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Book on ‘Clinton Cash’ reportedly claims foreign donors got State Dept. favors

Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign is just one week out of the gate, but already a supposedly bombshell book threatens to rock her candidacy.
The New York Times reported Monday that the book, set for release on May 5, will make new claims about donations to the Clinton Foundation by foreign donors. Specifically, the book reportedly claims foreign entities that donated to the foundation -- and that gave former President Bill Clinton high-dollar speaking fees -- in turn received favors from the Clinton State Department.
Author Peter Schweizer reportedly claims to have found a "pattern of financial transactions involving the Clintons that occurred contemporaneous with favorable U.S. policy decisions benefiting those providing the funds."
According to the Times, which got an advance copy of the book, Schweizer's examples include a Colombia free-trade agreement that helped a major donor and projects in the wake of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
Asked about the book at a stop Monday in New Hampshire, Clinton dismissed the questions by describing them as part of "distractions and attacks" that come with the political season.

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A Clinton spokesman also told the Times the book is "twisting previously known facts into absurd conspiracy theories."
The book, "Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich," could nevertheless mark the second major political headache for Clinton's budding campaign. Weeks before she announced her candidacy, reports surfaced that she exclusively used a personal email account, and server, while secretary of state. Under pressure, Clinton held a press conference to explain her actions, but transparency questions continue to loom over her bid after she announced it a week ago.
Critics have long questioned, as well, the family foundation's history of foreign donations and whether donors got any benefits in return. Republicans are eagerly anticipating the release of the book.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., himself a 2016 White House candidate, claimed earlier this month that "big news" is coming on the foundation.
"I think there are things that went on at the Clinton Foundation that are going to shock people," he said, in response to a question from Fox News in New Hampshire. "And I think they're going to make people question whether or not she ought to run for president."
According to the Times, he and other members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee were briefed on the book's contents.

Top diplomat sorry for FBI director's remarks on Poland, Holocaust

FBI Director James Comey wasn't wrong when he said some in Poland were accomplices in the Holocaust, but his remarks -- which angered Poles and resulted in an apology Sunday night from America's top diplomat in Warsaw -- hit a raw nerve in a nation that suffered greatly at the hands of the Nazis, according to experts on the last century's darkest chapter.
U.S. Ambassador Stephen Mull apologized for Comey's comments, in which the lawman told an audience at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, "In their minds, the murderers and accomplices of Germany, and Poland, and Hungary, and so many, many other places didn't do something evil. They convinced themselves it was the right thing to do, the thing they had to do." Mull, who was summoned to meet with Polish officials, emerged from the sit-down and made it clear Comey did not speak for the U.S.

"I now have a lot of work before me to make things right in this situation."- Stephen Mull, US ambassador to Poland

" ... any suggestion that "Poland, or any other countries other than Nazi Germany, bear responsibility for the Holocaust, is a mistake, harmful and insulting," Mull said after attending ceremonies marking the 72nd anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising against the Nazis. "Nazi Germany alone bears responsibility.
"I now have a lot of work before me to make things right in this situation," he said.

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COmey's speech made US Ambassador Stephen Mull's job harder. (Reuters)

Polish officials noted that 6 million Poles -- half of them Jews -- died at the hands of Nazis. Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a global human rights organization researching the Holocaust, said he could understand the Poles' umbrage at Comey's remarks, even if they contained truth.
"Poland, the government and the Polish people, have often been upset when people say, in shorthand, 'Polish death camps, or 'Polish concentration camp,'" Cooper said. "What is very important to note is these camps were in occupied Poland. Many Poles took up arms against the Nazis, in the Warsaw uprising and before."
Cooper said the history of Jews in Poland, both before and during the Holocaust, is complicated.
"There are two interesting truths," Cooper said. "The largest number of righteous gentiles honored by Yad Vashem [Israel's Holocaust memorial] came from Poland. Having said that, it is also true that the level of anti-Semitism in Poland on the eve of the war was also extremely high."
The FBI did not return calls for comment.
Comey might not have been wrong in the literal sense, but his comments were "inartful," said Deborah Lipstadt, professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University and author of the landmark 1993 book, "Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory."
"His heart was in the right place, but it was a very clumsy way of saying things," Lipstadt said. "Poland did not have its own government that it could be an ally or collaborator of Germany. If I were an advisor to Comey, I would have told him not to use Poland as an example.
"There were many people in Poland who certainly turned Jews in, and Poland was an anti-Semitic regime prior to the war. However, during the war Poland was an occupied country, unlike Hungary and France and others whose governments actively collaborated with the Nazis.”

