Pimping the Ship of State

There is substantial reason to believe that Bill Clinton may be behind the "leak" that Hillary is top of the list for Obama's Secretary of State. When it was clear that Bill was far from happy that Barack Obama would be the Democratic Party's presidential nominee most assumed it was because the former president felt he had been slighted and was still distraught over his wife's defeat. That may be true, but it's just as likely Bill's unhappiness is even more visceral.

To better grasp the former president's dilemma now that Hillary is not going to be the 44th president it is instructive to review what George Herbert Walker Bush was up to before W's run in 2000. Now why, you might ask, would a former U.S. president ask Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia to counsel his son on foreign affairs? The answer lies at the heart of why I believe Bill Clinton hopes that Hillary will end up in charge of the State Department with its $14 billion budget and its complex ties to Saudi Arabia and Big Oil.

First a little history:

In 1979 James Bath invested $50,000 in Arbusto Energy, a Bush oil company said to have ties to the CIA. At the time, Bath also acted as an "adviser" to Saudi Arabian oil sheikhs, linked to the outlaw BCCI. Bill White, Bath's partner, and a former U.S. fighter pilot, charges that Bath developed a network of off-shore companies to camouflage the movement of money and aircraft between Texas and the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia.

In 1987 Harken Energy, George W. Bush's failing oil company, received a $25-million stock offering underwritten by Saudis connected to the nefarious BCCI. The following year George Bush Sr. was elected president.

The Saudi tail wags the U.S. dog?

Over the years Riyadh has purchased American weapons it doesn't need, supported causes it has no reason to defend to increase its influence in Washington. It's about "building political support for themselves," says Gregory Gause, author of Oil Monarchies: Domestic and Security Challenges in the Arab Gulf States. "It wins them favor with the Pentagon and industry, and with politicians who support them."

After visiting Riyadh in 2002 Bill Clinton received over $10 million from the Saudi Royal family, roughly the same amount it gave toward the presidential library of George H.W. Bush. In addition several foreign governments gave at least $1 million, including Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, as well as the governments of Taiwan and Brunei.

Jack Kuei, a press officer for Taiwan in Washington, said his government's donation "is a way to promote a mutual understanding and it's a kind of public diplomacy." Kuwaiti counselor Jasem Albudaiwi called his nation's contribution "a friendly donation from the people and the government of Kuwait to the cause of the library."

Now think back to what Prince Bandar told W. when Bush said, “There are people who are your enemies in this country who also think my dad is your enemy.” Bandar knows Bush is speaking of the neocons who claim to loathe both the Saudis and the elder Bush. Bandar replies: “To hell with Saudi Arabia or who likes Saudi Arabia or who doesn’t ... swallow your pride and make friends of them. And I can help you."

Money Trumps Policy

Rupert Murdoch has landed in the Middle East. The mogul's News Corp. is launching two English-language, free-to-air satcasters in the region before the end of the year in partnership with Saudi Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal's regional media titan Rotana.

Prince Waleed holds a reported 5% stake in News Corp. and also has sizable stakes in Time Warner and Disney. A 24-hour movie channel, tentatively dubbed Fox Movies, will launch in May. The second channel, whose sked will be largely filled with U.S. skeins, will launch in or around November. This is the same Rupert Murdoch said to be rabidly pro-Israel:

Murdoch's close relationship with Sharon and heavy investment in Israel led former Times Africa correspondent Sam Kiley to resign his position. "The Times foreign editor and other middle managers flew into hysterical terror every time a pro-Israel lobbying group wrote in with a quibble or complaint," Kiley said, "and then usually took [the lobby's] side against their own correspondent...No pro-Israel lobbyist ever dreamed of having such power over a great national newspaper." After one conversation in which Kiley was asked not to mention a 12-year-old Palestinian boy who was killed by Israeli troops, the reporter "was left wordless, so I quit."

Now think back to how ABC tried to ambush Obama in the Philadelphia T.V. debate, spouting Sean Hannity talking points to suggest something sinister about Obama's relationship with William Ayres and Louis Farrakhan. Political observers tended to view the over-the-top attack as George Stefanopolous' resurgent loyalty to the Clintons. But beneath its nasty surface the story is revealing.

