ACTION

By Jiri and Leni Valenta

            Unafraid, Bi-Partisan, Uphold U.S. and Freedom

Donald Trump:  “I don’t bring it [Vince Foster’s death] up because I don’t know enough to really discuss it … I will say there are people who continue to bring it up because they think it was absolutely a murder. I don’t do that because I don’t think it’s fair.” 

The Donald, but also Bernie, sees behind Hillary a political treasure trove of scandals. Yet to prove her guilt is hard. Brilliant and power hungry Hillary has advanced with Bill’s and his friends’ super delegates  on the road to the land’s highest office. Yet, each new level of power has aided her in covering up the scandals of the last one. Repeatedly she has lied and prevaricated only to escape the legal fallout.   

Concluded the late New York Times, Pulitzer’s prize winning reporter, William Safire, two decades ago in “Blizzard of Lies,”  “She had good reasons to lie; she is in the longtime habit of lying; and she has never been called to account for lying herself or in suborning lying in her aides and friends.”

 Hillary’s mendacity, corrupt practices and obstruction of justice were already evident in idyllic Little Rock, Arkansas when Bill was governor.  With his help she speculated in cattle futures through a corrupt broker and turned a $1000 into $100,000. She said she studied the Wall Street Journal, but it was likely a disguised bribe. The Journal of Economics and Finance investigated the odds of anyone gaining a hundred-fold return in cattle futures – “at best 1 in 31 trillion.” 

Then came 1979 Whitewater.  Hillary was working for the Rose Law Firm, with two partners Vince Foster and Webb Hubbell.   In Safire’s words, “The records show she denied actively representing a criminal enterprise known as the Madison S.& L., and indicate she may have conspired with Web Hubbell's father-in-law to make a sham land deal that cost taxpayers $3 million.”

With Bill elected president in 1992, Hillary took both Foster and Hubbell with her to Washington.  Foster became deputy White House counsel, in charge of Hillary’s Whitewater documents.  Hubbell became Deputy Attorney General.  

Meanwhile, a new White House scandal erupted, “Travelgate.” As Safire wrote, Hillary used the FBI and Justice Department “to harass, intimidate and replace the employees of the [White House] travel office with her cronies… Now we know, from a memo long concealed from investigators that there would be hell to pay’ if the furious First Lady's desires were scorned.”

But Whitewater still wasn’t over. In 1993 Foster’s body turned up dead in a Washington Park with a bullet in his head.  Several investigations, the last under special prosecutor Ken Starr, declared the death a suicide and attributed it to Foster’s depression over Travelgate concerns.  Yet, prominent doubters seriously questioned the cause of death.  Was it really suicide—or worse? Describing the “Keystone Kop” activities of the park police at the death scene, Safire wondered at the fact that key Whitewater documents were cleaned out of Foster’s White House office by several of Hillary’s aides and hidden even before the police arrived!

Neither did Safire accept Foster’s death as “suicide.”   Foster, working on the Clintons' tax returns was in a sweat over Whitewater; “A can of worms you shouldn't open."  Moreover, numerous irregularities in the forensics surrounding Foster’s death smelled of fish.  A more recent report shows that Foster spoke to  Hillary hours before his death.  He had been called to testify to Congress about records she had refused to turn over. 

Only in 2009, however, did we learn more.  A memo by Ken Starr’s lead prosecutor, unearthed by two researchers in the National Archives, confirmed there was not one bullet wound, but two -- a second one in Foster’s neck.  That  finding put a “suicide” in doubt.  Hillary’s Whitewater partners, Hubbell, and a businessman, Jim McDougal, were eventually indicted for Whitewater and went to jail.  An indictment for the First Lady was also drafted, but not pursued.

Two years after Foster’s death, the missing Rose Law Firm papers all under subpoena -- were mysteriously found in three places; Hillary's closet, the personal files of Bill’s secretary, and Hubbell's basement before his felony conviction. Magically they turned up shortly after Hillary’s subpoena expired! 

By then the Clintons had a new scandal, “File gate.”  First detected by the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee investigating Travelgate, File gate involved the Clintons illegally obtaining FBI files on adversaries for the purpose of creating an enemies list.  Vintage Nixon! 

