spokesman tried to cast doubt on reporting that Clinton and the king discussed the possibility of a foundation meeting in Morocco, and that Abedin was involved in “subsequent high-level planning conversations.”

Later, when asked to explain the discrepancy between their initial answers and Abedin’s characterization in the WikiLeaks emails, Brian Cookstra, a different foundation spokesman, bristled. “It sounds like you are suggesting we misled you which is a serious accusation, and it’s not accurate,” Cookstra said. “We stand by our original answers on this,” he said, explaining, “we have no record of” Clinton and the king “discussing this personally.”

However, emails released by the State Department suggest a personal relationship between Clinton and the king, showing Clinton and her staff arranging conversations with the king and other Moroccans. But Cookstra said “Discussions handled by her office may have been exploratory — they were before the meeting was set or the location was finalized, and do not constitute the kind ‘high-level planning conversations’ the CGI staff undertake for every meeting.”

The anonymous spokesman in the days before Clinton’s announcement also ignored POLITICO’s questions about whether the foundation would continue accepting foreign donations and holding overseas events during her campaign.

Instead, the WikiLeaks email show that Clintons’ aides began a debate about crafting a new policy that would bar the foundation from holding overseas conferences or accepting foreign donations during Clinton’s presidential campaign — with a couple notable exceptions.

“CGI will no longer conduct CGI-International events nor accept any funding from foreign government hosts of such events after the already-scheduled events in May (CGI-Morocco) and June (CGI-Greece) of 2015,” read a draft of a document containing several “Foundation Policies Adjustments.” The draft, which was emailed to top Clinton aides seven hours after POLITICO’s initial inquiry and was among the documents included in the Podesta Gmail hack, also indicated that Hillary Clinton would resign from the foundation’s board and “will no longer be available to fundraise for the Foundation’s programs and activities.”

Among the first questions about the draft came from CGI chief Bob Harrison, who emailed the group, “What about the Morocco money?”

“Morocco money exception is included in there,” responded foundation executive Maura Pally.

Ultimately, Hillary Clinton did not attend the CGI conference in Marrakech, sending her husband and daughter in her stead.

The king was traveling during the CGI conference and did not attend, but POLITICO revealed that he loaned one of his palaces to Bill and Chelsea Clinton to stay in during their time in Marrakech. The conference included a mix of plenary sessions in which corporations pledged to spend millions on humanitarian causes — including expanding access to clean water access and education in the Middle East and Africa — and an extravagant Moroccan feast with a hookah lounge and a nine-piece band playing traditional Moroccan Gnawa music at a five-star resort on the outskirts of Marrakech.

Cookstra said the king did not donate any money to the foundation and never has, despite once having been listed on a donor roll as having pledged as much as $500,000 to help build Bill Clinton’s presidential library (the foundation says the donation never came through).

Officials at the Moroccan Embassy in Washington did not respond when asked whether the king had originally committed the $12 million referenced in Abedin’s email. They also didn’t answer questions about the role of Clinton or the king in initiating the meeting or whether the king expected Clinton to attend the meeting, and skipped it himself because she did.

The Clinton Foundation did not respond to questions about whether the conference was Hillary Clinton’s idea, whether the king had committed $12 million or why Clinton’s aides weren’t more forthcoming originally when asked about the roles of Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin and the king in initiating the meeting.

“We’ve addressed what you’ve asked,” Cookstra said.

Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.

 

 

 

 

 

If Hillary Wins, Who Will be in the White House….

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We cant predict who will be part of her cabinet staff, but given those who worked in the White House during Bill Clinton’s administration and now for the Hillary campaign,  you can bet it will be similar chaos and creepy people.

So, given those that are part of Hillary’s public campaign team and her clandestine operations team let us examine some names and the additional histories of these people. Note, how these people are recycled from decades of socialist political beltway occupation.

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In April of 2015 a list of people was cultivated by Politico: Hillary Clinton has used her extensive Rolodex and front-runner status to assemble a who’s who of power brokers for her fledgling campaign.

The vast political network contains an important mix — veteran Clinton allies with intimate knowledge of her strengths and weaknesses, and newcomers from President Barack Obama’s orbit well aware of how he was able to triumph over her in 2008.

The campaign is seen as having pulled off a successful launch of her campaign in mid-April, using a digital blitz to re-introduce Clinton as an advocate for Americans trying to improve their economic and social standing.

