Appearing on the French television show, Le Grand Journal, Jean-Claude Van Damme (JCVD) just showed the world that even he is aware of the control and power of the Rothschild and Rockefeller families. Continue reading
Former First Lady Hillary Clinton is the current darling of the liberal media and the front-runner for Democratic nomination for the 2016 presidential election. However, a new video could destroy her political career, giving her a term in a jail cell rather than the Oval Office.
It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything. -Joseph Stalin
One thing in US history is consistent throughout every single election cycle — allegations of voter fraud. These allegations, however, are not the ramblings of a kook with tinfoil wrapped around his head, they are substantiated and reach as high as the Supreme Court. Don’t believe it? Ask Al Gore and George W. Bush. If you think that the ruling class would leave it up to the voters to decide who gets elected, you should think again. Every single candidate who actually challenges the status-quo becomes a target. Continue reading
Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura (I) said he would run for president, if the current race comes down to Donald Trump against Hillary Clinton, the Daily Beastreported.
“Jesse Ventura is a bright, shining new face who comes riding in on a white stallion to save the country,” he said. Continue reading
New York Times Best Seller Roger Stone, a veteran of nine national presidential campaigns, most recently Donald Trump, joins OUR WORLD with Gary Franchi on http://TalkNetwork.com blast CNBC for their epic debate failure.
YouTube reporter Redsilverj exposes the same ole’ crisis actor script in latest Virginia shooting. Alleged family members appear on TV the same day their loved one is brutally murdered. They show very little emotion except fake anger to promote gun control legislation.
I am glad that the left intellectual and activist Chris Hedges does not support the Bernie Sanders campaign for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. As Hedges explained in a recent interview on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour, Sanders’ candidacy lends undeserved credibility to the thoroughly corporatized Democratic Party. Sanders has pledged that he will support the corporatist military hawk Hillary Clinton in the 2016 general presidential election. Sanders stirs up legitimate progressive energy and popular anger and then “funnels it back into a dead political system,” Hedges observes. Sanders fails to confront the American Empire and military state, and, Hedges adds, has unforgivably “abandoned the Palestinians and given carte blanche to Israel.”
Roger Stone Takes On Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton, and the Two-Party Duopoly of the 2016 Elections with Jesse Ventura | Jesse Ventura Off The Grid - Ora TV
Legendary political hitman Roger Stone - Reagan’s and H.W.’s former consultant - joins Jesse Ventura in this Off The Grid interview. Stone exposes the crowded 2016 presidential race as corrupt, blasting the “non-choice” of Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton as serving only the two-party duopoly. He sounds off on the state of our political system, calling it “show business for ugly people.” Do you agree with Roger Stone? Sound off at Ora.TV/OffTheGrid!
“I am a socialist and everyone knows that.”
After Bernie Sanders was first elected to the house in 1990, that was his response to an ad that linked him to Fidel Castro’s Cuba. Most people would agree that profit hating, self describe democratic socialist, does not seem like an authoritarian when compared to someone like Adolf Hitler. However, nonetheless it is possible that Bernie Sanders may be a very dangerous man. In this article, i will explain why he is, and also why he is most likely the establishment’s choice for president.
(Business Insider) - Philippe Reines, the personal spokesman and longtime adviser to Hillary Clinton, blew up at New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner after the latest revelations surrounding his online sexual relationships.The New York Times’ Amy Chozick and Michael Grynbaum report that Reines went off on Weiner during a campaign conference call after learning of the new revelations. Reines is a close personal friend of Huma Abedin, a “surrogate daughter” beloved by the Clintons, and has an informal, unpaid role with the campaign. Continue reading
An internal memo from the State Department’s inspector general has surfaced that calls into question the State Department’s ability to investigate wrongdoing by its staff. The memo outlines eight examples of wrongdoing by agency staff and contractors, including hiring prostitutes and committing sexual assault, and seems to imply that the agency attempted to halt investigation into these matters.
A number of the allegations outlined in the memo are against then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s security detail, some of whom have been accused of hiring prostitutes. Likewise, a U.S. ambassador is accused of perusing public parks in search of paid sex, and a security official allegedly committed sexual assaults on foreign nationals in Beirut hired as embassy guards.
