August 22, 2016

"Her people have been trying to pin it on me," said Colin Powell.

"The truth is, she was using [the private email server] for a year before I sent her a memo telling her what I did."

134 comments:

David Begley said...

The facts have never stopped the Clintons. And why are they trying to pin this on the black guy?

The Clintons are the WORST people in America.

David Begley said...

And, of course, the Clinton spin machine takes us for idiots and I suppose they are right about that.

This weekend Clinton campaign manager Mook floated the crazy theory that Trump was in Putin's pocket when the documentary evidence shows that Hillary is owned by Muslim countries.

eric said...

The key that the media cleverly forget to mention is that while Powell used a private email, Hillary used a private server. Give difference. Powell didn't have control of his emails and couldn't have wiped thousands of them from the server to thwart an investigation.

Hillary is always trying to excuse her behaviour.

cubanbob said...

Clinton claims she got the blessing to use private email from Powell even though she set up her server (which Powell never did) a year prior to the alleged conversation with Powell. Also Powell specifically told Clinton as per the alleged meeting to not use private email for sensitive or classified information but she went ahead and did it anyway.

If the press weren't Democrats with bylines the question to ask spokeswhore Mook the Mook would be which department or agency would you be comfortable having its business conducted by private email on private servers in a Trump Administration?

Chuck said...

Special enmity award to Joe Conason, "journalist." Not that Conason qualifies as much of a journalist. He's the Clintons' private journalist-on-retainer.

Anyway, this fabrication about Colin Powell suggesting a private server to Hillary was chiefly Conason's, right? I figured it was such a blatant and boneheaded lie, that none of the serious high-level Clinton staff would publish it. They had to farm out a lie of this level of depravity to Joe Conason.

Ipso Fatso said...

But in the end Colin Powell will still vote for Hillary Clinton for President.

readering said...

Clinton's worst enemy is herself. The reason she doesn't do press conferences is because she will just say the stupid stuff that pops into her head.

Original Mike said...

Blogger eric said..."The key that the media cleverly forget to mention is that while Powell used a private email, Hillary used a private server."

Sen Ben Cardin tried this crap again on Fox News Sunday. Other Sec States used a private email SERVER he said. He also trotted out the Colin Powell advised her on her email setup. Can't one dem come out and say what she did was wrong?. These people are despicable.

campy said...

Tomorrow's headline: Colin Powell Suicide In Ft. Marcy Park

traditionalguy said...

It's natural to blame the Black Man. They are the super predators according to Arkansas politicians.

Big Mike said...

About time the SOB fought back.

Quaestor said...

Tomorrow's headline: Colin Powell Suicide In Ft. Marcy Park

Today's headline: Assassination attempt? Panic for Julian Assange as intruder scales Ecuadorian embassy wall

damikesc said...

The key that the media cleverly forget to mention is that while Powell used a private email, Hillary used a private server. Give difference. Powell didn't have control of his emails and couldn't have wiped thousands of them from the server to thwart an investigation.

That's the annoying part. The press is trying to act like they're comparable. Powell has an AOL account. Hillary owned her own. You could subpoena Powell's if he did not turn them over. Hillary's has been more difficult.

Original Mike said...

"Hillary's has been more difficult."

Hillary's is impossible, given that she wiped the server.

Quaestor said...

And let's not forget the uranium deal.

eric said...

Can't one dem come out and say what she did was wrong?. These people are despicable.

This is why, despite ones distaste for the Republican candidate, it's almost always better to vote for the Republican.

It's clear there is a lot of opposition, from the right, to a President Trump. If he gets into office and starts pissing on us, we won't pretend it's raining. Or at least a sizeable enough chunk to join with the Democrats won't.

But can one say this about the left? About the Democrats?

I mean, Chuck is going to jump at the chance, any chance, to see Trump impeached if he wins. He may even do the same for Hillary. But who cares? No one is going to listen, or care, what Chuck has to say about Hillary. It's expected. Partisan.

But about trump he will have a voice. Be trotted out onto all the news shows. The spotlight will be on every Chuck. Always watching and hammering away at the administration.

The opposite will happen with Hillary. We will hear what we are hearing about Obama. A scandal free administration! Most transparent and ethical ever!

Ugh.

khesanh0802 said...

Wrong guy to alienate. Can't find it right now, but I read just a couple of minutes ago that someone - I suppose Judicial Watch - has found another 10,000 e -mails. Will post link if I can find it again.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

I saw that headline on the crawl of CNN's page; I laughed out loud. Don't let 'em get you, General!

rehajm said...

From CNN: Asked why he thought Clinton had named him in her defense of the email controversy, he replied, "Why do you think?"
"It doesn't bother me. But it's okay; I'm free," Powell said.


Is this really a quote from Powell? What the fuck does this even mean?

Maybe he is afraid of tomorrow's headline: Colin Powell Suicide In Ft. Marcy Park

boycat said...

Hillary's is impossible, given that she wiped the server

Like, with a rag.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Original Mike said...

Hillary's is impossible, given that she wiped the server.

Like with a cloth or something?

Darrell said...

The Democrats' strategy relies on the fact that the Press has kept you ignorant about the new law kicking in at the start of the Obama Administration prohibiting any Federal employee from using private email unless it is copied to a government server.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Ipso Fatso said...
But in the end Colin Powell will still vote for Hillary Clinton for President.

8/22/16, 10:08 AM



Do we know this? She's not black, after all.

walter said...

Ipso Fatso said...
But in the end Colin Powell will still vote for Hillary Clinton for President.
--
He knows historic moments..voted for her boss..twice.
It's high time. She wants it.

JPS said...

Quaestor:

I don't like Assange, but I find myself hoping that if he really has the goods, he's set up the cyber-equivalent of a dead man's switch to release them.

bigkat said...

the only way Ma Barker of the Clinton crime family lands any blows is if its a replay of the candy cruller tag team that was pulled on mittens

bigkat said...

why not in the old days he'd be serving them coffee. at this point who cares

walter said...

rehajm said..."It doesn't bother me. But it's okay; I'm free," Powell said.
Is this really a quote from Powell? What the fuck does this even mean?
--
Heh..wondered the same thing. All I could figure was that he's glad to be free from DC BS.

Chuck said...

