On Monday evening, it seemed a safe bet that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address before Congress would dominate Tuesday’s political discussion. Netanyahu’s speech still promises to receive prominent play, but the prime minister now has competition: Late last night, the New York Times revealed that during her four-year tenure as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton used only a private email account to conduct official business, a possible violation of federal record-keeping rules that require officials to preserve their correspondence. As the Times’ Michael Schmidt wrote, Clinton’s practices underscored lingering concerns about the Clintons’ “lack of transparency and inclination toward secrecy.”
Schmidt’s report also lays bare Clinton’s hypocrisy on those scores.
As the nation’s top diplomat, Clinton was the Obama administration’s leading crusader against foreign governmental corruption and secrecy, arguing that societies stood to gain from a commitment to openness and transparency. Months after she was sworn in as secretary in 2009, Clinton took that fight to Angola, where many opposition activists and politicians hoped she would speak out against President José Eduardo dos Santos’ autocratic rule. Clinton didn’t directly criticize Santos, but she didn’t ignore his abuses of power, either. Speaking before members of parliament in Luanda, the capital, Clinton challenged the assembled lawmakers: “In a democracy such as yours, the parliament must demand accountability and transparency, and stand against financial corruption and abuse of power.” Continue>>>
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