{"id":230136,"date":"2016-03-08T22:36:34","date_gmt":"2016-03-08T22:36:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=230136"},"modified":"2016-03-09T02:30:15","modified_gmt":"2016-03-09T02:30:15","slug":"this-is-how-corruption-works-a-hillary-clinton-example","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/this-is-how-corruption-works-a-hillary-clinton-example\/","title":{"rendered":"This Is How Corruption Works: A Hillary Clinton Example"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse<\/span><\/p>\n

Hillary Clinton approved the construction in South Africa of the world\u2019s two largest coal-fired power-plants, and helped them get Export-Import Bank financing (U.S. taxpayer backing); then, some of her friends received construction contracts to build them.<\/span><\/p>\n

This was revealed by Itai Vardi in a terrific investigative news report at the desmog blog, on March 7th<\/span><\/a>. Here\u2019s an abbreviated version of it, courtesy of that extraordinary fine news-site:<\/span><\/p>\n

The plants \u2013 named Medupi and Kusile \u2013 were set to each emit a staggering 25 million tons of\u00a0CO2 into the atmosphere a year. To help finance the Medupi plant, the South African government turned to The World Bank, requesting a $3.5 billion loan.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

South Africa lobbied World Bank officials and sought to gain the support of the\u00a0US\u00a0government. A series of diplomatic cables from then-US\u00a0ambassador to South Africa to Washington reveal a number of quiet efforts to persuade the\u00a0US\u00a0government to support the loan. The cables, released by Wikileaks, were written in the latter part of 2009 and early 2010, leading up to the decisive vote on the loan in April 2010. \u2026<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

In late March 2010, \u2026 according to newly released Clinton emails, the South African foreign minister contacted the State Department requesting to speak with the Secretary on the phone. The emails state that the minister was specifically seeking the\u00a0US\u00a0government\u2019s \u2018support\u2019 for the loan. \u2026<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Clinton said: \u2026 \u2018this project is essential to deliver electricity \u2013\u00a0which I think our experts agree is right.\u2019 \u2026<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Seven days later, The World Bank approved the huge loan. The United States, along with the\u00a0UK\u00a0and Holland, abstained during the vote. \u2026
\n<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018I am not going to give them points for abstaining. This was totally the easy way out,\u2019\u00a0<\/i>said<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0Karen Ornstein of Friends of the Earth. \u2018If the\u00a0US\u00a0were to follow its own clean coal guidance for multilateral development banks it would have had to vote no on this loan.\u2019 \u2026<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

To construct the Kusile coal plant, South Africa sought a different funding route, now eyeing private capital.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

To this end, in 2010 Eskom solicited its main contractor for the plant, Kansas City-based infrastructure engineering and construction company Black\u00a0&\u00a0Veatch to apply for financing from the\u00a0US\u00a0Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im Bank). As an independent government agency, the bank invests in projects that guarantee the employment of American workers and suppliers.<\/p>\n

In April 2011, the Ex-Im Bank approved the\u00a0$850 million loan<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0for the Kusile plant \u2014 again to the great\u00a0<\/i>dismay<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0of environmentalists. The decision came despite more than 7,500 public comments\u00a0in\u00a0<\/i>opposition<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0to the project.\u00a0Activists were baffled as to why the governmental bank approved the loan for the controversial project.<\/i><\/p>\n

[PHOTO] Black\u00a0&\u00a0Veatch Director Parties with Hillary Clinton.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

One of Black\u00a0&\u00a0Veatch\u2019s\u00a0<\/i>directors<\/i><\/span><\/a>,\u00a0Harold (\u2018H.P.\u2019) Goldfield, wears several other important hats.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

A veteran Washington insider, Goldfield is a former Reagan-era administrator and ex-director at the Ex-Im Bank. He is currently the\u00a0vice chair<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0of Albright Stonebridge, the lobbying and advising firm of longtime Clintonite and former Secretary of State,\u00a0Madeleine Albright. Goldfield is\u00a0<\/i>also<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0a Senior International Affairs Advisor at the international law firm Hogan Lovells. One of the firm\u2019s Partners,\u00a0Howard Topaz, is Bill and Hillary Clinton\u2019s personal tax\u00a0<\/i>advisor<\/i><\/span><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

Seven months after the Ex-Im Bank approved Black\u00a0&\u00a0Veatch\u2019s financing for the project, Hillary Clinton attended an exclusive 60th<\/sup><\/i><\/span>\u00a0birthday\u00a0<\/i>party<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0thrown for\u00a0H.P.\u00a0Goldfield at the posh Hamptons home of\u00a0<\/i>investor<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0George Hornig. In a photo from the party Clinton is seen in extremely good spirits, glowingly hugging a group that included Goldfield and former\u00a0US\u00a0ambassador and State Department official,\u00a0Richard Haass.<\/i> [Richard Haas subsequently became appointed to head the Wall-Street-funded Council on Foreign Relations.]<\/span><\/p>\n