Now that Clinton is officially a presidential candidate, the core group of dozens of staffers will operate out of two full floors at 1 Pierrepont Plaza in Brooklyn Heights, her new campaign headquarters. The more polished apparatus will help Clinton’s advisers as they cultivate Clinton’s persona as an appealing candidate in tune with middle-class priorities, while trying to contain controversies, including her use of a personal email server while she was secretary of state and the foreign money that has flowed to the Clinton Foundation.

Here’s a guide to this cycle’s Clinton power map. Though not a comprehensive list, it’s a look at the most influential players in her 2016 presidential campaign.

THE CAMPAIGN

• John Podesta, the trusted aide to both Bill Clinton and Obama, is campaign chairman. Podesta has had close ties to the Clintons for years: He was former President Clinton’s chief of staff in the White House and later the founder of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank that is home to plenty of Clinton allies, including Neera Tanden, a longtime Hillary Clinton confidante and the president of CAP. Podesta is also well-regarded in Obama’s orbit: He stepped down earlier this year as counselor to Obama and previously led his 2008 transition team. His presence could help integrate longtime Clinton allies and newer former Obama staffers, and he is often described as the “adult in the room.”

• Robby Mook, the Democratic operative who steered close Clinton friend and 2016 booster Terry McAuliffe to victory in the 2013 Virginia governor’s race, is campaign manager. Mook, in his mid-30s, is known for a calm, measured demeanor, an aversion to the spotlight and an interest in data. He worked for Clinton’s 2008 presidential bid, helping her win in Nevada, Ohio and Indiana during the Democratic primary, and has also served as executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

• Joel Benenson, who was Obama’s pollster — and helped him hone his message against Clinton in 2008 — is on board as Clinton’s chief strategist and pollster.

• John Anzalone and David Binder will work with Benenson as top pollsters; Anzalone may focus on early states. Both are also alums of Obama’s orbit.

• Jim Margolis, who also worked for Obama, serving as a senior adviser to him in 2012, is Clinton’s media adviser. He has also been a consultant for a host of Democratic senators, including outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

• Tony Carrk, formerly of the CAP action fund, is set to direct research.

• Marlon Marshall, an influential Obama White House aide, is expected to be Clinton’s director of state campaigns and political engagement.

• Jennifer Palmieri, formerly the White House communications director, will take on the same role for the Clinton campaign. She also has previous ties to the Clintons: She worked in the Clinton White House and at CAP.

• Charlie Baker, a veteran Democratic strategist, is chief administrative officer and is an influential voice in Clinton’s orbit.

• Marc Elias will be general counsel to the campaign. He chairs the political law practice at the prominent law firm Perkins Coie and also served as general counsel to John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign.

• Amanda Renteria, a former Democratic candidate for Congress in California and the Senate’s first Latina chief of staff — she worked for Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) — is expected to serve as political director. Brynne Craig, who was McAuliffe’s political director and more recently Clinton’s scheduler, may be tapped as deputy political director.

• Dennis Cheng, who previously served as chief development officer at the Clinton Foundation, is expected to be finance director. Other key players in Clinton’s orbit with ties to the foundation include Craig Minassian, the foundation’s chief communications officer, and Kamyl Bazbaz, daughter Chelsea Clinton’s chief spokesman.

• Garry Gensler, a former Commodity Futures Trading Commission chairman, is chief financial officer. Gensler is a former Goldman Sachs executive who has also worked to regulate Wall Street, a balance that may be helpful for Clinton, who enjoys support from many wealthy Wall Street donors, but who is also seeking to strike a populist note on economics.

• Mandy Grunwald, a longtime Clinton ally who worked on Clinton’s 2008 campaign as well as for Bill Clinton during both his campaign and administration, will be a senior media consultant.

INNER CIRCLE

• Huma Abedin, one of Hillary Clinton’s top aides, is deeply trusted and highly influential in Clinton’s orbit and is vice chairwoman of the campaign.

• Cheryl Mills has worked for the Clintons for years, from the White House to the State Department to the Clinton Foundation. She was general counsel to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign, and regardless of whether there’s ultimately an official title on the campaign, hers will be a key voice.