This is why, despite ones distaste for the Republican candidate, it's almost always better to vote for the Republican.

I agree with that, eric; so why today's attack on me? I didn't say one halfway nice thing about the Clintons.

My problem with Trump supporters is that the succeeded I nominating a candidate who will probably lose. And because Trump is the least-Republican nominee imaginable. So yeah, let's all vote for Republicans and work toward winning elections. Hence, my dislike of all things Trump.

Quaestor said...

walter: It's high time. She wants it

Walter makes the most empty-headed pro-Hillary argument possible.

I hope that's intended ironically.

Sydney said...

"I'm free" means he no longer has to cater to either political party.

Chuck said...

"...they succeeded in nominating a candidate..."

Damn auto-correct would be better not working at all.

Yancey Ward said...

The Conason angle is pretty hilarious. I think what has happened here is that in her e-mail history sometime early last year, someone found the e-mail from Powell and tried to figure out a way to use it as cover for Clinton's decision to go with a private server- a decision she clearly made at least a year prior to the date of the Powell e-mail. So, they comb through Clinton's records to find any event in which Clinton and Powell were together. They find this dinner gathering from 2009. At that point, all they need is a third party who was also present to put out the lie that Powell made the suggestion at that dinner. Joe Conason, of course, is perfectly willing to lie on behalf of a Clinton, and so this defense is in place. Seriously, this pathological behavior on the part Shelob and her staff.

Ask yourself this- would you remember such a off-hand conversational detail six years later if the comment had nothing at all to do with you at the time, a detail on which you took no action personally between 2009 and 2015? That is the position Conason is in, and yet he claims to remember it; and with the added detail about classified material viewing, something that is specifically mentioned in the actual e-mail Powell sent. Unless Joe Conason can demonstrate he has eidetic memory, he is almost certainly lying that he remembers this part of the conversation, and that is even assuming that Powell made this remark at the dinner at all.

eric said...


I agree with that, eric; so why today's attack on me? I didn't say one halfway nice thing about the Clintons.


I didn't realize I was attacking you. Was making the point that there are a lot of you who will hold Trump's feet to the fire if Trump is elected. You are a reason we should vote for Trump.

Who will hold Hillary responsible?

Sprezzatura said...

http://www.newsweek.com/did-colin-powell-advise-hillary-use-private-email-492376

walter said...

Quaestor said..I hope that's intended ironically.
--
Just.A.Bit.
It was nicked from a commenter here who either left or became "unknown".
Yet..it's surely an unspoken driver of a good deal of her supporters.
I'm still considering making a hat or t-shirt out of that. It's so "progressive".

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Once again - camp corruption attempts to make this about e-mail. It's about SERVER.

mccullough said...

This is worse than the Twinkie Defense

Original Mike said...

"Damn auto-correct would be better not working at all."

I turned mine off and have never looked back.

walter said...

The Powells' current venture:
Let's reinvent high school

Yancey Ward said...

PB&J,

That makes it even worse. I had thought Conason was giving his personal memory, but it now seems to have been a story told to him by Clinton herself, and last year after the e-mail story was first discovered. That is not the impression the first stories about Conason's book detail gave to me, and I don't think to others.

So, Clinton plants the story with Conason in 2015, and now her defenders cite the story as proof that Powell gave this advice in 2009, advice I point out that Clinton didn't even actually follow. Powell then, through an aide, tells Conason that he can't remember the conversation at the dinner, but does seem to remember that he wrote an e-mail, something he did do, again giving the advice that Clinton didn't actually follow mind you, and now Conason writes that Powell gave a different answer last year, something that Conason's own write up this morning doesn't demonstrate- all Conason can show is that Powell, through his aide, told him in 2015 that he didn't remember the conversation, but that he did remember giving the advice in an e-mail- an e-mail that seems to have been sent in 2010. And, let's not forget- this dinner converstation still occurs in June of 2009, at least several months after Clinton assumed her duties at State, and at least several months after she has already made the decision to have a private e-mail server.

damikesc said...

From PB's link:

"After all, not only did Powell use a private account to communicate with his State Department subordinates and others, like Clinton—but unlike her, he failed to provide any of those email records to the National Archives, which requested all of the former secretaries of state to turn over electronic records related to their government service."

So Joe is too stupid to differentiate between having an email account controlled by AOL and one controlled by the individual themselves. Good to know.

"Moreover, several indignant Clinton critics have drawn a distinction between her use of private email accounts and his, noting that she used a server located at her Chappaqua home, while he used America Online—suggesting that what Powell did was somehow more virtuous, circumspect or secure.

But as Powell knows all too well, the Romanian hacker known as “Guccifer,” whose real name is Marcel Lehel Lazar, easily invaded his highly vulnerable AOL account and stole messages that he later posted on the Internet. When the Justice Department prosecuted Lazar, Powell was one of the “victims” included in the indictment."

So, it's OK that Hillary was able to pick and choose which emails to release (we know she didn't release a lot of work emails) because AOL got hacked? That is his defense? Powell didn't include secret information on his server. Hillary did. There is a world of difference.

"She didn’t mention Powell when I interviewed her for my book in 2013, and during the past seven years she has never spoken publicly about his advice, which she considered private. Although she told FBI agents about it earlier this year, she had every reason to expect that interview would remain confidential."

How is this NOT pinning it on him? "I only told law enforcement that it was your idea" is not pinning it on somebody?

I hope the Clintons at least offer him cab fare after he bends over for them.

damikesc said...

A Republican administration should start pulling press credentials from idiots like Newsweek who hire hacks like Conason.

Tommy Duncan said...

The whole causality thing, where causes precede effects, is difficult for liberals.

So what if she acted a year before she got the advice? She has psychic powers.

damikesc said...

Is Conason unaware that they can subpoena AOL to get those emails without a huge problem?

Who do they subpoena to get Hillary's emails back? Oh, right, she deleted all of them and they cannot get them now.

It's like the same thing.

Yancey Ward said...

And, finally, let's not forget something here- even granting that Powell didn't turn over the private but work-related e-mails when he left office- something Conason makes a point of mentioning (I will just assume this is true), Powell didn't destroy those e-mails, and couldn't have since he had not set up a private server. If State and the Federal government think it important enough, those e-mails can still be easily recovered from Powell's public account. At no point did Powell advise Clinton to set up a private server and then delete work-related e-mails.

