Showing posts with label extremism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label extremism. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 07, 2015

When Iran tests its first nuclear weapon, Obama should be forced to return his Nobel Peace Prize

By Alan Caruba

Only fools express any trust in Obama these days or the Iranians who have made him look the fool when no one in their neighborhood or the world trusts a thing they say or do.

After more than six years of listening to President Obama’s unremitting lies, when he says of the latest “accord” with Iran, “It’s a good deal” and standing in the Rose Garden declares that the U.S. and Iran have reached “an historic understanding” the only history being made his own ignominy and idiocy.

It would be historic if anyone could extend either President Obama or the Iranians any trust. Indeed, since the U.S. created its first atomic bombs to end World War II, one nation after another has secured their own nuclear weapons, starting with the then-Soviet Union who built theirs with plans stolen from us!

We have been down this road before. On April 1st Wall Street Journal columnist Daniel Henninger offered an abridged look at the quarter-century of negotiations with North Korea which agreed to all manner of terms, signed all kinds of agreements, and joined various international organizations to assure everyone of their peaceful intent. He warned that “No agreement is going to stop Iran. Agreements, and a lot of talk, did not stop North Korea.”

“Iran,” said Henninger, “knows it has nuclear negotiators’ immunity: No matter how or when Iran debauches any agreement, the West, abjectly, will request—what else?—more talks. Iran’s nuclear bomb and ballistic missile programs will go forward as North Korea’s obviously did, no matter what.”

OBAMA'S PARTNERS IN PEACE: The complete obliteration of Israel in another Holocaust is "nonnegotiable"

By The Tower

Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Naqdi, the commander of Iran’s Basij militia, said in an interview that “erasing Israel off the map” is “nonnegotiable,” The Times of Israel reported today.

Naqdi’s comments were made public as Iran and six world powers prepared Tuesday to issue a general statement agreeing to continue nuclear negotiations in a new phase aimed at reaching a comprehensive accord by the end of June.

Fars News, an official Iranian news outlet, quoted Naqdi threatening both Saudi Arabia and the United States.

What did Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and the UAE expect from the Clintons in exchange for tens of millions?

By AgainstCronyCapitalism.org

I am sure it was because these countries simply believed in the foundation’s mission.

(From McClatchy)

“The fundamental issue here is that you’ve got foreign businesses and foreign governments giving money to the Clinton Foundation partly because of the foundation’s work, but also because of the access to the upper echelons of power in America,” said Lawrence Jacobs, a professor at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs and a prize-winning author of numerous books on politics. “I think the people who know something about politics understand the wink and a nod that’s going on here: Give to Bill and become a friend of Hillary. . . . There’s kind of a political shakedown going on here.”

Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Hillary Clinton, said that “it’s simply wrong to assert or even suggest” that donations to the foundation have influenced her foreign policy positions.

Indeed how could one “even suggest” such a thing. Or that these countries are trying to get in good with a potential future president? Ms. Clinton has no interest in such things. It’s not like she has a history of inside dealing or anything.

As we’ve said before, Hillary Clinton is counting on willful ignorance to make it to the White House. It is a vital part of her strategy.

Click here for the article. (Hat tip: BadBlue News Service)

HILLARY CLINTON SHOT AND CHASER: White House and State Dept. Hacked by Foreign Nationals Edition

Not literally a shot and chaser by Hillary (though word has it she may have a few issues with, uhm, over-imbibing). But one of our Ed Driscoll-style virtual shot-and-chaser vignettes.

SHOT: Top Spy: Hillary's Emails 'Likely' Hacked by China, Russia, Iran
A top intelligence official under President Obama, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, says that the chances Hillary Clinton's private emails were hacked is "very high." Flynn, who ran the Defense Intelligence Agency but is now retired, called it hackings "likely" ...

...Kelly asked, "What do you think the odds are that the Chinese, the Russians hacked into that server and her e-mail account?"

"Very high," Flynn said without hesitation. "Likely."

"Really?"

"Yep. Likely. They're very good at it. China, Russia, Iran, potentially the North Koreans. And other countries who may be 'our allies' because they can."

Flynn said we "all ought to be asked" about Hillary Clinton's emails and the security surrounding her private account.