• Jake Sullivan is a senior policy adviser on the campaign and previously served as a deputy policy director on Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. He was also a critical player on her State Department team. He recently gained a higher profile for his role in facilitating the groundwork for a preliminary nuclear deal with Iran. Clinton’s two other senior policy advisers, who along with Sullivan are helping to shape the campaign’s agenda, are Maya Harris, formerly of CAP, who has a specialty in human rights, and Ann O’Leary, who was Clinton’s legislative director when she was in the Senate and has expertise in early childhood education.

• It’s unclear what role Bill Clinton will play in his wife’s campaign, but he is clearly a prominent voice, could be a major asset to her and brings with him a cadre of friends and advisers.

• Other trusted voices in Clinton’s orbit, who may not have official roles in the campaign, include Philippe Reines, Clinton’s former spokesman and a fiercely loyal aide; Neera Tanden at CAP; Tom Nides, the Morgan Stanley executive who was Clinton’s deputy secretary of state; and Minyon Moore at the Dewey Square Group.

COMMUNICATIONS

• Kristina Schake, a former top aide to first lady Michelle Obama, will be deputy communications director.

• Brian Fallon is set to be national press secretary after working as a top spokesman at the Department of Justice and for Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

• Nick Merrill, who worked with Clinton at the State Department and has been shepherding the Clinton team’s day-to-day press interactions since Clinton left Foggy Bottom, will serve as traveling press secretary. He was most recently working in her private office with a handful of other staffers, including Dan Schwerin, a Clinton speechwriter who played a key role in facilitating Clinton’s most recent memoir, “Hard Choices.”

• Karen Finney, who most recently was an MSNBC host and previously worked for both Clintons, will be a senior spokeswoman and a strategic communications adviser.

• Jesse Ferguson, formerly a spokesman for the DCCC in Washington, will manage daily press interactions and also be a national press secretary. Other D.C. figures, including Tyrone Gayle from the DCCC and Ian Sams and Rebecca Chalif of the Democratic National Committee, are also expected to be involved in communications. Also expected to be involved, likely in a rapid-response capacity, are Josh Schwerin, formerly of the DCCC and the McAuliffe campaign; Jesse Lehrich of American Bridge; and Adrienne Elrod, who previously handled media at the pro-Clinton super PAC Correct the Record. Oren Shur, previously of the Democratic Governors Association, will handle paid media. In the states, Lily Adams will be playing a key role in Iowa communications; Harrell Kirstein will do the same in New Hampshire.

DIGITAL

• Teddy Goff, who led Obama’s digital operation, is expected to be a top digital adviser. Like Goff, Andrew Bleeker, another Obama digital alum, may also consult from the outside.

• Stephanie Hannon, a former Google executive, is chief technology officer.

• Katie Dowd, who worked for Clinton at the State Department and Clinton Foundation, is set to be digital director.

• Jenna Lowenstein will be deputy digital director. She was previously vice president of digital engagement at EMILY’s List.

GROUND GAME

• Adam Parkhomenko, the founder and executive director of Ready for Hillary — the super PAC that spent about two years urging her to enter the race — will be director of grassroots engagement. Look for other Ready for Hillary allies and alums to have roles in the campaign as well. Harold Ickes and Tracy Sefl, longtime Democratic operatives who were involved with Ready for Hillary, are also expected to have ties to the campaign in some capacity.

• Jeremy Bird and Mitch Stewart, who helped spearhead Obama’s 2012 field and in-state efforts, are expected to advise Clinton as outside consultants.

IOWA

• Leaders of the Clinton effort in the Hawkeye State include Matt Paul, a veteran Iowa Democratic operative who is set to manage her Iowa effort; Michael Halle, who was a top adviser on McAuliffe’s team; Troy Price, who has been brought on to do political work; and Michelle Kleppe, an Obama campaign alum who will run the field operation.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

• In the Granite State, Mike Vlacich, who led New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s 2014 reelection campaign, will be state director. Kari Thurman, who was Shaheen’s political director, is also expected to be on board, among other hires.

NEVADA

• Emmy Ruiz, who ran general election operations for Obama in Nevada in 2012 and who worked there for Clinton in the 2008 primary, is expected to again play a leading role in Nevada for Clinton in 2016.