Conason's story, clearly planted by Clinton, shows exactly this- Clinton set up the server long before Powell gave any advice at all, and that she wouldn't have even been following his advice or behavior had he given it beforehand. That is smokescreen, and nothing more- transparent and, not surprisingly a bald-faced lie in the face of facts.

TobyTucker said...

What I can't understand is why nobody at the State Dept blew the whistle on her use of that private server. Obviously, all the top people were in her thrall, but there had to be lower level staffers who were aware of what was going on, career people who ought to have been saying to themselves, "This isn't right", yet no one at all spoke up.

Just as an example, the people who were supposed to be archiving her emails should have noticed from the start that there wasn't anything to archive. And the people tasked with fulfilling FOIA requests should have found it exceedingly odd that the Secretary of State apparently hadn't sent any emails at all.

What strange hold did she have over that whole organization and why are they still protecting her to this day, years after she left? It's all very troubling and quite scary.

Sprezzatura said...

damikesc,

The FBI did get his emails, as best at they could. They said there were a couple that contained classified stuff. Likewise, they got the unsecured email info from Rice's personal aids, they found ten emails w/ classified stuff.

Carry on.

walter said...

Seem like good questions, Toby.
It's easy to think only in terms of the obvious figureheads in government. But like Hil is fond of saying, can't do it alone.

khesanh0802 said...

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune "The State Department said it's reviewing 15,000 previously undisclosed emails recovered from Hillary Clinton's private server." Oh boy, if true!

Sprezzatura said...

Maybe Russia can do some more to help DJT.

It's cool that their propaganda is overlapping w/ Drudge:

https://twitter.com/teddygoff/status/767551154553323521

I'm assuming that the Russians are pointing to the LA Times poll that gets Drudge's attention, too.

walter said...

khesanh0802 said...
From the Minneapolis Star Tribune "The State Department said it's reviewing 15,000 previously undisclosed emails recovered from Hillary Clinton's private server.
--
H: What? (turns to nerd) What kind of crappy cloth did you use?!!

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

Hillary assures us she's all done breaking federal laws now.

Pinky promise...

mockturtle said...

It's not the first time Powell has been the scapegoat. First for Bush, now for Hillary.

n.n said...

From Climate-gate to Server-gate and back to class warfare.

Class warfare is the Democrats' schtick, but Powell is American, and less hyphen. After the DNC revelations, this could be another strategic blunder by the Party.

bleh said...

"Her people"? Notice the distancing. He can't even bring himself to be upset with her, despite reports that she personally tried to shift blame to him at her FBI interview.

Powell is close to endorsing her.

Yancey Ward said...

And this part, truly asinine:

"She didn’t mention Powell when I interviewed her for my book in 2013 [emphasis added-Y.W.], and during the past seven years she has never spoken publicly about his advice, which she considered private. Although she told FBI agents about it earlier this year, she had every reason to expect that interview would remain confidential."

Ok, let me get this straight, she didn't mention this in 2013, but did mention it to Conason in 2015? I believe Conason here- this fits everything. In 2013, she had no reason to mention it because the e-mail story didn't break until 2015. At that point, she decides to mention it to Conanson, who tried to confirm it with Powell and his staff. I don't know what definition "spoken publicly" Conason uses, but mentioning it to Conason in 2015, who was writing a book for publication, and to the FBI several months later blaming Powell, is in no possible way keeping it private. Really, Conason is damaging Clinton with this story and his attempts to spin what evidence there is. I think, maybe Conason's IQ might well be below average.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

Yancey, did you just call HRC Shelob? I mean, I'm no fan, but that's pretty harsh.

n.n said...

Powell is close to endorsing her.

You're probably right. Clinton is Obama's heir apparent. Protecting his legacy is a Democrat and [class] diversity imperative.

Yancey Ward said...

Yes, Shelob fits perfectly.

Yancey Ward said...

Seriously, if I didn't care about my own reputation and wanted to hurt Clinton's arguments about her server, I couldn't write a story different than the one Conason is telling today. He clearly demonstrates that Clinton wasn't following Powell's advice by giving a clear timeline that any idiot can understand- Clinton had set up the server before Powell gave the advice to use a private e-mail account.

walter said...

Powell must be lying..like the fiendish Smiths.
Because..Vagina.

gspencer said...

You know you've found a liberal when his/her (or is it ve's) constant refrain is, "It's not my fault."

khesanh0802 said...

On one of the these threads someone (I can't find it again) said Trump fans attacked protesters at the recent MN rally. Just the opposite is the case See here.

I apologize for going off thread, but I felt a factual answer was called for somewhere.

TobyTucker said...

Seeing as Hillary! set up that private server to keep the prying eyes of the 'vast right-wing conspiracy' away from her emails and specifically to avoid FOIA requests, using the FOIA request people as an example of people who 'should have known better' was a mistake. They were totally loyal, hand-picked minions whose only purpose was to delay and obfuscate. Obviously, they did their job very well, concealing the fact that Hillary! hadn't been using an official email account until well after she left office. And apparently they still have their jobs, delaying and obfuscating to the bitter end:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/07/01/state-department-seeks-27-month-delay-for-release-clinton-foundation-emails.html

Original Mike said...

Blogger TobyTucker said..."What I can't understand is why nobody at the State Dept blew the whistle on her use of that private server. Obviously, all the top people were in her thrall, but there had to be lower level staffers who were aware of what was going on, career people who ought to have been saying to themselves, "This isn't right", yet no one at all spoke up."

Two or three people did speak up and they were told to never bring it up again.

Sprezzatura said...

Powell didn't recommend his unsecured (FBI found a couple emails w/ classified info), not-State email which he used to correspond w/ State folks who did have State emails until after HRC setup her own not-State email w/ her own server.

Cons need to drive home the fact that Powell made a written recommendation and verbal recommendation for the SOS to use an email system that was not a State system (which Powell's subordinates used), but Powell was recommending an AOL email instead of the State system, not your own server. And, Powell made his recommendations that HRC should get an AOL email instead of a State email (like his subordinates had) after HRC already had her server.

It's important to point out how Powell's private unsecured email that was shown to have classified info, and which Powell recommended to HRC was different than a server in the basement and the recommendation was after HRC had set up the email.

