Documents
Hillary Clinton Email About Different Standards for Saudis
Apr. 18, 2016
UNCLASSIFIED U.S. Department of State Case No. F-2014-20439 Doc No. C05789037 Date: 10/30/2015
RELEASE IN FULL
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject
H <hrod17@clintonemail.com>
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 7:04 AM
'millscd@state.gov'
Re: Wanted to be sure you saw Maureen Dowd's column
No doubt about that!
Original Message ---From: Mills, Cheryl D [mailto:MillsCD@state.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 06:47 AM
To: H
Subject: RE: Wanted to be sure you saw Maureen Dowd's column
Sorry "that we/DOS/USG may have different standards we apply when it is pushing Saudi)
Original Message
From: H [mailto:HDR22@clintonemail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 6:36 AM
To: Mills, Cheryl D
Subject: Re: Wanted to be sure you saw Maureen Dowd's column
What does "Hat" mean?
Original Message
From: Mills, Cheryl D [mailto:MillsCD@state.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 06:32 AM
To: H
Subject: Re: Wanted to be sure you saw Maureen Dowd's column
Hat w/ Saudi we may have diff stds
Original Message -From: H [mailto:HDR22@clintonemail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 06:01 AM
To: Mills, Cheryl D
Subject: Re: Wanted to be sure you saw Maureen Dowd's column
What do you think of it other than relief I said something yesterday?
Original Message ---From: Mills, Cheryl D [mailto:MiIIsCD@state.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 12:30 AM
To: H
Subject: Fw: Wanted to be sure you saw Maureen Dowd's column
Original Message
From: Hammer, Michael A
UNCLASSIFIED U.S. Department of State Case No. F-2014-20439 Doc No. C05789037 Date: 10/30/2015
UNCLASSIFIED U.S. Department of State Case No. F-2014-20439 Doc No. C05789037 Date: 10/30/2015
RELEASE IN FULL
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject
H <hrod17@clintonemail.com>
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 7:04 AM
'millscd@state.gov'
Re: Wanted to be sure you saw Maureen Dowd's column
No doubt about that!
Original Message ---From: Mills, Cheryl D [mailto:MillsCD@state.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 06:47 AM
To: H
Subject: RE: Wanted to be sure you saw Maureen Dowd's column
Sorry "that we/DOS/USG may have different standards we apply when it is pushing Saudi)
Original Message
From: H [mailto:HDR22@clintonemail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 6:36 AM
To: Mills, Cheryl D
Subject: Re: Wanted to be sure you saw Maureen Dowd's column
What does "Hat" mean?
Original Message
From: Mills, Cheryl D [mailto:MillsCD@state.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 06:32 AM
To: H
Subject: Re: Wanted to be sure you saw Maureen Dowd's column
Hat w/ Saudi we may have diff stds
Original Message -From: H [mailto:HDR22@clintonemail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 06:01 AM
To: Mills, Cheryl D
Subject: Re: Wanted to be sure you saw Maureen Dowd's column
What do you think of it other than relief I said something yesterday?
Original Message ---From: Mills, Cheryl D [mailto:MiIIsCD@state.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 12:30 AM
To: H
Subject: Fw: Wanted to be sure you saw Maureen Dowd's column
Original Message
From: Hammer, Michael A
UNCLASSIFIED U.S. Department of State Case No. F-2014-20439 Doc No. C05789037 Date: 10/30/2015
UNCLASSIFIED U.S. Department of State Case No. F-2014-20439 Doc No. C05789037 Date: 10/30/2015
Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 201111:56 PM
To: Mills, Cheryl D; Sullivan, Jacob J; Reines, Philippe I; Nuland, Victoria J
Subject: Wanted to be sure you saw Maureen Dowd's column
Sing Out, Hillary
By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON
It would have been thrilling, of course, if Hillary Clinton had channeled Aaron Sorkin and smacked around the barbaric
Saudi men who force women to huddle under a suffocating black tarp.
As Allison Janney's C.J. Cregg once fumed on "The West Wing" about Saudi Arabia: "This is a country where women
aren't allowed to drive a car. They're not allowed to be in the company of any man other than a close relative. They're
required to adhere to a dress code that would make a Maryknoll nun look like Malibu Barbie. They beheaded 121 people
last year for robbery, rape and drug trafficking. They have no free press, no elected government, no political parties. And
the royal family allows the religious police to travel in groups of six carrying nightsticks, and they freely and publicly beat
women. But 'Brutus is an honorable man.' Seventeen schoolgirls were forced to burn alive because they weren't
wearing the proper clothing.... Saudi Arabia, our partners in peace."
