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Exclusive: Secret tapes undermine Hillary Clinton on Libyan war
[WashingtonTimes] In the recovered recordings, a U.S. intelligence liaison working for the Pentagon told a Gadhafi aide that Mr. Obama privately informed members of Congress that Libya "is all Secretary Clinton's matter" and that the nation's highest-ranking generals were concerned that the president was being misinformed.The Pentagon liaison indicated on the tapes that Army Gen. Charles H. Jacoby Jr., a top aide to Adm. Mullen, "does not trust the reports that are coming out of the State Department and CIA, but there's nothing he can do about it." In one conversation to the Libyans, the American intelligence asset said, "I can tell you that the president is not getting accurate information, so at some point someone has to get accurate information to him. I think about a way through former Secretary Gates or maybe to Adm. Mullen to get him information" The recordings are consistent with what many high-ranking intelligence, military and academic sources told The Times: Mrs. Clinton was headstrong to enter the Libyan crisis, ignoring the Pentagon's warnings that no U.S. interests were at stake and regional stability could be threatened. Instead, she relied heavily on the assurances of the Libyan rebels and her own memory of Rwanda, where U.S. inaction may have led to the genocide of at least 500,000 people. "Neither the intervention decision nor the regime change decision was an intelligence-heavy decision," said one senior intelligence official directly involved with the administration's decision-making, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "People weren't on the edge of their seats, intelligence wasn't driving the decision one way or another." Instead of relying on the Defense Department or the intelligence community for analysis, officials told The Times, the White House trusted Mrs. Clinton's charge, which was then supported by Ambassador to the United Nations Susan E. Rice and National Security Council member Samantha Power, as reason enough for war. With trusted agents like Rice and Powers, what could possibly go wrong ? "Susan Rice was involved in the Rwanda crisis in 1994, Samantha Power wrote very moving books about what happened in Rwanda, and Hillary Clinton was also in the background of that crisis as well," said Allen Lynch, a professor of international relations at the University of Virginia. "I think they have all carried this with them as a kind of guilt complex." Posted by: Hupineger Glomomp52169 2015-03-30 |
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