Tuesday, October 02, 2007

POLITICS


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CLINTON STONEWALLS ON WHO DONATED TO HIS LIBRARY

WASH POST - Bill Clinton is showing no inclination to disclose the names
of the people whose sizable donations helped construct his $165 million
presidential library. . . Clinton Library officials and his personal
spokesman did not return repeated calls, but NBC News caught up with the
former president in New York yesterday, where he was hosting a news
conference about his Global Initiative.
"If she becomes president, I will treat it as if we are covered by that,
and I will disclose all the donors to our library and activities," he
told the network. But that will not apply to those who have already
donated, he said.
"For the people that have already given me money, I don't think I should
disclose it unless there is some conflict of which I am aware, and there
is not."

What little is known about the financing of the Clinton Library was
reported in the New York Sun. The reporter found the donor names on a
touch-screen computer mounted on a wall on the third floor of the
library, shortly after it opened in 2004. The computer was removed soon
after the article appeared. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette followed with
a more complete list the next year.

Among the names that surfaced were a range of foreign donors, including
the Saudi royal family, Kuwait, Brunei and the Embassy of Qatar.
Foreigners are not permitted to make campaign donations, but there are
no rules in place about who can give to a presidential library.

There were several figures who have factored into stories about the
Clintons' fundraising. For instance, Patricia Hotung, the wife of Hong
Kong businessman Eric Hotung, was a library donor. In 1997, they were
also in the news because Patricia Hotung donated $100,000 to the
Democratic National Committee shortly after her husband was granted a
meeting with Clinton's top national security advisors.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/
2007/09/27/AR2007092702291.html?nav=rss_print/asection



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