CHASER: How the U.S. thinks Russians hacked the White House

Monday, April 06, 2015

UNEXPECTEDLY: Obamacare Caused Health Insurance Rates to Go Up By 50% On Average

By Warner Todd Huston

Remember how Barack Obama claimed that all our insurance rates would go down? Heck, at one point he even claimed he’d save Americans $2,500 a year. Well, it turns out that his Obamacare law caused expenses to soar by over 50% on average and for some more than that. Yes, Obama lied again.

Here are some examples of Obama claiming that insurance rates would go down for most Americans with his Obamacare law…

Well, apparently this is yet another major Obamacare lie. In fact, almost no one has found lower insurance rates. On the contrary, premiums have soared in costs and they continue to rise.

It’s been five years since the Affordable Care Act became law, but only two since most of its provisions went into effect.

As its detractors predicted, Obamacare’s implementation led to a large, immediate rise in health insurance premiums. This is hardly surprising: The law required that a broad swath of treatments be fully insured, thus deepening the moral hazard problems that have long plagued the American health insurance system.

Sunday, April 05, 2015

BILL WHITTLE: "SIR, I WILL NOT OBEY THAT ORDER."

By Bill Whittle

Let’s just assume for a moment that you’re a radical, left-wing zealot, who was raised by actual communists, and who, naturally enough views the United States military as the tool of capitalist exploitation and colonial racism. Now, further assume that through a perfect storm of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, fate, money, power and media bias somehow conspired to make you Commander in Chief of those same armed forces.

What would you do?

You couldn’t very well scuttle 11 carrier strike groups. You can’t just destroy entire air wings, or armored divisions, or any of the rest – no matter how much you may want to. That would break the spell.

If you hate this country, and you especially hate the military, you simply cannot go around destroying the weapons – that’s too obvious. But you can do something much more subtle, and in the long run, even more disastrous, if your stated goal is to fundamentally change the country and the military that protects and defends it.

You don’t have to destroy the weapons. You don’t even have to destroy the warriors. All you have to do is create a set of conditions that are so incompatible with the warrior code that the warriors will remove themselves, because these are people who risk death and dismemberment, and whether at the tip or the end of the spear, generally live in appalling conditions, under great emotional hardship, for disgraceful levels of pay.

Saturday, April 04, 2015

THANKS, OBAMA: Today's Middle East Resembles "Europe Right Before World War I"

By Steven Bucci

For years, the great nations of Europe spent huge sums of money to build their military might. They assembled themselves into blocs, all the better to play a dangerous game of power politics. Slowly, surely, they were stumbling toward war.

In June 1914, an assassin shot the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the powder keg was lit. The results were disastrous.

The Middle East today looks frighteningly similar to the Europe of the early 20th Century.

For years, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have competed—Iran, as the champion of the Shia Islamic world, the House of Saud as the de facto leader of the Sunni world.

Iran has a massive military, as well as major capabilities in unconventional warfare and espionage. It influences or outright controls Hezbollah in Lebanon, Assad in Syria, and the powerful Shia militias in Iraq. Now, Tehran is encouraging—and most likely aiding—the Al Houthis rebelling in Yemen.

The Saudis, powerful in their own right, have allied with al-Sisi in Egypt, King Abdullah in Jordan, and most of the other Gulf Arab states. They are also allied with the Pakistanis, who have one of the largest militaries in the world, and nuclear weapons to boot. Additionally, there is a growing possibility that the Turks may throw in with the Sunni side.

Washington Post hammers Obama's Iran deal as a catastrophic mistake

By The Tower

Noting that President Barack Obama’s stated goals for an acceptable nuclear deal with Iran in 2012 would see Tehran “‘[…] end their nuclear program’ and ‘abide by the U.N. resolutions that have been in place,'” an unsigned staff editorial published today in The Washington Post laments that the president has retreated “a long way” from these positions.

The “key parameters” for an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program released Thursday fall well short of the goals originally set by the Obama administration. None of Iran’s nuclear facilities — including the Fordow center buried under a mountain — will be closed. Not one of the country’s 19,000 centrifuges will be dismantled. Tehran’s existing stockpile of enriched uranium will be “reduced” but not necessarily shipped out of the country. In effect, Iran’s nuclear infrastructure will remain intact, though some of it will be mothballed for 10 years. When the accord lapses, the Islamic republic will instantly become a threshold nuclear state.

The editorial also observes that the sanctions relief that would follow an agreement would allow Iran “to wage more aggressively the wars it is already fighting or sponsoring across the region.”