SUPERPACs

• Jim Messina and Buffy Wicks, top former Obama operatives, are running Priorities USA Action, a liberal super PAC that was created to boost Obama in 2012 and is now dedicated to Clinton. Along with Messina, former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm is also a co-chairman. Jonathan Mantz, a longtime Clinton ally, is the organization’s senior finance adviser. He was Clinton’s 2008 finance director.

• David Brock is the founder of American Bridge, a Democratic super PAC. Within Bridge, Burns Strider runs Correct the Record, the rapid response-focused arm.

*****

Deeper dive on some of her team:

Podesta: Received his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1976. Podesta worked as a trial attorney for the Department of Justice’s Honors Program in the Land and Natural Resources Division (1976–77), and as a Special Assistant to the Director of ACTION, the Federal volunteer agency (1978–1979). His political career began in 1972, when he worked for George McGovern’s presidential campaign, which lost in 49 states. Podesta held positions on Capitol Hill, including Counselor to Democratic Leader Senator Thomas Daschle (1995–1996); Chief Counsel for the Senate Agriculture Committee (1987–1988); Chief Minority Counsel for the United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Patents, Copyrights, and Trademarks; Security and Terrorism; and Regulatory Reform; and Counsel on the Majority Staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee (1979–1981). In 1988, he and his brother Tony co-founded Podesta Associates, Inc., a Washington, D.C., “government relations and public affairs” lobbying firm. Now known as the Podesta Group, the firm “has close ties to the Democratic Party and the Obama administration [and] has been retained by some of the biggest corporations in the country, including Wal-Mart, BP and Lockheed Martin. FBI Director James Comey was also the top lawyer of record for Lockheed Martin.

Mook: In 2013, Mook left the DCCC and was named the campaign manager of Terry McAuliffe’s gubernatorial campaign. That year, Politico named Mook one of their “50 Politicos to Watch.” Mook led McAuliffe’s campaign to victory. In January 2015, Clinton hired Mook and Joel Benenson as strategists

Marshall: He was a White House liaison to the State Department in 2009 before joining the Democrats’ congressional campaign committee, and later the president’s reelection campaign before a return stint at the White House.

Palmieri: Served as the president of the Center for American Progress Action Fund and was the White House chief of staff for Leon Panetta.

Cheng: Formerly chief of protocol at the State Department, graduate of the London School of Economics and worked the databases for the Clinton Foundation and the State Department for the richest zip codes for individual and corporate fundraising and donations.

Mills: Founded her own company Black Ivy Group, building business in Africa. She was part of the defense team for Bill Clinton during his impeachment and was the representative for the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission.

Tanden: Worked with Hillary on Hillarycare and later for Kathleen Sebelius to pass Obamacare. She is anti Israel and former president of the Center for American Progress.

Bird: Worked for Howard Dean and John Kerry campaigns and served for Obama on his Organizing for America campaign. Jeremy also founded Battleground Texas, an operation to change the political landscape in the State moving it from a red state to a purple or blue state. He also launched V15 the wide and international mission and well funded operation to unseat Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Wicks: Worked with Code Pink, ANSWER and coordinated with United Farm Workers of America teaching Alinsky tactics to campaign workers.

Brock: Founder of Media Matters for America but early in his career he earned the mantle of political assassin for TrooperGate and Anita Hill. He later changed sides and became a paid confidant for Sidney Blumenthal and is a happy recipient of George Soros money. American Democracy Legal Fund, launched by Brock is a funded organization to file constant lawsuits against Republicans on accusatory violations of campaign finance fraud and ethics violations.

 

 

 

 

 

NYT’s and HRC Team on First Email Story/ Then IRS

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Re: NYT | Email Content

Date: 2015-03-17 18:46 Subject:
Re: NYT | Email Content

FBI/DoJ Hillary Email Scandalapalooza Update 11-3-16

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The war of the wills, the war of the agencies and the war of politics in Washington DC is underway. This will advance into a governmental crisis of proportions that make Watergate look small by comparison.

In recent days, the FBI has released two interesting investigative documents that were part of the Bill Clinton administration which speaks to not only anger by FBI agents but also Clinton’s own participation in pay to play. One such document was the pardon investigation of Marc Rich and the other was the entire investigation into the death of Vince Foster who did in fact commit suicide. It was the later White House coverup that mattered with regard to Foster.

