Clinton Library Sells Secret Donor List

[illinoisprogressive]

Three years after the William J. Clinton Presidential Library opened its doors, the list of donors who helped the former president build his $165 million complex remains a secret from the public.

Yet the Blotter on ABCNews.com has learned that the Clinton Foundation sold portions of the list through a data company headed by a longtime friend and donor.

"The fact that they've sold the list and then turned around and said that these names must be kept anonymous completely undercuts their argument," said Sheila Krumholz of the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington, D.C.-based government watchdog group that tracks the influence of money in politics.

An employee of Walter Karl, a subsidiary of the data company InfoUSA, told ABCNews.com that the company made a list of more than 38,000 donors to the Clinton presidential library available for sale to foundations and other nonprofit groups from June 2006 to May 2007. A spokesman for the company would not say how the profits from the sale of the partial list were distributed.


snip-

The former foundation chairman Skip Rutherford says that when the foundation started soliciting funds, it adopted the policy of the Reagan library to leave disclosure up to donors.

"People were told that we would not disclose their gifts," said Rutherford. "Disclosure was up to the donor; if the donors chose to do so, it was their prerogative. Some did; others didn't."

The George Bush Presidential Library and Museum voluntarily disclosed a list of donors giving more than $10,000 at its opening, with the exception of a "few" who asked to remain anonymous, according to the library's executive director Dr. Roman Popadiuk.

Rutherford, who left the Clinton Foundation in May of 2006, said he did not know about the list being sold by InfoUSA, but doubted that any of the top donors names would have been on the InfoUSA list.

"Most of those lists are people who have given $100 or $200 or less," he said.

The little that is known about the identities of the donors to the Clinton library was reported by the New York Sun in 2004, after a reporter discovered the names on a touch-screen computer on the third floor of the library after its opening.

Members of the Saudi royal family, Arab businessmen, the governments of Dubai, Kuwait, Qatar, Brunei and Taiwan, and Hollywood celebrities, were among the 57 individuals or foundations who gave $1 million or more to the library, according to the Sun.

The computer with the list of donors was disconnected after the Sun article ran. At the time, Clinton officials said that a permanent list of donors contributing $100,000 or more would eventually be installed on a wall at the library.


http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/11/clinton-library.html?cid=90531300#comments

[blm]

1. House of Saud and DubaiDollars and BCCI and Jackson Stephens and WalMart and China.

Yep - they have their reasons.

How many folks here know that Jackson Stephens and Marc Rich were both named figures in BCCI and that all the outstanding matters in BCCI were swept under the oval office rug throughout the 90s?

Poppy Bush must be so proud of his adopted son.

[EV_Ares]

4. Wonder if Rupert gave any money to them for their library? eom.

David Swanson reports in OpEdNews.com that

From Newshounds article on the fundraiser held for her:

http://www.newshounds.us/2006/07/18/the_murdoch_fundraiser_for_hillary_clinton_under_the_radar.php


"On Monday, July 17, 2006, at Fox News headquarters in New York City, Rupert Murdoch hosted a fundraiser breakfast for Hillary Clinton. Then he rushed off to a fundraiser lunch for John McCain, and Hillary rushed off to announce her unqualified support for Israel's and Bush's war policies.


Here's a one-sentence paragraph about Murdoch's Breakfast for Hillary as buried at the very end of a New York Times story on Tuesday: "At a separate event yesterday, Mrs. Clinton also won support from another onetime critic-turned-ally, Rupert Murdoch, the owner of The New York Post, who was the host of a political fund-raiser for her in New York City."

This will no doubt have implications for Clinton's further political ambitions, as some of her former supporters consider her to be sleeping with the enemy (figuratively speaking, of course).

[IndianaGreen]

11. add the Ryadi brothers to the mix

No wonder the Bushes and Clintons are personal friends.

[madrchsod]

13. i always figured old man bush liked clinton

because he thought clinton would have been a better son than george jr. plus clinton took the heat for bush`s fuck up in somalia and solved the balkan problem bush did`t have time for...

[The Backlash Cometh]

16. Why is Hillary even running?

This is just despicable.

[neutron]

22. because we need a good leader

after 8 years of hell

[blm]

28. Because BushInc still needs protection the way they got on the 90s

Secrecy and privilege needs continuous protection.

[The Backlash Cometh]

29. Hillary is going to hamstring herself.

As president, she must look into the abuses of the past 8 years in order to convince the right-winger voters that their trust was betrayed, so that they then could accept her leadership and we get a chance by putting us all on the same page. But she's not going to do that. Instead, she's going to validate their dirty-trick, no holds bar style of political ideology, by allowing them to leave unscathed and keep their networks and beliefs intact.

[ClarkUSA]

2. What hasn't Hillaryworld done that isn't up for sale to the highest bidder?

Democrats need a change from Clintonian politics as usual. That's why Obama leads now
in Iowa as both first AND second choice with 55%.

[razorman]

8. I agree. A dramatic change in the way the country is run is needed.

Do you realize that if HRC wins and gets two terms, the US will have been led by either a Bush or a Clinton for 28 years? Dynasties suck.

