Hillary Clinton indicated to aides she wanted to file a formal complaint after being cropped out of the famed Osama bin Laden raid photo by a Hasidic newspaper.
In a message with the subject line, “Unbelievable” from the latest batch of emails released during her time as secretary of State, Clinton writes to her aides that the New York-based Der Zeitung newspaper “published the sit room photo w/o me (or [National Security team member Audrey Tomason]) photoshopped out perhaps because no woman should be in such a place of power or that I am dressed immodestly!!”
{mosads}In the now-iconic image, Clinton is seen cupping her mouth as she watches the 2011 mission to capture bin Laden alongside President Obama and other government leaders in the White House Situation Room.
In her note released Friday, emailed just days after the newspaper article with the altered photograph appeared, Clinton tells her team, “And so, Happy Mother’s Day.”
When asked by a State Department staffer if she wanted to “formally complain” through an intermediary, Clinton replied, “Yes. Thx.”
The newspaper later issued an apology to the White House and the State Department for editing the snapshot.
“Because of laws of modesty, we are not allowed to publish pictures of women, and we regret if this gives an impression of disparaging women, which is certainly never our intention,” Der Zeitung said in a statement. “We apologize if this was seen as offensive.”