© Zazzle
On the heels of damning WikiLeaks revelations, the
Clinton Foundation has confirmed allegations that it received a $1 million 'gift' from Qatar without telling the State Department, breaking a signed agreement requiring it to reveal all foreign donations.The payment, which was
first revealed in an email exchange with Clinton's campaign manager John Podesta a month ago, has just been officially confirmed by the Foundation.
The check was reportedly a gift to former President Bill Clinton in 2011 for his 65h birthday. A meeting was to take place between him and Qatari officials at some point, according to an email published last month. It is not clear if this ever took place, however.
Earlier in 2009, when Clinton became Secretary of State, she had to sign
an agreement to prevent any conflicts of interest which stipulated that her influential global foundation could not receive any support from foreign sources without her notifying the State Department, according to Reuters. This was
intended to ensure transparency and combat public perception that US foreign policy could be dictated by foreign money. The agreement was also designed to give the
State Department time to examine donations and raise any concerns in cases when a foreign entity wanted to "increase materially" the funding for any of the Foundation's programs.
However,
Clinton kept the $1 million check from Qatar a secret. While Foundation officials
declined to confirm its existence last month, with just days to go before the election, the daily WikiLeaks revelations, and the FBI's relaunched investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server gaining momentum, its spokesman,
Brian Cookstra, finally admitted to receiving the money, though he
insisted that the sum did not qualify as a "material increase" in Qatari support of the foundation. When Cookstra was asked by Reuters what the Foundation considered an increase in funding, he refused to specify, only saying that the Qatar donations were intended for "overall humanitarian work." For additional comments, Reuters tried to contact the Qatari embassy, the Clinton presidential campaign and Bill Clinton personally, but received no response from any.
Although Cookstra said the sum did not constitute an increase in funding,
there is evidence of at least eight other countries besides Qatar whose donations can clearly be construed as an 'increase in funding.' This includes the
UK, which tripled the sum slated for the Foundation's health project to $11.2 million in the years 2009-2012.
Comment: US government resources would be better spent investigating the Clinton apparatus in falsifying the election results...closer to home, far more accessible, an economical and savvy expend of time and resources with a much bigger return on investment.