Last modified on June 28, 2024, at 23:30

Hillary Clinton Secretary of State

Architects of the humanitarian catastrophe in Libya - Samantha Power (top) Susan Rice (left) and Hillary Clinton (right). President Obama initially billed US intervention "to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe," however after Gaddafi's murder the Black-African slave trade re-emerged in open slave markets in Libya.[1] NATO was used to give cover for the Obama administration's direct involvement.

On December 1, 2008, Obama announced the appointment of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. In late December Hillary entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Obama administration about the potential conflict of interest with her role as Secretary of State and Mr. Bill Clinton actively soliciting political donations for Hillary's 2016 presidential bid on behalf of the Clinton Foundation.[2] The memorandum stipulated complete disclosure of the foundation's donor list annually. According to Reuters, Hillary Clinton violated the understanding from the very beginning and made no disclosures beyond the first year.[3]

With the theft of government records and scrubbing of the Clinton Chappaqua email server by Clinton and underlings, the exact extent of a conflict of interest and violation of the memorandum of understanding at present is unclear.[4][5]

Questions have linger about her commitment to women's rights, the rights of children, and human rights.[6]

Chinese debt deal

Clinton's first assignment was to travel to China and convince them to purchase U.S. Treasury obligations to finance Obama's stimulus package.[7] The veto-proof Democratic Congress voted to add $4.5 trillion to the national debt for "jobs creation" which, by the end of her tenure four years later, added a paltry 1.3 million jobs.[8] Clinton told Chinese leaders that the Obama administration considered human rights secondary to economic well-being.[9]

Russian Reset and Uranium One bribery scandal

See also: Uranium One bribery scandal and Clinton Foundation conflicts of interest

President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cozied up to Putin, charging the Bush administration was intent on reigniting the Cold War. Michael McFaul was the architect of the Obama/Clinton “Russian Reset”, that eventually led McFaul to becoming the Ambassador to Russia.[10] The Rosatom-Uranium One deal allowed the Clinton Foundation to pocket millions of dollars from Putin cronies in donations and speaking fees.

In "Resetting" relations with Russia, Secretary Clinton gave approval to a deal that allowed a Russian government enterprise to control one-fifth of all uranium producing capacity in the United States.[11] Rosatom, the Russian company, acquired Uranium One, a Utah uranium mining company owned by a Canadian firm run by Frank Giustra (pron. Ju-stra). Giustra is a Friend of Bill (FOB) and member of the Clinton Foundation Board. The transaction required Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's approval.Giustra then donated over $130 million to the Clinton family non-profit foundation.[12][13]

Some of the details of the Uranium One deal and "the future of the energy industry" were worked out in a private meeting between Bill Clinton. Frank Giustra, and Kazatomprom President Moukhtar Dzhakishev in Chappaqua, New York on February 27, 2007. The 'Russian Reset' was necessary to complete the deal.

Rosatom, the world's leading builder of nuclear power plants, built Iran’s nuclear reactor in Bushehr. With the purchase of Uranium One, Rosatom also bought the uranium exploration rights in Arizona, Colorado, and Utah.[14]

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in May 2010 discussed with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev the possibility of Rosatom building nuclear power plants in Syria.[15]

According to the New York Times,

Canadian records show, a flow of cash made its way to the Clinton Foundation. Uranium One’s chairman used his family foundation to make four donations totaling $2.35 million. Those contributions were not publicly disclosed by the Clintons, despite an agreement Mrs. Clinton had struck with the Obama White House to publicly identify all donors. Other people with ties to the company made donations as well.

And shortly after the Russians announced their intention to acquire a majority stake in Uranium One, Mr. Clinton received $500,000 for a Moscow speech from a Russian investment bank with links to the Kremlin that was promoting Uranium One stock.[16]

Foreign Policy

For a more detailed treatment, see Hillary Clinton Foreign Policy.
Hillary Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State was marked by an escalation in U.S. casualties in Afghanistan, a decline in American prestige abroad, an explosion of jihadists recruiting and the global jihad, and a soaring national debt owed to foreign entities.

