WASHINGTON: An email about a drone strike in Pakistan is at the centre of a controversy that may force Hillary Clinton to call off her final campaign for the White House.

At least that’s what her Republican rivals hope and have launched a major offensive to make it happen.

The former Secretary of State is scheduled to appear before the House Oversight Committee in October to explain why she used her personal account to receive this and other official emails.

However, the Republicans, who control both chamber of the US Congress, are trying to make it happen earlier.

They also want to hold a series of hearing on this issue at both the House and the Senate and hope that this would force her to quit or at least persuade Americans to vote against her, if she ran.

“I think [Clinton] may not be able to run, to be honest, because this whole email thing is a horrible thing,” said Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner for the 2016 presidential election.

“This is a serious and potentially criminal offence that proves Hillary Clinton put her own personal convenience ahead of the safety and security of the American people,” said another Republican White House hopeful, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

“Why should rules be different for Clinton? I’m tired of the political class thinking they’re on higher ground,” asked yet another Republican runner, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.

But Mrs Clinton has rejected all such statements as part of a larger Republican campaign to keep her and a “progressive agenda” out of the White House.

She told reporters earlier this week that the fact that she has turned over to the Justice Department her computer server, showed she had nothing to hide.

“It’s not about emails or servers … it’s about politics. I will do my part to provide transparency to Americans,” she said.

The email controversy started soon after Mrs Clinton announced her plan to run for the White House late last year. But it became a major political debate last week when the inspector general for 17 US intelligence agencies told Congress that two of the 30,000 messages Mrs Clinton sent or received through her personal email account contained information deemed “Top Secret.”

The Republicans, however, got hold of the phrase “top secret” to launch a vicious campaign against Mrs Clinton, claiming that she was “irresponsible” and could not be trusted to run the White House.

While doing so, they conveniently ignored the details attached with inspector general’s report, which clearly said that the email about drone attacks in Pakistan contained a news article on this issue.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2015

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