So does all this still matter? Besides the Vince Foster material uncovered in the National Archives,  Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch  has reported newly discovered prosecution memos from Whitewater that are “damning and dramatic” and suggest “if she weren't first lady, she would have been successfully prosecuted in federal court.”  Clearly both Foster’s death and Whitewater are still playing although diminuendo and not fortissimo.  But they are worth studying as bedrock for the two latest scandals.  And they do raise the question about what, with a Hillary presidency, we can expect.

The two latest scandals are Benghazi-gate and Server-gate. As Secretary of State under Obama, Hillary became the chief advocate of a military intervention in Libya.   We also learned from her e-mails that her decision was much influenced by intelligence primarily from a most unlikely source – a man known  as “Sid Vicious.”

A former prolific journalist turned Bill’s special White House assistant, Sid Blumenthal earned his pseudo name for the gusto with which he went after Monica Lewinsky and other “bimbos.”   In the  2008 campaign, he also went after Obama and was thereafter banned from employment at the State Department.   Employed by Hillary’s Clinton’s Foundation, however, loyal attack dog Sid  became Hillary’s  chief advisor on Libya, double-dipping also with military contractors eager to sell arms to Libyan rebels.  Although the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, had been begging for weeks for reinforcements to his Libyan consulate, he was not provided with Hillary’s private email address.  Sid not only had it, but used it extensively. 

It was with Sid’s help that Hillary conducted a secret war, arranging the purchase of arms from Qatar and the Saudis and supplying them to the Libyan rebels via Chris Stevens’ Benghazi’s CIA annex.  Indeed, when Libyan dictator Muammar Gadhafi was killed, Hillary was jubilant.  “We came, we saw and we killed him,” she crowed.  This accomplished, she worked with Stevens and his men to transport arms  to  U.S.-supported rebels in Syria via Turkey. 

Then an unexpected crisis! On September 11, Ansar al-Shariah, an al Qaeda affiliate, using a demonstration over an anti-Muslim video as cover, carried out a long- planned attack on the Benghazi consulate.  Stevens and three other Americans, Tyrone Woods, Sean Smith and Glen Doherty were killed.  Amidst a several hours’ attack, no rescue attempt was made by U.S. forces.  Stand down orders were given to all U.S. personnel who wanted to help. 

At 6.49 P.M., the same night, Hillary e-mailed the Libyan president,Mohamed Yusef al Magariaf  to ask him for additional security because of “a gun battle going on, which I understand Ansar as Sharia is taking responsibility for.”  At eleven P.M.  she e-mailed her daughter, Chelsea: “Two of our officers were killed in Benghazi by an Al Qeada-like group.”  The following day, in a phone conversation with then-Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil, she stated, “We know the attack in Libya had nothing to do with the film.”

On September 14, the coffins containing the four Americans killed in the attack were flown to Andrews Air Force base.  There they were received by the President, Hillary and the families of the dead.  Unlike Obama, who couldn’t look Charles Woods in the eye, Hillary was composed. Woods, father of dead Tyrone,  recorded her promise to him  in his diary: “We are going to have the filmmaker arrested who was responsible for the death of your son.”  Hillary later repeatedly lied to several media outlets she had never said any such thing.  Sean Smith’s mother, Pat, responded by dedicating to her “a special place in hell.”           

Thereafter, talking points – embellishing the video story, but with no mention of the long-planned, al Qaeda affiliate, terrorist attack, were subsequently forged by a White House team.  On  it was  Ben Rhodes,  Obama’s chief White House spinner, both on Libya and Iran as we now know. As Rhodes explained in his e-mail to Hillary: “The goal:  To underscore that these protests are rooted in [an] Internet video and not a broader failure of [our]policy.”

 Only two months away was the 2012 election and nothing was to jeopardize Obama’s victory.  Presidential rival Mitt Romney was already sniffing around Benghazi.  If exposed, the truth could seriously undermine Obama’s chief campaign myth -- Osama bin Laden is dead; al Qaeda decimated. But Mitt was no Donald.  He coasted rather than fought.   

