Can someone explain the importance of getting donor names of Bill Clinton's library?

[closeupready]

Bradley said on Meet The Press that Bill has refused to reveal the names of donors who have given him over $500,000,000 for his libary. (Is that huge number correct??? Wow.)

1) How would donating give donors political benefits, given that Bill is no longer president?

2) Is it more than just a library? Can he use the money for personal expenses? I guess I don't understand why he needs $500,000,000 for a library.

Can someone help me out - thanks.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. 1) His wife is a Senator.

2)Quid pro quo.

[The River]

2. You Have To Ask?

Those donors were betting that the Clintons would win
and that they would have bought a lot of inside influence.
He would be the Co-President right? 2 for 1?

It was a bad bet.

[Evergreen Emerald]

3. because they want to distort and twist and lie

and make mountains out of mole-hills in an attempt to smear the Senator. So much for the politics of hope.

[babylonsister]

4. It makes me wonder what he's hiding; if it's not important, he should

release them. And should his spouse become prez, I'd like to know what financial connections there might be, and to who.

[Vinca]

5. It would be nice to know if some of those large donors received

special favors. Pardons, perhaps. If there's no funny business, what's the problem with releasing the names? Do you want to find out after Hill's the nominee that Mark Rich bought his pardon or some other scandal that will make her fatally flawed?

[blm]

6. Ever wonder WHY the BCCI report and its many serious matters were deep-sixed in the 90s

leading directly to the emergence of Bush2, 9-11, Iraq war, and our future war with Iran?

Who was protected from accountability over BCCI's many illegal operations?

GHWBush - the man who oversaw BCCI's illegal operations for years for his global financier cronies.

Jackson Stephens - the man who brought BCCI into this country for GHWBush and who also happened to have bankrolled the Clintons' political careers and even underwrote Bill's primary campaign in 92.

Dubai and Saudi royals - Dubai royals STAKED a major share of BCCI. Bill advocated for Dubai to get the ports deal and recently banked 20 million dollars from Yucaipa who received the money from the same Dubai royals protected from BCCI accountability in the 90s.

Marc Rich - Another figure named in GHWBush's IranContra and BCCI operations.


Looks to me like some of these major figures protected throughout the 90s by Bill Clinton also donated millions to his library and foundation in the last 8 years.

Do you think there should be no examination of what was done for who and when and why?

You think this nation benefitted in any way from the deep-sixing of BCCI matters?

[closeupready]

14. Just as I suspected.

Would it be paranoid of me to suggest that the Saudis have bought them off?

[blm]

16. Saudis are definitely part of it, with Dubai the more aggressive in the payoffs.

.

[KittyWampus]

22. BLM, just shorten it all to "Bill pimps himself and his ex-presidency out".

[SoCalDem]

7. a donation could be "used" for her campaign and not reported

since it's technically not a "campaign donation".. that would be my guess..

and it's a way for super-rich donors (perhaps foreign) to circumvent the donor limit..

[City Lights]

8. Here's how the Chi-Trib put it:

Bill Clinton has declined to disclose the donors to either his foundation or his presidential library, which makes it hard to know if wealthy individuals may be trying to curry favor with the woman who may be president -- and if so, who they are.

They're also interested in donations to the Clinton Foundation:

Disclosure might shed light on Bill Clinton's dealings with the likes of Canadian mining magnate Frank Giustra -- whom the former president accompanied on a 2005 trip to Kazakhstan. Giustra landed a major uranium mining deal on the trip, and not long after made a secret $31 million donation to Clinton's charitable foundation.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/chi-0316edit2mar16,0,1138530.story

[tabasco]

9. The donations began when B. Clinton was still President.

But some have called for that law to change, so the public has access to more information about individuals, companies, and foreign governments that may seek to influence policy through their donations. Recent presidents, including Clinton and Bush, have begun raising money for their libraries while still in office.

