Tag: Mrs. Clinton

Hillary’s Henchwoman, Huma Abedin, Worked for a Private Company While Still Working in the State Department

On By kingsjesterIn Politics2 Comments

th3R7PWM5TThe revelations concerning all of the corrupt and questionable activities of Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and her aide and confidante Huma Abedin (Mrs. Anthony Weiner) continue to reveal just how amoral and unethical they really are.

And, it boggles the mind.

The Washington Times reported yesterday that

While still working at the State Department, Hillary Rodham Clinton confidant Huma Abedin was paid by the private consulting firm Teneo Holdings to help stage a star-studded reception that included her boss’ husband, Bill Clinton, along with George W. Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair as speakers just days after the Benghazi tragedy, The Washington Times has learned.

Ms. Abedin’s work on the Sept. 20, 2012, event at the glamorous Essex House in New York City, helped entertain potential Teneo clients, wowing them with access to three former world leaders on a

It was one of the specific projects she worked on with Teneo during a seven-month period in which she earned a $15,000-a-month consulting fee from the firm while simultaneously receiving pay as a “special government employee” advising Mrs. Clinton at the State Department, according to interviews and documents.

Ms. Abedin, the wife of former Rep. Anthony D. Weiner of New York, worked as a full-time government employee and deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Clinton from 2009 through mid-2012. She then moved to New York and transitioned to a part-time employee at State after giving birth to her first child and seeing her husband resign his congressional seat because of a sexting scandal.

The special government employee status at the State Department allowed Ms. Abedin to simultaneously take on other consulting work, as with Teneo and the Clinton Foundation, where she assessed the charity’s ongoing programs to pave the way for Mrs. Clinton’s return there after she left the State Department in early 2013.

In all, Ms. Abedin was paid about $105,000 over seven months to advise Teneo in New York from summer 2012 to early 2013, according to a person familiar with the arrangement. During the same time, she collected $126,239.80 in pay as a special government employee at the State Department, according to internal department records identifying her pay and leave that were obtained by The Times.

The specific nature of Ms. Abedin’s duties at Teneo has been shrouded in mystery and has become the subject of State Department and congressional inquiries looking into whether the work arrangements were proper or created any conflicts of interest.

Several sources agreed to describe Ms. Abedin’s work for Teneo on the New York event and her subsequent work at the State Department for a Teneo-connected event in Ireland four months later in December, solely on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigations.

“Huma’s role for the New York event was on behalf of Teneo, while her work for the Ireland event was clearly on behalf of the State Department. But the firm, the Clintons and Huma were intertwined, and that makes it hard to separate when looking back in hindsight,” one person directly familiar with the circumstances said.

Added another source: “Teneo didn’t need Huma to get Bill Clinton or the other luminaries to the event, but she was hired to help make the event successful in terms of who attended and what they experienced.”

Teneo officials did not respond to calls seeking comment. Teneo, based in New York, employed Mr. Clinton as a consultant for about a year when it started, along with several other people from the Clinton circle. Mr. Clinton, who commands up to $700,000 per speech, did not charge Teneo for his appearance at the New York event, according to financial disclosure statements released by his wife.

Ms. Abedin’s attorney, Miguel Rodriguez, declined to comment publicly for this article. But he has steadfastly insisted that Ms. Abedin did nothing wrong in working for Teneo, the State Department and the Clinton Foundation at the same time, noting that government officials formally approved the arrangement.

Can you say, “Conflict of Interest”, boys and girls? I knew that you could.

Back on August 27th, The Washington Post reported that

As Hillary Rodham Clinton was preparing for her farewell international trip as secretary of state, her close aide and confidante Huma Abedin e-mailed a small number of longtime political allies to help arrange an intimate get-together at a private club in Dublin.

“Maybe we can all gather for drinks/dinner and HRC can come join for as long as she can?” Abedin wrote.

The December 2012 event showcased the unique position that Abedin occupied at the apex of the Clintons’ public and private worlds during the final six months of Hillary Clinton’s tenure heading the State Department.

