(WMR)—Recent revelations about former New York Democratic Congressman and New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner’s texting of lewd digital messages with attached photographs of his genitals, coupled with his wife’s admission that some of Weiner’s problems are her fault, were not enough to maintain the Washington rumor mill during the normally driest month for news—August.
Huma Abedin, a close personal confidante of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has all but announced her candidacy for president in 2016, said she was taking a “leave of absence” as Hillary’s chief of her “transition office.” Abedin’s job was reportedly to help Mrs. Clinton prepare to run for president in 2016 after stepping down as Secretary of State. Transition offices are normally established by presidents-elect between their election and inauguration.
The timing of Abedin’s leave of absence announcement came after the Clintons were reportedly infuriated by Weiner’s admission that he continued sending sex messages after he resigned from Congress. Abedin, long considered Hillary’s asset, quickly became a major liability.
State Department sources tell WMR that it was the constant rumors within the State Department about a lesbian relationship between then-Secretary of State Clinton and Abedin that prompted the nascent Clinton campaign to place a great deal of distance between the former Secretary of State and her assistant. Fueling the decision were more revelations about Weiner’s continuing sex tweeting. Weiner and Abedin, who have a young son, tried to fend off controversy about Weiner’s latest admissions but without success.
According to The New York Times, Philippe Reines, Mrs. Clinton’s personal spokesman and adviser, coordinated by telephone between Abedin and the former Secretary of State before Abedin faced a press conference with Weiner after new revelations that he engaged in sending sex tweets just before he announced he was running for mayor of New York.
Mrs. Clinton has done much for Abedin over the years. Abedin was a lowly intern in the Clinton White House in 1996 but she rose to become Mrs. Clinton’s deputy chief of staff at the State Department with an annual salary of $135,000. At the same time, Abedin served as a consultant to the William J. Clinton Foundation and Teneo Holdings, a Wall Street consulting group that advised former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine’s MF Global investment firm as it was collapsing. While double dipping as a government employee and a private consultant, Abedin hauled in as much as a half of million dollars in salary. Abedin and Weiner also live in a Park Avenue South apartment owned by a major Clinton campaign financier.
Although, on the surface, the charges that Abedin has connections to the Muslim Brotherhood might appear to be typical neo-conservative stock-in-trade anti-Arab racism, there are some suspicious links between Mrs. Clinton’s “gal Friday” and the Brotherhood. One is the chief foreign policy adviser to the ousted government of President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt, Gehad El-Haddad. The Morsi adviser was also an official of the Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi’s Freedom and Jusice Party, and director for the Clinton Foundation in Egypt. El-Haddad also served as the top media adviser to Morsi. Abedin’s mother, Saleha M. Abedin, is a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood and the editor of the Saudi-funded Journal of the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs. Huma worked for the magazine as an assistant editor while she also worked for Mrs. Clinton between 1996 and 2008.
WMR has learned from Democratic Party sources in Washington that during the 2008 presidential campaign, when rumors surfaced of past Barack Obama gay activities in Chicago, the Clinton campaign pursued each and every lead from Washington to Chicago. When confronted with the allegations by Clinton campaign operatives, the Obama campaign responded by threatening to expose Mrs. Clinton’s many lesbian relationships. It was a standoff. Neither side was willing to “go nuclear” over sexual orientation allegations.
The current bubbling scandal involving Huma and Hillary (“HH” as they were known in the State Department) has been followed by another involving one of Mrs. Clinton’s predecessor at State, Colin Powell.
A hacker called Guccifer posted romantic e-mail messages between Powell, who has been married for 50 years, and a Romanian diplomat and former spokesman for the president of Romania, Corina Cretu. Powell was forced to deny that he and Cretu had an affair. Along with photographs of her in a bikini and in a hot tub, Cretu emailed Powell the following message on November 14, 2011, according to the New York Daily News: “I’ve loved you too much, too many years. You were my greatest love of my life.”
And now comes word of an affair between New York City Comptroller candidate Eliot Spitzer, who resigned as Governor of New York over his trysts with a prostitute at Washington’s Mayflower Hotel, and an unidentified woman. Spitzer has recently tried to separate himself from the Weiner scandal by telling Chris Matthews that he could not support a Weiner candidacy because of the sexting incidents. Spitzer is now denying a rumor of an extramarital affair. It should be noted, however, that Spitzer is separated from his wife so this “scandal” may be an attempt by Hillary’s well-organized media operation to divert attention from Weiner to another disgraced politician seeking redemption from the voters.
However, political scandal month has just started. Another former high-ranking government official is already preparing his lesson plans for his college course at the City University of New York. Former CIA director David Petraeus, brought down by an affair with Army reserve officer Paula Broadwell, will be teaching courses that favor the building of the Keystone XL pipeline and the benefits of gas fracking and “clean coal.” Petraeus’s Wall Street employer, Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts (KKR) has significant financial stakes in all three energy projects. So, when Petraeus ignited a firestorm of protest at CUNY by accepting a $150,000 salary for teaching a single three-hour course a week, he changed his mind and said he would teach the course for a mere $1. Obviously, KKR’s deep-pocketed pals at TransCanada are picking up the difference.
And with August scandal month comes the inevitable jokes:
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2013 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).