Moving beyond the document release on those two items it is also notable that every time Hillary Clinton changed her email address, Huma Abedin had to notify the White House to be placed on the ‘white-list’ in order for her emails to be accepted by the White House servers. Barack Obama did email Hillary several times using a pseudonym, hence speaking to the notion that he was communicating with a non dot gov email and insecure server. Obama has issued a protective order for his communications to be protected under executive privilege.

Peter Kadzik, the deputy attorney general under Loretta Lynch had and is a long time friend of John Podesta, a former White House chief of staff for Obama and current campaign architect for the Hillary run for the White House was the point person to shut down the Clinton Foundation investigation. Kadzik was also the point person for the IRS targeting investigation and he too protected Lois Lerner and declared the matter completed without any prosecution.

While it has now been confirmed that the FBI using several agent disciplines from a variety of departments within the agency has been investigating the Clinton Foundation, there is enough evidence to date for indictments including least of which is RICO. During this ongoing investigation into the Foundation, the FBI used hidden recording devices and informants to gain answers during interviews with several witnesses and in other cases re-interviews. This information was provided to the Justice Department where the top leadership at the DoJ stopped the process that was managed by McCabe. It was his wife that was given $700,000 for her run for Senate. McCabe wanted the investigative team to continue but the DoJ shut him down. The agents instead continued. The Clinton Foundation has taken the highest priority due to the 650,000 emails on Anthony Weiner’s computer that were the collection maintained by Huma Abedin. It is here that emails are spelling out the pay to play operations in all corners of the Clinton sphere.

1. The Clinton Foundation investigation is far more expansive than anybody has reported so far and has been going on for more than a year.

2. The laptops of Clinton aides Cherryl Mills and Heather Samuelson have not been destroyed, and agents are currently combing through them. The investigation has interviewed several people twice, and plans to interview some for a third time.

3. Agents have found emails believed to have originated on Hillary Clinton’s secret server on Anthony Weiner’s laptop. They say the emails are not duplicates and could potentially be classified in nature.

4. Sources within the FBI have told him that an indictment is “likely” in the case of pay-for-play at the Clinton Foundation, “barring some obstruction in some way” from the Justice Department.

5. FBI sources say with 99% accuracy that Hillary Clinton’s server has been hacked by at least five foreign intelligence agencies, and that information had been taken from it.

Beyond all of this, it must be further noted that Hillary also had her State Department bypass law and protocol when dealing with sanctioned individuals due in part to being listed on the terror list. Hani Noor Eldin was granted a visa to the United States to lobby powerbrokers to release the ‘blind sheik’ from prison. Omar Abdel Rahman was responsible for the first World Trade Center bombing.

James Comey has taken a meeting with his boss Loretta Lynch over the scope of investigations of the Clinton cases and it for the most part has been determine that Comey laid out the events to which Lynch has perhaps backed off and allowed Comey to pursue the work of the FBI into all phases not only domestically but internationally.

The computer shared by Huma and Anthony is also at the center of another part of the investigation and does contain communications and documents which are not duplicates.

Lastly but not completely in this story, Huma Abedin has been taken off the duty as Hillary’s aide and is full time tending to her son while the father, Anthony Weiner was been dispatched to rehab for pervert and cyber sex-texting.

To be continued…..

Putin’s Navy and Ukraine and Syria

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Ukraine rebuilds navy, with U.S. help, to counter Russian build-up in Crimea

Reuters: Ukraine is refitting and expanding its naval fleet, including repairing its flagship, the frigate “Hetman Sahaydachnyy”, to counter a Russian military build-up in the annexed territory of Crimea, the commander of the Ukrainian navy says.

The upgrade will be helped by $30 million worth of U.S. aid, part of a $500 million package from Washington for the Ukrainian military which Kiev expects to receive next year. (Graphic: Size of Russian navy tmsnrt.rs/2fEjLO1)

“Step by step we will rebuild our fleet from the beginning,” Vice Admiral Ihor Voronchenko told Reuters in an interview.

“Our capacities in terms of quality will be better that the ones which remained in Crimea.”

Ukraine lost two-thirds of its fleet, which had been mostly based in Sevastopol, when Russia seized Crimea from Kiev in 2014. Since then it has fought Russian-backed separatists in the Donbass region in a war that has killed nearly 10,000 people.