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FBI Director James Comey said he sends every new agent to the Holocaust museum. (Reuters)

President Obama caused similar outrage in 2012 when he referred to a Nazi facility in occupied Poland where Jews were processed for extermination as a "Polish death camp." Obama subsequently apologized.

Nazi Germany brutally occupied Poland from 1939-45, and ran death camps there, killing millions of Jews, Poles and others.

Clinton hedges on hot-button trade deal, amid pressure from left

Hillary Clinton is hedging on whether she will back a bipartisan trade agreement gaining steam on Capitol Hill, fueling accusations that she is playing politics as she courts liberal voters.
The agreement is backed by President Obama and hailed by Democratic and Republican leaders on Capitol Hill as a way to improve the economy and create jobs by expanding U.S. markets for goods and services.
But it is opposed by leading progressives, including figures talked about as possible competitors in the Democratic presidential primary - among them, Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Independent, and Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat.
At issue is the Trade Promotion Authority bill, which would renew the ability of Congress and the president to “fast-track” trade deals, an authority that expired in 2007. In turn, that authority could help expedite two deals: the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
The former, known as the TPP, is a significant deal with 11 Pacific Rim nations, and one Clinton supported while secretary of state.
But Clinton’s camp is now leaving the door open. Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said Clinton wants the final legislation to benefit American workers and she has concerns about such issues as currency manipulation and the impact on national security.
“We should be willing to walk away from any outcome that falls short of these tests,” Merrill said in a statement. “The goal is greater prosperity and security for American families, not trade for trade’s sake.”
But Clinton’s fuzzy position on the new legislation has resulted in an array of critics -- from conservative PACs to potential primary challenger former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley -- suggesting she’s staying mum to gauge the political winds.
They argue Clinton has already changed her positions on gay marriage and immigration reform, and coming out against the trade deal would be a clear reversal just days into her fledgling White House campaign.
“She will soon have to decide whether she will continue standing with the sitting Democratic president on trade, or whether she will flip flop and join the union activists who are vehemently opposed to this bipartisan deal," said Jeff Bechdel, spokesman for the conservative America Rising PAC.
From Clinton’s left flank, Democrats have needled her on the issue.
Sanders called on Clinton to “make it clear” that TPP should be rejected.
O’Malley also sent out an email blasting the Trade Promotion Authority bill, claiming it would give Congress the power to immediately vote on the TPP.
“We must stop entering into bad trade deals that hurt middle class wages and ship middle class jobs overseas,” O’Malley said in the message.
Last week, O’Malley during a speech at the Institute of Politics at Harvard needled Clinton over other recent positions.
"I'm glad Secretary Clinton's come around to the right positions on these issues," O'Malley said, after Clinton expressed support for giving drivers’ licenses to illegal immigrants and urged the Supreme Court to rule that gay marriage is constitutional.
"I believe that we are best as a party when we lead with our principles and not according to the polls,” O’Malley continued. "Leadership is about making the right decision and the best decision before sometimes it becomes entirely popular.”
Warren, while denying any interest in a White House run, has been particularly critical of a clause in the new trade bill for disputed trade deals, saying it could tilt “the playing field further in favor of multi-national corporations” and would force American taxpayers to “cough up millions even billions of dollars in damages.”
On Monday, the White House defended Clinton, saying all observers should reserve judgment for now.
“She is going to make up her own mind about what policy positions that she’ll take,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters. “After all, TPP is something that’s still being negotiated. She, as we’re encouraging everybody to do, is going to withhold judgment.”
The legislation, which is scheduled for a vote Wednesday in the Senate Finance Committee, was hammered out by Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the panel’s top Democrat, along with House Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell last week said he would bring the TPA legislation to the floor “very soon” -- a good indication that the bill has enough bipartisan support in the GOP-led chamber to pass.
Hatch’s office points to World Bank data that finds the two pending trade agreements would further open markets to encompass nearly 1.3 billion customers and about 60 percent of global gross domestic product.
“This bipartisan bill creates what I expect to be unprecedented transparency in trade negotiations, and ensures future trade deals break new ground to promote human rights, improve labor conditions, and safeguard the environment,” Wyden said last week after reaching the bipartisan deal.