The memo notes that members of Hillary Clinton’s security detailed “engaged prostitutes while on official trips in foreign countries,” and stated that the problem was “endemic.”
The memo indicates that four members of Clinton’s security detail received one-day suspensions.
According to the memo, which was first obtained by CBS News, the State Department has attempted to stop investigations into these cases. For example, the investigation into the Ambassador’s pursuit of paid sex was allegedly interrupted by the agency. Fox News reports:
The memo also seems to indicate that the government agency tried to use its authority to stop the investigation and instead, opting to have the official, whose name has not been released, meet with Undersecretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy in Washington. The official was then allowed to return to his job overseas.
Responding to media reports on Tuesday, Kennedy defended himself, asserting, “I have always acted to honor the brave men and women I serve, while also holding accountable anyone guilty of wrongdoing. In my current position, it is my responsibility to make sure the Department and all of our employees — no matter their rank — are held to the highest standard, and I have never once interfered, nor would I condone interfering, in any investigation.”
While CBS did not disclose the name of the ambassador, the New York Post reported it was U.S. Ambassador to Belgium Howard Gutman.
Gutman responded to the allegations on Tuesday.
“I am angered and saddened by the baseless allegations that have appeared in the press and to watch the four years I have proudly served in Belgium smeared is devastating,” he said. “I live on a beautiful park in Brussels that you walk through to get to many locations and at no point have I ever engaged in any improper activity.”
The memo also reveals details about an “underground drug ring” near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and that allegedly supplied State Department security contractors with drugs.
Upon learning of the allegations of misconduct, Representative Ed Royce, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called on congressional staff members to launch an investigation.
And a State Department spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, has announced that the department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security has requested a “review by outside, experienced law enforcement officers” to work with the Inspector General’s office to make “expert assessments about our current procedures.”
Psaki denies that the improper behavior outlined in the report is “endemic.”
“I’m not going to speak to specific cases, but it’s hardly endemic,” Psaki told reporters at a State Department briefing. “Any case we would take seriously and that’s certainly what we’re doing.”
On Tuesday, Psaki said, “The notion that we would not vigorously pursue criminal misconduct is not only preposterous, it’s inaccurate.”
Reporters attempted to question Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on the subject during a press conference on Tuesday, but Reid quickly cut them off.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. “What are you talking about?… I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
But White House spokesman Jay Carney did respond to the allegations on Tuesday, asserting that President Obama has “zero tolerance for misconduct by any government employee.”
He added, however, that the White House “won’t prejudge anyone or anything before all the facts are determined.”
As noted by Fox News, this is not the first time allegations of sexual misconduct have been raised against the Obama administration. Fox News observes:
In April 2012, members of the president’s Secret Service detail were caught in a prostitution scandal involving 12 women they picked up during an official trip to Colombia. The Secret Service was slow to disclose any information and issued only limited public statements in the weeks following the incident in Cartagena.
In the end, a dozen agents, officers, supervisors and 12 other U.S. military personnel were implicated in a night of heavy drinking and misconduct.
The Secret Service forced eight employees from their jobs. The military canceled the security clearances of all 12 enlisted personnel.
However, the bigger issue is the State Department’s alleged efforts to cover up the allegations.
The memo indicates that recent investigations into these matters were influenced, manipulated, or called off.
According to Aurelia Fedenisn, a former investigator with the Inspector General’s office, “We also uncovered several allegations of criminal wrongdoing in cases, some of which never became cases.”
Members of the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), which is the State Department’s security force in charge of investigating any cases of misconduct on the part of State Department employees, claim that senior State Department officials had told them to back off in many of these cases.
Fedenisn states, “We were very upset. We expect to see influence, but the degree to which that influence existed and how high up it went, was very disturbing.”
Mike Pohelitz, a retired Senior Agent at the DSS who had been involved in one of the cases listed in the memo, recalls being told to stop investigating, and assumes that the orders came from the upper ranks of the DSS.
“I got the information through my DS channel,” he told CBS. “But it had to come from somebody higher than DS, I’m sure.”
CBS reports that Fedenisn was a part of the team that prepared the Inspector General’s draft report on the DSS’ performance and is now a whistleblower who has taken her concerns to Congress.