ISRAEL UNITED: Obama's Iran Deal is Utterly Insane

By Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel


I just came from a meeting of the Israeli cabinet. We discussed the proposed framework for a deal with Iran.

The cabinet is united in strongly opposing the proposed deal.

This deal would pose a grave danger to the region and to the world and would threaten the very survival of the State of Israel.

The deal would not shut down a single nuclear facility in Iran, would not destroy a single centrifuge in Iran and will not stop R&D on Iran's advanced centrifuges.

On the contrary. The deal would legitimize Iran's illegal nuclear program. It would leave Iran with a vast nuclear infrastructure. A vast nuclear infrastructure remains in place.

The deal would lift sanctions almost immediately and this at the very time that Iran is stepping up its aggression and terror in the region and beyond the region.

In a few years, the deal would remove the restrictions on Iran's nuclear program, enabling Iran to have a massive enrichment capacity that it could use to produce many nuclear bombs within a matter of months.

The deal would greatly bolster Iran's economy. It would give Iran thereby tremendous means to propel its aggression and terrorism throughout the Middle East.

Such a deal does not block Iran's path to the bomb.

Such a deal paves Iran's path to the bomb.

And it might very well spark a nuclear arms race throughout the Middle East and it would greatly increase the risks of terrible war.

Now, some say that the only alternative to this bad deal is war.

That's not true.

There is a third alternative – standing firm, increasing the pressure on Iran until a good deal is achieved.

Friday, April 03, 2015

"Diplomacy has brought war upon us"

By Caroline Glick


The world powers assembled at Lausanne, Switzerland, with the representatives of the Islamic Republic may or may not reach a framework deal regarding Iran’s nuclear program. But succeed or fail, the disaster that their negotiations have unleashed is already unfolding. The damage they have caused is irreversible.

US President Barack Obama, his advisers and media cheerleaders have long presented his nuclear diplomacy with the Iran as the only way to avoid war. Obama and his supporters have castigated as warmongers those who oppose his policy of nuclear appeasement with the world’s most prolific state sponsor of terrorism.

But the opposite is the case. Had their view carried the day, war could have been averted.

Through their nuclear diplomacy, Obama and his comrades started the countdown to war.

In recent weeks we have watched the collapse of the allied powers’ negotiating positions.

They have conceded every position that might have placed a significant obstacle in Iran’s path to developing a nuclear arsenal.

Thursday, April 02, 2015

OBAMA: If you like Iran without nuclear weapons, you can keep Iran without nuclear weapons

I'm paraphrasing, of course, but only just:

The new deal between Iran, the United States and its allies Thursday is a "historic understanding" that paves the way for a final agreement aimed at preventing Tehran from making nuclear weapons, President Obama said.

"If this framework leads to a final, comprehensive deal, it will make our country, our allies, and our world safer," Obama said at the White House.

Obama forcefully turned his 18-minute statement in the Rose Garden into a victory lap for his policies on Iran and the Middle East. He pledged to work with Congress and Israel, which are both skeptical of any deal with Iran, and with other nations to create a lasting agreement that negotiators have to reach by June 30.

Israel, the existence of which hangs in the balance, ain't convinced.

“Tomorrow night, Jews everywhere will sit down at Passover Seder and debate whether Israel and the Jewish people have been sold out by Europe, President Obama and those that agreed to make this deal with Iran,” said Nathan Diament, Executive Director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center. “President Obama said ‘If Iran cheats, the world will know it.’ People will be wondering – is that akin to ‘if you like your health insurance, you can keep it?’”

Short answer? Yes.


Hat tip: BadBlue News

Wednesday, April 01, 2015

I GOT 21 PROBLEMS AND A GAY WEDDING CAKE AIN'T ONE

Over a IJreview, Kyle Becker and Justen Charters dissect the hypocrisy of the left's outcry over Indiana's religious freedom law using one, simple map.

21 Problems with the National Outcry About Indiana’s ‘Religious Freedom’ Law on One Map

Indiana’s controversial new bill signed into law is called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). The bill guarantees individuals the right to conduct business without ‘substantially burdening their ability to exercise their religion.’

It has been roundly condemned around the nation. Seattle’s mayor went so far as to issue a travel ban to Indiana for city workers, while San Francisco’s mayor is considering a ban on city funds being sent to the Hoosier state.

