The media hasn't dug up too much of what Bill Clinton has been up to in the private sphere since leaving office 7 years ago. Please spare us the embarrassing tales of marital infidelity, I used to think. Now, I'm wishing it had only been just that.
The New York Times, which has endorsed Senator Clinton mind you, today published details surrounding an international humanitarian trip that former President Clinton took in 2005, during which he made a stop in Kazakhstan where he was partially involved in an unusual business deal.
The article may seem complicated but the storyline couldn't be simpler:
The Trip
Late on Sept. 6, 2005, a private plane carrying the Canadian mining financier Frank Giustra touched down in Almaty.... Accompanying Mr. Giustra on his luxuriously appointed MD-87 jet that day was a former president of the United States, Bill Clinton.
The Meeting
Upon landing on the first stop of a three-country philanthropic tour, the two men were whisked off to share a sumptuous midnight banquet with Kazakhstan’s president, Nursultan A. Nazarbayev, whose 19-year stranglehold on the country has all but quashed political dissent.
The Delivery
Within 48 hours of Mr. Clinton’s departure from Almaty on Sept. 7, Mr. Giustra got his deal. UrAsia signed two memorandums of understanding that paved the way for the company to become partners with Kazatomprom in three mines.
The Payment
Just months after the Kazakh pact was finalized, Mr. Clinton’s charitable foundation received its own windfall: a $31.3 million donation from Mr. Giustra that had remained a secret until he acknowledged it last month.... combined with Mr. Giustra’s more recent and public pledge to give the William J. Clinton Foundation an additional $100 million.
Still, it doesn't take much of an imagination to see someone in Mr. Clinton's position doing all of this. As a former U.S. President with extensive international connections, he enjoys a global stature that can easily be used to influence all sorts of dealings - particularly those involving the business of his friends.
No, there's actually a real plot twist...
The Back Stab
Mr. Nazarbayev walked away from the table with a propaganda coup, after Mr. Clinton expressed enthusiastic support for the Kazakh leader’s bid to head an international organization that monitors elections and supports democracy. Mr. Clinton’s public declaration undercut both American foreign policy and sharp criticism of Kazakhstan’s poor human rights record by, among others, Mr. Clinton’s wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.
Bill Clinton sucked up to the President of Kazakhstan at the expense of his country and his own wife.
The End.