Liberal Blogger Says He Worked With Hillary Clinton’s Aide on Birther Claims

A left-wing blogger says one of Hillary Clinton’s top aides urged him in 2008 to write articles suggesting that then-Senator Barack Obama “was not a natural born citizen.”

Larry Johnson, operator of the NoQuarter blog, described his cooperation with the aide, Sidney Blumenthal in September 2015.

I know firsthand, and can testify under oath, that Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign was hot and heavy on the issue of Barack Obama’s muslim heritage. How do I know? Because I was a conduit for information from Sidney Blumenthal, a Hillary Clinton confidant. I was not an official part of the campaign. I was not on the staff. But I was a supporter and I have no regrets for trying to help Hillary defeat Barack Obama. I did not knowingly make up or manufacture anything about Barack Obama. Just tried to get the facts out.

On Sept. 16, 2016, Johnson posted another description of his work with Blumenthal, after an editor for the McClatchy news service reported that Blumenthal prompted the news service to ask an Africa-based reporter to check out rumors about Obama’s ties to Africa.

“I am shocked at the audacity of Hillary Clinton to decry Donald Trump as a birther because her campaign not only pushed that item in a bid to discredit Barack Obama, but mounted a sustained campaign attack Obama on a broad array of issues,” Johnson wrote on Sept. 16.

“How do I know? I was part of that effort and was in regular email and phone coordination with Sidney Blumenthal. Sidney was the conduit who fed damaging material to me that I subsequently posted on my blog,” he wrote.

On the birther-related issue, Blumenthal provided “information concerning allegations that Barack Obama was not a natural born citizen … [and] being adopted by Indonesian Muslim Lolo Soetoro,” Johnson wrote in his post, titled “Confessions of a Hillary Insider.”

James Asher, a former top editor in D.C.  for the McClatchy news service said Sept. 15 that Blumenthal pitched him the birther story.

https://twitter.com/jimasher/status/776633213015982080

In 2008, Johnson was well known among Democrats. According to Johnson’s posted resume,

From 1989 until October 1993, Larry Johnson served as a Deputy Director in the U.S. State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism. He managed crisis response operations for terrorist incidents throughout the world and he helped organize and direct the US Government’s debriefing of US citizens held in Kuwait and Iraq, which provided vital intelligence on Iraqi operations following the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Mr. Johnson also participated in the investigation of the terrorist bombing of Pan Am 103…

Mr. Johnson is a member of the American Society for Industrial Security. He taught at The American University’s School of International Service (1979-1983) while working on a Ph.D. in political science. He has a M.S. degree in Community Development from the University of Missouri (1978), where he also received his B.S. degree in Sociology, graduating Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1976.

At his blog, Johnson wrote Sept. 16 that,

In some cases Sid Blumenthal actually provided a draft piece that I would slightly modify and publish under my name. Most of the time, however, Sid provided background information and researched material that I would use to craft pieces. How many? I am providing the links to 63 blog articles that I posted (and in one case was posted by Susan Hudgens, who assisted with the blog) between January 2008 and June 30, 2008.

Here is simple summary of material (in writing or through a verbal briefing) that I received from Sid? [sic]

1. Information surrounding the corrupt business relationship between Barack Obama and Tony Rezko.
2. Information about Barack Obama’s ties to Palestinian radicals.
3. Information concerning Barack Obama’s longstanding ties to the American terrorist, Bill Ayers.
4. Information concerning Barack Obama’s close ties to radical clerics–i.e., Jeremiah Wright and Father Michael Pfleger.
5. Information concerning allegations that Barack Obama was not a natural born citizen.
6. Information concerning Barack Obama being adopted by Indonesian Muslim Lolo Soetoro.

The big Kahuna of the anti-Obama dump was the allegation that Republicans had a tape of Michelle Obama in which she used the disparaging term “Whitey.” I published that after being told about the “tape” by Sid Blumenthal. (I learned a few weeks later that the story of the tape actually originated with Media Matter’s David Brock and he confirmed its existence to me in person).

Bill Clinton knew about the campaign to undermine Obama, according to Johnson.

Listening to Hillary Clinton cry crocodile tears over Trump’s questioning Obama’s birth place and eligibility to be President in 2011 as a “racist” attack is the ultimate example that Hillary is cynical and dishonest. Yes, it is true that the words, “Obama is a muslim” or “Obama is not a natural born American” never passed her lips. But it is also true that that people very close to her, such as Sidney Blumenthal, were pushing those stories and trying desperately to promote those memes.

Hillary knew about all of these lines of attack on Obama. In fact I was told by Sid on one occasion in the summer of 2008 that the Big Dog (Bill of course) was very pleased with the pieces going up at NoQuarterUSA and thought they were helping Hillary…

[Clinton’s] dishonesty and the incompetence she demonstrated while Secretary of State have convinced me beyond any doubt that she cannot be trusted with the power of that office. That does not mean I trust Donald Trump, but my focus here is in exposing the cynical propaganda that Hillary Clinton is trying to foist on the uninformed voter.

Read it all here.