At the time, Abedin held four jobs with four different organizations — an arrangement allowed by a special government designation she held permitting outside employment. And each job had a connection to the Dublin dinner.

The invitation was sent from Abedin’s State Department account as Clinton planned for an official trip in her role as secretary. The dinner itself was attended by the chief executive of the private consulting firm Teneo, which has close ties to the Clintons and employed Abedin as an adviser. Seated around the tables were donors to Clinton’s campaigns as well as to the Clinton Foundation, where Abedin was a contractor preparing for Clinton’s eventual transition to the charity. And Clinton, who was also paying Abedin out of personal funds to prepare for Clinton’s transition into private life, showed up for about an hour.

New interviews and documents, including the e-mails about the Ireland dinner, provide additional details about some of Abedin’s activities during those months and how her overlapping roles make it difficult to determine when she was working for the public and when her work was benefiting a private interest. Abedin’s work during that time is now becoming a central element in several controversies dogging Clinton’s presidential campaign.

There are several pertinent…and disturbing things, concerning the background of Ms. Abedin.

According to discoverthenetworks.org,

Huma Abedin was born in 1976 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Her father, Syed Abedin (1928-1993), was an Indian-born scholar who had worked as a visiting professor at Saudi Arabia’s King Abdulaziz University in the early Seventies.

[She is]

Daughter of Saleha Mahmood Abedin, a pro-Sharia sociologist with ties to numerous Islamist organizations including the Muslim Brotherhood
Longtime assistant to Hillary Clinton
Wife of former congressman Anthony Weiner
Longtime former employee of the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs, which shares the Muslim Brotherhood’s goal of establishing Islamic supremacy and Sharia Law worldwide.
…From 1997 until sometime before early 1999, Abedin, while still interning at the White House, was an executive board member of George Washington University’s (GWU) Muslim Students Association (MSA), heading the organization’s “Social Committee.”

It is noteworthy that in 2001-02, soon after Abedin left that executive board, the chaplain and “spritual guide” of GWU’s MSA was Anwar al-Awlaki, the al Qaeda operative who ministered to some of the men who were among the 9/11 hijackers. Another chaplain at GWU’s MSA (from at least October 1999 through April 2002) was Mohamed Omeish, who headed the International Islamic Relief Organization, which has been tied to the funding of al Qaeda. Omeish’s brother, Esam, headed the Muslim American Society, the Muslim Brotherhood’s quasi-official branch in the United States. Both Omeish brothers were closely associated with Abdurahman Alamoudi, who would later be convicted and incarcerated on terrorism charges.

From 1996-2008, Abedin was employed by the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs (IMMA) as the assistant editor of its in-house publication, the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs (JMMA). At least the first seven of those years overlapped with the al Qaeda-affiliated Abdullah Omar Naseef’s active presence at IMMA. Abedin’s last six years at the Institute (2002-2008) were spent as a JMMA editorial board member; for one of those years, 2003, Naseef and Abedin served together on that board.

Abedin went on maternity leave after giving birth to a baby boy in early December 2011. When she returned to work in June 2012, the State Department granted her an arrangement that allowed her to do outside consulting work as a “special government employee,” even as she remained a top advisor in the Department. Abedin did not disclose on her financial report either the arrangement or the$135,000 she earned from it, in violation of a law mandating that public officials disclose significant sources of income. Abedin’s outside clients included the U.S. State Department, Hillary Clinton, the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation, and Teneo (a firm co-founded by Doug Band, a former counselor for Bill Clinton). Good-government groups warned of the potential conflict-of-interest inherent in an arangement where a government employee maintains private clients.

In June 2012, five Republican lawmakers (most prominently, Michele Bachmann) sent letters to the inspectors general at the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and State, asking that they investigate whether the Muslim Brotherhood was gaining undue influence over U.S. government officials. One letter, noting that Huma Abedin’s position with Hillary Clinton “affords her routine access to the secretary [of state] and to policymaking,” expressed concern over the fact that Abedin “has three family members—her late father, mother and her brother—connected to Muslim Brotherhood operatives and/or organizations.” Some other prominent Republicans such as John McCain and John Boehner disavowed the concerns articulated in the letters.

