Middle East studies in the News

The Clintons Have Some 'Splainin' to Do [incl. John Esposito]

by Hugh Fitzgerald
Jihad Watch
January 21, 2008

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/019657.php

http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/4710

Should the Saudi monarchy be permitted to purchase an important equity position in some of America's leading banks? How can Hillary be objective when the very same monarchy donated $10 million to the Clinton Library and Foundation?

Should the UAE be allowed in? How can Hillary decide fairly when Bill — and therefore herself — have been getting a reported $10 million per year from a fund that administers the investments of the Emir of Dubai, the largest component state in the UAE?...

Neither Dubai nor Saudi Arabia would be permitted to contribute to Hillary's campaign. Foreigners are not allowed to do so, precisely to avoid having potential office holders compromised by gratitude for their financial support. But these nations have used the porous ethics of the Clinton family to acquire positions of massive influence by making contributions, not to her campaign, but to her personal bank account — either through Bill or through the Library and Foundation, which the Clintons directly control. The extent of the influence their millions must buy with a family only recently, according to Hillary, in the "middle class" must be huge. -- from this op-ed by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann

The insensate greed of Bill Clinton -- the amounts he has taken in, for himself and for his favorite 501(c)(3) "charities," the ones that always seem to have his name attached -- continues to amaze and disgust. Simply look at the sums he has taken in, from those lecture fees. Look at his friends (all of whom now seem to be billionaires, or at the very least millionaires), since leaving his time devoted to "public service." And apparently he thinks this has gone unobserved, or that if he keeps smiling through, it will all be forgiven.

Why should it?

If Hillary is now the direct, as well as the indirect recipient (through Bill, her husband, he of the book but not of the practice, of "Giving") of so much Arab and Muslim largesse, then financial records have to be released. Contrary to the expressed desires of Bill Clinton, his wife has no Divine Right to be the Democratic candidate, no Divine Right to anything at all.

The receipt of Arab, especially Saudi, money is, however, not confined to this or that candidate. It is a general problem. The American corporations that went to bat for the Saudis during the great AWACS fight (led by United Technologies, with its planes, and Whitney Corporation, which at the time had large hospital contracts with Saudi Arabia) are emblematic of American businessmen who have contracts dangled before them. Of course, it was the constituent oil companies of ARAMCO that for decades worked to present propaganda for Saudi Arabia, depicting the fanatical "kingdom" as a true "ally" of America. Then there are the journalists, the teachers (who have chairs, or as in the case of John Esposito at Georgetown, whole fiefdoms endowed by the Saudis and other Arabs). And there are the former diplomats to the Arab countries who, through all kinds of fake, loyal-sounding facades (Council for the National Interest, that sort of thing) have received Saudi cash. There are the fixers -- that is, the fred-duttons, raymond-closes, james-akinses, and all the others who have battened on Saudi and other Arab money, and who have had disastrous effects in the two most important policy areas: first, they have successfully prevented people in our government from studying, and understanding, the meaning and menace of Jihad, of Islam, and consequently of formulating policies, above all in Western Europe, that would be based on a recognition of that meaning and menace. And they have also successfully prevented, for decades, the development of an intelligent energy policy that would be focused on diminishing the use, in this country and all over the world, of fossil fuels, in order to diminish the Money Weapon of Islam.

These two enormous failures are the direct result of the buying up, in Washington and elsewhere, by Arab money, of too many people, many of them who were all the while thinking or claiming or pretending they "cannot be bought." But they can. And they have been.

Hillary Clinton must release their tax records, and indeed, all the other evidence of the tens of millions that the Clintons have managed, since Bill left office, to so graspingly and single-mindedly acquire. She, and her husband, have some 'splaining to do.

Note: Articles listed under "Middle East studies in the News" provide information on current developments concerning Middle East studies on North American campuses. These reports do not necessarily reflect the views of Campus Watch and do not necessarily correspond to Campus Watch's critique.

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