Just like all philanthropic organizations, the Clinton foundation just mobilises wealthy powerbrokers to do good in the world.
It appears some in congress don’t believe that.
Last weekend the foundation came under additional intense criticism. That is even more criticism than it had before. The nonpartisan watchdog group, the Sunlight Foundation, says that some of the donations coming in from individuals, corporations and governments have quite a few problems.
The Clinton Foundation’s mission is to solve global problem and it has already raised an amazing $2 billion. There are a wide range of programs under the foundation’s umbrella. Included in the list of issues are fighting elephant poaching, improving schools domestically and abroad and raising AIDS awareness in Latin and African countries.
We are told that all of these generous donations come in because of the celebrity of Bill and Hillary Clinton. They have succeeded in bringing in a huge amount of money, but their transparency is poor. It has been reported there are many conflicts of interest. Some of the Foundation’s donor countries and corporations have also hired former President Bill Clinton for huge speaking fees. Hillary has also taken on many high-paying speech gigs since she left the State Department.
Some in Congress suspect that there may have been other incentives for some of those donations. Questions have been asked, including did donations lead to contracts being approved while Hillary was Secretary of State? What about treaty agreements? Congressional committees are apparently investigating the policies and procedures of the Clinton Foundation.
We have heard that while Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton mixed personal and Government e-mails. Independent critics say that mixing private and charity donations would be a conflict of interest that the Clinton’s should have understood very well. Bill Allison, a Sunlight Foundation senior fellow, said, “It seems like the Clinton Foundation operates as a slush fund for the Clintons.”
The most intense criticism relates to the list of foreign donors that have given money to the Clinton foundation. What is not known yet is if any of those donations coming from overseas were happening at the time Hillary was Secretary of State, and was she handling any cases related to those people, organisations or countries?
Others have asked how Bill Clinton commands $250,000 for a one-hour speech from the same countries and corporations that contribute to the foundation, long after he has left the public arena?
It is said that an agreement made between Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration allowed that cash flow to continue at the same time she served as Secretary of State, as long as the transactions were properly reported. We now hear that this was not properly reported.
After she left the Department of State it is understood that around 30,000 of Hillary’s emails were erased from her personal mail server.
We have heard that one of the unreported donations was a $500,000 from Algeria. Around that time, the Algerians won a 70 percent boost in military export authorizations for items including chemical and biological agents. How could that be when Algeria is considered to be a ‘terrorist country’ by the State Department?
The media knows about this situation, but the question is will they pursue answers? Will they follow this story as nonpartisan journalists? Will this issue be swept under the carpet? What did the media do with “Fast and Furious,” Benghazi and the IRS scandal?
It seems the Clinton foundation has not been very transparent so far. Will the media will be asking any questions?
Only time will tell.
