A Pattern of Corruption

Will America Survive the Clintons?

Hillary-Bill

While researching corruption from the Clinton Foundation, I had the opportunity to read hundreds of stories concerning Hillary Clinton. Many of those stories were important to my research, but others were simply background on events, dates and speeches. Reading so many things, I began to see a pattern. I wondered if this pattern couldn’t be used to illustrate a methodology in the corruption I had been studying. It proved fruitful.

I’m sure over the years you have read many stories or watched speeches and news stories, where Hillary Clinton changed her position on an issue. In fact even NPR did an expose on the many position changes on trade. Many of these changes to a position could be called a “flip-flop” and written off as political positioning, but when I began to see money flowing to her, her campaign, and the Foundation, I begin to think this is it! If a connection could be made between the position change and the money flow, then maybe a pattern could be found. Lots of writers have highlighted the position changes, and in every story, they offer a plausible explanation by Hillary as to why she changed her view, but no one has laid out side by side the timing on the position changes, the actions that were took, the meetings that were held, and the money. This is how you indict her for criminality. If a pattern can be clearly shown that every time a position was changed, money exchanged hands, sometime around the position change, then reasonable conclusions of corruption can be made. This is evidence of a quid pro quo. You be the judge: Not all the evidence is of a position “change”. Early on, the original position was beneficial to a big money interest. I know….its all just a big coincidence. After all, positions have to benefit somebody….right? All you can do is read through each case and decide for yourself. Even as the Clinton’s were moving into the White House, there were scandals emerging of corruption in Arkansas when Bill was governor. Only we older folks will recall the cattle futures, Whitewater, travel gate, and many others. But I’m not going that far back. Let’s start with Bill’s presidency in 1993. NAFTA

naftaIn early 1994, Bill Clinton signed into law, a trade agreement, crafted by George Bush senior. A trade agreement called NAFTA. Here is what Hillary said about NAFTA in 1996 at a speech in New York at an event titled UNITE:

“I think everybody is in favor of free and fair trade. I think NAFTA is proving its worth.”
In 1998 at an international business conference in Davos, Switzerland she thanked big business for:

“a very effective business effort in the U.S. on behalf of NAFTA.”

Her support remained strong for years to come. In 2003, she wrote in her book:

“Creating a free trade zone in North America — the largest free trade zone in the world — would expand U.S. exports, create jobs and ensure that our economy was reaping the benefits, not the burdens, of globalization.”

And again in 2004, both times, while a sitting US Senator said:

“I think on balance NAFTA has been good for New York and America….”                   

At every turn she touted and supported NAFTA. Why?

Carlos Slim

Carlos Slim

Ever here of Carlos Slim? He is the second richest man in the world…..a Mexican billionaire. As we will see later, he is a good friend of Bill Clinton and has made many deals with the Clintons, NAFTA being just one. Slim’s billions come from his dominance of the telecommunications industry in Mexico. He owns and controls 70% of all cell phone use and 80% of all land lines. Just coincidently, written into NAFTA was a ten year exemption from all foreign competition from Canada and the US. He effectively had a monopoly. But he could sell in the US, and created Tracfone. Tracfone is the largest, prepaid cell phone company in the world. Now, knowing all that, I wondered…..Mexico, prepaid cell phones, and billions…..is there a drug angle? Of course. Slim is linked to the drug cartels by the DEA. He’s known as a front man for ex-president, in self-exile, Salinas de Gortari. De Gortari, fled Mexico a few months after leaving the presidency and was accused of stealing billions from the Mexican treasury, leaving the country in shambles. Oddly, Bill Clinton stepped in and gave the new president of Mexico 20 billion US dollars in US aid, to clean up the mess. Carlos Slim, and his connected companies have donated over $10 million to the Clinton Foundation, while pledging another $100 million to the Clinton-Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative, since its inception in 2001.You can read more about Carlos Slim here: http://www.thesocialcontract.com/artman2/publish/tsc_24_4/tsc_24_4_wall.shtml   My point wasn’t so much to tell you about Carlos Slim, but to focus in on the pattern I’m trying to show. In 1994, when NAFTA was implemented, Mexico was in bad shape economically. Was NAFTA created to save Mexico? One could make that case, I suppose…but we were never told that were we? There can be no doubt that Carlos Slim got a sweetheart deal in NAFTA, and has reaped billions since its creation. There also can be no doubt that a lot of that money found its way back to the Clintons. Of course there is no quid pro quo that can be proved in this single circumstance, but what I want you to see, is that whatever position Hillary and Bill take, somehow, shortly before or after….big money finds its way to their bank account. The strange thing about the story of NAFTA and Carlos Slim is what happened in 2008. Hillary was now running for president, and the money Carlos Slim could give was dwarfed by what the American unions could provide. The unions opposed NAFTA and said so. This is what Hillary said in 2008:

“You know, I have been a critic of NAFTA from the very beginning. I didn’t have a public position on it, because I was part of the administration, but when I started running for the Senate, I have been a critic.”