Libyan War and the Benghazi attack

See also Libyan War and Benghazi attack

Hillary Clinton was the driving force behind the United States military action in Libya. On March 14 she met in Paris with members of the Libyan jihadis and Bernard Henri Levy. Mrs. Clinton was one of a handful of top administration aides who had been arguing for intervention. Within hours, Mrs. Clinton and the aides had convinced Obama that the United States had to act, and the president ordered up military plans, which Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, hand-delivered to the White House the next day. On Thursday (March 17), during an hour-and-a-half meeting, Obama signed off on using American pilots to join Europeans and jihadists in military strikes against the Libyan government... The president had a caveat, though. The American involvement in military action in Libya should be limited — no ground troops — and finite. “Days, not weeks,” a senior White House official recalled him saying.[17]

On March 17, in Tunisia, Hillary said: "Gaddafi must go," calling him "a ruthless dictator that has no conscience and will destroy anyone or anything in his way." "If Gaddafi does not go, he will just make trouble," she said. "That is just his nature. There are some creatures that are like that."[18]

In joining Susan Rice and Samantha Power, Mrs. Clinton made an unusual break with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who, along with the national security adviser, Thomas E. Donilon, and the counterterrorism chief, John O. Brennan, had urged caution. Libya was not vital to American national security interests, the men argued, and Mr. Brennan worried that the Libyan rebels remained largely unknown to American officials, and could have ties to Al Qaeda.[17]

Hillary stated:

"We are currently doing everything we can to bomb, strafe and use missiles to carry the rebels into power in Libya. We want them to win. We just don’t know who they are.”[19]

The president fully articulated American foreign policy toward Libya as formulated by Hillary Clinton: "Left unchecked... a humanitarian crisis would ensue.... The democratic values that we stand for would be overrun."[20] Nonetheless, after being captured on October 20, 2011 by forces backed by Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration, Gaddafi was first brutally sodomized, murdered, and his lifeless body paraded through the streets.[21]

On September 11, 2012, the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, Islamist terrorists attacked the American embassy and killed four people. In testimony before Congress on January the 23th, 2013 Clinton was asked why the Obama administration deliberately put out false information about the attack just prior to the Presidential Election of 2012, Clinton screamed at Senators, "WHAT DIFFERENCE AT THIS POINT DOES IT MAKE?".[22]

Mali & Algeria

Hillary Clinton further testified in the wake of the Benghazi murders that occurred under her stewardship, that weapons and fighters equipped by the Obama administration made their way into Mali and Algeria:

There is no doubt that the Algerian terrorists had weapons from Libya. There is no doubt that the Malian remnants of AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) have weapons from Libya.[23]

Two more Americans were killed, along with 35 others, after being taken hostage by rebel jihadists in Mali shortly after the Libyan upheaval.[24]

President Vladimir Putin of Russia observed, "Upheaval in Libya, accompanied by the uncontrolled proliferation of arms, contributed to the deterioration of the situation in Mali. Terrorist attacks in Algeria that took away the lives of innocent people—including those from foreign countries—became the consequences of such tragic developments."[25]

