5 explosive Clinton campaign emails just released by WikiLeaks that you must read [TWEETS]

Revealing emails about Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in the US have driven a number of global headlines since their public release on 7 October. Here are just five of them that you really ought to read.

Background on the email leak

According to WikiLeaks, a mere 1% of the Hillary Clinton campaign files (known as the Podesta emails) had been released at the time of this article’s publication. These emails were hacked from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s private Gmail account, and their release came immediately on the heels of the emergence of an embarrassing video of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump making harassing and sleazy sexual comments about women (which added to his already poor record).

The Podesta emails provide a candid glimpse into the ways in which the Clinton campaign crafts public perception on issues ranging from Syria to the environment, to free trade, to Republican rivals, or to her likeability among common voters.

Most commentary so far has focused on never-before-seen excerpts from her paid private speeches. In one of these speeches, she said:

You need to have a public position and a private position on policy.

The downloadable 80 pages of paid speech excerpts and other emails contain glaring contradictions between her private and public positions. A number of these have direct bearing on key global events and crises.

Highlighted below are five shocking revelations which come from the first ‘Podesta’ email dump:

1) Clinton has repeatedly called for a ‘No Fly Zone’ over Syria for the express purpose of ‘protecting civilians’ from the Assad government, yet she admitted in a private 2013 speech that this would actually kill more civilians:

Hillary Clinton just reiterated her call for a No Fly Zone that she acknowledged would "kill a lot of Syrians" pic.twitter.com/9aHOWwkLOe

— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) October 10, 2016

2) Clinton smeared US environmental activists as “phony” stooges who were “being funded by the Russians”:

Clinton in secret speech: Anti-fracking and environmental groups are a Russian plot https://t.co/qXA0hzytKg (see email attachment) pic.twitter.com/YBwJTju6fP

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 8, 2016

3) The Clinton camp tried to “elevate” unsavoury “extreme” right-wing candidates into the media spotlight as her potential presidential rivals, presumably to rig the election in her favour:

Clinton team instructed DNC with strategic goal of "elevating" Trump two months before he declared his candidacy https://t.co/DAmWNq9K0f pic.twitter.com/mrGTyCycSu

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 9, 2016

Note: HRC = Hillary Rodham Clinton, DNC = Democratic National Committee

4) Hillary affirmed that a country she considers a close ally, Saudi Arabia, has spread extremism across the globe over the past 30 years – and even now openly supports terror organisations in Syria by “indiscriminately” supplying weapons:

Hillary Clinton in private Jewish speech "Saudis have exported more extreme ideology than any other place on earth." https://t.co/2kL8e8fz5W

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 8, 2016

Clinton knew Saudis were shipping weapons to terrorists in Syria – but continues to support arms sales to Clinton Found. donor Saudi Arabia. pic.twitter.com/BrxzEBZAQC

— Sharmine Narwani (@snarwani) October 10, 2016

5) Clinton’s staff was given extensive instructions on how to plant stories in the media with “friendly journalists” who have “teed up” stories for the Clinton campaign in the past:

New Clinton email describes @maggieNYT as a “friendly journalist” who has “teed up” stories and “never disappointed” https://t.co/HL67S6vjKW

— The Intercept (@theintercept) October 9, 2016

The second batch of the Podesta emails has been released and is viewable here.

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Featured image via pameladrew212/Wikimedia Commons