Sebastian said...

"But it's okay; I'm free," Powell said." As in, not beholden to Hill the way I was to O. But he'll still vote for her.

@TT: "yet no one at all spoke up." I am a cynical conservative, but that part still surprised me. No one spoke up. Dozens, hundreds of people knew. By any normal professional or moral standard someone should have said something to the White House, to Congress, to the FBI, or to the media -- or all four. But as far as we know, nothing of the sort happened. That Hill and her posse would do what they did does not surprise me. But the degrading of the actual government has gone farther than I thought.

FullMoon said...

She didn’t mention Powell when I interviewed her for my book in 2013, and during the past seven years she has never spoken publicly about his advice, which she considered private. Although she told FBI agents about it earlier this year, she had every reason to expect that interview would remain confidential."

IOW, she did not expect Powell to have the opportunity to deny here accusation.

CWJ said...

TobyTucker@11:41,

What do you mean, you don't understand? After the initial surprise and subsequent disgust, the obvious understanding is that these functionaries willingly serve the state rather than the people, or more charitably, they fear for their jobs and serve themselves. That there was no one in the entire organization who broke ranks only confirms the folly that increasing both the power and scope of the federal government would somehow lead to an increase in the common good.

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

Hillary takes full responsibility for her corrupt incompetence as long as there isn't anyone to hold her, you know, responsible.

Static Ping said...

Shelob is a very competent, very terrifying creature that even Sauron made effort to not cross. Hillary is both corrupt and incompetent at anything that does not involve running for election and she's not especially good at that. Please do not insult Shelob that way. Failure to do so may result in digestion.

Paul said...

Trump had it wrong, it isn't Crooked Hillary. It's Lying Crooked Hillary.

There is just no end to her trail of falsehoods.

SGT Ted said...

Clinton lying again? No way!

HoodlumDoodlum said...

I wonder if she told the FBI agents who interviewed her the same falsehood about Powell she told these journalists.

Hey, maybe the FBI agents can check the transcript of that interview...you know, the transcript they made of the tapes they made of the official interview? The ones they'd keep so that everyone could agree with what was said and anyone who lied to a federal agent could be held responsible?
Wait, what's that you say, there are no tapes and there is no transcript...just a few handwritten notes? My my my, isn't that terribly unusual, and awfully convenient?
Convenient, I mean, for someone who would want to get away with lying to a federal agent.

Oh well, nothing to see here, no one was charged with a crime, this is just how the FBI always conducts investigations and interviews...never mind that the average cop on the beat (much less a local detective) will almost always have a recording device running when they talk to someone...nothing unusual at all, no sir.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Sebastian said...Dozens, hundreds of people knew. By any normal professional or moral standard someone should have said something to the White House, to Congress, to the FBI, or to the media -- or all four. But as far as we know, nothing of the sort happened. That Hill and her posse would do what they did does not surprise me. But the degrading of the actual government has gone farther than I thought.

It's bad, I agree--terribly bad--but the scope of the real failure is probably not as great as you'd think. Dozens and dozens of people should have known better and said something, yes. The rest of the hundreds of people who probably knew better must have assumed that although it was a strange-seeming set up it was probably approved--surely non-political professional X would have objected if Hillary's private domain/email system wasn't approved! Some portion of the people who should have objected would have seen the writing on the wall--to whom would they complain? The boss is messing up something she has control over and GS-11 Jim isn't gonna risk it all by pointing that out. We know from the published emails that Hillary's team was pretty unforgiving when the staff pointed out security-type problems...it's not hard to imagine a bureaucratic culture where everyone got the message that it wasn't OK to question the Queen.
Some it's forgivable, some of it's understandable...all of it's shameful, but likewise all of it goes to show why we shouldn't put trust in bureaucrats to do the right thing. "If men were angels," you know--this is true in business just as in government, but it's a problem that the people who continually argue for a constantly-expanding government (in terms of both size and scope) never seem to address.

God help us when she's the head of the entire Executive! God help us, because the Government will not.

Gabriel said...

Colin Powell never had multiple servers with their own IT staff(!) as Hillary did, and never routed all of his email through it as Hillary did, and never transferred classified information over it as Hillary did, and there were no rules about that at the time unlike when Hillary did it.

Sprezzatura said...

Gabriel,

He had AOL staff, she had HRC staff

He only had the AOL email, even though his staff had State emails. So all his unsecure State email did go to the AOL email.

Going back and rebuilding info, the FBI did find a couple emails w/ classified info in his AOL emails (They also found ten in the unsecured emails of direct aides to Rice.)

He wasn't supposed to have classified info in unsecured emails. But, it does sound like it was cool for him to not keep a record of any of his State related emails that were on his AOL server.

Sebastian said...

@HD: "the scope of the real failure is probably not as great as you'd think" I appreciate the reply, but the scope you describe is pretty great! Hard to imagine the bureaucracy letting a political enemy, i.e., any GOPer, getting away with it.

exhelodrvr1 said...

"but it's a problem that the people who continually argue for a constantly-expanding government"

The first priority of a bureaucracy is to protect and grow the bureaucracy; not to perform the functions for which it was created.

George Grady said...

Why is Hillary Clinton trying to blame anyone anyway? Just keep stonewalling! If she just ignores it, who's going to bring it up? The media?

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Colin Powell was forced to lie by evil ChimpyMcBushHitler and Darth Cheney! Powell is a good, decent man--that's why he let Scooter twist.

Oh, Powell's calling Hillary Clinton a liar?

Powell can't be trusted--he lied us into war--just look at his UN testimony--he's a liar, don't listen to him, he's too partisan!

We have always been at war with Eastasia.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

PBJ and Gabriel:

There was no formal email retention policy or system in place when Powell was SOS. He could only view secure comms on a desktop PC in his office, not on his email. Big difference. No predecessor had had official email. NO email option at the time he started unless he furnish his own.

Herself went against posted policy, training policy and advice of IT pros at State. No offhand comment a year after she did all this was responsible for her lack of ethics. She brought that with her.

Jupiter said...

