Bill Clinton Did Something Not At All Sketchy

by Joshua Foust on 1/31/2008 · 5 comments

Frank Giustra Luvs Bill Clinton Via Laurence, we learn that in 2005, Bill Clinton was involved in a suspiciously easy uranium mining deal between Nursultan Nazarbayev and a wealthy Canadian mining magnate with whom he just happened to be friends whilst traveling to Almaty. Of course, the ease with which Frank Giustra was able to line up rights to Kazakhstan’s uranium must surely rankle the likes of Ken Derr and Dick Matzke, who had to jump through far more hoops to get their stake of the Tenghiz field.

But my favorite part?

Nearly a year earlier, Mr. Clinton had advised Dubai on how to handle the political furor after one of that nation’s companies attempted to take over several American ports. Mrs. Clinton was among those on Capitol Hill who raised the national security concerns that helped kill the deal.

Nothing fishy in there. Not at all, ginning up racist hyperbole over a standard business deal then selling your services to help the beleaguered foreigners slink their way out again. Laurence provides several other important questions to consider, among them an amusing quip about Kazakhstan using its chairmanship of the OSCE to investigate corruption and vote-rigging with Mrs. Clinton (which is all well and good, except Kazakhstan won’t chair the OSCE until 2010, years into whatever disaster of a candidate makes it into the White House).

Perhaps more ominously, Frank Giustra is on the executive committee of the International Crisis Group. While they normally maintain an impeccable reputation for identifying conflict zones (if not the broken record of tepid recommendations for all sides to hold a big kumbayah), could a major commercial stake by one of their directors in a country they’ve singled out before for human rights abuses and election tampering impact ICG’s analysis? I’d expect vehement denials, but what good are those any more?

Anyway, it’ll be fun if the Hillbots here try to make anything of this. While it is possible there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for Bill Clinton happening to be along when Giustra was negotiating the rights for Kazakhstan’s uranium, and he just happened to donate to Clinton’s foundation afterward—all of this could be perfectly innocent—it really doesn’t look it. And if one thing is constant in Central Asia, it’s that the appearance of impropriety is almost always actual indication of impropriety.

Update: A tiny bit of digging reveals that Mark Rich—remember Mark Rich?—used to own a company, Glencore. This company owns mining interests all over the world, in some of the sketchiest countries imaginable—including an involvement in the Iraq Oil-for-Food scandal under Saddam Hussein, Iran in violation of sanctions, even apartheid South Africa. About the only nasty country they didn’t do business with was North Korea… and I reckon that had more to do with Pyongyang than their conscience or respect for international law. Anyway, so Glencore also owns a stake in Kazzinc, a Kazakh mining interest.

Where the money goes, the Clintons follow. Denise Rich, Mark’s wife, had donated considerably to Bill Clinton’s presidential library while he was in office, then hours before he stepped down as President Bill Clinton pardoned Mark Rich on his indictment for tax evasion and illegal trading with Iran during the 1979 hostage crisis.

Summary: given Giustra’s involvement here, does anyone think it is totally innocent?

And Heaven help the journalist who decides to call this BoratGate.

{ 5 comments }

1 Afghanistanica 2/1/2008 at 1:16 am: Yes, it’s all very shady and Clinton will never get nailed for anything other than being immoral. He’s too smart to do anything that will get him convicted, just everyone around him. I like the part in the article where he congratulates Nazarbaev for winning the election (in the most ridiculous way).

The other guy (Giustra) in the deal is quite a character. I like that he pioneered taking gorno (torture to the level of porn) mainstream. The studio he founded and CEO’d (Lion Gate) has produced Saw, Hostel, Cabin Fever, American Psycho, etc…

Why do I feel that Hillary is embarrassed and angry but will say or do nothing? She’s such a trooper! But I’m sure she is nowhere near this “affair,” as usual.