As you read each episode. Try to connect the dots.connect the dots

 By 1998, Hillary was in full campaign mode planning a run for the US senate in 2000. It may be just another coincidence, but the Clinton Foundation was created in 2001. You see, I believe the two go hand in hand. In order to grant favors, one must be in a position to do so. The partnership of a former president and a senator are in a position to do just that….power! Hillary gets elected as the US Senator from NY in 2000 and the Clinton Foundation is born. Just a coincidence! Hillary laid low in her first term as senator. But the plan was already in the works to get rich using their power. From 1997 through 2004, Bill spent most of his efforts making contacts and raising money to build his presidential library in Arkansas. The price tag was $165 million to construct and operate. The Foundation was created in 2001 in order to raise this money. By 2004, when the library opened, the Foundation had $120 million in assets, and $60 million in cash. Near as I can find, those early contributors were Stephen Spielberg and David Geffen from Hollywood and super market mogul, Robert Burkle. Hillary, too, spent most of her time making contacts while pressing the social agenda of the left. This was the backdrop to Bill’s meeting of Frank Giustra, billionaire Canadian mining mogul, in 2005. Through 2004, Frank Giustra was busy trying to make things happen in Kazakhstan and Columbia for mining, timber and oil rights. He needed a special kind of help. I chronicled this in my 5 part series: “The Corruption Continues”

Frank Giustra

Frank+Giustra
Giustra

In 2005 Bill Clinton traveled to Kazakhstan with Frank Giustra, at the end of a year long negotiation to acquire uranium mining rights in Kazakhstan. They meet with the criminal oligarch, Muchtar Ablyazov, who had stolen the mining rights to three large Kazakh mines and transferred them to Frank Giustra for $350 million. This story is very long and complicated and you can begin to read about it here: The Kazakh Mob The point of mentioning it is to add to the pattern. 2 months after this meeting, Frank Giustra donated $31 million to the foundation. By 2009, Ablyazov had been discovered by Kazakhstan officials. The sale was now in jeopardy. Hillary Clinton, now secretary of state and Tim Phillips, a DNC official stepped in and in some unknown way, pressured those officials to allow the sale to go through. Meanwhile, through 2009 and 2010, millions flowed into the foundation from directors of Uranium One, and Bill Clinton was contracted to give his highest paid speech ever in Moscow, by the Russian Oligarch, Mikhail Prokhorov. The Russians would later buy Uranium One and the Kazakh mining interests. Bill and Hillary would have a long and profitable relationship with Frank Giustra. In 2008, during her run for president, Hillary Clinton began to change her views on trade. She seemed to tow the party line and was against many free trade agreements, which one could argue was the position of the American unions and where much of her money would come from in her campaign. But after she lost the nomination in 2008, she then became Obama’s SOS in 2009.

Columbia Trade Promotion Actcolumbia

In early 2008, Hillary Clinton was a senator from New York, running for president. The senate was considering a trade agreement proposed by the Bush Administration to create Free Trade with Columbia. The agreement was called CTPA, the Columbia Trade Promotion Act. This is what Mrs. Clinton said in February of 2008, about the deal:

“I will do everything I can to urge the Congress to reject the Colombia Free Trade Agreement.”

Hillary, and many democrats blocked a vote for three years, until 2011. But e-mails that have been revealed, stated that Mrs. Clinton was privately lobbying her fellow senators to pass the legislation. During this period, the spring of 2008, Frank Giustra pledged $100 million to the CGI (Clinton Global Initiative). The bill never came up for a vote while Hillary was in the senate. In June of 2009, Hillary, now secretary of state flies to Columbia to meet Alvaro Uribe, president of Columbia. Bill Clinton and Frank Giustra fly separately at the same time. The three have dinner in Bogotá…where they discuss their “children and grandchildren”. Sound familiar? Hillary now is in support of CTPA. She receives a letter from her colleagues in congress, urging her to not support CTPA, due to Columbia’s horrible human rights record and opposition to all union activity. She ignores their advice and instead, praises Uribe’s government. The unions also display their displeasure with her new stance. This is what she now was saying as the bill made its way through congress in late 2009:

“We think it’s strongly in the interests of both Colombia and the United States,” Clinton said. “And I return very invigorated … to begin a very intensive effort to try to obtain the votes to get the free trade agreement finally ratified.”