The stupid bitch would probably be better off if she just came clean. The people who are going to vote for her are already bought and paid for. The deal has been struck, the promises made. They await the delivery of the goods. If she admitted on live TV that she personally forwarded every one of her e-mails to the Iranian Embassy and the Chinese Red Army, it wouldn't cost her a single vote from the parasites and vermin who expect to gain from her Presidency. Tossing Colin Powell under the bus may actually piss a few of them off.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

#MoveOn
#SickOfHearingAboutDamnEmails

Anonymous said...

I think we all should just agree that it is Colin Powells fault. One would think he would know better. But goes to show. I wonder if he still has access?

Anonymous said...

All government employees know that official government work has to be on government devices. Private companies know it. It's not a big secret. The reason a government employee would roll out a private server is because they thought they had the power to do it to avoid inspection of the content. Email admins know the rules.

From 2009 NYT.

The presidency, for all the power afforded by the office, has been deprived of the tools of modern communication. George W. Bush famously sent a farewell e-mail address to his friends when he took office eight years ago.

While lawyers and the Secret Service balked at Mr. Obama’s initial requests to allow him to keep his BlackBerry, they acquiesced as long as the president — and those corresponding with him — agreed to strict rules. And he had to agree to use a specially made device, which must be approved by national security officials.

“It’s a pretty small group of people,” Mr. Gibbs said, explaining who would be allowed to e-mail the president.

damikesc said...

The FBI did get his emails, as best at they could. They said there were a couple that contained classified stuff. Likewise, they got the unsecured email info from Rice's personal aids, they found ten emails w/ classified stuff.

Non-Joe Conason source for this?

He had AOL staff, she had HRC staff

Are you seriously trying this?

HE DIDN'T OWN AOL. SHE OWNED HRC.

But GREAT job trying to muddy the waters. Well played. I hope Hillary pats you gently while you lay your head on her lap and beg for scraps.

It's official: There is nothing a Democrat running for President can do that Progressives won't defend happily.

Todd said...

Just wow...

What seems to be lost in all of this is, who cares what (if anything) Powell said. It is not relevant. He was in no position of authority at the time to say or allow anything. Think about that. Everyone is trying to make a big or small deal out of what Powell did or did not say. IT JUST DOESN'T MATTER as he was NO BODY at the time. It would be like you going out and running over a homeless guy with your car and saying ex-State Department Powell said it was OK. WHO CARES as he is in no position to have any sway.

Some guy got arrested because Joe Biden said to fire a warning shot. He is VP and that did this guy no good. Why should what Powell did or did not say matter?

What they should ask is why Clinton (in her own words) take advice from someone NOT in any authority as to how she could handle State Department secret intel? Doesn't State have security pros that are paid to answer those types of questions?

No body asks that cause the press is a big steaming pile of shit and they know Hillary is wrong but will do all that they can to provide any slim bit of cover so all of the Hillary-bots can continue fat, dumb, and happy cause they want to be "historic".

Screw them!

Sprezzatura said...

Mike,

His staff had unsecure emails on States .gov domain. In fact Powell said that he figured that system would pickup his AOL email since he was emailing folks w/ the State emails. It did exist, he (like his staff) could have had a gov email, he chose to use AOL instead.

As I stated up-thread, I agree that it seems like it was cool for him to do this and then never give State any of the records of his gov related work that was in AOL emails.

damikesc,

Sure, AOL owned his servers, and HRC owned her server. Presumably this is a smoking gun to you.

Sprezzatura said...

damikesc et. al.,

This should get you up to speed:

http://www.newsweek.com/2016/02/19/colin-powell-emails-hillary-clinton-424187.html

Jupiter said...

PBandJ_LeDouanier said...

"damikesc,

Sure, AOL owned his servers, and HRC owned her server. Presumably this is a smoking gun to you."

And presumably you wouldn't know a smoking gun if someone stuck it up your nose, if it had Hillary Clinton's fingerprints on it. What do you expect to gain from her Presidency, Peanut? Has she promised you an Obamaphone? Or do you just hate the country you grew up in? I suppose that's it. Too bad none of those countries whose populations you want to import are willing to import you.

Static Ping said...

It does not reflect well on Powell that he used a non-secure email address for government business. HRC's actions are orders of magnitude worse.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

#PowellDidItToo
#NewsweekSaysItsCool
#HillaryIsLikeColinDontBeSexistandRacist

#WhatDifferenceAtThisPoint

Achilles said...

"As I stated up-thread, I agree that it seems like it was cool for him to do this and then never give State any of the records of his gov related work that was in AOL emails."

You are deliberately dishonest. Powell used a secure side account and a private account. All of the state server emails were held on the government servers and he maintained his private account for personal use. If you were honest you would discuss how the classification system works but you are not honest. As Secretary of State many of his communications would be classified later as secret particularly if scheduling was discussed. He turned over all of his emails from both accounts.

Hillary Clinton used a personal server for all of her state and private communications so she could avoid FOIA. After she was out she deleted and wiped emails before releasing some. Again to avoid FOIA. She had people' take information from the SIPR net and send it to her private account. I had a TS/SCI clearance. You just don't do that. Bradley Manning is in jail for life for just that. But he is s not a powerful wealthy democrat so the laws apply to him.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

"...I'm free," said Powell

I'm free; I'm free; and freedom tastes of reality

Gabriel said...

@PBJ: Sure, AOL owned his servers, and HRC owned her server. Presumably this is a smoking gun to you.

Yes, and to any person not deliberately dishonest. AOL staff was not employed by Colin Powell and did not answer to him and he did not pay them. They did not, for example, erase disks when he told them to.

Furthermore this was early days and the policies were very different.

Sprezzatura said...

"He turned over all of his emails from both accounts."

He, himself, said that he did not turn over his AOL emails that were related to State business. He, like HRC, said that he used the AOL email to contact State staff that had .gov emails, so his correspondence should be saved because the staff had .gov emails.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/colin-powell-personal-email-secretary-of-state-115707

"Hillary Clinton used a personal server for all of her state and private communications so she could avoid FOIA."

No, like Powell she had two systems: private email and a SCIF.

Todd said...

PBandJ_LeDouanier said...

No, like Powell she had two systems: private email and a SCIF.

8/22/16, 3:11 PM


Are you trying to "split hairs"? She MAY have had a SCIF but she NEVER used it. All of her email was from / to her private server.

Sprezzatura said...

Todd,

You can't be serious.