Nevertheless, the ‘extremely controversial’ RFRA is based on a 1993 Federal Law, which is also dubbed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. It was signed into law by ‘right-wing extremist’ president Bill Clinton.

Above is a map of the states that have signed onto versions of the 1993 RFRA signed into law by former President Bill Clinton (as of 2014). The ACLU map shows 19 states that adopted such legislation; Utah and Indiana more recently passed laws.

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

SURPRISE: Israel catches Obama in major Iran nuke flip-flop

Like your doctor, keep your doctor. He 'evolved' on gay marriage. He's against wiretapping American citizens. He's drawing a "red line" with Syria on its use of chemical weapons. Yada yada yada.

So, I ask you drones, leftists and other miscreants: why would you believe anything this man says, ever?

“The biggest threat to our security and our future was and remains Iran's attempts to arm with nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said at the ceremonial opening of the 20th Knesset just hours before the self-imposed deadline for reaching a framework deal between the world powers and Iran.

“The agreement being put together in Lausanne paves the way for that result. Apparently it will leave in Iran's hands underground facilities, the [hard-water] reactor at Arak, advanced centrifuges...

...All those things that only a few months ago we were told, rightfully so, that they were not vital to a peaceful nuclear program.”

Underground facilities? A reactor at Arak? Technically advanced centrifuges? But... but... but... I thought...

It was US President Barack Obama who said that each of those elements was not needed for a peaceful program.

Obama, during a question-and answer session at the Saban Forum at the Brookings Institution in Washington in December 2012, said the following:

“In terms of specifics, we know that they don’t need to have an underground, fortified facility like Fordow in order to have a peaceful nuclear program.

“They certainly don’t need a heavy-water reactor at Arak in order to have a peaceful nuclear program. They don’t need some of the advanced centrifuges that they currently possess in order to have a limited, peaceful nuclear program,” Obama said at the time.

Thought experiment: if Obama really was doing his damnedest to surreptitiously deliver nuclear weapons into the hands of the Iranians, what exactly would he be doing differently?

And I also put it to you: isn't there some way to blame this on Bush?


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Monday, March 30, 2015

WASHINGTON POST RIPS OBAMA-IRAN NUKE DEAL: Would Reward Terror State's Past Violations

By The Tower

The question of whether to trust Iran’s claims that its nuclear program is purely for peaceful purposes can be answered by a single issue: “Iran’s failure to deliver on multiple pledges to answer questions about its suspected research on nuclear warheads,” a staff editorial in The Washington Post asserted on Saturday.

The editorial recounts how both in 2007 and 2013, Iran agreed to clear up any questions about possible military dimensions of its past nuclear research, but “it then stonewalled inspectors, refusing to answer questions or permit access to sites.” After Iran refused to allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to access its Parchin military base, where nuclear weapons research is suspected to have taken place, “the IAEA published an extensive report detailing what it already knew about the illicit bomb work and listed 12 outstanding issues.” The government of President Hassan Rouhani agreed to address these outstanding issues.

However, the Post documents that the promised cooperation was again not forthcoming.

Sunday, March 29, 2015

"Under Obama, we have switched sides"

Michael Goodwin:

If you’re confused about the Saudi Arabia-led air attacks against Islamist rebels in Yemen and can’t tell one group of head-choppers in Iraq and Syria from another, don’t despair. All you need is imagination.

Close your eyes and imagine that those countries and terrorists have nuclear weapons. Imagine their barbarism going nuclear as they blow up cities, wipe out ethnic and religious groups and turn the region into cinders.

Now open your eyes and realize you’ve seen the future, thanks to President Obama’s policies. It is a future that will be defined by Obama’s Wars. Yes, plural.

I’ve written frequently about the likelihood of a dystopian “Mad Max” scenario if Iran gets nukes. My thinking is guided by a belief among American military and intelligence officials that a nuclear exchange would take place in the Mideast within five years of Iran getting the bomb. To judge from events, the future is arriving ahead of schedule.

I once called this scenario "The Atomic Mahdi", though I had no idea then that we would have a president actively conspiring with the Mullahs.

These are grim thoughts, expressed because it is impossible to imagine any other outcome of Iran’s rise. It remains the world’s largest sponsor of terrorism and supports Hezbollah and Hamas and now the Houthis in Yemen. As for Iranian influence in Iraq, one analyst is calling Suleimani, the Revolutionary Guard commander, Iraq’s new “viceroy.”