On February 1, 2013—Hillary Clinton’s final day as Secretary of State—Abedinresigned her post as Mrs. Clinton’s deputy chief of staff. Yet she would continue to serve as a close aide to Clinton.

On March 1, 2013, Abedin was tapped to run Clinton’s post-State Department transition team, comprised of a six-person “transition office” located in Washington.

Huma Abedin’s brother, Hassan Abedin, has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and is currently an associate editor with the JMMA. Hassan was once a fellow at the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies, at a time when the Center’s board included such Brotherhood-affiliated figures as Yusuf al-Qaradawi and Abdullah Omar Naseef.

Huma’s sister, Heba Abedin (formerly known as “Heba A. Khaled”), is an assistant editor with JMMA, where she served alongside Huma prior to the latter’s departure.

Speaking straight from the heart, as an American citizen, I was offended, in the first place, that someone with direct ties to our sworn enemies, the Muslim Brotherhood, had access to the highest level of Top Secret Information contained in our State Department.

And, the thing is, she not only had access through her job as Assistant to Secretary of State Clinton, she also had access to government information through pillow talk with her husband, then-Congressman and “Professional Sexter” Anthony Weiner.

Mrs. Clinton, as shown by her complete disdain for the American People and the laws which govern us, is unfit to hold public office.

The old axiom is true. We ARE judged by the company that we keep…and Hillary is no exception.

The fact that the Former Secretary of State continues to hold close to her, as her confidante, a unscrupulous young woman, who leveraged her taxpayer-funded State Department Position for monetary gain from a private company, while still in the employ of the upper echelon of the United States Government, while, at the same time having familial ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, shows how dangerous and untrustworthy that Hillary Clinton truly is.

She needs to “suspend her campaign”…now.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Hillary’s Foreign Donations More Massive Than Previously Reported

On By kingsjesterIn PoliticsLeave a comment

BBerry-Grandma-NRD-6002Well, it appears that Hillary Clinton’s Campaign Coffers have been filled to the brim, not by American Citizens, but by Foreign Powers.

The New York Times reports that

The book does not hit shelves until May 5, but already the Republican Rand Paul has called its findings “big news” that will “shock people” and make voters “question” the candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich,” by Peter Schweizer — a 186-page investigation of donations made to the Clinton Foundation by foreign entities — is proving the most anticipated and feared book of a presidential cycle still in its infancy.

The book, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, asserts that foreign entities who made payments to the Clinton Foundation and to Mr. Clinton through high speaking fees received favors from Mrs. Clinton’s State Department in return.

“We will see a pattern of financial transactions involving the Clintons that occurred contemporaneous with favorable U.S. policy decisions benefiting those providing the funds,” Mr. Schweizer writes.

His examples include a free-trade agreement in Colombia that benefited a major foundation donor’s natural resource investments in the South American nation, development projects in the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake in 2010, and more than $1 million in payments to Mr. Clinton by a Canadian bank and major shareholder in the Keystone XL oil pipeline around the time the project was being debated in the State Department.

In the long lead up to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign announcement, aides proved adept in swatting down critical books as conservative propaganda, including Edward Klein’s “Blood Feud,” about tensions between the Clintons and the Obamas, and Daniel Halper’s “Clinton Inc.: The Audacious Rebuilding of a Political Machine.”

But “Clinton Cash” is potentially more unsettling, both because of its focused reporting and because major news organizations are expected to pursue the story lines found in the book.

Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have been briefed about the book’s findings, which have already made their way into several of the Republican presidential candidates’ campaigns.

Conservative “super PACs” plan to seize on “Clinton Cash,” and a pro-Democrat super PAC has already assembled a dossier on Mr. Schweizer, a speechwriting consultant to former President George W. Bush and a fellow at the conservative Hoover Institute, to make the case that he has a bias against Mrs. Clinton.