The FBI found a total of three emails on her private server that had subsections which were marked the lowest level of classification w/ a hand written "C" in the margin. And, State says two of these were mismarked. And, all three were sent to her, she didn't send them.

You think that's all the marked-classified info she sent or received for her entire time at State?

If so, carry on.

Original Mike said...

Blogger PBandJ_LeDouanier said..."Todd, You can't be serious. The FBI found a total of three emails on her private server that had subsections which were marked the lowest level of classification "

She deleted 30,000 emIls so that you could not see them.

walter said...

That's a lot of cookie recipes.

CWJ said...

PBandJ,

Have you told FBI Director Comey about the three emails? He seems to have been misinformed. Consider it your civic duty.

Btw, where are the other unknowns et al. Is it your turn to be on call while the others are at the company picnic?

Todd said...

PBandJ_LeDouanier said...
Todd,

You can't be serious.

The FBI found a total of three emails on her private server that had subsections which were marked the lowest level of classification w/ a hand written "C" in the margin. And, State says two of these were mismarked. And, all three were sent to her, she didn't send them.

You think that's all the marked-classified info she sent or received for her entire time at State?

If so, carry on.

8/22/16, 3:27 PM


http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/05/27/us/politics/what-we-know-about-hillary-clintons-private-email-server.html?_r=0

- 8 chains included top secret information.
- 36 [chains?] included secret information
- 8 [chains?] included confidential information.
- 2000 emails have since been classified as confidential
- 1 email included secret information.
- 2 emails included confidential information.

out of the ones that have been released.

Additionally, what does it matter if it was 30000 or 3? Is Bill Clinton less of a rapist cause he only raped a few women?

She had a private server to manage government information. She [had] destroyed government information to keep it out of the public eye. Her system was likely(?) compromised by eternal agents so who knows who has that information or how much.

Do you not have the ability to think logically on this at all? If this very story were to be told using Ted Cruz instead of Hillary Clinton would you still feel it was no big deal and a big to-do about nothing? I won't. No sane person should.

But don't worry. This is nothing more than a brief distraction from the inevitability of President Hillary Clinton. I am sure you will feel safe and secure during the next 8 years of the on-going Obama recovery and see this country raised to heights undreamt of. Between the felons, illegals, and dead folks that are all in for Hillary, she is likely to win in a land-slide, projections are 95%(H) to 25%(T) with precincts reporting 120% voter turn-out...

Sprezzatura said...

OM,

They dug up half of those anyway, as we learned when the FBI gave HRC a pass. Even so, just today these already known dug up emails are getting new headlines.

Presumably the lost ones were the ones filled w/ Top Secret information and deals w/ terrorists and evil folks.

Sprezzatura said...

Todd,

None of those had classification markings anywhere in the text.

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

She deleted 30,000 emIls so that you could not see them.

Didn't the FBI just report almost 15,000 more illegally deleted emails today? If so, I wonder if this will increase her 2000 plus classified email total.

Original Mike said...

They dug up half of those anyway, (emphasis added)

This is what honest people call "an excuse".

Can I get you to answer a straightforward question honestly? Why did Hillary set up her own email server?

Sprezzatura said...

Todd,

Since you're into fair consideration and equal standards, do you think it'd be good for DJT to release his tax returns? Even the years under audit, like Buffett said he'd do w/ his taxes that are under audit. If not that, how about the years that are not under audit?

No, you don't need to confirm what DJT says because he's persuaded you w/o confirmation.


damikesc said...


As I stated up-thread, I agree that it seems like it was cool for him to do this and then never give State any of the records of his gov related work that was in AOL emails.


Done when there was no policy and little functional email service in State.

Sure, AOL owned his servers, and HRC owned her server. Presumably this is a smoking gun to you."

COLIN.
POWELL.
COULDN'T.
ERASE.
HIS.
EMAILS.
AND.
MAKE.
THEM.
UNRETRIEVABLE.

That you DON'T see a difference is sad.

The FBI found a total of three emails on her private server that had subsections which were marked the lowest level of classification w/ a hand written "C" in the margin.

...that she personally sent. Plenty of ones that were received there.

Sprezzatura said...

OM,

I wasn't trying to dodge. The answer is so obvious that I assumed you were being rhetorical. I've stated in plenty of threads that she did it to hide her correspondence. I've also stated that that's not the bad part. The bad part is that she's so stupid and incompetent that her lame attempts at secrecy have, as should have been knowable, blown up way worse than could have ever happened if she'd just used phones, in person conversations and relayed conversations (like every other thinking person does.)

I've state all of this in these threads. But, that doesn't mean that I'm on board w/ making up stuff.

Original Mike said...

"I've state all of this in these threads. But, that doesn't mean that I'm on board w/ making up stuff."

Then you acknowledge she went through and deleted half her emails before handing the rest over. You and I don't know what's in them, but we do know they were the half she wanted hidden.

Sprezzatura said...

OM,

They used word searches to filter out what passed for personal and work emails. So, nobody actually read all of them when they decide what should be deleted. And, we know that the FBI did dig up half of them. And, we know that the FBI did have all the gov emails that HRC was communicating w/. And, we do know that as dumb as this server may have been, HRC can still fog a mirror, so it's absurd to hold out hope that she put some sort of evil plot in an unsecured email.

So, no I don't believe that she deleted emails which show her devising plots or schemes or whatever.

Original Mike said...

"They used word searches to filter out what passed for personal and work emails. So, nobody actually read all of them "

Stop it. You're embarrassing yourself.

Fernandinande said...

New Abedin Emails Reveal Hillary Clinton State Department Gave Special Access to Top Clinton Foundation Donors

Out of carelessness, no doubt.

walter said...

Anything with a $ was considered a personal finance matter.

Gabriel said...

@PB&J:They dug up half of those anyway, as we learned when the FBI gave HRC a pass.

It's okay to break the law and try to destroy the evidence of doing so if you do so carelessly enough that some evidence is still retrievable?

Really that is the ground are staking out?

I sure hope you ARE getting paid, because I am honestly concerned for the state of your soul if you are saying these things for no material benefit.

Anonymous said...

PBJ, of course she deleted emails. Anything that revealed poor usage of public money for private gain. Anything related to unpopular heads of state she struck deals with. anything related to her foundation. Just watch Clinton Cash and you will see how they scammed the USA.