Syria

2011

  • 11 March. Reuters reports ‘a large shipment of weapons and explosives and night-vision goggles … in a truck coming from Iraq’ carrying 'dozens of grenades and pistols as well as rifles and ammunition belts’ is seized at al-Waleed (known in Syria as al-Tanf) southern bordering crossing, some 400 west of Baghdad. The Syrian Government News Agency (SANA) said the weapons were intended ‘for use in actions that affect Syria’s internal security and spread unrest and chaos.’ The driver said the weapons had been loaded in Baghdad and he was to be paid $5,000 to deliver them to Syria.[26]
  • 18 March. Armed protesters in Daraa, Syria open fire on regime security forces.[27] Security forces return fire.[28] What began as a popular movement for greater freedom and democracy is over by April 2011. The continuing war is fueled and funded by outside sources, and foreign fighters entering Syria from Turkey and Northern Iraq. The fighters are principly equipped and funded by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, although the CIA by June 2011 is supplying jihadist elements with weapons from captured Libyan stockpiles. Airial transport originates in Benghazi and flown to Incirlik, Turkey. Sea transport originates in Derna, Libya to the Turkish port of Iskenderun, 35 miles from the Syrian border.[29]
  • 23 March. Syrian government seizes weapons stored at Al-Omari mosque in the city of Daraa.[30][31] Daily Mail reports "'an armed gang' of 'peaceful protesters' opened fire on an ambulance, killing 'a doctor, a paramedic and a policeman'".
  • 26 March. A blogger in Latakia, Syria, a majority Alewite/Shia port city in northern Syria, posts there is the "presence of foreign armed elements...The situation in Lattaka is terrible, [on March 26] five people got killed, and there were snipers who shot at the people from buildings...It looks as if certain groups there want to stir up a sectarian conflict to make people afraid and to become more powerful themselves,..."[32] evidence the Syrian uprising was planned by professionals who brought in snipers that killed people from both sides: regime supporters and Sunni protesters to create blind hatred and anger.
  • 28 March. AP reports Turkey takes over running the Benghazi, Libya airport.[33] This is the beginning of a direct flightline to Adana, Turkey where captured Gaddadi regime weapons are delivered to AQI/ISI jihadis, for the purpose of overthrowing the Assad regime. The group eventually evolves into the Islamic State.
  • 22 April. Salafists, the Muslim Brotherhood and AQI [Al Qaeda in Iraq, later ISIS] supported by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, are infiltrated into the southwest Syrian border town of Daraa, a town of 150,000 inhabitants. Western media previously claimed 300,000 protesters were in the streets. 20 Syrian government soldiers are ambushed and beheaded. These are the first known instances of what would become the US-backed Salafi-jihadi's trademark use of terrorism. Government troops are lured into the town after rooftop snipers begin shooting at police during a civil demonstration. 90 people are killed in the days fighting. This marks the end of civil opposition to the regime. For the next half decade, Syria's "Civil War," as it is referred to in Western media, is a war between the Syrian Army and foreign jihadists backed by the United States, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the Gulf states.
  • 6 June. Jisr ash-Shugur massacre in Syria. 120 Syrian regime personnel are executed by US-backed "unarmed peaceful opposition protesters," according to Western media accounts. Many are beheaded and their bodies thrown from a bridge into the Orontes river.[34] The atrocity is videotaped and uploaded to YouTube, later censored by Western cyberwarfare information specialists.
It is a pleasure to see the State Department again leading the administration on [Libya]. Syria, too...the White House doesn’t seem like it cares very much. In general, the NSC seems uncomfortable with creative applications of American power and influence. And we all know the military and the Pentagon resist limited military operations, especially airpower-only engagements. So, it must be you and your colleagues at State. Well done. . . .
  • 7 December. Special Operations Forces from US, UK, France, Jordan, Turkey are already on the ground in Syria training opposition forces and ready to act within 2–3 months.[35]

2012

  • January. A Saudi diplomatic cable reads that the Kingdom "must seek by all means available and all possible ways to overthrow the current regime in Syria," expresses fear of Russian intervention if it cannot be done quickly, and note "there is a lack of ‘desire’ and not a lack of ‘capability’ on the part of Western countries, chief among them the United States, to take firm steps...”[36]
Jake Sullivan[37] to Hillary Clinton: Al Qaeda is on our side.
  • 12 February. Deputy Assistant to President Barack Obama,[38] emails Sec. Clinton to notify her "[Al Qaeda] is on our side in Syria. Otherwise, things have basically turned out as expected;"[39] the only legal basis Obama has for the use force (2001 AUMF) is to destroy Al Qaeda and associated groups.[40]
  • 23 April. [week of 22-29]. 18328 Wikileaks Hillary Clinton email archive. NEW IRAN AND SYRIA 2.DOC. Lays out justification and strategy for the anti-Assad campaign.[41]
  • 21 June. New York Times reports "C.I.A. officers are operating secretly in southern Turkey, helping allies decide which Syrian opposition fighters across the border will receive arms to fight the Syrian government...[weapons] are being funneled mostly across the Turkish border by way of a shadowy network of intermediaries including Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood and paid for by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar."[42][43]
  • 27 July. Adventure film maker Bernard-Henri Levy tells al-Arabiya TV, "What we did in Libya is more doable in Syria."[44]
  • 30 July. The Guardian reports,[45]
these were not average members of the Free Syrian Army. Abu Khuder and his men fight for al-Qaida. They call themselves the ghuraba’a, or “strangers”, after a famous jihadi poem celebrating Osama bin Laden’s time with his followers in the Afghan mountains, and they are one of a number of jihadi organisations establishing a foothold in the east of the country now that the conflict in Syria has stretched well into its second bloody year.