In 2010, Frank Giustra, Bill Clinton and Carlos Slim create Fondo Acceso, a private equity firm in Columbia with $20 million. The CF became a 50% share holder. During this same time, from September of 2009 through May of 2010, Bill Clinton gave a series of speeches in Canada where he was paid just over $1 million. At least two of those speeches were sponsored by TD Bank, the bank that financed many of Frank Giustra’s deals. The one person that stood to gain the most with having the CTPA in place was Frank Giustra….the Canadian mining mogul. In order to understand why, read the entire account of the Columbian Saga here: http://www.ibtimes.com/colombian-oil-money-flowed-clintons-state-department-took-no-action-prevent-labor-1874464

South Korea Free Trade south korea

In 2007, As Senator, Hillary Clinton chose to announce her opposition to the South Korean trade deal at a town hall meeting organized by the AFL-CIO in Michigan, a traditional battleground state in presidential politics and home to the U.S. auto industry. This is what she said then:

“While I value the strong relationship the United States enjoys with South Korea, I believe that this agreement is inherently unfair,” she said Saturday in Detroit. “It will hurt the U.S. auto industry, increase our trade deficit, cost us good middle-class jobs and make America less competitive.”

She said this, in Detroit, MI while she was running for president. Fast forward to 2011. Hillary Clinton is now Secretary of state and the South Korean trade deal has still not been implemented. This is what she was saying now:

“I want to state as strongly as I can how committed the Obama Administration is to passing the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement this year. … This is a priority for me, for President Obama and for the entire administration. We are determined to get it done, and I believe we will.”

Now….you can say, but Ken, she is speaking for the Obama Administration. OK, that’s certainly a possibility, but was there something else that happened in between the two statements that might also be a possibility? Remember, we are looking for a pattern of behavior. Shortly after the 2008 presidential election, won by Obama, a South Korean conglomerate called Hanwha, donated $1 million to the foundation, and pays Bill Clinton $250K to speak in South Korea. Then in 2012, shortly after Hillary’s position changed, Bill Clinton is paid again by Hanwha to speak, and paid another $250,000. Incidentally, The CEO of Hanwha, Kim Seung-Youn, in 2012, was convicted of embezzling $260,000,000 from the company, and sentenced to 4 years in prison. At least one country still has laws that must be followed.

October 13th, 2011, the US congress approves South Korean free trade deal.

The Trans-Pacific Partnershiptrans pacipic partnership

In 2012, while Hillary was SOS she made these statements about the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)

“[TPP is the] gold standard in trade agreements.”

“[it] would link markets throughout Asia and the Americas, lowering trade barriers while raising standards on labor, the environment, and intellectual property.”

“[it is] important for American workers, who would benefit from competing on a more level playing field.”

Later, as you will see, she changed her position with her stated reason that “….what I have learned about it”. But the above comments certainly show knowledge and an implied understanding of the treaty.
She remained in favor of the TPP until 2015. In July of 2015, the AFL-CIO and its affiliates representing some 56 member unions met to consider who they would endorse for president. With the endorsement comes millions of dollars. The leaders of the union learned that many of its locals were forming up around Sanders:
Steve Abbott, a leader for a local communications union, is one of some 3,500 individuals from within the labor movement who have joined the all-volunteer grassroots group Labor for Bernie. He said this prior to that June meeting:
“While the AFL-CIO executive council has not endorsed a candidate yet, some local unions have made public gestures supporting Sanders, prompting the federation’s president, Richard Trumka, to urge them to stay neutral for now.” He went on: “He [Sanders] absolutely came out against it. She waffled,” Abbott said.

At that July meeting, Hillary met privately with the union leaders. In October of 2015, Hillary comes out against TPP.

As of today, I am not in favor of what I have learned about it.”(TPP) “For me, it really comes down to those three points that I made and the fact that we have learned a lot about trade agreements in the past years,” Clinton said. “Sometimes they look great on paper.” “I don’t believe it’s going to meet the high bar I have set.”

In May of 2016, the AFL-CIO officially endorsed Hillary and 61 million union dollars, flowed into her campaign. Unions contribute over $2 million to the Clinton Foundation in 2015.