It's all there. Just pure evil to ignore it.

Bad Lieutenant said...

PBandJ_LeDouanier said...
Todd,

None of those had classification markings anywhere in the text.
8/22/16, 3:50 PM

PBJ, maybe that's because she would tell them to remove classified headers and send non-secure. Kind of like when Laslo put the duct tape over the girl's mouth and then says she never cried rape.


As for her making the call on what was or was not work-related, that's not her call. If it was innocent yoga, or even innocent but embarrassing, I hate Bill/I hate Obama/I hate Republicans/fuck-me-in-the-ass-Huma stuff, or if it was send the bribe to my Swiss account, that's all for government forensic IT specialists to decide.

If you don't want the government to know what you did with the hundred dollar bill, the chocolate syrup and the pony, you carry two devices and you send that stuff from your personal account.

PBJ, what's worse, if Hillary is email criminal, or Hillary is email stupid?

SukieTawdry said...

I wonder what made Hillary's people think Colin Powell would stand behind her on this?

SukieTawdry said...

What strange hold did she have over [the State Dept.] and why are they still protecting her to this day, years after she left? It's all very troubling and quite scary.

They no doubt believe she is on her way to becoming their boss again.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Gotta say, PB&LeD, the whole "technically not marked" dodge is just the stupidest bullshit, and I think we all know it
Yes, Republicans tried to use the fact that some documents were in fact marked as some sort of legalistic trump card--"ah ha! this one WAS marked, ya busted!" They're not wrong, but it's almost entirely beside the point--the Sec. of State's private communication about US business is of course highly sensitive, and she of course deals in confidential, secret, and probably top secret/compartmentalized secret information. Of COURSE! By the nature of her job that's involved, and anyone with a quarter of a brain knows it. Thus anyone with half a brain knows that taking intentional actions (for no purpose other than helping oneself avoid proper legal scrutiny/legally-required transparency) that risk exposure of that confidential & secret communication is very bad.
This really is worse than arguing the meaning of "is" in a specific legal document. It's dumber...it's like the nation is getting dumber. Sad.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

I do like the Left simultaneously arguing that 1.) the investigation is a needless waste of time and resources, a witch hunt, and cost $X millions of dollars AND 2.)the whole thing is no big deal anyway, since after all this stuff was all recovered as part of the investigation (so it wasn't really hidden).
Just funny, is all.

Gabriel said...

It had been a while since Hillary Clinton drove herself anywhere, and even though Huma didn't think it was a good idea, Hillary really wanted to.

So they get out on the road, and get to a red light, and Hillary never even hits the brake, just shoots right through. Huma says, "That light was red!" Hillary says, "No, it's okay, Colin Powell told I could do it."

They get to another red light and again, not even a tap of the break. Huma screams, "You're going to get us killed!" and Hillary says, "No, it's all right, Colin Powell said I could do it, he does it all the time."

Next they come to a green light, and they stop. Huma asks, "Why did we stop?" Hillary says, "Colin Powell might be coming."

Bruce Hayden said...

PB&J defends the undefendable, and doesn't do it very well. First, the admission that Crooked Hillary me shed a lot of work related emails because they used key word searching is an admission that she and her people (acting in her name) negligently, if not intentionally destroyed government records when they deleted the emails that failed the key word search. That is, of course, a federal felony that PB&J has copped to for her. It will be interesting to see if any of the 15,000 new emails are work related. My guess is most of them, or involve stuff that she shouldn't have been doing as SoS.

Next - no evidence that Powell actually intentionally received classified emails on his private (AOL) account. Almost exclusively he used his private account for private email, and his desktop classified machine for classified. Crooked Hillary intentionally set up her private email server to be the only way that she could receive work related emails, whether or not they were ever classified. There is a big difference between only receiving work related emails on a private, non-government, computer or server, and doing so on rare occasions.

It doesn't matter tha Crooked Hillary didn't send very many classified emails, but rather, what is important is that she set her email so that the only way to send her classified (or that will ultimately be classified) information is via an insecure private email server. Much of what she saw on a routine basis was ultimately going to get classified, once the classifiers caught up. She apparently signed documents every year to protect this information. If she didn't know, she legally and morally should have. It didn't help that she managed to skip by all the mandatory security classes and briefings. As did most of her closest aides. And, she shouldn't be able to ger away with playing dumb here - she was responsible for the security of the information in her dept, and legally and morally should have known. Should have taken the mandatory security briefings and classes, and made sure that everyone in her dept did, including the people she brought in, who were as bad as she.

Bruce Hayden said...

The idea that Crooked Hillary was an innocent bystander while her dept would send her, on probably a daily basis, information in emails that would ultimately get classified. We have a concept in engineering of sources and sinks. She was the ultimate information sink in her dept. everything that happened in all the embassies around the world, was ultimately filtered to her. The people filtering it for her made sure that she only saw the most important bits of it. But that meant that her job required that she be sent sensitive information, much of which would ultimately be classified, in the due course of things, on a routine basis. Take an example - the CIA wants to use a drone to take out some terrorists in Pakistan. After a number of diplomatic incidents, from this sort of incursions into nuclear armed Pakistan's airspace, State ultimately ended up as having a veto. CIA would tell State (and ultimately Crooked Hillary) that they wanted a drone strike at ABC location to take out XYZ, and here is why'. She had the ultimate say so, because her people would be the ones explaining to the world what went wrong, if something did, if, for example, the target ended up being a bunch of school kids, and not a notorious terrorist. But all they needed from her was Yes or No, which they could get over the phone. (And, yes, some of this sort of information ended up on her illegal private email server).

Bruce Hayden said...

Why did I say that Crooked Hilary had legal responsibility for all the classified information in the State Dept? Because responsibility for such in the govt was divided between maybe four original classifiers: the Sec of Defense (everything originated by the military) , Sec of State (everything from our diplomats and embassies around the world), Nat Security Director (NSA, CIA, etc), and likely the President for everything else. Everything classified in the federal govt was classified under the authority of one of these four. Of course, she didn't actually do most of the classifying in her dept - she had an army of bureaucrats to do that for her, but they did it for her, under her authority, and in her name. (The emails that she did mark probably were a rare occasion when she did it herself, and the fact that it was done incorrectly may be a result of her skipping all of her mandatory security briefings and classes). (Some of this organization is discretionary at the whim of the President - VP Cheney had authority as an original classifier, while Slo Joe Biden apparently does not).

