Obama To Visit Iran?
During the course of its negotiations with Tehran, the Obama administration floated the idea of a visit by President Obama to Iran if a final deal is concluded between the parties, a French diplomat told KleinOnline.
The diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he was not aware of any actual promise of a U.S. presidential visit made to the Iranians in the event of a final agreement over Tehran’s nuclear infrastructure. He said the general idea was previously discussed between the U.S. and Iran as a possibility in the event of a final deal.
The diplomat said he believed a U.S. presidential visit was floated by the Americans as an added incentive to entice Tehran to sign a deal that could see the restoration of diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Iran.
The White House flatly denied the diplomat’s claim.
“This is completely not true,” National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan told this reporter in an e-mail.
France is a member of the P5+1 group of six world powers leading the nuclear negotiations with Iran. The other parties are the U.S., China, Russia, the United Kingdom, and Germany.
France has been critical of the Obama administration’s handling of the Iranian nuclear negotiations.
Private Clinton E-Mail Contained Truth On Benghazi Attack
Two days after the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Benghazi, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received an e-mail from confidante and former Bill Clinton White House staffer Sidney Blumenthal punching holes in the administration narrative that blamed the attack on an anti-Islam YouTube video.
One day earlier, Blumenthal presented Clinton with information from a “sensitive source” supporting the video narrative. But he followed up that correspondence with a contrary report that the attack was carried out by a jihadist group that had planned it at least one month in advance.
Yet Clinton and the Obama administration persisted for weeks in blaming the obscure anti-Islam video as the primary motivation. In her memoir, Hard Choices published last June, Clinton continued to defend the YouTube-video storyline, claiming it was a reflection of what the U.S. intelligence community believed at the time.
The latest information comes as Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., chairman of the House committee investigating the Benghazi attack, on Tuesday asked Clinton to appear for a private interview regarding her controversial use of a private e-mail account during her tenure as secretary of state.
In an article jointly published last week by Gawker and ProPublica, the websites disclose Blumenthal prepared detailed intelligence briefs that were sent regularly to Clinton’s private e-mail address.
The leaked emails show that on Sept. 12, 2012, one day after the Benghazi attack, Blumenthal sent an e-mail to Clinton citing a “sensitive source” saying the interim Libyan president, Mohammed Yussef el Magariaf, was told by a senior security officer the attack was provoked by the anti-Islam YouTube film and also by allegations from political opponents that Magariaf had CIA ties.
The memo reads: “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.”
However, the next day, Blumenthal sent an email titled “Re: More Magariaf private reax.” It said Libyan security officials believed the terrorist group Ansar al Shariah was behind the attack and that the group prepared it a month in advance.
The e-mail further states that the Brigade “took advantage of the cover” provided by the purported demonstrations against the YouTube video.
Despite the e-mails and other evidence, Clinton and the Obama administration persisted in blaming the attack on anger over the YouTube video.