Although Hillary Clinton prefers to describe Sidney Blumenthal
as nothing but �an old friend,� NR has obtained an exclusive
copy of one of the now-infamous e-mails he sent Clinton on the
war in Libya, and it suggests otherwise. The e-mail, which
Blumenthal provided to Benghazi Committee investigators earlier
this week, shows him advising Clinton on a most delicate matter:
How she should respond to the fall of Libyan dictator Moammar
Qaddafi.

Blumenthal e-mailed a list of talking points to Clinton the day
after rebel forces captured Tripoli, prefaced by a
congratulatory statement exhorting the former presidential
candidate to make sure she received credit for the U.S.
intervention in Libya. The message was only recently provided by
Blumenthal to the congressional panel investigating the Benghazi
terrorist attacks, despite Clinton�s previous assurance that she
had turned over �all� her correspondence pertaining to Libya.

�First, brava! This is a historic moment and you will be
credited for realizing it,� he wrote in the August 22, 2011 memo
to Clinton. �When Qaddafi himself is finally removed, you should
of course make a public statement before the cameras wherever
you are, even in the driveway of your vacation house. You must
go on camera. You must establish yourself in the historical
record at this moment. The most important phrase is �successful
strategy.��

Blumenthal�s e-mail, included below, provides a window into how
Clinton�s brain-trust plotted her movements in the days leading
up to the fall of Qaddafi�s regime. It also makes explicit the
degree to which her advisers misjudged the situation on the
ground in Libya and the Middle East, and shows that her team
wasn�t above making foreign-policy statements with an eye on
President Obama�s looming reelection bid � and her own political
future.

The longtime Clinton loyalist expressed contempt for the
�flamingly stupid �leading from behind� phrase� that a White
House official coined to summarize Obama�s foreign-policy
doctrine. �To refute this passive construction on US policy and
help remove it as an albatross from the administration as it
enters the election year, do not be defensive but rather simply
explain that the US had a strategy from the start, stuck with it
and has succeeded,� Blumenthal wrote.

Clinton echoed that sentiment while cooperating with CBS for a
story about how she formed an international coalition against
Qaddafi in the absence of direct orders from the president. �We
set into motion a policy that was on the right side of history,
on the right side of our values, on the right side of our
strategic interests in the region,� she is quoted in the story,
published Oct. 31, 2011. A week earlier, she had �established
herself in the historical record,� as Blumenthal advised, but
she did so by visiting Tripoli rather than with an impromptu
speech from her the driveway of her vacation home. �I am proud
to stand here on the soil of a free Libya,� she said during the
trip. �The opportunity now in Libya is to not only chart a new
future for Libyans but to stand as a model for democracy and
freedom.� The statement comports with Blumenthal�s suggestion
that Clinton emphasize that the Libyan intervention �helped
advance the cause of democracy and freedom throughout the Arab
world.�

Blumenthal also advised Clinton to tie the Libyan intervention
to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad�s struggle to stay in power.
�We have put Assad on notice that the sands of time have run out
for him as well,� he wrote in the talking points. Clinton did
not make such a claim in the battery of interviews she conducted
during the Libya trip, but she waged an internal struggle from
2011 to 2012 to persuade President Obama to back the Syrian
rebels. (He refused, but Blumenthal must have appreciated
Obama�s statement that the death of Qaddafi signaled to the
Middle East that �the rule of an iron fist inevitably comes to
an end.�) Blumenthal concluded with a flourish, invoking the
ancient Greek goddess who functioned as the Muse of History.
�This is a very big moment historically and for you,� he wrote.
�History will tell your part in it. You are vindicated. But
don�t wait, help Clio now.� On August 8, 2012 � just under a
year after Blumenthal wrote his triumphant note � U.S.
Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens sent a cable to the State
Department warning of a �security vacuum� in Benghazi to
buttress his repeated requests for increased security. �His
requests for additional security were denied or ignored,�
according to a colleague. On September 11, 2012, he was killed,
along with three other Americans, in a terrorist attack on the
Benghazi consulate.

Full memo below:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/268992426/Sidney-Blumenthal-Memo

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/419931/nr-exclusive-
blumenthals-e-mail-hillary-spinning-qaddafis-fall-joel-gehrke
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