Rusty said...

PBandJ_LeDouanier said...
Gabriel,

He had AOL staff, she had HRC staff

He only had the AOL email, even though his staff had State emails. So all his unsecure State email did go to the AOL email.

Going back and rebuilding info, the FBI did find a couple emails w/ classified info in his AOL emails (They also found ten in the unsecured emails of direct aides to Rice.)

He wasn't supposed to have classified info in unsecured emails. But, it does sound like it was cool for him to not keep a record of any of his State related emails that were on his AOL server.

All of which is immaterial. The issue is Hillary's unsecured servers. As was mentioned above. Powell obeyed the letter of the law at the time. The law changed. Clinton ignored the law. That is the issue. When dealing with only this issue there is no way Clinton comes out as blameless. At the very best she can be painted as an incompetent old fool who is easily led by her subordinates.

damikesc said...

They used word searches to filter out what passed for personal and work emails.

How do you KNOW this? You have the word of somebody who has lied, every step of the way, about the controversy telling you this. There is zero corroboration and the word of a known and historical liar is of little use.

So, nobody actually read all of them when they decide what should be deleted. And, we know that the FBI did dig up half of them.

If she "turned them over", as you claim, why did they have to "dig them up"? Why were some unretrievable, when a basic deletion of files can still be retrieved (i.e you have to do work extra to make them unretrievable)? Can you provide a reason WHY this happened?

And, we know that the FBI did have all the gov emails that HRC was communicating w/.

Shame that wasn't all of her communications by any measure whatsoever, isn't it?

Todd said...

PBandJ_LeDouanier said...
Todd,

Since you're into fair consideration and equal standards, do you think it'd be good for DJT to release his tax returns? Even the years under audit, like Buffett said he'd do w/ his taxes that are under audit. If not that, how about the years that are not under audit?

No, you don't need to confirm what DJT says because he's persuaded you w/o confirmation.

8/22/16, 3:59 PM


First you do understand that whatever was or was not found and whether it was classified at the time or later makes no difference at all. Hillary decided on her own, against government policy to host her own insecure email server and use that to conduct government business that is supposed to be conducted on an air-gap network, right? She did this so that she could hide the fact that she intermingled her duties as SoS with fundraising for her piggy bank (the Clinton Foundation). She did this to shield all of her pay-for-access efforts from FOIA. She failed to attend (as well as her senior staff, if I recall correctly) any of the mandatory security classes during her tenure. She then attempted to blame this on Powell, someone with zero authority to giver her permission to do anything.

She was the wife of the President for 8 years. She was a Senator. Do you really think she had no clue as to what the proper procedures were for handling the types of sensitive data that the SoS is privy to? It takes a unique set of blinders to not see the train-wreck that is Hillary Clinton.

Even, even if NONE of it was individually marked as even confidential, the sum total of all of the correspondence can allow inquiring minds access to information that should not be out there. If you have enough SoS information, you can make fairly good educated guesses about a lot of things that could adversely impact the USA. It comes with the job.

So either she is a criminal and/or (not mutually exclusive) she is the most incompetent holder of that office in forever, as she claims to be too ignorant to use more than one smart-phone at a time, thought that wiping the server meant with a cloth, did not understand what those little security markers in emails were that were transferred somehow from the secure network to the insecure internet against policy so that she could read them on the one device she was competent enough to use.

So is it a, b, or a and b?

As to Trump's taxes sure lets see them. I also want to see Hillary's and their foundations, as well as Obama's collage transcripts, and Kerry's military records. Which of these things is not like the others in that we the people actually have a likelihood of seeing them? Which of these things do you think the press will carry on about until we get to see them?

I also want to know what Bill and L. really spoke about on the plane but that an't happening either.

Known Unknown said...

"As to Trump's taxes sure lets see them."

If Trump is indeed being audited by the IRS, I'm sure they would frown upon him releasing information that may compromise the audit.

SweatBee said...

None of those had classification markings anywhere in the text.

Once again (and again, and again), this is completely irrelevant. A red herring.

Information does not become classified as a result of having been marked classified. It is by its nature classified. If a piece of information is marked incorrectly or not marked at all and you mishandle it, you are still breaking the rules. The Secretary of State is responsible for knowing that, for making sure department staff knows it, and for being competent enough to comply. But HRC did not comply, and in fact had emails on her personal server about North Korea's nuclear program that the CIA and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency concluded should have been understood to be Top Secret.

Many people who have had various security clearances have explained this rule at length, both on television and in print, but for your educational pleasure I'll link a few blog posts from Charlie Martin:

Incompetence or Indifference: The Continuing Story of the Clinton Emails
Hillary's Air Gap Problem
It's Not Classified Because It's Marked; It's Marked Because It's Classified

As Comey said:
- "110 emails in 52 email chains...contain classified information at the time they were sent or received"
- "Hostile actors gained access to the private, commercial email accounts of people with whom Secretary Clinton was in regular contact from her personal account" (translation: no, we didn't automatically capture all the work-related emails because they did not all go to state.gov)

Bruce Hayden said...

@Mom - I disagree to a small extent. Crooked Hillary had the power to classify whatever she wanted in her department as one of four primary classifiers in the federal govt at the time. She probably could have classified her cookie recipe. And, probably done the opposite, declaring that, for example, anything sent to her by email was not to be classified. But she didn't. And her employees classified that information out fro under her. Of course, some of the most highly classified emails were beyond her control, having been classified by other departments or agencies.

And note the hypocrisy. Crooked Hillary has repeatedly stated that the govt over classifies documents, whenever the presence of classified information is brought up. Who was ultimately responsible for that overclassification? For State Department information, she was responsible, as the primary classifier and Secretary for the department. She had the legal authority and the responsibility to determine what was classified, and what wasn't, for any information or document originating in her Department.

Bad Lieutenant said...

I also want to know what Bill and L. really spoke about on the plane but that an't happening either.
8/23/16, 7:45 AM


Just dreaming here, but wouldn't it be fine if Lil' Lazy Eye Loretta Lynch had a recorder app going on her smartphone and the whole conversation with Bill was wired?