An Ex-President, a Mining Deal and a Big Donor (Clinton donor rec’d lucrative uranium mining deal)

New York Times ^ | January 31, 2008 | By JO BECKER and DON VAN NATTA Jr.

[bd476]

Late on Sept. 6, 2005, a private plane carrying the Canadian mining financier Frank Giustra touched down in Almaty, a ruggedly picturesque city in southeast Kazakhstan. Several hundred miles to the west a fortune awaited: highly coveted deposits of uranium that could fuel nuclear reactors around the world. And Mr. Giustra was in hot pursuit of an exclusive deal to tap them.

Unlike more established competitors, Mr. Giustra was a newcomer to uranium mining in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic. But what his fledgling company lacked in experience, it made up for in connections. Accompanying Mr. Giustra on his luxuriously appointed MD-87 jet that day was a former president of the United States, Bill Clinton.

Upon landing on the first stop of a three-country philanthropic tour, the two men were whisked off to share a sumptuous midnight banquet with Kazakhstan’s president, Nursultan A. Nazarbayev, whose 19-year stranglehold on the country has all but quashed political dissent.

Mr. Nazarbayev walked away from the table with a propaganda coup, after Mr. Clinton expressed enthusiastic support for the Kazakh leader’s bid to head an international organization that monitors elections and supports democracy. Mr. Clinton’s public declaration undercut both American foreign policy and sharp criticism of Kazakhstan’s poor human rights record by, among others, Mr. Clinton’s wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

Within two days, corporate records show that Mr. Giustra also came up a winner when his company signed preliminary agreements giving it the right to buy into three uranium projects controlled by Kazakhstan’s state-owned uranium agency, Kazatomprom.

The monster deal stunned the mining industry, turning an unknown shell company into one of the world’s largest uranium producers in a transaction...

[backhoe]

[mewzilla]

From 2003 and this is really interesting...

"The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" Frank Giustra

From the link....

...The current situation with Iraq does not bode well for the future economic well being of America....

And be sure to check out the guy's CV at the bottom of the piece. Lion's Gate will probably ring a bell.

[RDTF]

this is already posted under announcements

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1962347/posts?page=29#29

[SERKIT]

I'm not sure where the tea comes in but this is yet another ugly and typical mess brought home by the Clintons.

Sweet mint tea was apparently the drink of choice for Valerie Plame's husband when he "proved" that Niger did NOT trade yellow cake to Iraq.

[SERKIT]

Hey, did they see JW Investments anywhere (Joe Wilson).

At this point, I would not be surprised by anything that may have happened while Slick Wilie was in office ie trading defense technology with the ChiComs for campaign contributions, turning trade junkets into campaign fundraiser trips, etc - ANYTHING, ANYTHING is possible.

[mewzilla]

Another link for some additional data mining...

Huge initiative for mining to alleviate Latin American poverty Mexican telecom billionaire Carlos Slim Helu and Canadian mining mogul Frank Giustra have each pledged $100 million to help former President Bill Clinton fight global poverty through the Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative.

Three words: Liberia, Sierra Leone.

[Abathar]

"From the NY Times, no less - the libs have turned on the Clintons......."

Follow Moreen Dowd's columns in the NYT, she has been ripping them for quite some time now. If Obama gets elected the Clintons will be the center of more honest journalism for once than they can handle, it is going to be fun to watch them finally get a close, unbiased investigation without fear of retribution by them politically.

[ml/nj]

We've known that Slick Willie is just a common criminal for years. The rapes, the coffees, the dead, the list just keeps growing. Now I blame his continued antics on W and his Justice Department. The Clintons should have been put away when they stole the White House silver. They weren't. And it is the fault of President George W. Bush.

ML/NJ

[Neverforget01]

And it is the fault of President George W. Bush

Bush's fault--should have known this is where this was headed.

[ml/nj]

Does this mean you think it isn't the responsibity of the President to see that those who violate Federal Law are brought to account?

ML/NJ

[Neverforget01]

Clintons should have been put away when they stole the White House silver. They weren't. And it is the fault of President George W. Bush.

Good luck with that. Maybe McCain's justice dept will prosecute a former president.

[ml/nj]

Maybe McCain's justice dept will prosecute a former president.

I'd have to be as crazy as he is to hope for that. (though maybe he's go after W for somthing like being AWOL from the NG)

ML/NJ

[Womp Rat]

Just when you think these people couldn’t get any more scummy and corrupt ...

What's really sad is that the Dems will overlook this and still vote for the Clintons anyway.

[teddyballgame]

Ahhh, reminds me of the ‘90s....travelgate/filegate/Monica/Whitewater..., but I digress. It’ll be interesting to see if this comes up tonight in the debate and whether there will be a full court press by the MSM to torpedo Clinton Inc.

[AdamSelene235]

But I’ve come to the conclusion that the Clinton corruption machine must be stopped at all costs.

I'm reaching the conclusion she could probably be impeached in the year of office.

[doug from upland]

Some don’t realize that, if she wins in 2008, she will have a landslide in 2012. She will stack the deck for the next election. It will begin with destroying talk radio. She will remove one of the FCC commissioners, put in her hack, and put the fairness doctrine into operation. The Congress will have no debate and no role. She will then take on censoring political hate speech on the Internet.

No, folks, this is not like 1976 when Carter ultimately set the stage for Reagan. This will have no historical comparison. Hillary Clinton is a neo-Stalinist and will be changing all the rules for political advantage for herself and the Dems. We will see executive orders as we have never before seen.

[mewzilla]

BTTT.

[Rb ver. 2.0]

"These Clintons, they a ruthless family, no morals, very dangerous".

[Miss Didi]

From Page Six of the NY Post:

January 29, 2008 -- SO much for reports that Bill and Hillary Clinton were trying to distance themselves from Ron Burkle. The Beverly Hills billionaire has been named one of the five national finance chairs for Hillary's presidential campaign, sources say. (snip)

BURKLE BOND'S HARD TO BREAK

[fanfan]