Almost all of Disney's talk-radio, WABC in New York, WMAL in D.C., WLS in Chicago, WBAP in Dallas/Ft. Worth and KSFO in San Francisco-- broadcast Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. Disney's news/talk stations are dominated by a variety of partisan Republican hosts, both local and national, including Laura Ingraham, Larry Elder and Matt Drudge. Disney's Family Channel carries Pat Robertson's 700 Club which routinely equates Christianity with Republican causes.

No journalist is allowed to advocate for a balancing point of view on ABC's news programs. Given the considerable amount of right-wing material distributed by Disney, much of it openly promoting Republican candidates and issues, it's impossible to believe that Disney stopped Miramax from distributing Fahrenheit 911 because, as a Disney executive told the New York Times (5/5/04), "It's not in the interest of any major corporation to be dragged into a highly charged partisan political battle." There seems to be little doubt that Disney banned Moore's movie to appease the Saudis especially in light of the fact that Bob Graham the former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee wrote that the White House suppressed evidence that the Saudi Royals supported at least two of the 9-11 "hijackers".

The Clinton Two-Step
March 4, 2006, Baltimore Sun article reported that Clinton was among the five Democratic senators and five Republican senators who "sent a letter to their party leaders" on March 3, 2006, "asking for cooperation in giving Congress a role in the Bush administration's latest review of Dubai Ports World's planned takeover of some operations at the port of Baltimore and five other major U.S. seaports." A statement announcing the letter is posted on Clinton's website. In a March 3, 2006, article, Newsday reported that "Bill Clinton coached United Arab Emirates officials on how to handle the Dubai ports controversy two weeks ago -- but didn't tell his wife about that conversation, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton disclosed yesterday."

The facts raised obvious questions: Should the UAE be allowed in? How can Hillary decide fairly when Bill, and therefore herself, have been getting a reported $10 million per year from a fund that administers the investments of the Emir of Dubai, the largest component state in the UAE?

The Dubai Ports deal compromised our national security. But the infusion of capital and the acquisition of equity in our key banks has the potential to make that encroachment on our sovereignty seem piddling by comparison.

“The vast scale of these secret fund-raising operations presents enormous opportunities for abuse,” said Representative Henry Waxman, (NYTImes 1/27/08) the California Democrat whose legislation to force disclosure passed overwhelmingly in the House but remains stalled in the Senate.

The Post and Times reporters couldn’t unlock all the secrets. The unanswered questions could keep them and their competitors busy until Nov. 4. Mr. Clinton’s increased centrality to the campaign will also give The Wall Street Journal a greater news peg to continue its reportorial forays into the unraveling financial partnership between Mr. Clinton and the swashbuckling billionaire Ron Burkle.

At “Little Rock’s Fort Knox,” as the Clinton library has been nicknamed by frustrated researchers, it’s not merely the heavy-hitting contributors who are under wraps. Even by the glacial processing standards of the National Archives, the Clintons’ White House papers have emerged slowly, in part because Bill Clinton exercised his right to insist that all communications between him and his wife be “considered for withholding” until 2012.

The distressing fact is that the Clintons have been on the Saudi payroll from Bill was Governor of Arkansas. One of President Clinton's college classmates at Georgetown University was Prince Turki bin Feisal. Prince Turki later became head of the Saudi Arabian intelligence service. As Governor, Clinton worked hard to secure a multimillion-dollar Saudi donation to a Middle Eastern studies program at the University of Arkansas.

One week after he was elected President, Mr. Clinton discussed the donation as part of a telephone conversation he had with Saudi Arabia's monarch, King Fahd... $20 million arrived in February, a few weeks after President Clinton's inauguration.

And then there's China

A firm that has donated to the president's charity is accused of collaborating with the government in its crackdown on Tibetan activists. Hillary Clinton has spoken out against China's actions. By Stephen Braun, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer April 13, 2008

"A former president of the United States received a donation from a Chinese firm that is involved in censorship. This is a shame of the U.S.," said Harry Wu, an exiled Chinese activist based in Washington. Wu was imprisoned by Chinese authorities in 1995, then released shortly before then-First Lady Hillary Clinton spoke out during an official Beijing visit about the government's role in abuses against women and dissidents.

In politics what's past is often prologue. I have no doubt that if it were possible for her to be independent of her husband Hillary would make an excellent Secretary of State. But putting the wife of a former president who has traded lavishly on his name in that position would create perils for any administration. We have already witnessed the damage that conflicting family ties can wreck on the country.