Thread: These are documents Clinton's State Dept. didn't want you to read

These are documents Clinton's State Dept. didn't want you to read

BY SARAH WESTWOOD |
JUNE 17, 2015 | 12:01 AM

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton winks at a supporter following a rally, Sunday, June 14, 2015, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

State Department officials cut out embarrassing passages of a report before publishing it during Hillary Clinton's last days as secretary of state.

Earlier drafts of the final document reveal details about the "undue influence" that is mentioned only briefly in the published version released to the public the month Clinton left office, February of 2013.


The Washington Examiner obtained a dozen drafts of the report that revealed officials under Harold Geisel, the temporary inspector general during Clinton's four-year tenure, let sections be edited out in late 2012.

The deleted information gave details of several investigations stymied by high-level staff in the Bureau of Diplomatic Security.
A draft dated Nov. 16, 2012 contained several passages that explained the extent of interference in investigations from staff in Clinton's office.

"Sources reported that a senior '7th Floor' Department official ordered [diplomatic security] to stop the investigation of an ambassador accused of pedophilia, and another such senior official had [diplomatic security] stop an investigation of an ambassador-designate," the report said.

The seventh floor is often used as a reference to the secretary's office, as it is physically located on that level of the State Department building.

Another deleted passage refers to the Bureau of Diplomatic Security being caught "circling the wagons to protect favored ... rising stars from criminal charges or from embarrassing revelations that could harm a promising career."

Another section of the November 16 draft which never made it into the final draft, describes an incident in which Clinton's own security team was involved.

"[Special investigations division] investigators repeatedly expressed concern that they and many of the [diplomatic security] employees they investigate all work in the same Department annex, SA-20...Some [special investigations division] investigators pointedly carry their own firearms constantly while in SA-20, fearing a nasty elevator confrontation. Several recommended that ... [special investigation division]'s physical location should be away from SA-20, both in the spirit of investigative independence and to remove the threat of violent confrontations."

A draft dated Nov. 28, 2012 reveals the internal struggle to decide which information should be kept in the document as the watchdog whittled down its sensational findings. Handwritten notes question why certain passages "need to be deleted," as typed comments in the margins suggested.

The State Department has refused repeated requests for comment on the drafts.

The Examiner has now published two drafts online. Many of the others are very similar as edits and notes were added over time.

See Documents Here:
Nov. 16 2012 OIG Version

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/th...rticle/2566403http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/th...rticle/2566403

State Department spending followed foreign Clinton Foundation donors

BY SARAH WESTWOOD | MAY 29, 2015 | 12:01 AM


It seems that State ramped up activity in countries that gave to the foundation or paid Bill to speak.

Countries and companies that donated to the Clinton Foundation or paid Bill Clinton heavy fees for speeches saw an increase in State Department activity while Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state.

The presidential candidate's supporters have dismissed as conspiracy theories allegations that she and her husband traded political favors for contributions to their foundation or for lucrative speaking engagements.

A Washington Examiner analysis of Clinton Foundation donors suggests the State Department ramped up its diplomatic activity, foreign assistance and/or investment in countries that gave to the Clinton Foundation and hosted Bill Clinton for high-profile speeches.

For example, months after Bill Clinton delivered a speech in Riyadh for a price of $300,000, State Department funding for projects and activities in Saudi Arabia spiked.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has also donated between $10 million and $25 million to the Clinton Foundation, donor records show.

State Department funding for its diplomatic operations and projects in the country jumped from more than $18 million in 2011 to $67.75 million in 2012, the year after Bill Clinton delivered his speech at the Saudi Investment Authority, according to USASpending.gov.

Much of that appears to have gone toward the construction of new State Department buildingsin the country.

The agency poured $177.9 million into building a new embassy in Norway in 2011 over the apparent objections of diplomatic officials in Oslo.

Norway's government has donated between $10 million and $25 million to the Clinton Foundation.

A leaked diplomatic cable sent to Clinton in July 2009 shows plans for the embassy project, which predated Clinton's tenure as secretary, had been pushed from 2011 to 2020 to free up funding for embassies in key countries.

"We understand the arguments for first building NEC's [new embassy complexes] where terrorist threats are higher," the cable said of the delayed embassy plans in Norway.

The cable mentions "Pat Kennedy," the undersecretary for management and a close Clinton aide, among the State Department officials who had helped to further the project.