They try to hide their presence. “Some people are worried about carrying the [black] flags” ...

...[they] are working closely with the military council that commands the Free Syrian Army brigades in the region. “We meet almost every day,” he said. “We have clear instructions from our [al-Qaida] leadership that if the FSA need our help we should give it. We help them with IEDs and car bombs. Our main talent is in the bombing operations” ...

“The FSA lacks the ability to plan and lacks military experience. That is what [al-Qaida] can bring. ...

“In the beginning, there were very few. Now, mashallah, there are immigrants joining us and bringing their experience,” he told the gathered people. “Men from Yemen, Saudi, Iraq and Jordan...

“[Al-Qaida’s] goal is establishing an Islamic state and not a Syrian state,” he replied. “Those who fear the organisation fear the implementation of Allah’s jurisdiction...
  • 31 July. NBC News reports anti-Assad forces obtained shoulder fired surface-to-air missiles.[46]
  • 1 August. Reuters reports Obama issued a secret Presidential Finding earlier in the year authorising transfer of captured weapons from Libya to Syria.[47]
under provisions of the presidential finding, the United States was collaborating with a secret command center operated by Turkey and its allies.

Last week, Reuters reported that, along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Turkey had established a secret base near the Syrian border to help direct vital military and communications support to Assad’s opponents.

This “nerve center” is in Adana, a city in southern Turkey about 60 miles (100 km) from the Syrian border, which is also home to Incirlik, a U.S. air base where U.S. military and intelligence agencies maintain a substantial presence.

Turkey’s moderate Islamist government has been demanding Assad’s departure with growing vehemence. Turkish authorities are said by current and former U.S. government officials to be increasingly involved in providing Syrian rebels with training and possibly equipment.

European government sources said wealthy families in Saudi Arabia and Qatar were providing significant financing to the rebels. Senior officials of the Saudi and Qatari governments have publicly called for Assad’s departure.
  • Amb. Christopher Stevens put in charge of the covert operation. The aim is to arm jihadist groups which transformed themselves into the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria to overthrow Bashar al Assad.
AQI [al Qaeda in Iraq] SUPPORTED THE SYRIAN OPPOSITION FROM THE BEGINNING, BOTH IDEOLOGICALLY AND THROUGH THE MEDIA…

... AFTER THE RISE OF THE INSURGENCY IN SYRIA, THE RELIGIOUS AND TRIBAL POWERS IN THE REGIONS BEGAN TO SYMPATHIZE WITH THE SECTARIAN UPRISING. THIS (SYMPATHY) APPEARED IN FRIDAY PRAYER SERMONS, WHICH CALLED FOR VOLUNTEERS TO SUPPORT THE SUNNIS IN SYRIA...

THE FUTURE ASSUMPTIONS OF THE CRISIS:

...DEVELOPMENT OF THE CURRENT EVENTS INTO PROXY WAR: …OPPOSITION FORCES ARE TRYING TO CONTROL THE EASTERN AREAS (HASAKA AND DER ZOR), ADJACENT TO THE WESTERN IRAQI PROVINCES (MOSUL AND ANBAR), IN ADDITION TO NEIGHBORING TURKISH BORDERS. ...

WESTERN COUNTRIES, THE GULF STATES AND TURKEY ARE SUPPORTING THESE EFFORTS. ...SIMILAR TO WHAT TRANSPIRED IN LIBYA WHEN BENGHAZI WAS CHOSEN AS THE COMMAND CENTER OF THE TEMPORARY GOVERNMENT...

