Gates' charity, Saudis donate to Clinton; '09 a mystery

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Bill Clinton's charity released a donor list Friday under an agreement with President Obama to prevent conflicts with Hillary Rodham Clinton's role as secretary of state, but it failed to identify who gave in 2009, her first year in the Cabinet post.

The donor list disclosed by the William J. Clinton Foundation did show that conservative Richard Scaife, who bankrolled anti-Clinton investigations in the 1990s, pitched in money. Also, Saudi Arabia and Norway each donated in the range of $10 million to $25 million to the former president's charity. Several other foreign governments, including Kuwait, also participated. The biggest donors included the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which gave more than $25 million.

The contributors also included troubled insurance giant American International Group, banking industry fixture Citigroup, Inc. and entertain Barbra Streisand's foundation.

Clinton foundation spokesman Matt McKenna said that the Saudi government didn't send money to the foundation in 2009. He said the list doesn't single out those who contributed since Mrs. Clinton became secretary of state early last year, but rather identifies donors who have given over a period of years. Many of the names among the thousands on the list also appeared on the first list the Clintons released in December 2008, and there was no way to discern whether these donors also gave last year.

McKenna said later Friday that the foundation would put out a new list shortly identifying those who gave in 2009.

McKenna said that Friday's initial disclosure, nevertheless, complied with the memorandum of understanding the Clintons reached when Hillary Rodham Clinton took the secretary of state post.

The Clintons agreed to annually disclose the names of donors to the former president's foundation to address concerns about potential conflicts of interest between his fundraising abroad and his wife's role in helping to direct Obama administration foreign policy.

"I am deeply grateful to the many generous contributors who made it possible for my foundation to accomplish so much in 2009, including increasing the number of people on lifesaving HIV/AIDS treatment, helping cities reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, and inspiring millions of children to lead healthier lives," Bill Clinton said in a written statement.

The William J. Clinton Foundation works in the United States and around the world on such issues as health care, particularly HIV/AIDS; climate change; and economic development. It also runs the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, which includes Clinton's presidential library.

In addition to failing to say which donors gave in 2009, the foundation didn't identify individual contributors' employers, nationalities or any other details. It gave only ranges rather than precise donations, and didn't provide a fundraising total. It did say that more than 90% of the gifts it received last year were in donations of $250 or less.

An eye-catching name is Scaife, who financed investigations of Clinton by American Spectator magazine and backed other conservative groups that heaped criticism on the former president while he was in office.

Scaife contributed between $250,001 and $500,000. McKenna confirmed the donor listed as Richard Scaife was the same person.

As first lady, Mrs. Clinton called the activities of Scaife and others part of "a vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president."

James Carville, Clinton's former campaign aide, once called Scaife "the archconservative godfather in (a) heavily funded war against the president."

The list shows that those giving the biggest money to the group over the years included many longtime Clinton friends and political supporters: prominent Democratic fundraisers, overseas businessmen and foreign governments including Saudi Arabia.

In addition to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates' foundation, Canadian mining tycoon and Radcliffe Foundation chief executive Frank Giustra, the Children's Investment Fund Foundation and UNITAID each gave more than $25 million.

Bill Clinton joined Giustra on a 2005 trip to Kazakhstan; within days after the pair met with Kazakhstan's president, Giustra's business lined up preliminary deals giving it rights to buy into uranium projects controlled by a Kazakhstan state-owned enterprise. Bill Clinton has said he had nothing to do with that.

In UNITAID's case, almost all of the money simply passed through the foundation to buy commodities, the foundation said.

Besides Norway and Saudi Arabia, those giving $10 million to $25 million included AUSAID, the Australian government's overseas aid program; longtime Democratic Party donors and fundraisers Stephen Bing and Fred Eychaner; and COPRESIDA, a Dominican Republic government agency formed to fight AIDS, whose donation passed through the foundation for commodity procurement.

Among the contributors of $5 million to $10 million were the Netherlands' Nationale Postcode Loterij, Irish Aid, the Elton John AIDS Foundation, the Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative — Canada, and prolific Democratic donor Haim Saban and his family's foundation.

American International Group, the insurance giant bailed out by the U.S. government, gave $250,001 to $500,000 to the foundation, the list showed.

Several foreign governments gave $1 million to $5 million: Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Brunei Darussalam, the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office.

Other donors in that range included the Dubai Foundation; Swedish Postcode Lottery; Friends of Saudi Arabia; energy company Entergy; Streisand's foundation; Citi Foundation, the charity of the Citigroup banking and financial services company; Ethiopian-Saudi business tycoon Sheikh Mohammed H. Al-Amoudi; Saudi businessman Nasser Al-Rashid; international oil, gas and mining businessman Lukas Lundin; international steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal; and international wind power company Suzlon Energy Ltd., which has operations in at least 21 countries; Coca-Cola Co., and the Wal-Mart Foundation.

The Clintons were under no legal obligation to identify foundation donors. Presidents typically do not disclose the names of those who give to their foundations, even when the givers include foreign governments. Former President George W. Bush hasn't said who is contributing to construction of his presidential library in Texas, for example.

In addition to providing a foundation donor list, the Clintons agreed that new donations from foreign governments would be examined by government ethics officers. An Obama spokesman said at the time that the agreement would meet the incoming president's transparency promise and help to avoid potential conflicts of interest.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2010-01...on-donors_N.htm

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Is this what we call "the usual suspects?"