In the hacked emails, released Tuesday, campaign manager Robby Mook expressed concern about Clinton’s relationship with Sweden and Morocco
Sweden and Morocco donated millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation while Hillary Clinton’s State Department approved policy very favourable to their governments, emails released by Wikileaks show.
In the hacked emails, released Tuesday, campaign manager Robby Mook expressed concern about Clinton’s relationship with Sweden and Morocco.
In an email with the subject line “Foundation vulnerability points,” Mook outlined areas where the foundation’s work could potentially cause a problem for the campaign.
The list includes: “Money from foreign governments,” “Overseas events with foreign leaders or government officials” and “Potential conflicts from overseas-owned organizations (UK and Sweeden) (sic).”
The Clinton Foundation raised $26 million from Sweden while the Swedish government was lobbying the State Department to not sanction Swedish businesses working with Iran.
In 2009, diplomatic officials warned that Sweden was ramping up trade with Iran, even while the U.S. was placing heavy sanctions on Iran in an attempt to drive them to the bargaining table and halt their nuclear program.
“Although our Swedish interlocutors continue to tell us that Europe’s overall trade with Iran is falling, the statements and information found on Swedish and English language websites shows that Sweden’s trade with Iran is growing,” wrote the U.S. Embassy in a Dec. 22, 2009, diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks. The cable was sent to seven government agencies, including Hillary Clinton’s office.
The Clinton campaign did not reply to a request for comment.
In 2009, Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson AB provided technology to Iranian telecommunications company MTN IRanCell that could be used to track their citizens. Ericsson told the Washington Times that the tracking technology could not be used by Iranian security services to track dissidents because it does not monitor location in real time.
In November 2011, a few weeks after the State Department released the first Iran sanctions list that did not include Ericsson or any other Swedish companies, Bill Clinton received $750,000 for a speech he gave to Ericsson.
The State Department ultimately chose not to sanction any Swedish companies.
In another email released Tuesday by Wikileaks, Mook wrote: “We really need to shut Morocco and these paid speeches down.”
Several emails released by Wikileaks show Mook and campaign chairman John Podesta raising concerns about a keynote speech Hillary Clinton was scheduled to deliver at a Clinton Foundation event in Morocco in May 2015.
King Mohammed VI of Morocco offered the Clinton Foundation $12 million on the condition that Clinton attend as the keynote speaker.
“Just to give you some context, the condition upon which the Moroccans agreed to host the meeting was her participation. If hrc was not part if it, meeting was a non-starter,” wrote campaign vice-chair Huma Abedin in a January 2015 email to Podesta and Mook.
After a series of contentious back and forths between Abedin, Podesta and Mook, the decision was made to have Bill and Chelsea Clinton attended the Morocco conference in Hillary’s stead.
During a daily press briefing Tuesday, the State Department declined to comment as to whether Morocco received preferential treatment due to their relationship with the Clinton foundation.
Whether or not it’s related to money given to her foundation, Morocco thinks they got better treatment when Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State.
A leaked document containing the minutes of a 2012 meeting bet
ween
Clinton and then-Foreign Minister of Morocco Saad-Eddine El Othmani shows the foreign minister thanking Clinton for describing Morocco as a model for the region in a meeting with President Barack Obama.
According to the minutes from that meeting, the foreign minister was told by Obama-adviser Dennis McDonough that: “Clinton had highlighted the many democratic reforms initiated by His Majesty King Mohammed VI”.
In 2011, Clinton’s State Department accused Morocco of widespread corruption and arbitrary arrests.
Clinton’s advocacy for Morocco wasn’t limited to positive statements made to Obama; she also fought for them on one of the country’s most contentious issues.
Morocco has occupied Western Sahara since 1975, a territory they say is part of Morocco and most countries consider a distinct nation fighting for independence or a disputed territory.
Clinton repeatedly backed Morocco’s claims over the territory, even going against Obama’s stated policy. In June 2009, Obama wrote a letter to King Mohammed VI signalling that the U.S. would be open to an independent Western Sahara (the Bush administration had backed Morocco’s plan to have Western Sahara declared a region of Morocco).
In November 2009 Clinton backed Morocco’s position, saying there had been “no change” in U.S. policy.
“Morocco’s autonomy plan is serious, realistic, and credible,” said Clinton in September 2012, adding: “It represents a potential approach that could satisfy the aspirations of the people in the Western Sahara to run their own affairs in peace and dignity.”
A November 2013 memo prepared by the Moroccan Embassy laments Hillary Clinton’s decision to step down and describes her as an “an important ally of the Kingdom in the Obama administration.” It goes on to lament the appointment of John Kerry, “who has never visited Morocco and on occasion held positions not always favorable to our country.”