Anyways, Bill should probably get back to pointing out the skin color of his wife’s opponent.
2 Joshua Foust 2/1/2008 at 5:42 am: Well he was the first black president, according to black author Toni Morrison.
3 Nyura 2/1/2008 at 12:49 pm: MediaMatters posted yesterday about this — their article refutes the implication that the Clinton connection was all Giustra needed to clinch his deal. Rather, MediaMatters reports that the Canadian mining financier has had ongoing involvement in Kazakhstan’s mining industry for ten years, well before the trip with Clinton.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200801310014?f=h_latest
4 Joshua Foust 2/1/2008 at 7:16 pm: Given that Media Matters was founded by Clinton staffers, forgive me if I question their objectivity. More than enough is fishy about this story so that Giustra’s interest in mining last decade is immaterial. It is the appearance of a quid pro quo – a Presidential introduction for $131 million to the Clinton Foundation – that is the heart of the scandal. Assuming it becomes one.
5 Laurence 2/4/2008 at 3:46 pm: Today’s Washington Post (2/4/08) has published this editorial about the scandal:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/03/AR2008020302352.html

Mr. Clinton and the Tycoon
Their joint visit to a Central Asian dictator raises questions about the former president’s fundraising — and free-lancing.

Monday, February 4, 2008; A20

FRANK GIUSTRA is a Canadian mining tycoon who has given generously — more than $130 million — to support the charitable enterprises of former president Bill Clinton. Mr. Giustra’s good works alongside Mr. Clinton may also have been good business. As the New York Times detailed in a front-page story last week, Mr. Giustra traveled with the former president in September 2005 to Kazakhstan, where Mr. Clinton announced an agreement to let that nation purchase discounted AIDS drugs and where he attended a midnight banquet with Kazakh strongman Nursultan Nazarbayev. Although he met with Kazakh dissidents, Mr. Clinton praised Mr. Nazarbayev for “opening up the social and political life of your country.” And, in contrast to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s previously expressed reservations, Mr. Clinton embraced Kazakhstan’s bid to head the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which works to promote human rights and fair elections, two characteristics that Mr. Nazarbayev’s regime has been sorely lacking.

Within a few days, Mr. Giustra had in hand preliminary agreements giving his company the right to buy into uranium projects controlled by Kazatomprom, the state-owned uranium agency; Mr. Giustra had longtime business dealings in Kazakhstan but was a new player in uranium mining. And within several months, Mr. Giustra had pledged another $31.3 million to the William J. Clinton Foundation, adding to his previous $100 million donation.

The president and the businessman insist that these events are unconnected. Mr. Clinton knew of Mr. Giustra’s mining interests in Kazakhstan but was “unaware of ‘any particular efforts,’ ” a Clinton spokesman told the Times. Mr. Giustra told the paper that there had been “no discussion” of the deal with Mr. Nazarbayev or Mr. Clinton. But Kazatomprom’s president said otherwise: Mr. Giustra discussed his proposal directly with the Kazakh president — and his relationship with Mr. Clinton “of course made an impression.”

Mr. Clinton may not be the only former president who’s engaged in cozy back-scratching with self-interested businessmen and distasteful regimes. But he’s the only former president who’s married to someone who wants to be the next president. The Times story underscores the potential problems this could create. Among others, Mr. Clinton has said he would continue raising money for his foundation if his wife were elected president. This strikes us as a bad idea, one fraught with possibilities for conflicts of interest and questionable efforts to curry favor. Certainly, if Ms. Clinton is elected president and her husband continues the operations of his foundation, its finances must be made transparent to protect against any such abuses; Mr. Clinton has promised to reveal the names of his donors “going forward” if his wife is elected, which the Clinton campaign says is more than other presidential spouses have done with their much smaller foundations. But efforts at greater disclosure are warranted under these unique circumstances. And Ms. Clinton must make clear that her husband’s foreign policy free-lancing — whether or not it intersects with the interests of his big givers — will have no place in a third Clinton administration.