Shall we start with U.S. Ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman, who solicited minors and prostitutes?
And the cover-up? A detailed summary is here along with a 36 page report.
Hillary cant play stupid on this one…if she would even get close to media, some would perhaps ask her some epic questions. There is no spin on this, read on to learn why. There are two whistleblowers with the ‘goods’.
State Department Inspector General officials edited out passages of a high-profile report in 2013 that could have embarrassed Hillary Clinton just days before she quit President Obama’s Cabinet.
The officials excised details of a cover up of misconduct by Clinton’s security team.
The edits raise concerns that investigators were subjected to “undue influence” from agency officials.
The Washington Examiner obtained earlier drafts of the report which differ markedly from the final version. References to specific cases in which high-level State officials intervened and descriptions of the extent and frequency of those interventions appear in several early drafts but were later eliminated.
The unexplained gaps in the final version, and the removal of passages that would have damaged the State Department, call into question the independence of Harold Geisel, who was State’s temporary inspector general throughout Clinton’s four years at the head of the department. More detail here.
*** Yet in 2013, it was common knowledge around the agency and in the media.
The US state department failed to fully investigate allegations against its officials involving prostitution, a drug ring and assault, media report.
A leaked internal document obtained by CBS News said staff protecting ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton regularly solicited sex workers.
The reports also allege a drug ring may have provided narcotics to state department contractors in Iraq.
But it is suggested officials may have tried to cover up the misconduct.
According to CBS, a draft copy of a state department inspector general’s report alleges eight specific examples of improper behaviour by US officials.
‘Criminal behavior’
Some allegations were suppressed, according to CBS, such as an investigation into an unnamed ambassador who was said to be visiting prostitutes in a public park.
The document cites allegations that the envoy “routinely ditched his protective security detail in order to solicit sexual favors from both prostitutes and minor children”.
It went on to say that the ambassador’s security team and other colleagues “were well aware of the behavior”, according to the reports.
CBS reports that attempts to look into the allegations were stopped in their tracks.
According to the broadcaster, the copy of the draft report said: “Hindering such cases calls into question the integrity of the investigative process, can result in counterintelligence vulnerabilities and can allow criminal behavior to continue.”
CNN also reports that the inspector general found an attempt to investigate claims that a drug ring near the US embassy in Baghdad was supplying illegal substances to state department security contractors was stopped.
It was also alleged that a state department security official in Beirut “engaged in sexual assaults” against foreign nationals hired as embassy guards. The same person was accused of similar attacks during previous foreign postings, according to CNN.
Meanwhile, members of Mrs Clinton’s security detail solicited prostitutes on official trips, a problem the leaked report is said to have described as “endemic”.
Aurelia Fedenisn, who was an investigator with the state department’s inspector general, told CBS: “We also uncovered several allegations of criminal wrongdoing in cases, some of which never became cases.”
The inspector general’s office has reportedly asked external law enforcement experts to look at the way the state department handles complaints of serious misconduct by its senior staff.
Findings are expected later in the summer.
State department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said: “We take allegations of misconduct seriously and we investigate thoroughly.
“All cases mentioned in the CBS report were thoroughly investigated and under investigation, and the department continues to take action.”
*** Enter the real details of key Wikileaks cables. Hillary got the goods on everyone, including her own staff. Cheryl Mills, who actually has power of attorney for both Clintons likely has an interesting file stored on that pesky server.
What makes Clinton’s sleuthing unique is the paper trail that documents her spying-on-their-diplomats-with-our-diplomat orders, a paper trail that is now being splashed around the world on the Web and printed in top newspapers. No matter what sort of noises Clinton makes about how the disclosures are “an attack on America” and “the international community,” as she did today, she’s become the issue. She’ll never be an effective negotiator with diplomats who refuse to forgive her exuberances, and even foreign diplomats who do forgive her will still regard her as the symbol of an overreaching United States. Diplomacy is about face, and the only way for other nations to save face will be to give them Clinton’s scalp.
How embarrassing are the WikiLeaks leaks? A secret cable from April 2009 that went out under Clinton’s name instructed State Department officials to collect the “biometric data,” including “fingerprints, facial images, DNA, and iris scans,” of African leaders. Another secret cable directed American diplomats posted around the world, including the United Nations, to obtain passwords, personal encryption keys, credit card numbers, frequent flyer account numbers, and other data connected to diplomats. As the Guardian puts it, the cables “reveal how the US uses its embassies as part of a global espionage network.”
Additionally, Clinton’s State Department specifically targeted United Nations officials and diplomats posted to the United Nations. Among the targeted were Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and permanent security-council representatives from China, Russia, France, and the United Kingdom, as this secret cable from July 2009 lays out. The State Department also sought biometric information on North Korean diplomats, security-council permanent representatives, “key UN officials,” and other diplomats at the United Nations.
Of course, U.S. diplomats have always collected information, no matter where posted. And, as the New York Times reports today, the United States has routinely placed intelligence officers abroad under the diplomatic cover of a State Department posting. But the price of a diplomat (or undercover intelligence officer) overstepping to engage in what the host nation considers to be spying has always been expulsion or, as illustrated earlier this month in Norway, a demand that the U.S. ambassador explain the “spying.”
As the Times and other publications report, international treaties make the United Nations a spy-free zone—or at least they’re supposed to make it spy-free. “In one 2004 episode, a British official revealed that the United States and Britain eavesdropped on Secretary General Kofi Annan in the weeks before the invasion of Iraq in 2003,” the Times reports. Anne Applebaum writes in Slate today that nobody should be honestly horrified at the image of the United States spying in the United Nations. Nobody in the diplomatic community is. But that doesn’t mean that they’re not going to take advantage of the moment to demand retribution that will shame the high-and-mighty United States.
There is no way that the new WikiLeaks leaks don’t leave Hillary Clinton holding the smoking gun. The time for her departure may come next week or next month, but sooner or later, the weakened and humiliated secretary of state will have to pay.
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Permanent disclosure: Slate is owned by the Washington Post Co.)
