Clinton, demanding transparency fails to disclose chief campaign strategists tie to UAE wealth funds

During Tuesday night's Democratic presidential debate, Hillary Clinton renewed her call for "aggressive" measures to reign in sovereign wealth funds, the investment funds owned by oil-producing states like the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. She said she was "very concerned" about the multi-trillion dollar funds which are now buying substantial shares of American enterprises such as Citigroup and Merill Lynch.

Clinton, who first raised this issue six weeks ago, said the funds "need to be more transparent," adding "we need to have a lot more control over what they do and how they do it."

Despite Clinton's tough talk about transparency, she failed to disclose that her chief campaign strategist has close business connections with sovereign wealth funds owned by Abu Dhabi and Dubai, two small -- but oil-rich -- emirates located on the Persian Gulf coast.

The Clinton strategist, Mark Penn, is worldwide CEO of Burson-Marsteller, one of the most powerful lobbying and public relations firms in the world.

Burson-Marsteller represents sovereign wealth funds in at least two emirates
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http://www.jedreport.com/2008/01/hillary-clinton.html

And then on top of this, she uses registered federal lobbyists as surrogates. Hillary is bought and paid for.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/leveymg/320

If you need an illustration of oil money in American politics, consider this. The biggest contributor to Hillary Rodham Clinton is the Saudi Royal family.

More precisely, the Saudis wield political influence in America primarily through the companies they purchase. Look at NewsCorp and Citicorp, both of which have gobbled their way to market dominance in media and financial services after Kingdom Holding Company and Prince Alwaleed took a controlling interest. The Saudis also have a major interest in Time Warner and Disney, which owns the ABC network. These companies are also among the largest contributors to HRC's campaign war chest. See, http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/all...


HILLARY CLINTON: CAREER PROFILE (SINCE 2000)
Top Contributors
1 Citigroup Inc $322,460
2 Goldman Sachs $279,640
3 Time Warner $222,290
4 JP Morgan Chase & Co $174,075
5 Metropolitan Life $167,600
6 Credit Suisse Group $163,150
7 Skadden, Arps et al $162,680
8 Corning Inc $156,250
9 Morgan Stanley $148,960
10 Cablevision Systems $141,650
11 Viacom Inc $139,435
12 International Profit Assoc $129,400
13 Ernst & Young $128,700
14 Kirkland & Ellis $119,850
15 Kushner Companies $119,000
16 New York Life Insurance $110,250
17 Walt Disney Co $105,965
18 Patton Boggs $101,638
19 Sullivan & Cromwell $94,350
20 News Corp $94,125



***

for comparison. And realize that he's been in national politics for a shorter time. Can't really say that Obama isn't beholden to financial services based on the same data.

BARACK OBAMA: CAREER PROFILE (SINCE 1989)
Top Contributors

1 Goldman Sachs $430,578
2 UBS AG $286,480
3 JP Morgan Chase & Co $274,359
4 Exelon Corp $269,100
5 Kirkland & Ellis $256,089
6 University of Chicago $252,556
7 Lehman Brothers $248,190
8 Sidley Austin LLP $243,025
9 National Amusements Inc $224,950
10 Citigroup Inc $209,437
11 Skadden, Arps et al $206,166
12 Jenner & Block $186,629
13 Harvard University $184,600
14 Citadel Investment Group $168,900
15 Mayer Brown $168,056
16 Time Warner $162,218
17 Jones Day $158,400
18 University of California $137,272
19 Morgan Stanley $127,675
20 Credit Suisse Group $125,950

Percent of Contributions Coded:

:shrug:

shares in the Carlyle Group.

Hil's a shill.