...THE WEST, GULF COUNTRIES, AND TURKEY SUPPORT THE [SYRIAN] OPPOSITION… THERE IS THE POSSIBILITY OF ESTABLISHING A DECLARED OR UNDECLARED SALAFIST PRINCIPALITY IN EASTERN SYRIA (HASAKA AND DER ZOR), AND THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THE SUPPORTING POWERS TO THE OPPOSITION WANT, IN ORDER TO ISOLATE THE SYRIAN REGIME…

…ISI COULD ALSO DECLARE AN ISLAMIC STATE THROUGH ITS UNION WITH OTHER TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS IN IRAQ AND SYRIA...
  • Gen. Michael T. Flynn had been Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency for about three weeks. Flynn opposed the creation of the Islamic State. After it was declared in June 2014, Flynn was fired.
  • 5 September. A Libyan ship called Al Entisar (“The Victory”) docks in the Turkish port of Iskenderun carrying 400 tons of cargo including weapons such as rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and shoulder-launched SAM-7 surface-to-air missiles (aka MANPADS) destined for Syrian rebels.[48][49]
  • 5 October. Time magazine announces the formation of the 20,000 strong Omar al-Farouq Brigade in Syria, one of the "moderate rebel" groups receiving American funding under the umbrella Free Syrian Army.[50] In May 2015 Human Rights Watch releases a video of one of its commanders carving the heart and liver out of a dead Assad regime soldier and eating the heart.

Boko Haram

Hillary Clinton and the State Department refused to place Boko Haram on the list of foreign terrorist organizations in 2011, after the group bombed the UN headquarters in Abuja. The refusal came despite the urging of the Justice Department, the FBI, the CIA, and over a dozen Senators and Congressmen.[51]

In 2014 Boko Haram kidnapped 276 Black African Christian girls and has sold them into slavery, reports indicate.

Middle East

In November 2009 before George Mitchell's awkward removal as Middle East emissary, Clinton finally took a foreign policy initiative in the highly sensitive Palestine-Israeli peace process. However, she offended the Palestinians by praising Israel for offering to curb its settlement-building program in the West Bank.[52] The Palestinians accused her of undermining progress toward Mideast peace talks (the Palestinians want to see all settlements dismantled). To try and make amends and smooth over Palestinians, she issued a new statement saying the US wants Israel settlement halt forever, “We do not accept the legitimacy of settlement activity and we have a very firm belief that ending all settlement activity, current and future, would be preferable.” [53]

Once again, Clinton's failure as Secretary of State came into question as John Kerry planned a visit to Iran, which Iran rejected.[54] Kerry was named as the replacement of Hillary Clinton after President Obama's embarrassing failure to garner support for Amb. Susan Rice's nomination.[55]

Japan, North Korea and Burma

In Japan, she met publicly with Yukio Hatoyama, the former opposition leader, who won a landslide election in Sept, 2009. The question was over whether the new government would continue to follow American foreign policy regarding economic affairs, North Korea's development of nuclear weapons,[56] and the issue of 47,000 troops American troops stationed there. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama in his election campaign vowed to review a 2006 agreement to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Base from an urban to a coastal part of the southern island of Okinawa. The base has angered residents because of aircraft noise and friction with U.S. servicemen; while in opposition, Hatoyama suggested it could be moved off the island altogether, a move the United States under Bush strongly opposed.

In July 2009, Bill Clinton travelled to North Korea to attempt to negotiate for the release of Americans held hostage. She was asked by a Congolese university student what her husband thought of international relations. She responded annoyed, "My husband is not Secretary of State, I am," and "I am not going to be channeling my husband." Diplomats laughed when Clinton took umbrage at a Congolese questioner whom she took to be asking her husband's opinion, but it later surfaced that the question had been mistranslated.

In addition, a U.S. senator flew to Burma to bargain for the release of yet another American. Also, envoys of the reclusive North Korean regime have come to the U.S. for a meeting privately with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. All this had America wondering if Hillary has been marginalized in her Obama Administration role.