Before the Russian annexation, Moscow leased facilities from the Ukrainian state to house its Black Sea Fleet, which has been based in Crimea for more than two centuries. Those facilities, mainly around Sevastopol, are now being expanded.

Russia has started a program to militarize Crimea, including resurrecting Soviet-built facilities, building new bases and stationing soldiers there, according to a Reuters Special Report.

When Russia seized Crimea, Ukraine stopped the “Hetman Sahaydachnyy”, the landing ship “Yuriy Olifirenko”, the missile boat “Pryluky” and some gunboats from falling into Russian hands.

“We just started repairing works at our flagship,” Voronchenko said.

Two new gunboats are almost ready for service “and I am sure we will receive four more boats in July next year,” he said.

The navy also plans to have a new Corvette warship and a new missile boat by 2020.

Other measures by Ukraine to beef up its defense include raising the level of training for navy personnel and creating new units of coastal defense troops. Part of the training is being carried out in NATO member countries Italy, France and Britain.

Voronchenko said Russia was planning to turn Crimea into a “military base”, installing three submarine boats, new frigates and more airborne facilities. He also said that Russian ships were experiencing technical problems.

“We have information, we conduct surveillance. I cannot tell you everything,” he said. “But we can counter-attack all their hostile intentions. They also have problems in resources.” More here from Reuters.

Then there is the Mediterranean and Syria and the new maritime missions of Moscow.

Admiral Kuznetsov strike group
Then:
Russia’s new submarine mothership sets sail

Podmoskovye leaving the Zvezdochka Ship Repair Centre on 22 October for trials. Source: Zvezdochka Ship Repair Centre

Janes: The Russian Navy’s new submarine mothership Podmoskovye (Delta IV Stretch) set sail for the first time on sea trials on 22 October after a lengthy conversion.

Podmoskovye was originally the Project 667BDRM-class (Delta IV) nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) K-64, launched in 1986. It has now been converted to act as a mothership for the smaller special purpose Project 10831-class (‘Losharik’) and Project 1851-class (Paltus) submarines for underwater research and intelligence gathering activities.

Conversion of the submarine began in 1999 at the Zvezdochka Ship Repair Centre under Project 09787. This work included the removal of the submarine’s mid-section (containing the prominent missile launch tubes) and its replacement with the mid-section from a previous Russian submarine mothership, the Project 09774 (Yankee Stretch) boat K-411. This work is believed to have increased the length of the boat by 9 m to 175 m.

The submarine mothership is a converted Project 667BDRM-class (Delta IV) nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine. (Zvezdochka Ship Repair Centre)

The submarine mothership is a converted Project 667BDRM-class (Delta IV) nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine. (Zvezdochka Ship Repair Centre)

The Zvezdochka Ship Repair Centre stated on 24 October that repair and modernisation work on the submarine was now complete. The submarine is currently conducting factory sea trials to confirm the design characteristics of the submarine, the shipyard added.

***** The Power of Putin, is it Real?

The Russians have no strategic interests in Syria. There have been attempts to figure out why Russia intervened and what its end game is. Its intervention is limited and it is bogged down, just as the Americans are. Even if Aleppo falls, the war isn’t over. Yet they are there.

One theory is that Putin intervened in Syria because he believed Russia’s control over gas supplies to Europe was under threat. Perhaps, but any potential pipeline going through Iraq and war-torn Syria was unrealistic in the first place. Plus, a military operation to secure a pipeline (or to block one, whatever the case may be) makes little sense. Another theory is that Russia wants a naval base in Syria. That is possible, but it makes little military sense. Naval bases and operations depend on extensive logistical support for food, munitions and so on. These supplies are far too extensive to be flown in. And anything that would come to Syria from Russia by sea would come through the Bosporus. That is controlled by Turkey, and the U.S. Sixth Fleet could easily block exits. A naval base in Syria is more a liability than a warfighting asset.

But the Russians were not in Syria to save Bashar al-Assad, control pipelines, build naval facilities or intimidate the United States. They were there so Putin could appear to be more powerful than he was, and that was primarily for the benefit of his public. As the economy weakened and privations increased, he had to give it all a meaning, and Syria made him appear to be restoring Russia’s greatness. Convincing Western public opinion of his power was of secondary value, and in the course he made the cover of the Economist. More here.