Hacked Emails Suggest Former NATO Commander Plotted Against Obama during Ukraine Conflict

Leaked emails from the Gmail account of Ret. Gen. Philip Breedlove, the recent supreme commander of allied forces of NATO, reveal that he privately plotted against President Obama's wishes during the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. 

A new website called DCLeaks posted the hacked messages. 

Phillip Karber, an academic who corresponded regularly with Breedlove, verified the authenticity of several of the emails. He also told The Intercept that Breedlove confirmed to him that his Gmail account was hacked and that the incident had been reported to the government.

Citing his own leaked emails, Karber said: “I turned this over to the U.S. government and asked them to investigate. No one has given me any answer.”

Breedlove, while briefing Congress in 2014, disagreed with the Obama administration about the situation in Ukraine. (Obama was reluctant to provide lethal assistance to the Ukrainian government, fearing that doing so would increase the bloodshed and provide Russian President Putin the justification for deeper incursions into the country.)

In a series of 2014 messages to Colin Powell, Breedlove sought meetings with the former Secretary of State for advice on pressuring the administration to take a more hawkish posture toward Russia.

Powell responded by accepting an invitation to meet and discuss the dilemma.

Breedlove also attempted to influence the White House through other channels, emailing academics and retired military officials, including former NATO supreme commander Wesley Clark, for help building the case for arming Ukrainian forces battling Russian-backed separatists.

DCLeaks is a database run by self-described “hacktivists” who are collecting the communications of high-profile influencers such as political parties, politicians, political campaigns and the military. The website currently also has documents revealing some internal communications from the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign and George Soros’s Open Society Foundation.