Fedenisn explains “hostile intelligence services” permit bad behaviors like these to continue. “I would be very surprised if some of those entities were not aware of the activities,” she said. “So yes, it presents a serious risk to the United States government.”
A draft of the Inspector General’s report on the DSS’ performance, obtained by CBS News, articulates similar sentiments.
“Hindering such cases calls into question the integrity of the investigative process, can result in counterintelligence vulnerabilities and can allow criminal behavior to continue,” it reads.
This article originally appeared on: The New American
Editor’s Note: Can you say ‘distraction’? I knew that you could.. With various scandals swirling around the Obama administration and militias rising up in Libya it would be a perfect misdirection move. They could essentially dangle a carrot in front of the press and they will surely take a hearty bite. –MV
“CNN” quoted security sources that said the US developed several plans, including military action against the attackers on the U.S. consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi in September last year.
The sources, who asked not to be identified, said U.S. forces made plans aimed at the arrest of the attackers on the U.S. consulate, through a variety of actions, including the transfer of U.S. ground forces into Libya to perform the operation.
The sources said that work on the plans, which come amid growing pressure on the White House because of inconsistencies in the results of the investigations about the attack that led to the deaths of four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, began immediately after the attack, which took place on last September 11.
According to a U.S. official who asked not to be named, said the U.S. military discussed the plans at the highest level before the days after make updates to it, and the U.S. armed forces own a list of potential targets inside Benghazi or in its vicinity, as well as a list of people who Washington suspects of involvement in the attack, or want to arrest.
And adopt plans, which come after the Federal Bureau of Investigation “FBI” published a set of pictures of people who were positioned in the attack site, on the premise of the arrest of wanted or kill them, which is awaiting approval by U.S. President Barack Obama on them, also include strikes against what is believed to be training camps for groups of militant in Libya.
“CNN” also reported that groups of U.S. Special Forces already deployed in parts of North Africa with the aim of collecting information in preparation to carry out the attack under any circumstances in the case of the orders have been issued with the possibility of canceling the whole process if the leading U.S. and Libyan efforts to arrest those involved in the process
As the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee begins its hearings on the latest Benghazi revelations, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is receiving well-deserved criticism over the role she may have played in what increasingly appears to be a cover-up.
During a hearing earlier this year, Clinton, who is seen as the early frontrunner for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 2016, erupted at Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) over his questions about the State Department’s post-attack talking points. The State Department had originally claimed that the incident at the American consulate was a protest in response to anti-Muslim video that had been posted on YouTube. It was revealed a few days later that it was a terrorist attack.
“With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans,” Clinton said angrily at Johnson. “Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk last night who decided to kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make?
“It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, Senator,” she added.
With new revelations of the State Department’s involvement in removing references to terrorism and al-Qaeda from administration talking points on the attack, the claim that military could have saved lives, and allegations that she tried to cut her own counterterrorism officials out of the loop; Clinton has a lot of explaining to do.
Those revelations are on top of the already existing evidence that the State Departmentdenied requests for additional security at the consulate.
In an interview with Jake Tapper, Susan Smith, the mother of Sean Smith, one of the Americans who died in the attack, directly blamed Clinton for her son’s death:
Tapper played a portion of former Sec. Clinton’s testimony before Congress in which she asked “what difference, at this point, does it make” what the impetus behind the attack on the consulate was.
“Well, that’s what I want to know,” Smith shot back. “Why did it happen? And she is in charge. Why couldn’t she do something about it? I blame her.”
“That’s her department. She’s supposed to be on top of it, and yet she claims that she knows nothing – it wasn’t told to her,” Smith said. “Who’s running the place?”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said last week that Clinton’s apparent negligence on Benghazi, both before and after the attack, should keep her out of public office. He’s right. American lives could have been saved and Americans deserved transparency about what transpired. Instead, there was a concerted effort to keep Congress and Americans in the dark.
Unfortunately, there is no way to hold Clinton accountable for what happened in Benghazi, other than ensuring that she is never, ever in a position of power again.
http://www.unitedliberty.org/articles/13609-hillary-clinton-owes-americans-answers-on-benghazi
(Derek Wood) Rand Paul had some fairly harsh criticism for Hillary Clinton today during the Benghazi hearings. The Senator out of Kentucky said if he had been President he would have relieved Clinton from her post.
