Hacker circulates Hillary Clinton Benghazi memos, Libyan President blamed the videos
A hacker, known only as “Guccifer,” has reportedly distributed confidential memos that were sent to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and dealt with various developments in Libya, including the Benghazi terrorist attack.
The hacker has apparently sent four of the recent memos to various sources all over the globe. One of her longtime confidants and former White House aide, Sidney Blumenthal had his AOL email account hacked last week.
The oldest memo sent to RT is dated September 12, 2012 — mere hours after four Americans were killed in a deadly assault on the US consulate building in Benghazi. Chris Stevens, an ambassador for the United States, was among those killed. (more below)
The Smoking Gun details what they received.
The hacker’s e-mails went to hundreds of recipients, though the distribution lists were dotted with addresses for aides to Senate and House members who are no longer in office. But many of the addresses to which the Blumenthal memos were sent are good (though it is unclear whether [email protected] is a solid address for the Republican mastermind).
Most of the e-mail recipients were sent four separate memos that were e-mailed to Clinton by Blumenthal during the past five months. Each memo dealt with assorted developments in Libya, including the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi. One memo marked “Confidential” was sent to Clinton on September 12.
According to the Blumenthal memos, though, even the US secretary of state was being fed disinformation directly after the attack. In the email dated Sept. 12, Sec. Clinton is told that the anti-Islamic film was likely the catalyst for the assault.
“A senior security officer told [interim Libyan President Mohammed Yussef] el Magariaf that the attacks on that day were inspired by what many devout Libyans viewed as a sacrilegious internet video on the prophet Mohammed originating in America,” the memo reads. “The Libya attacks were also inspired by and linked to an attack on the US mission in Egypt on the same day.”
Elsewhere in the first memo, Blumenthal tells Clinton that another source had even more to say about the assault:
“According to a separate sensitive source, el Magariaf noted that his opponents had often tried to connect him to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) through the National Front for the Salvation of Libya (NFSL), a group established in opposition to former dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi, which el Magariaf led in the 1980s. In the opinion of this individual el Magariaf believes that he can survive potential negative publicity in this regard, but if this situation continues to develop in this manner it will complicate his efforts to establish an orderly administration in the country. Again, he stated that the attacks on the US missions were as much a result of the atmosphere created by this campaign, as the controversial video.”
Later on, “a very sensitive source” is cited as saying that the Libyan president’s enemies are likely“working to take advantage of his suspected links to the CIA at a time when Western intelligence services are under scrutiny in Libya.”
Five months later, though, another memo sent to Mrs. Clinton painted a much different picture of what was happening abroad. An email dated Feb. 16, 2013 contains the subject line “Algeria/Libya/Terrorism” and touches on possible connections between the Benghazi assault and the January 2013 hostage crisis in In Amenas, Algeria near the Libyan border. In that dispatch, links are drawn between both major incidents.
