Did Hillary Clinton Survive a Plane Crash?
The Rumor Mill is Burning

Even NBC's Chief Medical Correspondent Robert Bazell suggests we aren't getting the whole story.

Hillary Clinton photo courtesy: NPR

(SACRAMENTO, CA) - Persistent reports about US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton having been injured in a recent plane crash seemed worth exploring after a simple search revealed that basically the entire alternative news community believes this is what happened. Sources in places like Russia and Iran and Israel are flowing with reports and theories.

The rumor is that Clinton's plane had to make an emergency landing in Iran - while she was enroute to a secret meeting with Iran's President.

Debkafile out of Russia writes:

...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.^[1]

As Debkafile reports, 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.

But NBC's medical correspondent Robert Bazell was puzzled and had questions over the blood clot being caused by an earlier concussion. He says injuries of this nature are not treated with anti-coagulents, as reported through official channels.

"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," Bazell said.

The Blaze also covered Bazell's remarks:

“We really don’t know a lot about what’s going on here,” Bazell said, adding that the hospital “is not saying much.” So far, Clinton’s office has only said she is being treated with blood thinners for the blood clot. But something about that explanation didn’t sit right with the NBC reporter.

“The problem is that concussions, when they lead to blood clots — the blood clots are not usually treated with blood thinners, as they say she’s being treated,” he explained. “If she has a blood clot that occurred because she was sitting around or something, they would treat that with blood thinners, and that would be fine. But there may be more to this story that we don’t know.”

Bazell said more information should be released over the next few days. He did not speculate any further.^[2]

Questions began circulating about Clinton's condition in early December, when she suddenly cancelled her participation in the Friends of Syrian forum in Marrakesh on Dec, 6. As one of the forum's founders, her presence was vitally needed at the time. NATO and Washington were reportedly investigating suspicious movements of the Syrian army’s chemical weapons, which marked a disastrous turn in the Syrian conflict.

Clinton was first reported to have come down with flu and, three days later, on Dec, 9, with a stomach bug.

European Union Times reports that rumors evolved from a Foreign Military Intelligence (GRU) report circulating in the Kremlin, claiming that that Hillary Clinton was injured, and a top US Navy Seal Commander killed when their C-12 Huron military passenger and transport aircraft crash landed nearly 3 weeks ago in the Iranian city of Ahvaz near the Iraqi border^[3].

The AP carried an article about a U.S. plane that made a forced landing in Iran, stating that it "was not clear why the announcement of the plane's landing was not made earlier".

Iranian intelligence agents quoted in this GRU report confirm that the C-12 Huron aircraft is still in their possession in Ahvaz, but will only admit that the plane was “forced to land because of technical problems”.

From the AP article published 30 December 2012:

A small American commercial plane left Iran Sunday after it was repaired following an emergency landing at an Iranian airport this month, state TV reported.

The plane was forced to land 16 days ago at the airport of the southern city of Ahvaz due to technical failure, Mahmoud Rasoulinejad, head of the state-owned Iran Airports Company, told the TV station.^[4]

Economic Policy Journal wrote on 31 December that the Office of Press Relations with the U.S. Department of State denied the plane crash in a sentence:

"Secretary of State Clinton was not injured or involved in a plane crash".^[5]

Even The Weekly Standard, a Conservative Magazine & Blog, jumped into the water, citing the EU Times report in an article and stating:

Before Clinton's admittance into the hospital over the weekend, some speculated that the timing of Clinton's illness was suspicious. After all, she was scheduled to testify in front of Congress about the terror attack on 9/11 in Benghazi, Libya. That testimony was postponed.

Of course, many are still wondering whether Clinton will testify before she steps down as secretary of state, which her office has long claimed she'll do within "days" of President Obama's second inauguration.

Obama has nominated another former Democratic presidential nominee to replace Clinton, Senator John Kerry. So will Clinton be well enough to testify before Kerry can be confirmed? Or will her illness prevent her from answering questions about the terror attack in Benghazi?^[6]

Leave it to the majority of the stoic American press; stalwart toward supporting the U.S. government by never asking the difficult questions, to ignore what appears to be a story worth investigating.

^[1] Hillary Clinton in hospital amid speculation of plane accident in Iran - DEBKAfile

^[2] Why Does This NBC Reporter Think ‘There May Be More’ to Hillary Clinton’s Hospitalization? - The Blaze

^[3] Clinton Injured, US Navy Seal Killed In Secret US Mission To Iran - EU Times

^[4] Iran: US Plane Leaves After Emergency Landing - Associated Press

^[5] State Department Denies Hillary Clinton Injured in Plane Crash - EconomicPolicyJournal.com

^[6] Hillary Clinton's Illness Prompts Conspiracy Theories - The Weekly Standard

You can write to Tim at this address: reddragonfly80@yahoo.com.