Remember, too, Iran muscle and munitions are keeping Bashar Assad still standing in Syria. The wholesale death and destruction there — an estimated 200,000 people killed and millions displaced within the country and out of it — could be a prototype of its new empire.

While there are many dark and complex forces in play and blame to spread around, the most important catalyst of the violent disorder has been the reversal of America’s policies. Under Obama, we have switched sides, an abomination that ensures a legacy of infamy.

Read the whole thing.

And pray for our country. And our world.


Hat tip: Ace. Backgrounder: The Atomic Mahdi.

ISIS IN ILLINOIS: "JV" terrorists plotted to kill up to 150 intentionally disarmed soldiers in Ft. Hood copycat attack

By Investor's Business Daily

Terrorism: An Illinois National Guardsman sought to fight with Islamic State as his cousin plotted to kill scores at an Illinois National Guard facility. If they had succeeded, would President Obama call it workplace violence?

President Obama's "JV" terrorist team has metastasized to the point where its franchisees have spread across continents and oceans, with the FBI investigating ISIS-related activities and plots in all 50 states, including a very dangerous one in the commander in chief's home state of Illinois.

One of those FBI investigations involved the arrest Wednesday of Hasan Edmonds — a supply specialist with the Illinois National Guard, who had trained at the Joliet Armory since 2011 — at Chicago's Midway International Airport as he prepared to board a plane to Detroit and then to Cairo via Amsterdam, with the goal of joining the Islamic State.

Two hours later, authorities picked up his cousin, Jonas Edmonds, who had planned to wear Hasan's uniform and attack the facility in the same manner that Maj. Nidal Hasan did at Fort Hood, Texas.

The cousins had scouted out the armory on Tuesday, with Hasan Edmonds picking up a copy of the facility training schedule. The plan was for Jonas Edmonds to carry out the assault using AK-47s and grenades.

IRANIAN DEFECTOR: Barack Obama wants Iran to get nukes

Two more data points that offer additional evidence that Barack Obama is doing his level best to see Iran acquire nuclear weapons. Because, eh, crusades, I guess.

Iranian Defector: US arguing on Iran's behalf with P5+1 countries

Times of Israel, 29 March 2015

An Iranian journalist who was sent to cover the nuclear talks in Lausanne, Switzerland, defected over the weekend... Amir Hossein Motaghi, who was instrumental in the election of President Hassan Rouhani when he served as his personal aide during the Iranian election, asked authorities in Switzerland to grant him political asylum...

...According to the British Telegraph newspaper, Motaghi ... harshly criticized the American role in the talks, saying the White House was attempting to persuade the other members of the P5+1 group of nations (US, England, France, Russia, China and Germany) to accept Iran’s point of view.

The US negotiating team is mainly there to speak on Iran’s behalf with other members of the 5+1 countries and convince them of a deal,” Montaghi said.

Expected Iranian nuclear deal worse than Israel feared

Reuters, 29 March 2015

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned on Sunday the framework Iranian nuclear agreement being sought by international negotiators, saying it was even worse than his country had feared...

"This deal, as it appears to be emerging, bears out all of our fears, and even more than that," Netanyahu told his cabinet in Jerusalem as the United States, five other world powers and Iran worked toward a March 31 deadline in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Noting advances made by Iranian-allied forces in Yemen and other Arab countries, Netanyahu accused the Islamic republic of trying to "conquer the entire Middle East" while moving toward nuclearization.

And where will Obama be when nuclear weapons detonate in the Middle East or cities in the West?

Obama May Have Bought Sprawling, $9 Million Hawaiian Beachfront Home

Daily Caller, 22 March 2015

News reports indicate that President Barack Obama may have just purchased a beachfront home in Hawaii. But isn’t he worried about sea level rise from global warming?

Hawaii’s KTV4 News reports that a man connected to Obama purchased the multi-million dollar beachfront home featured in the show “Magnum P.I.” — the property was then sold to a limited liability corporation in Colorado. But if the House was bought on the president’s behalf, isn’t he worried that rising sea levels will harm his new real estate?

Obama has long warned that sea level rises caused by man-made global warming will make storm surges and flooding worse for coastal communities. In his 2015 State of the Union speech, Obama said “we’ll continue to see rising oceans, longer, hotter heat waves, dangerous droughts and floods.”