Arms Saleshelicopter

Hillary has pretty much always been a hawk, so it would be unfair to say she changed her position on arms, but it is completely fair to show how she profited not only from the sale of weapons, but also from the purchase of weapons. During her tenure as SOS she had to sign off on agreements for foreign countries to buy American weapons and weapons systems. No arm sales can be made to a foreign nation for more than $14 million without a state department license. One of the most controversial deals made for weapons during Hillary’s tenure was to Bahrain. Bahrain has a terrible human rights record and persecutes dissidents and any opposition to the government. They have crushed protestors using tear gas and other heavy handed measures. While Hillary was SOS, she gave many speeches touting human rights and woman’s rights and even pointed to Bahrain on a few occasions in “hopes” they would reform.

On Mar 1, 2011, she said this:

“…And as other important partners such as Jordan and Bahrain take steps – sometimes very difficult steps – to open their political space, we will stand behind them and support their efforts because we are convinced that they will help advance all of our shared interests.”

In late summer of 2011 an arms deal was being made with Bahrain. But because of Bahrain’s human rights abuses, some in congress were opposed to the sale, and sent letters to that effect to Hillary Clinton. But the deal was well underway and a letter was sent to Senator Ron Wyden, assuring him that Bahrain was dealing with the issues:

From the letter:

“On June 29, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa convened a Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry to investigate alleged human rights violations committed since February.”
I’m sure that will take care of it!

Meanwhile, from Feb. of 2011 through March of 2012, some $630 million worth of sophisticated weapons made their way to Bahrain, including $70,000 worth of “toxicological agents”. But Hillary was still feigning outrage of the Bahrain government. This is an excerpt from a speech in Nov. of 2011:

“…..mass arrests and brute force are at odds with the universal rights of Bahrain’s citizens and will not make legitimate calls for reform go away. Meaningful reform and equal treatment for all Bahrainis, are in Bahrain’s interest, and the region, and in ours.”

This may all just seem like palace intrigue, but I must also add, that Bahrain sent $150,000 to the CF in late 2009, just to arrange a meeting with Hillary Clinton. There is e-mail evidence of this. The problem with this reason, is the Crown Prince has had many meetings with past State Department secretaries. But just imagine…why e-mail Doug Band, the CEO of the CF, to arrange a meeting with Hillary Clinton, the American SOS? Over the next year Bahrain pledged $32 million to the Clinton Global Initiative. Also, in Doug Band’s request of Hillary for that meeting, he referred to [Crown Prince] Salman as a “good friend of ours.” It just seems odd…almost like the CF and the State Department were operating as one. In this Bahrain scenario, I went into more detail than I would have liked. But this episode is just an example of what transpired over Clinton’s 4 years as SOS. Not only was the Clinton Conglomerate getting big money from the buyers, but it was also getting the same from the sellers. From late 2009 through 2012, the Obama State Department approved $163 Billion, with a “B” in commercial arms sales to 20 countries and another $151 billion of arms brokered by the Pentagon. Over that same time period, those 20 countries and the various corporations that delivered the weapons, “donated” somewhere in the vicinity of $141 million to the Clinton Foundation or their numerous initiatives. The arms sales during this period represented a 143% increase over the same period during the Bush administration. Arms sales can be very profitable!
Even though I think I made my case, if you need more evidence, I have written voluminously about the Clinton Foundation and their pay for play schemes. Like this one about Boeingboeing

https://kengeorge.org/2016/11/16/into-the-weeds-7/

Or this one about Dow Chemical

https://kengeorge.org/2016/11/21/into-the-weeds-8/

sadara_chemicals_saudi_arabia

 

 

 

 

Or this one about Humana intotheweeds6https://kengeorge.org/2016/11/15/into-the-weeds-6/

And the biggest one of all…….                     SKOLKOVO

 https://kengeorge.org/page/4/
skolkovo

This all begs the question, if I could find this information simply by scouring the internet, what does the Justice Department know? Recently we have seen reports about the blatant bias and corruption at the FBI. How long before the American people demand that something be done? The final piece to the pattern is this: Since Hillary Clinton lost the presidency and is now out of government, the donations to the Clinton Foundation have dropped nearly 40%. If all the money going there was because they do such great humanitarian things….then why have the donations dropped off so dramatically? Every proponent of the Clintons will use that reason…that it is a wonderful charity doing great work…..maybe not so much!

If you think we’re done with the Clintons, think again. They still wield a lot of power and have amassed billions of dollars. There still remains the connections to the Intelligence Community and to the FBI. Unless the Justice Department and/or congress steps up and takes on this behemoth of corruption, America is destined to succumb to the same lawlessness of the Russian Empire. Each day, without resolution we move closer to a state apparatus that works just like Russia….unlimited power and no accountability. Our most sacred concept is the rule of law. That law is not being applied to those in power. This must change.

clinton foundation logo

 

 

 

 

 

Author: kgeorge152

Retired small business owner in manufacturing

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