left arrow BackNext right arrow
< BACK TO Fresh Intelligence

The Clinton, the Uranium, and the Messy Canadian Pal

clintonfresh.jpg
MINING OUR BUSINESS Bill (Photo: Getty Images)
This morning's New York Times comes with a big ol' story about Bill Clinton and one of his favorite foundation donors, Frank Giustra, and their travels to Kazakhstan, where Giustra bought up uranium rights while Clinton soothed the local crazy president. It looks super-juicy—juicy enough that America's First Blogger™ Matt Drudge gave it a teaser last night before publication. But in the light of day, no one's quite sure: Is this a scandal? Let's look!

• September 2005: The duo goes to Kazakhstan (which may or may not be the new Iceland for partying playboys, we think!) in Giustra's plane. They are wined and dined by president/oligarch Nursultan "Nursey" Nazarbayev. (Scandal level: Oh, like this doesn't happen every day?)

• Two days later, Giustra gets the rights—from the state-run uranium shop!—to buy into local uranium concerns. (Scandal level: That's business, boys.)

• Giustra gives the Clinton Foundation an unannounced $31.3 million shortly thereafter; $100 million follows. (Scandal level: Newly rich friends are prone to disbursing cash.)

• Everyone involved says Bill Clinton had nothing to do with the uranium deal. Except the president of the government's uranium company, who says Clinton totally did discuss it with President Nursey. (Scandal level: Mmm, Bill Clinton talks about lots of stuff. But, not good.)

• The Kazakh trip was arranged "hastily" as a "private visit"; the Times lets it go unsaid that this may be because Giustra was all, "Please come to a crazy part of the world and sweet-talk the local crazy chieftain for me." (Scandal level: Inconclusive.)

• Clinton told the Kazakh prez that he hoped the country would succeed in its bid to lead the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe—which nobody else wants to happen, particularly Clinton's wife. (Scandal level: Wacky.)

• Early last year, the head of the state uranium company comes over to the Clinton house in Chappaqua for some advice. That's fine. Then Clinton and Giustra say that meeting never happened. (Scandal level: WTF.)

• Giustra is forced to be like, "That escaped my memory!" And aides are forced to say that the attendees of the meeting weren't in Clinton's Trapper Keeper/Day-Timer/whatever he keeps track of stuff in. (Scandal level: Good grief. Amateur hour.)

There are just enough red flags here to make this look like something. Clinton's office by now should know that when reporters come around asking questions, they should maybe provide the right information on the first request. If there were no later-disproved denials here ("I did not talk mining with that oligarch!"), no one would bat an eyelash. Instead, everyone looks shady.

As a scandal, will this stick? Eh. Though a wee campaign smear op by the Barack Obama campaign—say, a flood of letters to editors and anonymous blog comments around the Internets—could help to bring a little tarnish to Clinton. And while conservative bloggers are already trumpeting this as sleazy—well, how exactly do they think foundations procure bundles of millions anyway? Friends: They help friends.

Comments

But where was Borat during all of this?

Posted by: twitter on January 31, 2008 10:25 AM

(nudge, nudge) Don't tell my ol' lady I was here, 'kay? She thinks I'm out drumming up relief funds for tsunami victims. Now, which way to them Russian supermodels I've been hearing so much about?

Posted by: hotsauce on January 31, 2008 2:59 PM

Advertisement


Post a comment

Your comment will not be visible for about a minute. If you don't see your comment when the page reloads, do not post it again. Reload the page in a minute, and you'll see it.

 


Bonnie Fuller Resigns Post At American Media

Obligatory Tony Award Post

Bloggers Split on Whether to Police Themselves

The 'Hills' Girls Respond to Audrina's Budding Stardom

A Clip of Olbermann Showing a Clip of O'Reilly

Obama-Curious George Tee an Instant Cobb County Classic

Rep. Vito Fossella (R-NY) Is Living Above His Sister's Garage

Spencer Pratt Offers His Expertise On Male Group Dynamics As Regards West Coast Club Admittance

R. Kelly Sex Trial: Prosecution Deliberately Avoiding Black Jurists?

Last Night's Gossip Girl: OMFG It's Boring


EXECUTIVE EDITOR:


EDITED BY:
, with

CONTRIBUTORS:
, , and others


Email us at:
tips@radaronline.com
or IM: TipRadar







Homosexual Agenda
Gayest Person Ever? Author Joel Derfner wants the title

Full Court Press
Frank Rich leads this week's list of Winners and Sinners

Bad Tattoos
From Dr. Phil to gay unicorns, the new book No Regrets looks at the worst tattoos on the planet

Unfinished Business
Everything you need to know about the R. Kelly sex trial

But Is It Obscene?
"Shock art" director Ira Isaacs is about to go on trial for obscenity





Bush the Third
You've been warned

A younger Bill O'Reilly gets angry
But did he ever have it?

Sloane Crosley's book told with finger puppets
A publicist gets some puppeteering publicity

A friend's cancer is good for your health: study
Promising new findings

Scientology Recruitment Video
They almost had us there for a minute!