The issue of contributions to the Clinton library has gotten fresh attention in recent weeks with the widening scandal surrounding disgraced Clinton fund-raiser Norman Hsu. Hsu has given widely to the Clintons and their causes; he raised $850,000 for Sen. Clinton’s campaign, and gave $30,000 to the Clinton Global Initiative.

...

Among the entities who have been reported to have given more than $1 million toward the presidentical center: the governments of Dubai, Kuwait, and Qatar; the Saudi royal family; a deputy prime minister of Lebanon; filmmakers Steven Spielberg, Stephen Bing, and David Geffen; Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart heir Alice Walton; the Anheuser-Busch Foundation; and Vin Gupta, chairman and CEO of infoUSA Inc., a telemarketing firm that has come under scrutiny for its handling of private information.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2007/09/clinton-libary-.html

Saudis, Arabs Funneled Millions to President Clinton's Library

http://www.nysun.com/article/5137

Clinton Library Got Funds From Abroad

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/14/AR2007121402124_pf.html

Feds Subpoena Clinton Library Donor Records

Congressional investigators have issued subpoenas to the Clinton Library Foundation in connection with possible wrongdoing involving the former president's 11th-hour pardon of Marc Rich. Rich's former wife, Denise, allegedly donated as much as $450,000 to the Library Foundation as well as $1.1 million to the Democratic Party and $109,000 to Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign for the New York Senate seat.

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA157387.html


Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has made an issue of the large yet unidentified contributors to presidential libraries, saying that he wants to avoid even the appearance of impropriety in such donations. Obama has introduced legislation that would require disclosure of all contributions to presidential libraries, including Clinton's, and Congress has actively debated such a proposal. Unlike campaign donations, money given to presidential libraries is often done with limited or no disclosure.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/14/AR2007121402124_pf.html

[closeupready]

13. Ah, thanks. I did not know that donations could be made during his administration.

Very interesting.

[slinkerwink]

10. it ties back to what he's done since the donations for the donors

As in, "Is he being bought to make deals for foreign nations like the Kazahstan deal?"

[barack the house]

11. Maybe Randi Rhodes can...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3qOi_l1RGY

[krawhitham]

12. So you know who the Clinton's owe favors too

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

20. I can't believe this has to be explained!

[thevoiceofreason]

15. Let's see:

1. Is there any relationship between library donors and earmarks requested by Sen. Clinton?

2. Is there a tie between library donors and and business associates of Bill Clinton. If so, trace it further to see if employees of these business associates are lined up and maxed out as HRC campaign donors?

3. Determine whether there is a relationship between library donors and those sponsoring 527 organizations attacking Obama.

Just a few off the top of my head.

[blm]

17. IMO, it goes back further. The 90s saw a lot of these $ource$ protected and

the foundation laid for them to come back even stronger with their global agenda overseen by BushInc.

[closeupready]

26. Ah, the answer to question #1 must be why should is holding back from releasing

all this information.

[oviedodem]

18. When you get $10 mil from the Saudis, I need to know that and whomever else b/c

that kind of money has favors written into it by default. Answer this:

Would you give $500,000+ money to someone without a wink and a nod?

NO business would sorry.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

19. Can you say "PAYOFFS"?!

[KittyWampus]

21. Bill has been pimping himself out, using his presidency to enrich himself, foreign nationals

and really unsavory characters no United States president should EVER have anything to do with.

[blm]

25. It's likely he's getting paid NOW for actions taken to protect these $ource$ for BushInc in the 90s.

And has been since 2001.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

23. If Bill can get millions for influence w/o a LIVE WH connexn, how many BILLIONS

could he get for peddling influence over a spouse who controlled all the levers of actual Presidential power?

And suppose gasoline is approaching $5 a gallon in October. How would it look if it came out that Saudis ALREADY had given him tens of millions?

[anonymous171]

24. According to HRC supporters it is important that all slime about our candidates is revealed

In the primaries as to avoid any surprises in the GE.