It would have been thrilling if Hillary 2011 had simply channeled Hillary 1995, when, as first lady, she made her
bodacious speech in Beijing, declaring that "women's rights are human rights."
In her memoir, Hillary wrote that, despite pressure against it, she was determined to give that speech because she was
fed up with "the crucial concerns of women" getting sacrificed "to diplomatic, military and trade issues."
So it was startling on Monday when Saudi women activists, struggling to bring the Arab Spring to the medieval House of
Saud by urging women to drive, chided Hillary for her silence.
Clinton's office responded that the secretary had used "quiet diplomacy" — raising the issue, and more pressing ones, in
a call with the Saudi foreign minister on the Day of Driving Dangerously.
By Tuesday, the secretary of state — who has worked hard for women under the radar and whose legacy will be shaped
by her support of women's rights around the world — realized that she needed to be a bit louder.
"What these women are doing is brave and what they are seeking is right, but the effort belongs to them," she told
reporters, adding that she wanted to "underscore and emphasize that this is not about the United States. It's not about
what any of us on the outside say," but about "the women themselves."
One Saudi liberal told me that Hillary should sing out: "Hillary should be more forthcoming and forget about oil. She
should also focus on the plight of maids in Saudi Arabia. An Indonesian maid here was beheaded two days ago for killing
her employer. Many workers are on death row and don't get a fair trial."
No one expected Hillary to be as exuberant as the Ukrainian feminists who cruised in solidarity around the Saudi
Embassy in Kiev, covering their faces and baring their breasts.
Clinton is a diplomat now. She knows it's tricky to push Bedouins, who get stubborn and dig in their heels. Saudis prefer
concessions to be seen as gifts.
Still, because the Saudis are our drug dealers on oil, America has never fought hard enough for oppressed women in the
authoritarian kingdom.
"We have bigger fish to fry," a top foreign policy official told me this week.
UNCLASSIFIED U.S. Department of State Case No. F-2014-20439 Doc No. C05789037 Date: 10/30/2015
UNCLASSIFIED U.S. Department of State Case No. F-2014-20439 Doc No. C05789037 Date: 10/30/2015
Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 201111:56 PM
To: Mills, Cheryl D; Sullivan, Jacob J; Reines, Philippe I; Nuland, Victoria J
Subject: Wanted to be sure you saw Maureen Dowd's column
Sing Out, Hillary
By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON
It would have been thrilling, of course, if Hillary Clinton had channeled Aaron Sorkin and smacked around the barbaric
Saudi men who force women to huddle under a suffocating black tarp.
As Allison Janney's C.J. Cregg once fumed on "The West Wing" about Saudi Arabia: "This is a country where women
aren't allowed to drive a car. They're not allowed to be in the company of any man other than a close relative. They're
required to adhere to a dress code that would make a Maryknoll nun look like Malibu Barbie. They beheaded 121 people
last year for robbery, rape and drug trafficking. They have no free press, no elected government, no political parties. And
the royal family allows the religious police to travel in groups of six carrying nightsticks, and they freely and publicly beat
women. But 'Brutus is an honorable man.' Seventeen schoolgirls were forced to burn alive because they weren't
wearing the proper clothing.... Saudi Arabia, our partners in peace."
It would have been thrilling if Hillary 2011 had simply channeled Hillary 1995, when, as first lady, she made her
bodacious speech in Beijing, declaring that "women's rights are human rights."
In her memoir, Hillary wrote that, despite pressure against it, she was determined to give that speech because she was
fed up with "the crucial concerns of women" getting sacrificed "to diplomatic, military and trade issues."
So it was startling on Monday when Saudi women activists, struggling to bring the Arab Spring to the medieval House of
Saud by urging women to drive, chided Hillary for her silence.
Clinton's office responded that the secretary had used "quiet diplomacy" — raising the issue, and more pressing ones, in
a call with the Saudi foreign minister on the Day of Driving Dangerously.
By Tuesday, the secretary of state — who has worked hard for women under the radar and whose legacy will be shaped
by her support of women's rights around the world — realized that she needed to be a bit louder.
"What these women are doing is brave and what they are seeking is right, but the effort belongs to them," she told
reporters, adding that she wanted to "underscore and emphasize that this is not about the United States. It's not about
what any of us on the outside say," but about "the women themselves."
One Saudi liberal told me that Hillary should sing out: "Hillary should be more forthcoming and forget about oil. She
should also focus on the plight of maids in Saudi Arabia. An Indonesian maid here was beheaded two days ago for killing
her employer. Many workers are on death row and don't get a fair trial."
