Posted on 03/03/2015 5:41:23 AM PST by Liz
Political pundits are abuzz about revelations that foreign countries made substantial contributions to the Clinton Foundation while Hillary was secretary of state, ------including one by Algeria that violated a 2008 ethics memorandum some legal experts now say was little more than window-dressing.
Algerian officials gave the Clinton Foundation $500,000 in 2013 to aid relief efforts following the massive earthquake that devastated Haiti. Foundation officials conceded to the Washington Post earlier this week that the Algerian contribution should have been reviewed to see if it violated the memo but wasn't due to the rush to get help to Haiti.
The other six contributions came from Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Saudi Arabia, and Norway, with amounts ranging from $1 million to more than $25 million. These six contributions were permitted under exceptions contained in the ethics memo.
The memo came after then-President-elect Obama announced his intention to nominate Clinton to be the nation's top diplomat. The document was signed by Bruce Lindsey, who was then the foundation's chief executive officer, and Valerie Jarrett, representing Obama.
The document established a review process by which the foundation agreed to submit proposed contributions from foreign countries, companies and individuals for review by a State Department ethics official.
Such a review was meant to allay concerns about conflicts of interest or their appearance between the foundation's worldwide list of supporters, and the interests of the U.S. government entrusted to Secretary Clinton. Former President Clinton similarly agreed to allow the department to review his many proposed speeches before foreign audiences and interests.
Now---seven years later, however, a wave of critical stories in the Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and the Washington Examiner have shone a spotlight on the vast network of connections the former president and former secretary/likely 2016 Democratic presidential nominee have used since 2001 to raise more than $2 billion for the foundation bearing their name.
Besides dozens of foreign countries, the foundation's donors include hundreds of corporations here in the U.S. and around the globe, and legions of the world's wealthiest individuals. An Examiner analysis found that the 140 entities that gave $54 million in 2014 also spent $350 million through the first three quarters of that year lobbying the federal government.
Foreign governments also have interests that lead them to lobby the government here, and since U.S. laws put no limit on how much foreign entities can give to the foundation, the potential is clear for an endless succession of conflicts of interest or their appearance should the former president's wife become his next successor in the Oval Office.
That is also why the 2008 memo is suddenly getting renewed attention. The problem lies with the memo's failure to provide penalties for its violation.
--SNIP--
How can a memo provide penalties? Or are we so inured to our Dicator's being able to create law and penalties that we assume it can?
/s
Of course the Algerians were anxious to help the Haitians because of their historic ties to that country. If the Barbary pirates had been more effective, there wouldn't be any black people in Haiti. Their ancestors would have been intercepted in the Atlantic and brought to Algeria to work.
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