Clinton adviser urged using hurricane to boost Obama's re-election bid

One of Hillary Clinton’s closest advisers told her that Barack Obama should use a deadly hurricane to boost his re-election campaign, a proposal that she agreed to pass on to the White House, a new tranche of emails reveals.

Sidney Blumenthal, a longtime friend of the Clintons, sent a memo in 2012 presenting a strategy for turning Hurricane Isaac to the Democrats’ political advantage by contrasting it with President George W Bush’s handling of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

The missive emerged among 2,900 pages from the former secretary of state’s email account released by the state department just after 1.30am on Friday.

Critics are likely to seize on the email to once more accuse the Democratic frontrunner’s camp of cold political scheming. Hurricane Isaac reportedly killed 24 people in Haiti, five in the Dominican Republic and five in the US, displaced thousands and caused billions of dollars of damage.

In a message with the jocular subject heading, “H: FYI. In case you or Bill have use for this. Done quickly am in spirit of John Lennon. (‘I read the news today, oh, boy’). Sid”, Blumenthal wrote to Clinton on 27 August 2012: “The moment George W Bush’s popularity collapsed was in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. His decline was not the result of the Iraq War; instead, it was sudden, rapid and unrecoverable post-Katrina. Then and only then did his standing on every other issue disintegrate.”

With Hurricane Isaac set to hit the Gulf coast and possibly veer towards New Orleans, Blumenthal urged the administration to set up a command post and send Vice-President Joe Biden and the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) to the scene.

“The theme of the Republican convention is the failure of President Obama, not only on the economy but also generally as an effective chief executive,” he continued. “The FEMA effort after Isaac will: a. Implicitly contrast with the Bush one after Katrina; b. Demonstrate that the Obama administration is effective and acts in the public interest by effectively managing government; c. Show the indispensability of the federal government without ever having to make an ideological case. And: Once the FEMA effort begins, while the Republican convention is meeting, Democrats across the board should point out that the Romney-Ryan budget plans would slash FEMA. Even if not specified, as little is specified in their plans, drastic FEMA cuts would be inevitable.”

Clinton replied: “I passed this on to the White House. We’ll see what happens.”

Blumenthal wrote back: “All Obama needs to do is turn up, surrounded by commanders, on the Gulf Coast, post-hurricane, on Saturday. The hurricane is the counter-convention. It provides the counter message without ever having to debate it: Obama is effective, gets things done, government is essential, etc. The event is the message. Plus, on the anniversary of Katrina, the contrast is naturally made, and Bush pops up.”

An author, journalist and former White House official, Blumenthal has been a regular protagonist in the Clinton email releases. The secretary of state’s responses make clear that she took his advice on foreign policy seriously. There is also warmth in an email she wrote after calling on Blumenthal and his wife in 2010: “Thx so much for a wonderful visit. Just reminds me how much I miss seeing you and Jackie.”

In 2013, after falling ill, she wrote to him: “I’ve been too busy drinking water to reply, but want to thank you and Jackie for your good wishes during these past weeks. I’m happy to report that I’m on the mend and plan to be back at work next week for the final lap. Hope you’re off to a happy and HEALTHY new year. Looking forward to catching up, H.”

Clinton’s use of a private email account has been under particular scrutiny in relation to the September 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that left ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead. Opponents have seized on the vague and conflicting accounts that officials gave in the days immediately after the incident.

On 13 September 2012, two days after the attack, Blumenthal emailed Clinton with a memo drawing on “sources with direct access to the Libyan National Transitional Council, as well as the highest levels of European Governments, and Western Intelligence and security services”.

Libyan security officials “do believe that the attackers having prepared to launch their assault took advantage of the cover provided by the demonstrations in Benghazi protesting an internet production seen as disrespectful to the prophet Mohammed,” he wrote. “According to this source, the immediate events were set in motion by a statement made by a Muslim Cleric in Egypt saying that the internet film was going to be shown across the United States on September 11 in an effort to insult Muslims on the anniversary of the attacks on the New York World Trade Center in 2001.”

Libyan security officers also said the “attacks had been planned for approximately one month, based on casing information obtained during an early demonstration at the US consulate in Benghazi. The attackers were, in the opinion of these individuals, looking for an opportunity to approach the consulate under cover in a crowd … They describe these forces as well-trained, hardened killers; many of whom have spent time in Afghanistan and Yemen.”

A few months later, Blumenthal wrote to the secretary of state about the Republican backlash: “Here’s the ultimate Benghazi conspiracy theory that wingers believe: [CIA director] John Brennan, without a presidential finding, at the behest of the Saudis, created a covert CIA operation at the Benghazi consulate to run arms secretly to the Syrian rebels. And the administration covered it up to protect Obama in the election. In other words, a projection of Iran-contra and Watergate rolled into one.”

He also gossiped about retired general David Petraeus’s affair with biographer Paula Broadwell, which forced Petraeus’s resignation shortly after Obama’s re-election. In November 2010 Blumenthal wrote: “From Jane Mayer, just now, 7:20 pm. Her husband, Bill Hamilton is national security editor of NYT [New York Times], in charge of Petraeus story: ‘Omigod – there’s a new twist. You wont believe who tipped off the FBI – you are so right that it has the stench of dirty tricks. I think it may just be a Times story so I have to keep my mouth shut for a few more hours, but you’re going to like this.’”

In another message to Clinton he commented: “My operative theory on Petraeus scandal is that it became an October Surprise that failed. Forcing the scandal public and his resignation would have been the trifecta – leaks, Benghazi, then Petraeus – allowing Romney to argue that Obama had created a national security collapse. It would have overtaken the end of the campaign.”

On Thursday a watchdog found the state department produced “inaccurate and incomplete” responses to public records requests while Clinton was in office, including its inability to find documents showing she used a private email account for official business. The inspector general’s report said personnel responsible for Freedom of Information Act requests in the secretary’s office often missed deadlines and did not meet legal requirements for conducting complete searches.

The release of the latest batch of emails, originally scheduled for Thursday evening, was postponed until 11.45pm, and the emails finally emerged at 1.39am.