“I’m glad that you’re accepting responsibility. Ultimately, I think with your
leaving, you accept culpability for the greatest tragedy since 9/11. I really
mean that. Had I been president and found you did not read the cables from
Benghazi and from Ambassador Stevens, I would have relieved you of your post. I
think it’s inexcusable. I think it’s good that you’re accepting responsibility,
because no one else is.”
(CNS)On the night of Sept. 11, 2012 — before former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed by a terrorist mortar strike — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton released a public statement linking the attack against the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, with an anti-Muslim video, which she referred to as “inflammatory material posted on the Internet.”
Clinton’s statement, still posted on State’s website, is dated Sept. 11, 2012, and headlined: “Statement on the Attack in Benghazi.”
The statement first notes that a State Department officer had been killed in Benghazi — an apparent reference to Information Management Officer Sean Smith, whose body had been recovered at the U.S. mission in Benghazi by U.S. security officers by about 5:30 p.m. Washington, D.C., time on Sept. 11 — or 11:30 p.m. Benghazi time.
The statement then talks about Clinton’s communications that night with Libya’s president and refers to what Clinton calls “inflammatory material posted on the Internet.”
“I condemn in the strongest terms the attack on our mission in Benghazi today,” Clinton said in the statement. “As we work to secure our personnel and facilities, we have confirmed that one of our State Department officers was killed. We are heartbroken by this terrible loss. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and those who have suffered in this attack.
“This evening, I called Libyan President Magariaf to coordinate additional support to protect Americans in Libya,” Clinton continued. “President Magariaf expressed his condemnation and condolences and pledged his government’s full cooperation.
“Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet,” Clinton said. “The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation. But let me be clear: There is never any justification for violent acts of this kind.”
“In light of the events of today, the United States government is working with partner countries around the world to protect our personnel, our missions, and American citizens worldwide,” Clinton’s statement concluded.
On Jan. 8, I contacted the State Department press office three times by telephone and once by email to ask when exactly on Sept. 11, 2012, the department released this statement by Clinton.
“I just want to know at what time on Sept. 11, 2012, this statement was released,” I asked in an email that I sent at 2:20 p.m. Eastern time after my second phone inquiry.
I was later told that a group that answers questions on Benghazi for the State Department was working on an answer for me.
However, the Associated Press first published a story quoting Clinton’s statement at 10:58 p.m. Eastern time on Sept. 11.
The AP released a story that night datelined Cairo, written by Maggie Michael and Sarah El Deeb, and carrying the headline, “American killed in Libya protest over film.” The story noted that Clinton had confirmed that “one State Department officer had been killed in the protest at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.” It also quoted directly from Clinton’s statement: “Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet.”
The Associated Press’ Media Relations office confirmed to me that the AP first published its version of this story quoting Clinton’s statement at 10:58 p.m. Eastern time on Sept. 11.
A CIA timeline of the Benghazi events provided by a senior U.S. intelligence official, the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s report on Benghazi and the State Department’s own Accountability Review Board Report all indicate that Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed at the U.S. “Annex” in Benghazi sometime between about 5:14 a.m. and 5:26 a.m. Benghazi time on Sept. 12. That would be between 11:14 p.m. and 11:26 p.m. on Sept. 11 in Washington, D.C. — or at least 16 minutes after the AP reported Clinton’s statement.
The CIA timeline indicates that a security team sent to the rescue by the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli got to the Benghazi Annex about 5:15 a.m. Benghazi time. “They arrive with Libyan support at the Annex by 5:15 a.m., just before the mortar rounds begin to hit the Annex,” says this timeline. “The two security officers (Woods and Doherty) were killed when they took direct mortar fire as they engaged the enemy. That attack lasted only 11 minutes then also dissipated.”
The State Department ARB report provided additional details, but also set the time of the attack that killed Woods and Doherty at approximately 5:15 a.m. Benghazi time.
