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Clinton Podesta Emails PART Three Click Here

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Clinton / Podesta Email via WIKILEAKS

Send our love to Chelsea,  Marc and Grandpa. Can’t wait to meet Charlotte.

On Aug 19, 2014 9:22 AM, “H” <hrod17@clintonemail.com> wrote:

Agree but there may be opportunities as the Iraqi piece improves.

Also, any idea whose fighters attacked Islamist positions in Tripoli, Libya?
Worth analyzing for future purposes.

From: John Podesta [mailto:john.podesta@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2014 09:19 AM
To: H
Subject: Re: Here’s what I mentioned

Hit send too soon. Meant to say Syria elements are vexing.

On Aug 19, 2014 9:17 AM, “John Podesta” <john.podesta@gmail.com> wrote:

I think we are headed down this path in Iraq, but the Syria elements are

On Aug 17, 2014 3:50 PM, “H” <hrod17@clintonemail.com> wrote:

Note: Sources include Western intelligence, US intelligence and sources in the region.

1. With all of its tragic aspects, the advance of ISIL through Iraq gives the U.S. Government an opportunity to change the way it deals with the chaotic security situation in North Africa and the Middle East.  The most important factor in this matter is to make use of intelligence resources and Special Operations troops in an aggressive manner, while avoiding the old school solution, which calls for more traditional military operations.  In Iraq it is important that we engage ISIL using the resources of the Peshmerga fighters of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), and what, if any, reliable units exist in the Iraqi Army.  The Peshmerga commanders are aggressive hard fighting troops, who have long standing relationships with CIA officers and Special Forces operators.  However, they will need the continued commitment of U.S. personnel to work with them as advisors and strategic planners, the new generation of Peshmerga commanders being largely untested in traditional combat.  That said, with this U.S. aid the Kurdish troops can inflict a real defeat on ISIL.

2.  It is important that once we engage ISIL, as we have now done in a limited manner, we and our allies should carry on until they are driven back suffering a tangible defeat.  Anything short of this will be seen by other fighters in the region, Libya, Lebanon, and even Jordan, as an American defeat. However, if we provide advisors and planners, as well as increased close air support for the Peshmerga, these soldiers can defeat ISIL.  They will give the new Iraqi Government a chance to organize itself, and restructure the Sunni resistance in Syria, moving the center of power toward moderate forces like the Free Syrian Army (FSA).  In addition to air support, the Peshmerga also need artillery and armored vehicles to deal with the tanks and other heavy equipment captured from the Iraqi army by ISIL.

3.  In the past the USG, in an agreement with the Turkish General Staff, did not provide such heavy weapons to the Peshmerga, out of a concern that they would end up in the hands of Kurdish rebels inside of Turkey.  The current situation in Iraq, not to mention the political environment in Turkey, makes this policy obsolete.  Also this equipment can now be airlifted directly into the KRG zone.

4.  Armed with proper equipment, and working with U.S. advisors, the Peshmerga can attack the ISIL with a coordinated assault supported from the air.  This effort will come as a surprise to the ISIL, whose leaders believe we will always stop with targeted bombing, and weaken them both in Iraq and inside of Syria.  At the same time we should return to plans to provide the FSA, or some group of moderate forces, with equipment that will allow them to deal with a weakened ISIL, and stepped up operations against the Syrian regime.  This entire effort should be done with a low profile, avoiding the massive traditional military operations that are at best temporary solutions.  While this military/para-military operation is moving forward, we need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region.  This effort will be enhanced by the stepped up commitment in the KRG.  The Qataris and Saudis will be put in a position of balancing policy between their ongoing competition to dominate the Sunni world and the consequences of serious U.S. pressure.  By the same token, the threat of similar, realistic U.S. operations will serve to assist moderate forces in Libya, Lebanon, and even Jordan, where insurgents are increasingly fascinated by the ISIL success in Iraq.

6.  In the end the situation in Iraq is merely the latest and most dangerous example of the regional restructuring that is taking place across North Africa, all the way to the Turkish border.  These developments are important to the U.S. for reasons that often differ from country to country: energy and moral commitment to Iraq, energy issues in Libya, and strategic commitments in Jordan.  At the same time, as Turkey moves toward a new, more serious Islamic reality, it will be important for them to realize that we are willing to take serious actions, which can be sustained to protect our national interests.  This course of action offers the potential for success, as opposed to large scale, traditional military campaigns, that are too expensive and awkward to maintain over time.

7.  (Note: A source in Tripoli stated in confidence that when the U.S. Embassy was evacuated, the presence of two U.S. Navy jet fighters over the city brought all fighting to a halt for several hours, as Islamist forces were not certain that these aircraft would not also provide close ground support for moderate government forces.)