Africa

Clinton went to Africa to demonstrate the administration is giving Africa a higher priority than usual. Clinton has long been outspoken on causes like development, health, poverty, and gender violence. Her first stop was Kenya, where the U.S. policy is to stabilize the political situation which has been on the brink of civil war. Also important is economic development, with a continent-wide economic conference. Under Bill Clinton the "African Growth and Opportunity Act" expanded the number of tariff-free goods sub-Saharan countries could export to the United States. Kenya is an economic engine in eastern Africa, and needs encouragement to seek economic growth and leadership rather than risk an ethnic civil war.

South Africa is the superpower on the continent, but relations were strained with the U.S. under the country's erratic former president, Thabo Mbeki. He for example, fought against American effort to stamp out AIDS, suggesting the disease was a Western conspiracy. The new president, Jacob Zuma, is an unknown quantity. South Africa is in its first recession in more than a decade. With riots on the streets over his failure to deliver on promises to the country's poor, Zuma may hope to capitalize on improved relations with the United States. That bodes well for Clinton. One of the biggest splits was over Zimbabwe, where Bush wanted Mbeki to take a more pro-active role, while Mbeki wanted the United States to stay out of his tyranny. Angola is now the top oil exporter in Africa, with the usual corrupt pattern of concentrated oil wealth, wobbly, and a 48% unemployment rate. American oil companies are active and the U.S. is providing business and military support. American support for Angola causes resentment in the rest of Africa, where critics attack the American friendship with President José Eduardo Dos Santos, who has held power for more than 30 years. President Bush's oft-stated concern for human rights and democracy in Angola was seen by African nationalists as little more than a pretence.

Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, embarked on an official African trip that took her to Zambia, Tanzania and Ethiopia. In a press conference in Lusaka, Clinton is reported to have warned her host continent about ‘new colonialism' in Africa from external actors and investors interested only in extracting Africa's natural resources... Clinton did not mention China by name, but as her officials later confirmed to reporters, she wanted to stress that African countries should beware of the Chinese and hold their investors to high standards.[57]

South America

Hillary's trip to Argentina became controversial as she meddled into a touchy subject by attempting to force Britain to accept talks on the future of the Falkland Islands. This action will undoubtedly strain relationships between the U.S., the U.K. and Argentina. Residents of the Falklands were outraged.[58]

Boko Haram

Hillary Clinton and the State Department refused to place Boko Haram on the list of foreign terrorist organizations in 2011, after the group bombed the UN headquarters in Abuja. The refusal came despite the urging of the Justice Department, the FBI, the CIA, and over a dozen Senators and Congressmen.[51]

In 2014 Boko Haram kidnapped 276 Black African Christian girls and has sold them into slavery, reports indicate.

Middle East

In November 2009 before George Mitchell's awkward removal as Middle East emissary, Clinton finally took a foreign policy initiative in the highly sensitive Palestine-Israeli peace process. However, she offended the Palestinians by praising Israel for offering to curb its settlement-building program in the West Bank.[52] The Palestinians accused her of undermining progress toward Mideast peace talks (the Palestinians want to see all settlements dismantled). To try and make amends and smooth over Palestinians, she issued a new statement saying the US wants Israel settlement halt forever, “We do not accept the legitimacy of settlement activity and we have a very firm belief that ending all settlement activity, current and future, would be preferable.” [53]

Once again, Clinton's failure as Secretary of State came into question as John Kerry planned a visit to Iran, which Iran rejected.[54] Kerry was named as the replacement of Hillary Clinton after President Obama's embarrassing failure to garner support for Amb. Susan Rice's nomination.[59]

China and Tibet

Hillary Clinton negotiated the debt deal with China that piled $2 trillion unto the national debt; to mollify Chinese Communists concerns about granting Tibet the honor and dignity due a head of state, here the Dalai Lama is walked past piles of garbage after meeting with President Obama in the Oval Office [60]

The Dalai Lama was made Tibetan head of state in 1950, the same year that China invaded and occupied Tibet.[61] CNN reports the Chinese find it "unacceptable when they see the Dalai Lama treated as a VIP, or even akin to a head of state."[61]

After the Dalai Lama met with President Obama in February, 2010 he was unceremoniously escorted through a side door that trash is regularly carried out to a photo op with awaiting cameras.

