Russia Is Reportedly Set To Release Clinton's Intercepted Emails | OilPrice.com

Russia Is Reportedly Set To Release Clinton's Intercepted Emails

Reliable intelligence sources in the West have indicated that warnings had been received that the Russian Government could in the near future release the text of email messages intercepted from U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server from the time she was U.S. Secretary of State. The release would, the messaging indicated, prove that Secretary Clinton had, in fact, laid open U.S. secrets to foreign interception by putting highly-classified Government reports onto a private server in violation of U.S. law, and that, as suspected, the server had been targeted and hacked by foreign intelligence services.

The reports indicated that the decision as to whether to reveal the intercepts would be made by Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin, and it was possible that the release would, if made, be through a third party, such as Wikileaks. The apparent message from Moscow, through the intelligence community, seemed to indicate frustration with the pace of the official U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the so-called server scandal, which seemed to offer prima facie evidence that U.S. law had been violated by Mrs Clinton’s decision to use a private server through which to conduct official and often highly-secret communications during her time as Secretary of State. U.S. sources indicated that the extensive Deptartment of Justice probe was more focused on the possibility that the private server was used to protect messaging in which Secretary Clinton allegedly discussed quid pro quo transactions with private donors to the Clinton Foundation in exchange for influence on U.S. policy.

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The Consequences Of $50 Oil | Zero Hedge

The Consequences Of $50 Oil

Submitted by Gregory Brew via OilPrice.com,

On Thursday Brent crude rose above $50 while the WTI rose to $49.85. The rise in prices came after the EIA reported a dramatic fall in U.S. inventories. The weekly drop of 4.2 million barrels, far more than the 2 million that was expected, triggered a sharp rise in a market which had been growing increasingly bullish, sending the Brent price above $50 on Thursday morning. It is the first time in seven months that the price has reached this level.

It’s a recovery that came much more quickly than analysts expected. Since reaching a low of $27 in January, both Brent and WTI have risen by nearly 80 percent, an impressive achievement considering the general slump in commodities. Concerns from the Energy Information Agency (EIA) that the world would “drown in over-supply” in 2016 have been allayed.

The new price reflects disruptions in world production. Wildfires in Canada have affected imports to the U.S., while persistent violence in Nigeria has caused that country’s exports to fall from 2.2 million bpd to less than 1.4 million bpd according to the Nigerian oil minister. Canadian crude is the single largest U.S. oil import, and the sudden fall in Canadian production was bound to have an impact on U.S. inventories. There is also the increasingly chaotic situation in Venezuela, a major Western hemisphere producer which has been hammered by economic crises brought about by the slump in prices. These disruptions, combined with falling production elsewhere, have accelerated the upward trend in prices, indicating that the market could be close to levelling off near a $50 baseline.

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Why Did Saudi Arabia Kill OPEC? | OilPrice.com

Why Did Saudi Arabia Kill OPEC?

The OPEC meeting is only a week away, but the chances of a positive result are as remote as ever. Rising oil prices, the heightened rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and Saudi Arabia’s willingness to go it alone will make a deal all but impossible.

First of all, Iran is not in a cooperative mood. According to the IEA, Iran has managed to boost oil production to 3.56 million barrels per day in April, its highest level since November 2011. Oil exports also jumped 600,000 barrels per day to 2 million barrels per day. Importantly, Iran’s output now stands at pre-sanctions levels, a key threshold that the Iranian government says it needs to reach before it would consider any cooperation on production limits with OPEC. However, Iran thus far does not see it that way, insisting that it still has more ground to make up.

More importantly, however, is Saudi Arabia’s shift in attitude. In a once unthinkable development, Saudi Arabia is backing away from OPEC. The cartel’s largest, most important, and most influential member will leave the group rudderless. Countless obituaries have been written about OPEC since November 2014, but the new direction that the Saudi monarchy is heading in all but ensures diminished influence for the oil cartel.

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9/11 Commission Member: 6 Saudi Officials Supported Terror Attack | OilPrice.com

9/11 Commission Member: 6 Saudi Officials Supported Terror Attack

Six Saudi officials are believed to have actively supported al-Qaida members in the run-up to the 9/11 attacks on America, former 9/11 Commission member and investigator John Lehman has disclosed.

Lehman, who was a member of the 9/11 Commission between 2003 and 2004, said there is documented evidence against employees of the Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs, and specifically against individuals who worked for the Saudi Embassy in the U.S., Saudi charities and the Saudi government-funded King Fahd Mosque in California.

"There was an awful lot of participation by Saudi individuals in supporting the hijackers, and some of those people worked in the Saudi government," said Lehman, stressing that these individuals had strong ties with the Saudi government in Riyadh.

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The issue is resurfacing now as pressure builds to release the 38 pages of the 9/11 Commission investigation that had been redacted. Lehman’s disclosure of this information to the media is expected to increase this pressure.

Lehman’s disclosures also come at a time when the long-standing relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia is being questioned and re-evaluated.

The Commission member’s disclosures contradict previous statements from other Commission members.

The Commission's chair and vice chairs, former Republican New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean and former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana, released a statement in April saying that"only one employee of the Saudi government was implicated in the plot investigation."

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Still, Lehman—former Navy secretary under Ronald Reagan--stressed that “we have found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded the organization.”

Despite that, “our report should never have been read as an exoneration of Saudi Arabia,” Lehman said, referring to the final document of the commission issued in 2004.

He also implored the pubic to remember that 15 of the 19 9/11 attackers were from Saudi Arabia. He is now calling for a new, thorough investigation into the extent of Saudi involvement. But more immediately, Lehman is calling for the remaining 28 pages of the redacted 9/11 Commission report to be declassified—a move that could spur along the already partial break in U.S.-Saudi relations.

By Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com