And the newly assembled Clinton campaign team is planning a full-court press to diminish the book as yet another conservative hit job.

Mr. Schweizer and a spokeswoman for HarperCollins, which is owned by News Corporation and is publishing the book, declined to comment.

The timing is problematic for Mrs. Clinton as she begins a campaign to position herself as a “champion for everyday Americans.”

From 2001 to 2012, the Clintons’ income was at least $136.5 million, Mr. Schweizer writes, using a figure previously reported in The Washington Post. “During Hillary’s years of public service, the Clintons have conducted or facilitated hundreds of large transactions” with foreign governments, he writes. “Some of these transactions have put millions in their own pockets.”

The Clinton Foundation has come under scrutiny for accepting foreign donations while Mrs. Clinton served as secretary of state. Last week, the foundation revised its policy to allow donations from countries like Germany, Canada, the Netherlands and Britain but prohibit giving by other nations in the Middle East.

Hil and Bubba have not exactly been selective as to whom they have accepted donations to their Foundation from, according to discoverthenetworks.org:

In 2002 the government of Brunei gave between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation, to help finance the construction of the Clinton Presidential Library in Arkansas.

* As of December 2008, the Clinton Foundation had received between $1 million and $5 million from Issam Fares, an entrepreneur and philanthropist who once served as deputy prime minister of Lebanon. In the United States, Fares is best known as the CEO of the Wedge Foundation, a Houston-based investment firm. But in his native Lebanon, he is better known as an outspoken supporter of Hezbollah and an apologist for the Syrian dictatorship’s previous military occupation of his country:In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Fares insisted that “it is a mistake to make a comparison between the al-Qaeda network” and Hezbollah. The latter was actually a “resistance party fighting the Israeli occupation,” Fares said, explaining that “Hezbollah did not carry out any resistance operation against American interests in Lebanon or abroad and did not target civilians in its resistance activities as happened on Sept. 11 at the World Trade Center.”

…As of December 2008, the Clinton Foundation had received between $1 million and $5 million from the Dubai Foundation (DF), which was headed by Dubai’s Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. Previously, DF had donated at least 1 million United Arab Emirate (UAE) dirhams (approximately $270,000 U.S.) to “the families of the Palestinian martyrs”—that is, Palestinian terrorists killed in action. And in November of 2006, the sheikh sponsored a concert by Lebanese songstress Julia Bourtos in honor of “Lebanese Martyrs” in Hezbollah.

Also as of December 2008, the Clinton Foundation had received between $1 million and $5 million from the royal family of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who served as president of the United Arab Emirates from 1971-2004. In 1999, this same family established the (now-defunct) Zayed Center for Coordination and Follow-Up, which became a notorious platform for anti-Semites, Holocaust deniers, and supporters of terrorism.

* Another of the Clinton Foundation’s leading donors is the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which, as of 2008, had contributed between $10 million and $25 million to the Foundation.

In addition to direct contributions from the Saudi government, the Clinton Foundation had also received between $1 million and $5 million from the pro-Saudi advocacy group, Friends of Saudi Arabia (FSA). Launched in 2005 and supported by the Saudi royal family, this group acts as a kind of public-relations agency, protesting what it views as the U.S. media’s unfair portrayal of the Saudi nation. Prior the release of the 2007 film The Kingdom, for example, FSA executive director Michael Saba wrote a letter to the chairman of Universal Studios expressing his concern “that the movie might present negative stereotypes about the people of Saudi Arabia.” Notably, Saba himself is an anti-Israel zealot and conspiracy theorist. His 1984 book, The Armageddon Network, alleges widespread Israeli espionage at the highest levels of the U.S. government, complete with a Justice Department cover-up. In 2004 he claimed—on the basis of no evidence whatsoever—that Israeli interrogators had played a role in the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2003.

