“Friends, money and politics are a dangerous cocktail.”
This essay is a short summary of Peter Schweizer, Clinton Cash. The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich. Harper Collins/New York Times 2015.
During the presidential race between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton I followed the American debate around Hillary Rodham Clinton. I was thus fairly well read on the corruption problems involving Clinton Foundation and Bill and Hillary Clinton. After reading the book by Peter Schweizer I have to conclude that the facts are a lot worse than I had ever imagined in my worst nightmares!
In 2000, Bill and Hillary Clinton claimed they owed millions of dollars in legal debt. Since then, they’ve earned several hundred million in USD. Where did the money come from? The author shows who is really behind those enormous payments, for example high-six figures fees for speaking gigs. He follows the Clinton money trail, revealing the connection between their personal fortune, their close personal friends, the Clinton Foundation, foreign nations, and some of the highest ranks of government. Clintons’ troubling dealings in Kazakhstan, Colombia, Haiti, and other places at the wild west fringe of the global economy are revealed. Troubling facts are uncovered. The Clinton Cash is meticulously researched and scrupulously sourced. It raises serious questions of judgment, of possible indebtedness to an array of foreign interests, and ultimately, of fitness for high public office.
This is how it worked in practice. Bill Clinton flew around the world making speeches and promoting his reputation as a global humanitarian and wise man. Very often on these trips he was accompanied by close friends or associates who happened to have business interests pending in these countries. Introductions were made, deals struck, photo ops arranged before admiring foreign press. Meanwhile, bureaucratic or legislative obstacles were mysteriously cleared or approvals granted within the purview of his wife, the powerful senator or secretary of state. Huge donations then flowed into the Clinton Foundation while Bill received enormous speaking fees underwritten by the very businessmen who benefited from these apparent interventions.
According to New York Times Bill Clinton made 109 million USD in 8 years from these speeches!
And at least two Swedish companies contributed, Ericsson and Lundin mining. Let´s look at Ericsson as one example of the numerous cases cited in the book. Beginning in 2009, the Swedish telecom giant Ericsson came under severe US pressure for selling telecom equipment to oppressive government, including Sudan, Syria and Iran (were Ericsson maintained more important network communication systems).
Hillary was a well-known hawk on Iran and used economic tools against regimes that were considered sponsors of terrorism.
So, Ericsson probably got an advice from some of their international management consulting firms. Ericsson thus, decided to sponsor a speech by Bill Clinton and paid him more than he had ever been paid for a single (!) speech: USD 750 00! On December 8 Hillary argued that companies like Ericsson needed to make “good decisions” about whom they do business with but proposed no further action! In April 2012 President Obama signed an order that imposed sanctions on telecom sales to Iran and Syria, but those sanctions did not cover Ericsson´s work in Iran.
The devastating earthquake on the island of Haiti on January 12, 2010. Enormous funds where raised for reconstruction. It all ended up in worthless projects, while in several cases Clinton friends, allies, and even family members have benefitted from the reconstruction circumstances. Naomi Klein called it disaster capitalism! Bill Clinton was appointed co-chair and responsible for approval of any projects that would be founded by US taxpayers. Bill was in fact almost a viceroy of Haiti some called him the President of Haiti or the co-czar of the recovery effort. What happened in Haiti was then the classic Clinton Blur, mixing, philanthropy, politics and business. In sum, little of the money that has been poured into Haiti since the 2010 earthquake has ended up helping Haitians. And how that money was spent was largely up to Hillary and Bill.
The Clintons are lawyers and they know very well what legal lines they may not cross.
There is no surprise that Hillary Rodham Clinton became a hated person in US and lost he Presidency of the US to a strange egotistic and dangerous person without impulse control!
It is also interesting that in the Hillary-Clinton-loving-Sweden not much have been reported about these enormous international accusations against Hillary Rodham Clinton of systematic corruption!
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