8.  If we do not take the changes needed to make our security policy in the region more realistic, there is a real danger of ISIL veterans moving on to other countries to facilitate operations by Islamist forces.  This is already happening in Libya and Egypt, where fighters are returning from Syria to work with local forces. ISIL is only the latest and most violent example of this process.  If we don’t act to defeat them in Iraq something even more violent and dangerous will develop.  Successful military operations against these very irregular but determined forces can only be accomplished by making proper use of clandestine/special operations resources, in coordination with airpower, and established local allies. There is, unfortunately, a narrow window of opportunity on this issue, as we need to act before an ISIL state becomes better organized and reaches into Lebanon and Jordan.

9. (Note: It is important to keep in mind that as a result of this policy there probably will be concern in the Sunni regions of Iraq and the Central Government regarding the possible expansion of KRG controlled territory.  With advisors in the Peshmerga command we can reassure the concerned parties that, in return for increase autonomy, the KRG will not exclude the Iraqi Government from participation in the management of the oil fields around Kirkuk, and the Mosel Dam hydroelectric facility.  At the same time we will be able to work with the Peshmerga as they pursue ISIL into disputed areas of Eastern Syria, coordinating with FSA troops who can move against ISIL from the North.  This will make certain Basher al Assad does not gain an advantage from these operations.  Finally, as it now appears the U.S. is considering a plan to offer contractors as advisors to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, we will be in a position to coordinate more effectively between the Peshmerga and the Iraqi Army.)

 

SOURCE = WIKILEAKS

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Hillary Clinton emails leak: Wikileaks documents claim Democratic nominee ‘thinks Saudi Arabia and Qatar fund Isis’

October 11, 2016

A second batch of leaked email exchanges allegedly between Hillary Clinton and her 2016 campaign chair John Podesta have been seized on by both left and ring wing commentators as evidence of inconsistencies in the Democratic presidential nominee’s foreign policy stance. The 2,000 new messages, dumped on Monday, are the second release in the last four days from Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who promised the supposed 50,000 strong email haul from Mr Podesta will provide “significant” insights into the current election campaign. In one thread of correspondence from August 2014 Ms Clinton sent an eight-point plan to Mr Podesta, at the time a counsellor to President Barack Obama, outlining a strategy on how to defeat terror group Isis which involved supporting Kurdish forces in Syria and Iraq with military advisers.

The Obama administration ended up taking similar action to that described as desirable by Ms Clinton. The exchange also appears to show the presidential candidate identified the Gulf states of Saudi Arabia and Qatar as “clandestine” “financial and logistic” supporters of the terrorist group, despite surface cooperation between the US and the Sunni states on combating the militants and other actions in Syria’s multi-sided civil war. “While this military/para-military operation is moving forward, we need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL [Isis] and other radical Sunni groups in the region,” Ms Clinton reportedly wrote.

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SOURCE = The Independent

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Wikileaks emails show Clinton was told Saudi Arabia and Qatar were secretly funding Isis

October 11, 2016

Emails released by Wikileaks, belonging to Hillary Clinton, have shown that while in position as Secretary of State the presidential nominee was advised Saudi Arabia and Qatar were secretly funding Isis. The email dates back to September 2014, when the Islamic State was almost at the height of its power. In an exchange with John Podesta, now Clinton’s presidential campaign chairman, the former Secretary of State was advised to put pressure on rival Sunni nations as a necessary measure to defeat the Islamic State. “We need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia,” Podesta wrote to Clinton. He added the two countries were: “providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region”.

The email between the two Democrats showed they wished to shift policy also with regard to Turkey, giving their full backing to Kurdish allies in the region. “Armed with proper equipment, and working with US advisors, the Peshmerga [Kurdish rebel forces] can attack the ISIL with a coordinated assault,” Podesta explained. In the past a deal with Turkish general staff had stopped the US arming Kurdish rebels with heavy weapons. “The current situation in Iraq, not to mention the political environment in Turkey, makes this policy obsolete,” he wrote. The email with the subject line “Congrats!” is one of a second batch released among 2,086 by the whistleblowing outfit WikiLeaks. The emails were leaked onto the web one week after an initial dump of 2,060 messages and 170 attachments.

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SOURCE = International Business Times

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Clinton knew Saudi Arabia, Qatar provide ‘clandestine’ support to ISIS – WikiLeaks

October 11, 2016

Emails published by Wikileaks between Hillary Clinton and her presidential campaign chairman John Podesta pull back the curtain on the fight against Islamic State. One reveals the presidential candidate identifying Saudi Arabia and Qatar as “financial and logistic” supporters of the terrorist group. Contrary to Qatar and Saudi Arabia’s assurances that they do not support Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), Hillary Clinton apparently believes that they are in fact providing “clandestine financial and logistic support to IS and other radical Sunni groups in the region,” according to an August 17, 2014 email released by WikiLeaks on Monday.

“While this military/para-military operation is moving forward, we need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region,” she wrote to Podesta.

“This effort will be enhanced by the stepped up commitment in the KRG [Kurdish Regional Government]. The Qataris and Saudis will be put in a position of balancing policy between their ongoing competition to dominate the Sunni world and the consequences of serious U.S. pressure,” she added.

Saudi Arabia has previously been accused of funding other terrorist organizations, such as Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The kingdom also has a policy of torture and public executions, not entirely dissimilar to the actions of IS.

