Epstein Secrets

The former private-practice lawyer now serves as Secretary Clinton's right-hand woman in Foggy Bottom, where she ov

an Center for Middle East Policy in 2002, has remained a steadfast supporter of the Democratic Party, personally donating thousands of dollars for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential bid and recently shelling out $1 million to super PACs supporting Obama. 17. Jeremy Bash When Leon Panetta became CIA director

t, Hillary Clinton, who, Obama argued, was too polarizing to get anything done in Washington. Obama soon added a harsher note to the argument: that Hillary, perhaps like her finger-wagging husband, was untrustworthy. On November 10, 2007, Obama's advisers, in a private memo before a pivotal speech in

n, recently suggesting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is primarily responsible for the failure of the Middle East peace process. 8. Ben Rhodes Behind Obama's biggest foreign-policy speeches -- his campaign address before 200,000 people in Berlin, his 2009 Cairo remarks on Middle East poli

heir bottom line: Start transferring responsibility for the war to where it practically and ultimately belongs, to the Afghans. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hasn't settled on a formula but tends to share Pentagon concerns about withdrawing too quickly and reopening doors for a Taliban surge. She is like

tely belongs, to the Afghans. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hasn't settled on a formula but tends to

drawal total and end dates could change somewhat. No one, not even Obama's most intimate national-security aides—Tom Donilon, Denis McDonough, and Ben Rhodes—can be certain of their boss' final calculations, but key officials feel confident that the president's secret thinking will generally hold. Sorti

day, Obama was meeting with Francois Hollande, the new French President; the building was filled with foreign-policy luminaries. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was climbing up the staircase alone as I descended. Rhodes's windowless office has a large printer marked with a sign that says "Classified." On hi

ith foreign-policy luminaries. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was climbing up the staircase alone as I

like to leave." VII E FTA_R1_02204189 EFTA02720660 After I talked with Plouffe, I wandered down to the basement of the White House to meet with Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national-security adviser. That day, Obama was meeting with Francois Hollande, the new French President; the building was filled w

the eighties. In the Beast, on the way to Johnson's house, Obama told me, "Magic has become a good friend. I always tease him—I think he supported Hillary the first time around, in '08." "He campaigned for her in Iowa!" Josh Earnest, a press spokesman, said, still sounding chagrined. "Yeah, but we h

West," Fareed Zakaria, a writer on foreign policy whom Obama reads and consults, says. Anne-Marie Slaughter, who worked at the State Department as Hillary Clinton's director of policy planning, says, "Obama has a real understanding of the limits of our power. It's not that the United States is in decline; it's

an XXL France or Germany." Obama's "long game" on foreign policy calls for traditional categories of American power and ideology to be reordered. Ben Rhodes, the deputy national-security adviser for strategic communications, told me that Washington was "trapped in very stale narratives." "In the foreig

3 and the support for SCAF is related to that." SCAF is the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Egypt's ruling military council. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton underscored the shift in a speech last week that her aides later said was a deliberate warning to the military council, which assumed power after Pre

yptians will have missed a historic opportunity," Mrs. Clinton warned "When unelected authorities say they want

y much welcome the strong stance that Turkey has taken and believe it sends a critical message to President Assad that ... he should step down," said Ben Rhodes, Barack Obama's deputy national security adviser. In a series of statements, Davutoglu has insisted it is "no longer possible to trust the Syrian gov

make his foreign-policy wins the centerpiece of his reelection strategy. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_031955 --- PAGE BREAK --- 16 Advisors: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, National Security Advisor Thomas Donilon. On the issues: Afghanistan/Pakistan: "We have put al Qaeda on a path to de