Kennedy's name also surfaced in Benghazi-related emails published by the State Department last week.

Despite the misgivings by agency officials in 2009, the State Department awarded the contract for the Norwegian embassy to Walsh Construction Group on September 27, 2011. It was the construction company's first overseas embassy project.

Norway teamed up with an arm of the Clinton Foundation in September 2012 for an ambitious health care project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is part of the State Department.

USAID, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, the Children's Investment Fund, the U.K. and Sweden supported the development of a type of contraceptive produced by Bayer that was widely distributed in poor nations.

All but Sweden and USAID itself were Clinton Foundation donors.

"The US Agency for International Development (USAID) is proud to have funded the development of this life-saving product," then-USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah said at the time.

The same year USAID announced its plan to purchase 27 million contraceptive devices from Bayer, which donated between $20,000 and $50,000 to the Clinton Foundation, the pharmaceutical company hired lobbyists with DLA Piper (itself a foundation donor) to lobby the State Department on "federal procurement issues," according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Bayer did not return a request for comment.

USAID and the State Department appear to have tapped Clinton-connected companies regularly for well intentioned projects around the world.

One month before Hillary Clinton left office, her agency launched an effort to expand the electronic banking sector in Afghanistan.
Citi, the Ford Foundation, Visa, Omidyar Network, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation were each involved in the USAID-backed initiative. All five donated heavily to the Clinton Foundation.

Hillary Clinton kicked off a taxpayer-funded effort to bring health information to pregnant women around the world through their phones in 2011 with the help of two foundation donors — Johnson & Johnson and the United Nations Foundation.

The "Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action" initiative won an award for its innovation in 2012 after being judged by an independent panel that included additional donors to the Clinton Foundation.

The Clinton Health Access Initiative was brought into a State Department health project called the President's Malaria Initiative alongside two of its major donors.

While the malaria initiative began in the Bush administration, it consumed millions while Hillary Clinton was at the State Department.
Irish Aid, Ireland's development agency, and the British version of USAID — both foundation donors of between $1 million and $5 million — also shared in the U.S.-backed project in Uganda.

Ireland saw a substantial increase in the money USAID and the State Department spent on operations and projects there while Hillary Clinton was in office.

She even made Ireland the site of her final official trip as secretary of state when she traveled there to receive an award from one of her family foundation's top donors.

The State Department increased its spending in Ireland from $1.65 million in 2009 to $2.96 million in 2010 and $7.48 million in 2011.

USAID also upped its support of Ireland, taking its funding from nothing in 2008 — the oldest year for which data is available — to $29.87 million the year Clinton came into office.

After the Kingdom of Bahrain donated heavily to the Clinton Foundation, the State Department stepped up its activities in the Middle Eastern nation.

The agency's contracts, grants, loans and investments in Bahrain climbed from $6.8 million the year before Clinton came to the State Department, to $7.1 million in 2009, to $8.9 million in 2011 and peaked at $11 million during Clinton's final year in office.
Bahrain also enjoyed nearly $2 million from USAID in 2010, bringing its total State Department funding that year to more than $10 million.

To put that figure in perspective, the State Department spent just $1.9 million on its operations in Trinidad & Tobago, the country whose GDP was closest to Bahrain's, in 2010. The agency spent just $1.3 million on its operations in Mauritius, the country whose population was closest to Bahrain's, that same year.

United Arab Emirates and Jamaica, two other countries whose governments donated directly to the Clinton Foundation, also saw the State Department's funding rise during Clinton's tenure.

USAID's support of its operations and other projects in Jamaica crept from $2.8 million the year before Clinton took office to $15.8 million in 2011.

State Department spending in the United Arab Emirates rose from $11.57 million in 2008 to $16.79 million in 2012, peaking in 2010 at $21.18 million.

The Clinton Foundation did not return a request for comment about the nature of its direct work with the State Department while Clinton ran the agency.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/st...rticle/2565215

This is not good for Hillary. I think the media at least some of it is going to rake Hillary over the coals and then leave her on them to burn. It's fair, she has the education and experience to have handled these matters far better than it seems she did. She's going to lose on policies, income tax, Obamacare, immigration and trade. She's also going to lose on management, Benghazi, Gutman, Clinton Foundation, Emails, department spending with big donors, and cover-ups. And that's only the ones we know about so far.

Bernie Sanders is probably looking real good to a whole lot of Democrats about now.