US aircraft carrier sent to block Iranian arms shipments to Yemen rebels

A U.S. aircraft carrier was dispatched to the waters off Yemen Monday to join other American ships prepared to block any Iranian weapons shipments to Shiite Houthi rebels fighting in Yemen.
A Navy official confirmed to Fox News that the USS Theodore Roosevelt -- along with her escort ship, the USS Normandy, a guided-missile cruiser -- left the Persian Gulf on Sunday en route for the Arabian Sea, to help enforce the blockade. A massive ship that carries F/A-18 fighter jets, the Roosevelt is seen more of a deterrent and show of force in the region.
The U.S. Navy has been beefing up its presence in the Gulf of Aden and the southern Arabian Sea amid reports that a convoy of about eight Iranian ships is heading toward Yemen and possibly carrying arms for the Houthis.
The deployment comes after a U.N. Security Council resolution approved last week imposed an arms embargo on rebel leaders. The resolution passed in a 14-0 vote with Russia abstaining.
Tensions are rising in the region even as the U.S. and five other world powers scramble to strike a final deal with Iran on its nuclear program by the end of June. The fighting in Yemen, where U.S. ally Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition of mainly Gulf Arab countries against the Iran-backed rebels, is complicating matters.

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Western governments and Sunni Arab countries say the Houthis get their arms from Iran. Tehran and the rebels deny that, although Iran has provided political and humanitarian support to the Shiite group.
The U.S. has been providing logistical and intelligence support to the Saudi-led coalition launching airstrikes against the Houthis. That air campaign is now in its fourth week, and the U.S. has also begun refueling coalition aircraft involved in the conflict.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, without commenting specifically on any Navy movements, said the U.S. has concerns about Iran's "continued support" for the Houthis.
"We have seen evidence that the Iranians are supplying weapons and other armed support to the Houthis in Yemen. That support will only contribute to greater violence in that country," he said. "These are exactly the kind of destabilizing activities that we have in mind when we raise concerns about Iran's destabilizing activities in the Middle East."
He said "the Iranians are acutely aware of our concerns for their continued support of the Houthis by sending them large shipments of weapons."
A written statement from the Navy on Monday said the two ships are joining others in conducting "maritime security operations" in the region.
"In recent days, the U.S. Navy has increased its presence in this area as a result of the current instability in Yemen," the statement said.
"The purpose of these operations is to ensure the vital shipping lanes in the region remain open and safe. The United States remains committed to its regional partners and to maintaining security in the maritime environment."
There are now about nine U.S. Navy ships in the region, including cruisers and destroyers carrying teams that can board and search other vessels, as well as three support ships.
The U.S. Navy generally conducts consensual boardings of ships when needed, including to combat piracy around Africa and the region. So far, however, U.S. naval personnel have not boarded any Iranian vessels since the Yemen conflict began.
Officials said it's too soon to speculate on what the Navy ships may do as the Iranian convoy approaches, including whether Iran would consent to a boarding request, and what actions the Navy would take if its request was refused.