Confidential emails purportedly from former political adviser Sidney Blumenthal to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have been hacked and widely distributed to politicians and news sources. Included in the hacker “Guccifer’s” distribution list are Russian news services such as Pravda, Moscow Times, and RT.
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We have no information about the authenticity of the hacked e mails. They will be tested over the next few hours or days.
RT has released excerpts from the purported Blumenthal-Clinton memos. RT, which is a propaganda arm of the Putin regime, will have its own agenda in selecting and interpreting excerpts, which is not immediately clear. RT focuses on two of the four hacked emails, citing sensitive sources, on the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.
The first excerpted Blumenthal e mail, dated September 12, 2012, reports that senior advisors told the President of Libya during the day of September 11 that the Benghazi and Tripoli attacks were sparked by the Cairo demonstrations and anger over an anti-Muslim video. The President himself attributed the anti-American activity at the Tripoli and Benghazi facilities to efforts to undermine his regime by tying him to the CIA. The President warned that his enemies were working to take advantage of his suspected links to the CIA at a time when Western intelligence services are under scrutiny in Libya.
