Two newly released emails conflict with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent testimony where she said her friend Sidney Blumenthal did not influence her decision-making on Libya,
Fox News reports.
When asked last month about her email correspondence with Blumenthal, whom the White House had told Clinton could not be hired by her at the State Department, Clinton said:
"He's a friend of mine. He sent me information he thought might be of interest. Some of it was, some of it wasn't, some of it I forwarded to be followed up on. He had no official position in the government. And he was not at all my adviser on Libya."
But a February 2011 email from Blumenthal suggested a no-fly zone in the country.
"U.S. might consider advancing tomorrow. Libyan helicopters and planes are raining terror on cities," he wrote. Clinton forwarded it to Jake Sullivan, her deputy chief of staff with the comment, "What do you think of this idea?"
She also responded to Sullivan the next day saying, "We are looking at that for Security Council, which remains reluctant to 'interfere' in the internal affairs of a country. Stay tuned!"
Then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair wrote Clinton a month later with a similar suggestion. She eventually did persuade the White House to put a no-fly zone into effect.
In a March 2012 email Clinton looks as if she uses Blumenthal as a go-between with former British diplomat Jonathan Powell.
Powell, Blumenthal writes, is "trying to replicate what we did in Northern Ireland by setting up secret channels between insurgents and government, and then, where appropriate, developing these negotiations."
Two hours later, Clinton replied, "I'd like to see Powell when he's in the building."
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