“The seven-person response team from Embassy Tripoli arrived in Benghazi to lend support,” said the ARB report. “It arrived at the Annex about 0500 local. Less than 15 minutes later, the Annex came under mortar and RPG attack, with five mortar rounds impacting close together in under 90 seconds. Three rounds hit the roof of an Annex building, killing security officers Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty.”
On Dec. 31, Senate Homeland Security Chairman Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Maine, published their own report on Benghazi. This report confirmed both that Woods and Doherty were killed between 5:14 a.m. and 5:26 a.m. Benghazi time on Sept. 12 and that Benghazi was six hours ahead of Washington, D.C.
“American government officials outside of Benghazi learned of the attack shortly after it started at 3:40 p.m. EST (9:40 p.m. Benghazi time),” said the Lieberman-Collins report. “DS (diplomatic security) agents, in addition to notifying personnel at the Annex, immediately alerted officials at the U.S Embassy in Tripoli and the Department of State Headquarters in Washington, D.C.”
“The team from Tripoli finally cleared the airport and arrived at the Annex at approximately 5:04 a.m., about 10 minutes before a new assault by the terrorist began, involving mortar rounds fired at the Annex,” said the report. “The attack concluded at approximately 5:26 a.m., leaving Annex security team members Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty dead and two others wounded.”
(DebkaFile) -US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s admittance to the New York-Presbyterian Hospital Monday, Dec, 31 - with a blood clot caused by concussion - gave wings to a cloud of rumor and conspiracy theories surrounding her state of health. The hospital, where Saudi King Abdullah was also treated two years ago, stated that the Secretary was receiving anti-coagulents and her condition would be assessed after 48 hours.
However, NBC television’s medical correspondent Robert Bazell was skeptical about the blood clot being caused by an earlier concussion because, he said, it if were, it would not be treated with anti-coagulents. “So either it’s not really related to the concussion and she’s got a blood clot in her leg or something, or there’s something else going on that we’re not being told.”
Speculation about her condition started flying about in early December, when she cancelled without notice, her participation in the Friends of Syrian forum in Marrakesh on Dec, 6. Not only was she one of the founders of this forum, but her presence was vitally needed at the time because NATO and Washington were picking up suspicious movements of the Syrian army’s chemical weapons, which marked a disastrous turn in the Syrian conflict.
She was first reported to have come down with flu and, three days later, on Dec, 9, with a stomach bug. On Dec. 10, the day before she was due to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on the September 11 terrorist attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi - in which Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other US diplomats lost there lives - the State Department which has been heavily under fire over the episode, announced that Clinton had sustained a concussion after fainting out from dehydration. None of the details normally released in such cases, such as when exactly she fainted, the seriousness of the concussion she suffered or how she was being treated, was offered. A State Department source was only willing to say it was “not severe.” According to another unofficial report, she was apparently working from home. No one in the office appeared to have been delegated her functions although the secretary herself has not been been absent for three weeks. Then, Friday, Dec. 21, President Barack Obama announced the nomination of Massachusetts Senator John Kerry as next Secretary of State. Clinton had made it known for some time that she intended stepping down at the start of Obama’s second term of office. It was reported that she had talked to the president and Kerry, and commended the senator as having proven his mettle in a long and wide-ranging military, political and diplomatic career. Nothing was said on this occasion about her state of health.
But around Tehran and the Gulf Emirates, debkafile was already picking up insistent rumors claiming that Clinton was seriously injured while on a secret mission in the region in the first week of December. Some claimed that in the same incident, Americans in her party - advisers and security personnel - were either injured or killed. Those rumors did not say what her secret mission was. However, the episode described occurred shortly after Dec. 1, when, as debkafile reported at the time, Obama administration officials and senior representatives of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launched secret talks on Iran’s nuclear program.
Although our sources have not identified the negotiators on either side of the table, one of the theories floating around certain capitals claimed that Hillary Clinton three weeks ago was on her way to a secret meeting with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in regard to those negotiations. The plane carrying her from Bahrain logged its destination as Baghdad, but is described as having changed direction in midair and headed for Ahvaz, capital of the south Iranian province of Khuzestan. There, it was said, the Iranian president was awaiting her arrival. But then the plane ran into technical trouble and made an emergency landing and that was when she was injured, according to this theory.
