So now we learn that a Russian company has gained control of one-fifth of the uranium production capacity in the United States. And we may have Bill and Hillary Clinton to thank for it.
Even more surprising, it isn’t some right-wing news source, such as Breitbart.com or Fox News, that is making headlines with these allegations. No, it is none other than the voice of the liberal establishment, the New York Times.
Jo Becker, a Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter for the Times, coauthored a major piece in the Times a week ago under the headline, “Cash Flowed to Clinton Foundation Amid Russian Uranium Deal.” The article explained how Rosatom, the Russian atomic energy agency, gained control of the U.S. properties. How Bill Clinton helped grease the skids for the deal. And how Hillary Clinton’s State Department signed off on it.
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It all began back in 2005, when Bill Clinton and his buddy Frank Giustra, a Canadian mining financier, flew to Kazakhstan. While Clinton publicly embraced Kazakh’s authoritarian president, Nursultan A. Nazarbayev, Giustra worked behind the scenes to get control of three uranium mining concessions. That was the beginning of the company that would eventually become Uranium One.
The company began an aggressive program of acquiring assets in Asia, Australia, and ultimately, the United States. When it was acquired by Rosatom in January 2013, the Russian website Pravda announced the news under the headline, “Russian Nuclear Energy Conquers the World.”
Turns out the Russians didn’t forget about the former American president who helped bring this all about. As Jo Becker put it in her New York Times story, “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.”
It’s nice work if you can get it. And while his wife served as Secretary of State, Bill Clinton got a lot of it. In fact, during the four years his wife held that office, Bill made over a dozen speeches where his honorarium ranged from $500,000 to $750,000. Obviously, it wasn’t what he said that was worth so much to his sponsors; it was the contacts and access he made possible.
This sort of influence peddling has reportedly helped the Clintons reap more than $135 million since they left the White House. Although Hillary says the couple were “dead broke” when they left the White House, they certainly aren’t now.
But the money they have pocketed personally is chicken feed compared to the contributions their charities have received. Those donations are approaching $2 billion. Yes, that’s billion with a “b.” A new book titled Clinton Cash by investigative reporter Peter Schweizer, which will be released next month, is making headlines with its details and speculations about how the foundation became so rich and powerful.
Thus far, neither Bill nor Hillary has been willing to answer reporters’ questions about the growing controversy. The only Clinton who has been willing to meet the press is daughter Chelsea. That ain’t going to work.
Hillary’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, is even using the controversy to raise funds. He sent supporters an email urging them to “show you’ve got Hillary’s back” by increasing their financial support. Podesta denounced Schweizer as “a former Republican operative with ties to a Koch-funded organization … [who] uses allegations and conspiracy theories to stitch together a false narrative about Hillary without producing a single shred of evidence.”
Sorry, John, but even your normal liberal allies, such as the Washington Post and the New York Times, are finding a whole bunch of shreds here. More and more of the public realizes that the Clintons’ money manipulations stink to high heaven. And the demand for answers, not accusations, is just going to get louder.
Is the liberal establishment getting ready to abandon Hillary as the anointed one? When the New York Times has a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer raising embarrassing questions, like Jo Becker has with the uranium story, you’ve got to wonder.
Stay tuned. This thing is becoming a tsunami of embarrassment for Hillary and it’s not going to go away. Frankly, I’m beginning to wonder if Hillary can survive it.
Until next time, keep some powder dry.
Chip Wood was the first news editor of The Review of the News and also wrote for American Opinion, our two predecessor publications. He is now the geopolitical editor of Personal Liberty Digest. This article first appeared on PersonalLiberty.com and has been reprinted with permission.