Japan, North Korea and Burma

In Japan, she met publicly with Yukio Hatoyama, the former opposition leader, who won a landslide election in Sept, 2009. The question was over whether the new government would continue to follow American foreign policy regarding economic affairs, North Korea's development of nuclear weapons,[56] and the issue of 47,000 troops American troops stationed there. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama in his election campaign vowed to review a 2006 agreement to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Base from an urban to a coastal part of the southern island of Okinawa. The base has angered residents because of aircraft noise and friction with U.S. servicemen; while in opposition, Hatoyama suggested it could be moved off the island altogether, a move the United States under Bush strongly opposed.

In July 2009, Bill Clinton travelled to North Korea to attempt to negotiate for the release of Americans held hostage. She was asked by a Congolese university student what her husband thought of international relations. She responded annoyed, "My husband is not Secretary of State, I am," and "I am not going to be channeling my husband." Diplomats laughed when Clinton took umbrage at a Congolese questioner whom she took to be asking her husband's opinion, but it later surfaced that the question had been mistranslated.

In addition, a U.S. senator flew to Burma to bargain for the release of yet another American. Also, envoys of the reclusive North Korean regime have come to the U.S. for a meeting privately with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. All this had America wondering if Hillary has been marginalized in her Obama Administration role.

Africa

Clinton went to Africa to demonstrate the administration is giving Africa a higher priority than usual. Clinton has long been outspoken on causes like development, health, poverty, and gender violence. Her first stop was Kenya, where the U.S. policy is to stabilize the political situation which has been on the brink of civil war. Also important is economic development, with a continent-wide economic conference. Under Bill Clinton the "African Growth and Opportunity Act" expanded the number of tariff-free goods sub-Saharan countries could export to the United States. Kenya is an economic engine in eastern Africa, and needs encouragement to seek economic growth and leadership rather than risk an ethnic civil war.

South Africa is the superpower on the continent, but relations were strained with the U.S. under the country's erratic former president, Thabo Mbeki. He for example, fought against American effort to stamp out AIDS, suggesting the disease was a Western conspiracy. The new president, Jacob Zuma, is an unknown quantity. South Africa is in its first recession in more than a decade. With riots on the streets over his failure to deliver on promises to the country's poor, Zuma may hope to capitalize on improved relations with the United States. That bodes well for Clinton. One of the biggest splits was over Zimbabwe, where Bush wanted Mbeki to take a more pro-active role, while Mbeki wanted the United States to stay out of his tyranny. Angola is now the top oil exporter in Africa, with the usual corrupt pattern of concentrated oil wealth, wobbly, and a 48% unemployment rate. American oil companies are active and the U.S. is providing business and military support. American support for Angola causes resentment in the rest of Africa, where critics attack the American friendship with President José Eduardo Dos Santos, who has held power for more than 30 years. President Bush's oft-stated concern for human rights and democracy in Angola was seen by African nationalists as little more than a pretence.

Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, embarked on an official African trip that took her to Zambia, Tanzania and Ethiopia. In a press conference in Lusaka, Clinton is reported to have warned her host continent about ‘new colonialism' in Africa from external actors and investors interested only in extracting Africa's natural resources... Clinton did not mention China by name, but as her officials later confirmed to reporters, she wanted to stress that African countries should beware of the Chinese and hold their investors to high standards.[57]

South America

Hillary's trip to Argentina became controversial as she meddled into a touchy subject by attempting to force Britain to accept talks on the future of the Falkland Islands. This action will undoubtedly strain relationships between the U.S., the U.K. and Argentina. Residents of the Falklands were outraged.[58]

Clinton Foundation

Main article : Clinton Foundation

In 2009 Hillary Clinton entered into a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Senate about the potential conflict of interest with her role as Secretary of State and Mr. Clinton actively soliciting political donations for Hillary's 2016 presidential bid on behalf of the Clinton Foundation.[62]