[ClarkUSA]

12. Then there's Jeb Bush waiting in the wings in 2016.

It's totally un-American. Fortunately, it looks as if Iowans may be smarter than the rest of the nation
with regard to their top choice for President.

[razorman]

14. Don't forget the Bush nephew in Florida, George P. Bush.

The Next Generation.

[ClarkUSA]

17. Isn't he the one with the sodomy (in a parking lot) charge?

He's being groomed to be Bush IV, no doubt, but he's such a non-charismatic dweeb. Bloodlines
tend to thin out after the third generation (of course, if his daddy becomes president, it's a whole
new ballgame).

[razorman]

21. I never heard about that charge. I do remember the press fawning

over him, though. They talked about how charming he was campaigning for his uncle. They particularly loved the fact that he is half-Hispanic. Haven't heard much about him, since, though.

[ClarkUSA]

24. Just checked. That was George P.'s younger brother. George P. is a stalker w/ a police report..

Jeb's youngest son in Texas booze, resisting arrest bust
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0916052bush1.html

George P. was as charming as his uncle in his youth, it seems:

On December 31, 1994, Bush showed up at 4 AM at the Miami home of a former girlfriend. He proceeded to break into the house
via the woman's bedroom window, and then began arguing with his ex's father. Bush, then a Rice University student, soon fled the
scene. But he returned 20 minutes later to drive his Ford Explorer across the home's front lawn, leaving wide swaths of burned grass i
n his wake. Young Bush avoided arrest when the victims declined to press charges.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/georgep1.html

And we won't go into their sister.

Don't worry, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Then we'll burn it.

lol

[razorman]

25. Good grief. Is this sort of thing a prerequisite to reach

the highest levels of politics in this country? The Bushes, Kennedys, Clintons, etc. Just once,I'd like to see a political family with no scandals attached to it. Too much to hope for, I guess.

[ClarkUSA]

26. No, it isn't too much to hope for that we can avoid having sociopaths become POTUS.

Obama is a case in the making. Iowans want what we both want, evidently.

Read this and take heart:

"Obama leads among all likely caucus-goers with 30%, compared with Clinton at 26% and Edwards at 22%. Obama
also leads among those who are "certain to attend" the January 3rd caucus, those who have previously caucused,
and those who are planning to caucus for the first time."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/11/19/172320/16

[illinoisprogressive]

3. blm, thanks for reminding me. couldn't put BCCI to the name...

[blm]

5. The same Dubai moneymen who Bush was handing our ports to a couple years ago

also started BCCI - the biggest terrorist bank network in the world. Jackson Stephens was a key figure, as well as AQ Khan and his network.

Not that Poppy Bush and Bill Clinton saw anything wrong with that.

[MannyGoldstein]

6. Well Knock Me Over With A Feather!

It can't be true. Just can't be.

[MonkeyFunk]

7. Non-profits always sell mailing lists....

it's not scandalous.

[w4rma]

32. No. Non-profits do not *always* sell mailing lists. In fact, I worked for one that did not. (nt)

[MonkeyFunk]

33. I didn't mean

that every single non-profit sells their mailing list.

I meant that every day, a non-profit somewhere sells a mailing list. It's a very common thing to do. And it's not scandalous.

[JDPriestly]

9. So Hillary is running for president, and they are keeping the

names of the donors to her husband's library secret. What? I don't like that at all.

[razorman]

10. Apparently, they are not keeping them secret if you buy them.

[LiberalFighter]

20. They can still be kept secret if they sell the list

The way the list is sold does not necessarily reveal the names. At best the buyer will know only the names of those responding to the mailing.

A mailing list can be sold without the buyer having access to the list. How? The buyer provides the name and address of the company doing the mailing and the seller sends the data to the company. It might be possible to encrypt or password protect the data so it can't be copied. And only usable from the source. In addition, an signed agreement might be required prohibiting other use.

[blm]

30. I doubt the really big donors are on the list for sale.

Especially not during Hillary's PRIMARY race.

[Catherine Vincent]

15. Your concern is duly noted. nt

[earth mom]

18. So where are all those DU Clinton lovers now?

Ah yes, nowhere to be found because they won't admit there is anything wrong here. Yeah, nothing to see here, move along. :puke:

[MethuenProgressive]

19. Bill Clinton isn't running for President. When will the GOP and DU's HillHaters learn that?

From the OP:

a permanent list of donors contributing $100,000 or more would eventually be installed on a wall at the library.

from the OP's link:

There is no legal requirement for presidential libraries to disclose the identities of their contributors. Donors, including corporations and foreign governments, can give unlimited amounts while the president is still sitting in office.

Wow!! That's HUGH!!!1!!!!
:sarcasm:

[gateley]

23. K&R - thanks! nt

[saracat]

27. This really bothers me both that they would first say it was secret and then sell it!

And I don't give a rats ass if everyone else is doing it.I find their making money by selling those names disgusting! And they apparently want to protect the identity of the "major donor" more than the donors of $100 and less.those were available.This is why i no longer like the Clintons, not only is this duplicitous but as usual, contempt for the little people. How much money is enough for these people and at what cost to others?

[w4rma]

31. So *maybe* big donors were protected from having their info sold, but the small donors were not.(nt)

[blm]

34. Want to bet the BIG donors also show up on Poppy Bush's list?

.