Tuesday 11 October 2016

More emails released by Wikileaks

WikiLeaks releases 2nd batch of 2,000+ emails from Clinton campaign chair



RT,
10 October,2016

Whistleblowing website WikiLeaks has released a second batch of emails from Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign chairman John Podesta. The new release features 2,086 hacked emails out of a trove that Julian Assange says includes 50,000 messages.



Former President Bill Clinton features prominently in the latest leaks, as highlighted by Wikileaks’ Twitter feed. In one, People close to the power couple pushed for Mr. Clinton, referred to as “WJC” for William Jefferson Clinton, to be less involved with his wife’s presidential campaign due to his extramarital affairs.

I had a multi-email exchange with someone in the media this morning---a name you would know---who is telling me that there are people close to the Clintons who says WJC's sex life could be damaging to her,” a January 2016 email from blogger Brent Budowsky to Podesta reads.

: People close to the Clintons pushing for "the less Bill [WJC] the better" due to his "sex life"

Another email, dated December 2011, from Doug Band, a lawyer who helped create the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), said that Clinton Foundation Chief Operating Officer Laura Graham was “suicidal” due to “the stress of all of this office crap with wjc” and the Clinton Valley Center. Band also called out the couple’s daughter Chelsea for not caring about “her role” in the office problems.

Bruce [Lindsey] said the stress of specifically the office had caused his very serious health issues as you both know,” he wrote. “But I'm sure chelsea is more concerned with a mostly false story in the distinguished ny post about mf global and teneo not her role in what happened to laura/bruce, what she is doing to the organization or the several of stories that have appeared in the ny post about her father and a multitude of women over the years.”

: Clinton Foundation COO suicidal over Bill Clinton & Clinton Valley Centre
That email wasn’t the first time Band expressed dislike of Chelsea Clinton. In an email to Podesta a month previous, he said she was “acting like a spoiled brat kid who has nothing else to do but create issues to justify what she's doing because she, as she has said, hasn't found her way and has a lack of focus in her life.”
An email between Graham and a senior aide to Mrs. Clinton, Huma Abedin, from November 2011 discusses the Clintons’ relationship with Goldman Sachs, and how it will help the foundation with additional office space.

They have an interested party (who today just asked for a draft lease - so that is moving quickly) on the table for part of the space so if we want additional space, we need to move quickly,” Graham wrote. “Goldman, b/c of their relationship with us, is delaying the drafting of a lease for this interested party until they get a better sense from us but they cannot hold them off too much longer.”

Last March, when discussing putting out a statement or a tweet regarding a standoff over an anti-human trafficking billthat was holding up the confirmation of nominee Loretta Lynch to be attorney general, Abedin described the relationship between Mrs. Clinton, whom she refers to as “HRC” for Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Lynch as “cordial.”

She knows Loretta. Not an extremely close relationship and don't remember last time they connected,” Abedin wrote.“She was in running to be [Eliot] Spitzer LG [lieutenant governor] years ago. Hrc wanted Leecia Eve, others pushed Lynch. Regardless, definitely a cordial relationship.”

With the nearly 2,100 emails released Monday morning, Wikileaks has now published more than 4,000 Podesta emails. During the second presidential debate on Sunday, Mrs. Clinton confirmed the authenticity of the messages released on Friday by clarifying comments exposed by the leak. Monday’s release covers emails between September 2007 and March 2016.


New leak reveals extent of Clinton ties with US media


© Brian Snyder
© Brian Snyder / Reuters


RT,
10 October, 2016

Hillary Clinton has been revealed to have a very cozy relationship with the US media, which has been found to work closely with Clinton’s campaign to present her in a favorable, transparent light – even planting stories, new email leaks suggest.

These facts are laid bare in the latest cache of classified Clinton campaign emails seen by The Intercept, which in turn received them from Guccifer 2.0 – the hacker who’s reportedly behind several high-profile intrusions.

U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton © Brian Snyder

Syria no-fly zone would mean ‘killing a lot of Syrians’ – leaked Clinton speech

The cache of emails includes campaign strategies aimed at keeping the public perception of Clinton favorable, focusing particularly on her transparency, especially in light of the FBI investigation into her use of a private email server. The strategies sometimes reveal the campaign presiding over stylistic points and emphasizing what is to be described as “on the record.”


Of particular note is one January 2015 document which includes references to Maggie Haberman. Formerly of Politico, Haberman now covers the presidential election for the New York Times. According to the leaked document, she’s a “friendly journalist” who has “never disappointed” in painting a positive picture of Clinton.

Haberman was seemingly put to good use, emerging with two stories which were meant to shed light, among other things, on how Hillary Clinton’s thought process works and how successful her cabinet members were. The New York Times piece entitled ‘Hillary Clinton Begins Process of Vetting — Herself’, talks about how open Clinton is to researching herself and how committed to transparency that makes her. Especially given how her opponents mainly focus on her foundation work, or the millions she’s received in paid speech appearances, as well as her relationship to Wall Street.

Neither Merrill nor Haberman responded to the Intercept’s requests for comment, nor did they deny that the document exists.

© Reuters



One of the documents, entitled ‘The Press and Surrogate Plan’, talked of willing personnel in the media who could always be put to good use, at CNN or elsewhere. Clinton staffers were also careful in distinguishing between “progressive helpers” and those who were potentially friendly, but could be further coerced.

These so-called media surrogates would often include TV pundits whose roles would appear to be neutral, but who were enrolled by the campaign. The metadata for the ‘surrogate’ document traces it back to its author Jennifer Palmieri – the Clinton campaign communications director.

Furthermore, as described in an April 2015 memo, there would be secret get-togethers involving media big shots and celebrity TV personalities – a notable one would take place in the aftermath of Clinton’s running announcement at the home of one of her strategists on the Upper East Side. The informal cocktail party was completely off-the-record, and intended to coordinate how Clinton’s campaign would be presented to the American public.
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Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Hillary Clinton appear together during their presidential town hall debate at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S., October 9, 2016. © Mike Segar


The strategies were not specifically formulated for the Clinton campaign, however. According to a March 2015 memo by campaign manager Robby Mook, the tried and tested tactic of constantly feeding the press positive stories in order to take away its ability to react to constant outside accusations was particularly important.


These controversial strategies have also been employed by the Republicans, although this latest cache of documents is the first glimpse into just how coordinated the effort is to use the media to political advantage.

The revelations from the Intercept come just as the second round of debating between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump has wrapped up, looking colder than ever, with not so much as a handshake exchange.

The leak also comes amid the latest official attack on Russia by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. On Friday they released a statement claiming they are ““confident that the Russian government directed” the hacks of emails and documents and their posting on WikiLeaks, DCLeaks, and the blog of the hacker calling himself 'Guccifer 2.0.'

Russia has been denying all complicity. The United States has still not presented any evidence of an official link to the Russian government.

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