Sen. Elizabeth Warren joined in the criticism of foreign corporations who donated cash to the Clinton Foundation, criticizing "a French company", the Veolia Group, "that sued Egypt after Egypt raised its minimum wage.” Veolia contributed between $50,001 and $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation. Warren criticized Philip Morris, part of the Altria group—another Clinton Foundation donor. And “a Swedish company", Vattenfall, a state-owned Swedish utility; the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency contributed between $1 million and $10 million.[63]

The Clinton Foundation also received donations from countries that Secretary Hillary Clinton oversaw the transfer of weapons to.[64][65][66][67]

Laureate International Universities

Between 2010 and 2014 while Hillary Clinton served as Secretary of State, Bill Clinton made $16.5 million for his role as honorary chancellor of Laureate Education, a for-profit college company.[68] The State Department funneled $55 million in grants during Hillary Clinton's tenure to groups associated with Laureate's founder. The International Youth Federation, an organization connected to Laureate chairman Douglas Becker, received USAID funding.[69] Becker is a major donor to the Clintons and the Clinton Foundation.[70][71]

In her first year as Secretary of State, Hillary is quoted as directly asking that Laureate be included in a high-profile policy dinner — just months before the lucrative contract was given to Bill Clinton. Hillary Clinton later references “Laureate Universities, started by Doug Becker who Bill likes a lot".[72] “It’s a for-profit model that should be represented,” she wrote in the August 2009 email.[73][74][75]

Later, while campaigning for president, Hillary called for a crackdown on for-profit companies but was criticized for her association with Laureate.[76]

See also

References

  1. https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/14/africa/libya-migrant-auctions/index.html
  2. Memorandum of Understanding and associated documents, December 18, 2008.
  3. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-clinton-donations-idUSKBN0MF2FQ20150319
  4. Gowdy: Hillary Clinton Wiped Server Between October & December 2014, On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, FOX News, 30 March 2015.
  5. How Hillary Clinton's email scandal took root, Robert O'Harrow Jr., Washington Post, 27 March 2016.
  6. Has Hillary Really Helped the World’s Women?, By Valerie Hudson and Patricia Leidl, Poliico, March 17, 2015. politico.com
  7. AFP (February 22, 2009). "Clinton wraps Asia trip by asking China to buy US debt". Reprinted at War and Peace website.
  8. Total Nonfarm Payrolls of All Employees in the United States stood at 133,977,000 in January of 2009; by January of 2013 when Clinton left office the number stood at 135,293,000, an increase of 1,316,000 jobs, or a cost of $3.4 million per job. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
  9. Hillary Clinton: Chinese human rights secondary to economic survival, Richard Spencer, London Telegraph, 20 Feb 2009.
  10. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/world/europe/29envoy.html
  11. Charity watchdog: Clinton Foundation a ‘slush fund’, Isabel Vincent, New York Post, 26 April 2015
  12. Board of Directors | Clinton Foundation, www.clintonfoundation.org
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  16. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/us/cash-flowed-to-clinton-foundation-as-russians-pressed-for-control-of-uranium-company.html?_r=0
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  38. Jake Sullivan b. 1976. Sullivan, who was 35 years old at the time is presumably one of the "35-year-old PhDs who love to talk, because that's the way you let everybody know how smart you are, is how much you talk." Sec. Hagel continues, "[Obama] has a staff around him that's very inexperienced. I don't think there's one veteran on his senior staff at the White House. I don't believe there's one business person. I don't believe there's one person who's ever run anything. Other than Vice President Biden, none of them have ever been elected to anything." Sec. Gates criticized "staffers calling senior commanders out in the field and asking them questions, of second guessing commanders...I told my combatant commanders and field commanders … if you get calls from … the president, that's one thing. But if you get a call from some White House or National Security Council staffer, you tell them to call me instead, and then tell them, by the way, go to hell." Hagel also criticized Susan Rice's approach and subservience to Obama. https://youtu.be/GPPx83VoLyY
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  61. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named DalaiLama
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