[PHOTO] \u201cImage credit:\u00a0<\/i>Hamptons\u00a0Magazine<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The Albright Stonebridge Connection\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

During the time Ex-Im Bank considered Black\u00a0&\u00a0Veatch\u2019s request, Madeleine Albright\u2019s daughter,\u00a0Alice Albright <\/i>served<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0as the bank\u2019s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.
\n<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

The released Clinton emails show that at the time the bank was considering the Kusile loan, Clinton and Madeleine Albright maintained a close relationship. \u2026
\n<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Two weeks prior to the bank\u2019s deliberations, Albright sent a direct email to Clinton, suggesting she hire \u2018Wendy.\u2019<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

This presumably refers to Wendy Sherman, then Vice Chair at Albright Stonebridge \u2013 a title she shared at the firm with\u00a0H.P.\u00a0Goldfield \u2013 who later that year was appointed by Clinton to serve as Under Secretary for Political Affairs. Albright ended the message with \u2018I\u2019m off to Prague to research new book but always ready to talk. Love, Madeleine.\u2019<\/p>\n

According to an email from December 2011, Clinton and Albright met again, this time in Prague. Albright wrote, \u2018Happy to help on whatever you need wherever and whenever.\u2019 Six months later, Clinton\u2019s schedule reveals she attended Madeleine Albright\u2019s 75th\u00a0birthday party at Alice Albright\u2019s house.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Since the approval of the coal plants, several figures involved in the matter landed positions at Albright Stonebrige. Upon retiring form the Foreign Service in 2013, former Ambassador Don Gips was\u00a0hired\u00a0as Senior Counselor. Former State Department official Johnnie Carson, who was part of the Clinton team during South Africa\u2019s lobbying for the World Bank loan, also\u00a0became\u00a0Senior Counselor for the firm.<\/p>\n

Ex-Im Bank\u2019s Ties to Hillary Clinton\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

The Ex-Im Bank is headed by\u00a0Fred Hochberg, a longtime Clinton family associate, financial\u00a0contributor, and campaign bundler. Hochberg\u2019s partner,\u00a0Tom Healy, was nominated during Clinton\u2019s tenure as Secretary to the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, a State Department body. Between 2012-2014 Healy\u00a0served\u00a0as Chair of the Board.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Hillary\u2019s emails during these years reveal her close connection to both Hochberg and Healy. In February 2012, one of\u00a0Clinton’s daily schedules\u00a0includes attending Hochberg\u2019s 60th\u00a0birthday party at the upscale\u00a0DC\u00a0dining spot, Sidra\u2019s Home Restaurant.<\/p>\n

A few months later Hochberg extended a personal invitation to Clinton to attend a friend\u2019s book launch. Hochberg then sent a happy birthday wish to Hillary, signing with \u2018Much love, Fred.\u2019 Tom Healy sent his own personal birthday note that year, adding \u2018I didn\u2019t get to say hello in Haiti on Monday because the rain started and we rushed to the airport.\u2019<\/p>\n

In 2014, The Ex-Im Bank announced the appointment of new members to its Sub-Saharan Africa Advisory Committee. Former ambassador Gips, and\u00a0Shahid Qadri, Black\u00a0&\u00a0Veatch\u2019s Vice President and Regional Director Africa, were among them.<\/p>\n

That carefully researched news-report, which was headlined \u201cHillary Clinton Showed Support, Associates Profited from Ex-Im Bank Financing World\u2019s Largest Coal Plants in South Africa\u201d<\/span><\/a>, isn\u2019t unusual for the best of all news-sources on environmental matters, the desmog blog. Vardi\u2019s report there provides an indication as to why Secretary of State Clinton, unlike any other Secretary of State before or since, refused to use the government\u2019s authorized and secure email system and its predecessors, the systems that were for official U.S. Government business (which was what has been disclosed here from her private email server all of this clearly was, though Hillary Clinton has stated many times she never used her private server for government business). <\/span><\/p>\n

That reason is: she didn\u2019t want voters (nor prosecutors) to be able to know how she transacts her corruption.<\/span><\/p>\n

No wonder Wall Street loves her<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of\u00a0 They\u2019re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010<\/i><\/span><\/a>,<\/i> and of \u00a0<\/i>CHRIST\u2019S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity<\/i><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse Hillary Clinton approved the construction in South Africa of the world\u2019s two largest coal-fired power-plants, and helped them get Export-Import Bank financing (U.S. taxpayer backing); then, some of her friends received construction contracts to build them. This was revealed by Itai Vardi in a terrific investigative news report at the desmog blog, on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1254,"featured_media":229794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,461],"tags":[115,30,1036,74,951,551,96,535,654,954,698,1034],"class_list":{"0":"post-230136","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-editorials","9":"tag-barack-obama","10":"tag-big-brother","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-climate-change","13":"tag-clinton","14":"tag-corruption","15":"tag-cover-up","16":"tag-global-news","17":"tag-global-warming","18":"tag-hillary","19":"tag-hillary-clinton","20":"tag-independent-media"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}