Months of investigation followed crude attempts by the White House to  whitewash the whole affair.  Then came the Benghazi House Committee hearing and once again, thanks to friendly media, Hillary  got a pass.

But then came a fly in the spam.  In the course of its own investigation, the House Committee on Benghazi, discovered what Hillary had never intended they would find.  Not only did she use a private -email account, she had an unauthorized, and unapproved by the government private server in her closet (as with Whitewater). 

That brings us to the present scandal, “Server gate. “    In its search for truth, The State Department’s  Office of the Inspector General (OIG),  published in May 2016 a   highly critical analysis of her email practices, completely demolishing Hillary’s chief prevarication “I fully complied with every rule I was governed by.”   

“At a minimum,” stated the report, “Secretary Clinton should have surrendered all e-mails in dealing with Department business before leaving government service.”  She didn’t and lied that she did.   Arrogantly she also refused a request for an interview unlike four other Secretaries of State, Colin Powell, Condi Rice and John Kerry. So did her principle assistants Her defenders repeatedly evoked Powell who used private e-mail –but did not have a private server.  Moreover, there is currently evidence of two Security breaches, including one by Russian hackers.  The Russians claim to have 20,000 e-mails and their government agencies are debating how to use them.

Also under investigation now is the Clinton Foundation.  Besides some charitable work, another function of her foundation has been to build  a robust war chest for Hillary’s 2016 presidential campaign.  Friend Sid has been very helpful in this endeavor.  Whenever Hillary was about to decide on licenses for foreign entities, Bill was invited to share his wisdom for mammoth speaker’s fees.  Examination of the Clinton Foundation has revealed circumstantial evidence of massive influence peddling, including machinations that appear to have allowed Russia to wind up with 20% of our uranium.

Follow the money!  The advice provided to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward by  “Deep Throat” during  Watergate, seems very apropos.  Hillary’s long hidden e-mails must have also recalled to Woodward the thousands of hours of secret tapes resulting in Nixon’s downfall. “This has to go on a long, long time,” predicted the Watergate veteran,“ and the answers are probably not going to be pretty.” 

Pretty? Hillary’s horrific career has been long in the making.   A brilliant but corrupt individual, she has gotten away with misdeeds for which her partners and others have been indicted and jailed. Now, while awaiting FBI findings on her latest capers, she is facing the opportunity to rise to the penultimate position of power, the presidency! 

Neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump, nor Bernie Sanders are perfect presidential candidates.  Trump can be vulgar, direct and abrasive.  However, he has very positive qualities of patriotism, forthrightness and strong negotiating skills.  He also has definite plans on how to fix the economy, which Hillary wants to leave to her partner in her crime, husband Bill!   Bernie is an honest and genuine democratic socialist, but in the past he had illusions about Sandinista Nicaragua and still has them about the European social democracy that has evolved. 

 Electing Hillary, however,  would give the highest office in the land to a woman whose word could never be trusted;  a leader like Richard Nixon continually involved in obstruction of justice and without his foreign policy brilliance.  Bernie and many Democrats know it and are getting increasingly critical of her.  He is just waiting for the FBI report.

 Above all, both Democrats and Republicans should remember what Watergate taught us; that a president immersed in and weakened by impeachable scandals at home  is pray to our foes abroad. Thus we believe that either Donald or Bernie, in spite of their own weaknesses, would be far better for this nation than Hillary.  This country is at a critical turning point.  Let us pray that in their collective wisdom  American voters, will not turn the White House into another Millhouse inferno! 

Dr. Jiri Valenta is author and co-editor of several books dealing with Russian and American national security.  Contributor to the New York Times, Washington Times, Foreign Policy, International Security, The Middle East Quarterly, The National Interest, and more he is a long-standing member of the Council on Foreign Relations, NY.  Leni Friedman Valenta is the CEO and co-writer of their post-communist studies and terrorism  institute and website, jvlv.net.  She is also a blogger at the Russian International Affairs Council, the think tank of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  The Valentas are authors of a forthcoming book, Four Follies of American Foreign Policy, dealing with 9/11, the Iraq Invasion, Benghazi-gate and the Iran nuclear deal.