So why would Obama give a crap whether Iran gets nukes? He will be long gone when the piper will be paid.


Hat tip: BadBlue Real-Time News

Saturday, March 28, 2015

HILLARY'S DAMAGED CANDIDACY: The Stench of Corruption Follows Her Wherever She Goes

By Investor's Business Daily

Scandal: Hillary's emails may be only the tip of an iceberg that could include Clinton Foundation donations to shield Boko Haram from being designated a terrorist group and her brother's involvement in a Haitian gold mine.

We doubt Team Hillary was thrilled or her critics surprised Tuesday when the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security named Mrs. Clinton's brother, Tony Rodham, in a report about a firm that allegedly received preferential treatment from the Obama administration.

The firm, Gulf Coast Funds Management, with Tony Rodham listed as its chief executive, allegedly benefited from what the report says was "politically motivated" intervention of then-United States Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro Majorkas, whom president Obama promoted to be the No. 2 official at DHS even as he was under investigation.

A MUSLIM WORLD WAR: No One to Root for in the Yemen Conflict

By Michael Snyder

Saudi Arabia and Egypt stand poised to conduct a massive ground invasion of Yemen, and the western media will be full of tales about how “Operation Decisive Storm” is liberating that country from the evil Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. And without a doubt, the Houthis are bad guys and so are their Iranian benefactors. But don’t be fooled into thinking that the war in Yemen is a battle of good vs. evil. The truth is that the conflict in Yemen is actually a proxy war between two sets of bad guys that both ultimately plan for Islam to take over the entire planet. On one side, the Iranians are very honest about the fact that they view us as an enemy, and they plan to impose their version of radical Shia Islam worldwide as soon as they can.

On the other side, the Saudis pretend to be our friends, but they don’t hide the fact that they believe that their version of Sunni Islam will eventually rule the world. And their version of Sunni Islam includes constant beheadings, the destruction of all churches and the death penalty for anyone caught smuggling a Bible into Saudi territory. At the end of the day, there is very little difference between the Saudis and ISIS. In fact, ISIS gets a lot of funding from Saudi sources, and there is more support for ISIS on Twitter from Saudi Arabia than from anywhere else. Saudi Arabia is a horribly repressive regime where women are treated like dirt, where the secret police conduct a never ending reign of terror and where even a minor deviation from sharia law can mean the loss of a limb. But because our politicians and the mainstream media constantly tell us that they are “our friends”, we cheer them on.

It is being reported that the Saudis have mobilized 150,000 troops for a ground invasion of Yemen, and Egypt says that it is ready to contribute a very large force as well. The Saudis simply were not going to just sit back and watch as pro-Iranian forces took total control of their neighbor. The following is how the Telegraph recently described what the Iranians have been up to in Yemen for the past several years…

Friday, March 27, 2015

DUDE: Private Emails Reveal Ex-Clinton Aide's Secret Spy Network

by Jeff Gerth, ProPublica, and Sam Biddle, Gawker

This story was co-published with Gawker.

Update, March 27, 6:48 p.m.: This story has been updated to include responses from the FBI and the State Department.

Starting weeks before Islamic militants attacked the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, longtime Clinton family confidante Sidney Blumenthal supplied intelligence to then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gathered by  a secret network that included a former CIA clandestine service officer, according to hacked emails from Blumenthal's account.

The emails, which were posted on the internet in 2013, also show that Blumenthal and another close Clinton associate discussed contracting with a retired Army special operations commander to put operatives on the ground near the Libya-Tunisia border while Libya's civil war raged in 2011.

Blumenthal's emails to Clinton, which were directed to her private email account, include at least a dozen detailed reports on events on the deteriorating political and security climate in Libya as well as events in other nations. They came to light after a hacker broke into Blumenthal's account and have taken on new significance in light of the disclosure that she conducted State Department and personal business exclusively over an email server that she controlled and kept secret from State Department officials and which only recently was discovered by congressional investigators.

The contents of that account are now being sought by a congressional inquiry into the Benghazi attacks. Clinton has handed over more than 30,000 pages of her emails to the State Department, after unilaterally deciding which ones involved government business; the State Department has so far handed almost 900 pages of those over to the committee. A Clinton spokesman told Gawker and ProPublica (which are collaborating on this story) that she has turned over all the emails Blumenthal sent to Clinton.