* In 2013, Rilin Enterprises—a privately-held Chinese construction and trade conglomerate headed by the Chinese parliament delegate Wang Wenliang—pledged $2 million to the Clinton Foundation’s endowment. According to CBS News: “Public records show the firm has spent $1.4 million since 2012, lobbying Congress and the State Department. The firm owns a strategic port along the border with North Korea and was also one of the contractors that built the Chinese embassy in Washington. That contract is a direct tie to the Chinese government, according to Jim Mann, who has written several books on China’s relationship with the U.S.”

* In 2014 the government of Germany—as a first-time donor—gave the Clinton Foundation between $100,000 and $250,000.

* In 2014 the government of the United Arab Emirates—also a first-time donor—gave the Foundation between $1 million and $5 million.

* In 2013-14 the government of Australia gave the Foundation several million dollars.

* In 2014 a Qatari government committee gave the Foundation between $250,000 and $500,000. Previously, Qatar’s government had donated between $1 million and $5 million to the Foundation.

While all of these donations from foreign sources raise a host of ethical red flags, contributions that were made during Hillary Clinton’s tenure (2009-13) as Secretary of State (SOS) may be even more significant, given the possibility that such funds could be used to buy immediate political influence. During that period, the Clinton Foundation received millions of dollars in donations from seven foreign governments: Australia, Norway, the Dominican Republic, Algeria, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar (the latter of which spent more than $5.3 million on registered lobbyists while Clinton was SOS).

The government of Saudi Arabia suspended its contributions to the Foundation during Mrs. Clinton’s years as SOS, and then resumed its giving after she stepped down in 2013.

…In January 2009, the Washington Times reported that a secret party had paid an excessive sum for stock donated to the Clinton Foundation:

“Former President Bill Clinton’s foundation, despite identifying more than 200,000 of its donors in recent weeks, will not say who paid it windfall prices for stock in a struggling Internet firm with links to the Chinese government…. Mrs. Clinton’s office and the foundation have declined to answer questions about a lucrative 2006 stock transaction, details of which were reported by The Washington Times in March 2008.

“The Accoona Corp. donated between $250,001 and $500,000 to [the Clinton Foundation] after [Mr. Clinton] spoke at the company’s launch in New York in 2004, according to donor information released by the foundation in December. The foundation sold its Accoona stock for $700,000 two years later, according to the charity’s tax return for 2006.

“Despite what the tax return suggests, Accoona struggled mightily to turn a profit. In 2007, Accoona filed a prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission reporting more than $60 million in losses during three years. In the same prospectus, it listed the China Daily Information Corp., a subsidiary of China Daily, the official English-language newspaper of the Chinese government, as an official partner and 6.9 percent owner of the company…. While the Clinton Foundation voluntarily disclosed the original donation of the stock, it still is unwilling to say who was willing to pay so much for its holdings in the struggling company.”

When Hil accepted the Cabinet Position as Obama’s first Secretary of State, the Clinton Foundation “decided to limit contributions from foreign countries”.

Uh huh. Suuure, they did.

Back on April 26, 2010, in a blog I posted, titled, “Obama’s Money Motivations”, I reported that

…Obama has numerous donors who have contributed well over the $4,600 federal election limit.

Many of these donors have never been contacted by the Obama campaign to refund the excess amounts to them.

And more than 37,000 Obama donations appear to be conversions of foreign currency.

According to a Newsmax analysis of the Obama campaign data before the latest figures were released, potential foreign currency donations could range anywhere from $12.8 million to a stunning $63 million in all. With the addition of $150 million raised in September, this amount could be much more.

Talk about your “tangled web”…

From my computer desk down here in Dixie, it appears that the entire premise of “Smart Power” Foreign Policy, in which the Obama Administration has alientated our friends and embraced our enemies, grew out of the generosity of Hillary and Obama’s mutual campaign donators, those “not-so-anonymous” benefactors in the Middle East who donated to both their campaigns.

Additionally. in a possibly related story, there are now big gaps in the timeline of the e-mails which Hillary’s staff has turned over for review.

Hmmm…

I wonder if any of those missing e-mails originated in Saudi Arabia, Oman…or…maybe…Iran?

Keep your popcorn handy, boys and girls.

This is only the beginning. 

Until He Comes,

KJ