No one expected Hillary to be as exuberant as the Ukrainian feminists who cruised in solidarity around the Saudi
Embassy in Kiev, covering their faces and baring their breasts.
Clinton is a diplomat now. She knows it's tricky to push Bedouins, who get stubborn and dig in their heels. Saudis prefer
concessions to be seen as gifts.
Still, because the Saudis are our drug dealers on oil, America has never fought hard enough for oppressed women in the
authoritarian kingdom.
"We have bigger fish to fry," a top foreign policy official told me this week.
UNCLASSIFIED U.S. Department of State Case No. F-2014-20439 Doc No. C05789037 Date: 10/30/2015
UNCLASSIFIED U.S. Department of State Case No. F-2014-20439 Doc No. C05789037 Date: 10/30/2015
The Saudis are disgusted with President Obama for what they see as his abandonment of Hosni Mubarak, dithering on a
Palestinian state and being "unduly beholden to Israel," as Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former Saudi ambassador to the
U.S., wrote in a recent Washington Post op-ed piece. The prince said that Saudi Arabia and other Arab states would help
Palestinians bypass the U.S. and Israel and seek statehood at the U.N.
The Arab News reported that the Saudi Women for Driving Internet campaign was "deemed a failure, as hardly any
women drove that day," only about 40, and most did not continue after Friday.
Saudi fans of the 87-year-old King Abdullah, who started the first co-ed university in the kingdom, are upset and
surprised that he hasn't already allowed women to drive.
They blame it on the resistance of the ultraconservative Prince Nayef bin Abdel Aziz, the interior minister who is
believed to be responsible for jailing the first driver, Manal al-Sharif, for nine days. Nayef is said to be arguing with the
more progressive king for additional time to prepare for female drivers.
Given the king's declining health and the illness of his half-brother, the Crown Prince Sultan, the chance to give women
any rights may be running out. Nayef, who has long been in charge of the roaming odious religious police who let those
schoolgirls die in the fire in Mecca because they didn't have their headscarves on, is a contender to replace the crown
prince, and it's unlikely he'll pull a Nixon-in-China move on women's freedom.
The juxtaposition of images said it all. A smiling Michelle Obama and her daughters meeting with Nelson Mandela was a
vivid reminder of how far South Africa has come since it ended race apartheid under pressure. The small courageous
spurt of ladies in black driving was a vivid reminder that Saudi Arabia, under little pressure, is still locked in gender
apartheid.
UNCLASSIFIED U.S. Department of State Case No. F-2014-20439 Doc No. C05789037 Date: 10/30/2015
UNCLASSIFIED U.S. Department of State Case No. F-2014-20439 Doc No. C05789037 Date: 10/30/2015
The Saudis are disgusted with President Obama for what they see as his abandonment of Hosni Mubarak, dithering on a
Palestinian state and being "unduly beholden to Israel," as Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former Saudi ambassador to the
U.S., wrote in a recent Washington Post op-ed piece. The prince said that Saudi Arabia and other Arab states would help
Palestinians bypass the U.S. and Israel and seek statehood at the U.N.
The Arab News reported that the Saudi Women for Driving Internet campaign was "deemed a failure, as hardly any
women drove that day," only about 40, and most did not continue after Friday.
Saudi fans of the 87-year-old King Abdullah, who started the first co-ed university in the kingdom, are upset and
surprised that he hasn't already allowed women to drive.
They blame it on the resistance of the ultraconservative Prince Nayef bin Abdel Aziz, the interior minister who is
believed to be responsible for jailing the first driver, Manal al-Sharif, for nine days. Nayef is said to be arguing with the
more progressive king for additional time to prepare for female drivers.
Given the king's declining health and the illness of his half-brother, the Crown Prince Sultan, the chance to give women
any rights may be running out. Nayef, who has long been in charge of the roaming odious religious police who let those
schoolgirls die in the fire in Mecca because they didn't have their headscarves on, is a contender to replace the crown
prince, and it's unlikely he'll pull a Nixon-in-China move on women's freedom.
The juxtaposition of images said it all. A smiling Michelle Obama and her daughters meeting with Nelson Mandela was a
vivid reminder of how far South Africa has come since it ended race apartheid under pressure. The small courageous
spurt of ladies in black driving was a vivid reminder that Saudi Arabia, under little pressure, is still locked in gender
apartheid.
UNCLASSIFIED U.S. Department of State Case No. F-2014-20439 Doc No. C05789037 Date: 10/30/2015