Former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday broke her silence over a budding controversy involving her use of personal e-mail for work when she was secretary, saying she wanted the US Department of State to release them swiftly.
Clinton’s statement was aimed at cooling a political firestorm over allegations that she inappropriately used her personal e-mail for work while she was US secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.
“I want the public to see my e-mail,” Clinton said in a tweet. “I asked [the Department of] State to release them. They said they will review them for release as soon as possible.”
The controversy has suddenly put Clinton into trouble just as she is planning to launch a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination next year. It has prompted some Democrats to wonder whether someone else should be their candidate to succeed US President Barack Obama.
The Department of State said it will review the e-mails provided by Clinton “using a normal process that guides such releases.”
“We will undertake this review as quickly as possible. Given the sheer volume of the document set, this review will take some time to complete,” US Department of State deputy spokesperson Marie Harf said.
Clinton’s tweeted statement came hours after the US House of Representatives’ Select Committee on Benghazi, investigating the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on a US diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, issued subpoenas for her e-mails, demanding all communications from Clinton related to the incident.
The panel also sent letters to Internet companies telling them to protect any documents relevant to the ongoing investigation, committee communications director Jamal Ware said in a statement.
US Representative Trey Gowdy, the Republican chairman of the Benghazi panel, told reporters that within two weeks, he must either have the documents or a “really good explanation” for why not.
Republicans have been scrutinizing Clinton’s actions and communications surrounding the Benghazi attack, when US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others were killed during an assault on a US facility. Republican lawmakers believe she did not do enough to ensure the safety of Americans in Libya.
US Representative Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the committee, said the Republicans’ actions have led him to believe they simply want to attack Clinton. He added that Colin Powell, the former secretary of state under former US president George W. Bush, a Republican, had used personal e-mails.
The Department of State has defended Clinton, saying that at the time there was no prohibition on using a personal e-mail account for official business as long as it was preserved. However, experts have called her use of personal e-mail highly unusual and that her practice possibly left her communications open to hacking.
The Department of State said Clinton last year turned over e-mails from the period after a records request and that 300 of these were sent to the committee.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not