The unexplained death of Commander Job Price, 42, SEALs commander in Afghanistan is tied by some of the speculation to that incident. At the time, the Pentagon reported that his sudden death on Dec. 22, in Uruzgan, Afghanistan, was under investigation. It is now suggested that Commander Price was head of the security detail attached to Clinton for her Iran mission and he was one of the casualties of the accident.
In the nature of things, the impact these kinds of rumors have lingers even when they are officially denied – especially given Secretary Clinton’s unusually long absence from the public eye. The medical report promised Wednesday after she is monitored at the hospital for 48 hours to assess her condition, “including other issues associated with her concussion,” is tensely awaited. After that, said the hospital announcement, “her doctors will determine if any further action is required.”
Clinton, known as the most traveled Secretary of State in US diplomatic history, has been in the international spotlight since 1992 when her husband Bill Clinton was elected president and she became first lady. She then served in the US Senate and later ran for the presidency against Barack Obama.
“Truly known to be one of the most misinterpreted and misused words, terrorism is defined and refined by the West according to the context where it proves deleterious or beneficial to those who define the term,” Ismail Salami wrote in an article published by Press TV.
The MKO was taken off the State Department’s blacklist on September 28.
The MKO fled to Iraq in 1986, where it enjoyed the support of Iraq’s executed dictator Saddam Hussein, and set up its camp near the Iranian border.
Out of the 17,000 Iranians killed in terrorist attacks since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, 12,000 of them have fallen victim to the acts of terror carried out by the MKO.
Salami added that the US State Department cited the group’s lack of involvement in terrorist acts for a decade while solid evidence suggests that they have been complicit in the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists in the last few years in Iran.
Referring to the establishment of al-Qaeda by the US and CIA in the seventies in an attempt to counter the influence of the former Soviet Union, Salami said the terrorist group is “sowing seeds of blind extremism and religious sectarianism in the world.”
“This CIA-created Frankenstein’s monster has not changed for the better but has grown up monstrously,” the Iranian academic said.
Salami stated that the dichotomization of ‘terrorists’ into good and bad is far uglier than any form of apartheid, and that “a comparatively similar story is being repeated in Syria.”
The analyst noted that while supporting most terrorist groups in Syria, Washington has branded the Qatar-funded Al-Nusra Front as a terrorist organization because the group to a large extent flies in the face of Washington’s policies in Syria.
“Terrorism is terrorism and it cannot be defined otherwise unless the interests of one party tilt the scale in disfavor of another and the dichotomization of the terrorists in Syria into good and bad by the West casts doubt on its claim on democracy,” Salami concluded.
(TheHill) -President Obama has decided to nominate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) as the next secretary of State, according to news reports.
An unidentified source told CNN that a formal announcement could come as early as next week.
ABC News, quoting unidentified sources, said news, including the mass shooting at a school in Newtown, Connecticut, had delayed the announcement.
Kerry emerged as the favorite to succeed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice withdrew her name from consideration.
ABC on Friday reported Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is already making plans to fill Kerry’s Senate seat and has already had a discussion with Vicki Kennedy, the widow of former Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).
The developments come after the State Department on Saturday announced that Clinton fainted and suffered a concussion.
“While suffering from a stomach virus, Secretary Clinton became dehydrated and fainted, sustaining a concussion,” deputy assistant secretary Philippe Reines said in a statement.
“She has been recovering at home and will continue to be monitored regularly by her doctors. At their recommendation, she will continue to work from home next week, staying in regular contact with department and other officials. She is looking forward to being back in the office soon.”
Clinton was due to testify before Congress on Dec. 20 about the investigation into the deaths of four Americans at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi on Sept. 11.
She will not testify as scheduled before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Jodi Seth, a spokeswoman for Kerry, the panel’s chairman.
The State Department told Kerry of Clinton’s concussion on Saturday morning, and, when he heard, Kerry insisted that she not attend the hearing.
“Senator Kerry was relieved to hear that the secretary is on the mend, but he insisted that given her condition, she could not and should not appear on Thursday as previously planned, and that the nation’s best interests are served by the report and hearings proceeding as scheduled with senior officials appearing in her place,” Seth said.
Clinton deputies Tom Nides and Bill Burns will testify in her place before Senate and House committees.