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SOURCE = Russia Today

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To really combat terror, end support for Saudi Arabia

August 31, 2014

he so-called war on terror is nearly 13 years old, but which rational human being will be cheering its success? We’ve had crackdowns on civil liberties across the world, tabloid-fanned generalisations about Muslims and, of course, military interventions whose consequences have ranged from the disastrous to the catastrophic. And where have we ended up? Wars that Britons believe have made them less safe; jihadists too extreme even for al-Qaida’s tastes running amok in Iraq and Syria; and nations like Libya succumbing to Islamist militias. There are failures, and then there are calamities. But as the British government ramps up the terror alert to “severe” and yet more anti-terror legislation is proposed, some reflection after 13 years of disaster is surely needed. One element has been missing, and that is the west’s relationship with Middle Eastern dictatorships that have played a pernicious role in the rise of Islamist fundamentalist terrorism. And no wonder: the west is militarily, economically and diplomatically allied with these often brutal regimes, and our media all too often reflects the foreign policy objectives of our governments.

Take Qatar. There is evidence that, as the US magazine The Atlantic puts it, “Qatar’s military and economic largesse has made its way to Jabhat al-Nusra”, an al-Qaida group operating in Syria. Less than two weeks ago, Germany’s development minister, Gerd Mueller, was slapped down after pointing the finger at Qatar for funding Islamic State (Isis). While there is no evidence to suggest Qatar’s regime is directly funding Isis, powerful private individuals within the state certainly are, and arms intended for other jihadi groups are likely to have fallen into their hands. According to a secret memo signed by Hillary Clinton, released by Wikileaks, Qatar has the worst record of counter-terrorism cooperation with the US.

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SOURCE = The Guardian

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Iraq crisis: How Saudi Arabia helped Isis take over the north of the country

July 12, 2014

How far is Saudi Arabia complicit in the Isis takeover of much of northern Iraq, and is it stoking an escalating Sunni-Shia conflict across the Islamic world? Some time before 9/11, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, once the powerful Saudi ambassador in Washington and head of Saudi intelligence until a few months ago, had a revealing and ominous conversation with the head of the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove. Prince Bandar told him: “The time is not far off in the Middle East, Richard, when it will be literally ‘God help the Shia’. More than a billion Sunnis have simply had enough of them.” The fatal moment predicted by Prince Bandar may now have come for many Shia, with Saudi Arabia playing an important role in bringing it about by supporting the anti-Shia jihad in Iraq and Syria. Since the capture of Mosul by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) on 10 June, Shia women and children have been killed in villages south of Kirkuk, and Shia air force cadets machine-gunned and buried in mass graves near Tikrit.

In Mosul, Shia shrines and mosques have been blown up, and in the nearby Shia Turkoman city of Tal Afar 4,000 houses have been taken over by Isis fighters as “spoils of war”. Simply to be identified as Shia or a related sect, such as the Alawites, in Sunni rebel-held parts of Iraq and Syria today, has become as dangerous as being a Jew was in Nazi-controlled parts of Europe in 1940. There is no doubt about the accuracy of the quote by Prince Bandar, secretary-general of the Saudi National Security Council from 2005 and head of General Intelligence between 2012 and 2014, the crucial two years when al-Qa’ida-type jihadis took over the Sunni-armed opposition in Iraq and Syria. Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute last week, Dearlove, who headed MI6 from 1999 to 2004, emphasised the significance of Prince Bandar’s words, saying that they constituted “a chilling comment that I remember very well indeed”.

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SOURCE = The Independent

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Is Saudi Arabia to blame for Islamic State?

December 19, 2015

Is Saudi Arabia to blame for the rise of the so-called Islamic State (IS or ISIL)? It is commonly claimed that Wahhabism, the strict form of Islam originating in the Kingdom – and the Saudi state’s aggressive promotion of it – has fuelled terrorism. Saudi Arabia is also accused of funding IS, either directly or by failing to prevent private donors from sending money to the group. But Saudi Arabia rejects both accusations, and has announced the formation of a new Islamic anti-terrorism coalition.

Five experts share their views.

Professor Bernard Haykel: IS theology directly linked to Wahhabism

Professor Bernard Haykel is director of the Institute for Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia at Princeton University. “The Islamic State’s religious genealogy comes from ‘Jihadi Salafism’, a theological current that is very old in Islam that is quite literalist. “[Followers are] extremely rigorous, and condemn other Muslims who don’t share their theology. That gives them the hard edge when it comes to violence, because they can justify it theologically. “Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab is in that Salafist tradition. He was a religious reformer in Arabia who was able to create a religious movement that ended up creating a state.

“He saw that Muslims had deviated from the ‘true’ message of Islam; not praying properly or at all, or engaging in practices that he felt were violations of the faith. “A lot of scholars of the period started writing treatises against his ideas. They felt that he was not sufficiently educated to teach. “Eventually he was able to connect with the leader of the al-Saud family in 1744. That alliance had very strong and lasting effects.

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SOURCE = BBC News

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