Reader’s links for April 29 – 2015

This post has all its contents in the comments. For the newest freshest videos and news stories of interest to the Counter-Jihad and the Geopolitics of Islam, please click comments and add to, or read what is posted there.

Some will be integrated into the day’s posts and others not. But this way we can keep a great news flow going without interfering with the conversations about the issues under the various essays and news items in the posts that will be presented throughout the day.

Thank you all for your informative and important contributions.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

49 Replies to “Reader’s links for April 29 – 2015”

  1. Clinton Foundation Failed to Disclose 1,100 Foreign Donations

    The co-founder of the Clinton Foundation’s Canadian affiliate is revealing new details about the charity’s donors in an effort to counter allegations in the New York Times and the new book “Clinton Cash.”

    Hillary Clinton’s presidential run is prompting new scrutiny of the Clintons’ financial and charitable affairs—something that’s already proved problematic for the Democratic frontrunner, given how closely these two worlds overlap. Last week, the New York Times examined Bill Clinton’s relationship with a Canadian mining financier, Frank Giustra, who has donated millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation and sits on its board. Clinton, the story suggests, helped Giustra’s company secure a lucrative uranium-mining deal in Kazakhstan and in return received “a flow of cash” to the Clinton Foundation, including previously undisclosed donations from the company’s chairman totaling $2.35 million.

    Giustra strenuously objects to how he was portrayed. “It’s frustrating,” he says. And because the donations came in through the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership (CGEP)—a Canadian affiliate of the Clinton Foundation he established with the former president—he feels doubly implicated by the insinuation of a dark alliance.

    more on the page :

    http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-04-29/clinton-foundation-failed-to-disclose-1-100-foreign-donations

    • Well Duh, Bill took donations from China while he was President so why should Hillary be different.

  2. Syria – graduation ceremony – full version ( 20 min 10 )

    google translation of the Arabic text on the youtube page :

    In the largest military parade witnessed Syrian Revolution, more than 1,700 fighters in the eastern Ghouta graduated from jihadi preparation course seventeenth to the Army of Islam. And included a military parade armor military exercises to the Army of Islam, and a review of the different skills of the near and close combat, by fighting units and special units Alangmasien. The graduation ceremony was attended by the Commander in Chief of the Eastern Ghouta and the commander of the Army of Islam, Sheikh Zahran Aloush, also attended by a number of scientists and leaders of the blessed land of Fustat.

    • For those who don’t know much about farming manure is a good natural fertilizer produced by all animals, the spreaders crush and disperse the manure you have put into a wagon. If you are going to use one I advise wearing some type of breathing mask.

  3. UK – Students Publicly Humiliated by School Because Parents Refused Permission for Mosque Visit

    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/04/29/students-publicly-humiliated-by-school-because-parents-refused-permission-for-mosque-visit/

    DAILY MAIL – Parents ban their children from joining primary school religious education trip to a local mosque amid fears they would ‘be shot’

    – 10 pupils pull out of trip to mosque after parents express ‘grave concerns’
    – One parent expressed fears of child being exposed to ‘violence and guns’
    – Lostwithiel School in Cornwall planned RE trip to Exeter mosque next week
    – However, other parents backed trip to promote education of various faiths

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3060664/Parents-ban-children-joining-primary-school-religious-education-trip-mosque-safety-fears.html

  4. SAUDI ARABIA – Newly appointed Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir

    Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz announced Wednesday a royal decree replacing his successor and half-brother, Prince Moqren Bin Abdulaziz, with his nephew, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef, and appointed his son Mohamed Bin Salman as Nayef’s deputy crown prince.

    The major reshuffling also replaced veteran Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, 75, with 53-year-old US-educated Ambassador Adel Al-Jubeir.

    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/128962/World/Region/PROFILE-Newly-appointed-Saudi-Foreign-Minister-Ade.aspx

    Saudi king names new heir to throne in govt shakeup

    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/128926/World/Region/Saudi-king-names-new-heir-to-throne-in-govt-shakeu.aspx

  5. EGYPT – 71 receive life sentences for torching Egyptian church

    An Egyptian court on Wednesday sentenced 71 people to life in prison over the torching of a church in Giza, shortly after the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

    A life sentence means 25 years in jail, according to the penal code.

    Two more received ten-year jail terms in highly secured facilities in the latest in a series of mass sentences passed over the past year and a half.

    The defendants can still appeal against the verdict. They faced multiple charges, which included fomenting chaos, torching the church and preventing local residents from putting out the fire.

    They were also charged with possessing bladed weapons and ammunition, as well as blocking roads, resisting authorities and belonging to an illegal group.

    The five-floor Kafr Hakim church in the working class district of Kerdasa was subject to the arson attack on 14 August 2013. A number of halls and facilities in the building were damaged.

    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/128959/Egypt/Politics-/-receive-life-sentences-for-torching-Egyptian-chur.aspx

  6. Scant evidence prisons are terrorist breeding grounds: federal research

    OTTAWA – Federal prisons are not the hotbeds of radical extremism some make them out to be, according to research by the Correctional Service of Canada.

    And compared to other inmates, radicalized offenders are more likely to have moderate-to-high potential for rejoining society.

    The preliminary findings emerge from an ongoing, multi-year collaboration between the prison service and Defence Research and Development Canada aimed at developing a solid basis to assess and manage jailed extremists.

    The Canadian Press used the Access to Information Act to obtain a 2014 summary of a series of academic studies undertaken by the Correctional Service’s research branch. Internal notes suggest the presentation, Radicalized Offenders, was prepared for the deputy ministers’ committee on national security.

    “Though concern over the spread of violent ideologies has been expressed, this concern is supported by limited qualitative, anecdotal evidence,” says the presentation.

    “Researchers have concluded that many of those who adopt extremist Islamist ideologies during incarceration often disregard these beliefs upon release.”

    However, the presentation adds, there is a need for a greater understanding of just how susceptible inmates are to being radicalized behind bars.

    One of the gunmen in the bloody attack on Paris-based satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo last January had come under the sway of a convicted terrorist while in prison — the sort of incident that has fuelled concern about the spread of radical ideas in jail.

    As of this month, there were 19 offenders in Canadian federal prisons who had at least one affiliation with an extremist or terrorist organization, including racial extremists, the Correctional Service says. Of these, nine had been convicted of at least one terrorism-related offence.

    Researchers found that compared to other inmates, radicalized offenders are less likely to be Canadian citizens and more likely to belong to a visible minority group.

    They are also younger, better educated, more likely to have a history of stable employment and less likely to have had previous tangles with the criminal justice system. Radicalized offenders also have fewer mental health issues and problems with substance abuse.

    Overall, they are more likely “to be assessed as having moderate-high reintegration potential,” the presentation says.

    A review of the research literature identified several factors that might make someone vulnerable to being radicalized, including poor support at home, a history of family violence, negative attitudes towards conventional society and a tendency to lodge grievances.

    Though more research is needed, focus group discussions with staff working in prisons and the community identified two distinct groups of susceptible offenders.

    The first type were socially unattached, unskilled and likely to be recruited to carry out a group’s mundane “dirty work.” The second kind were socially connected, educated and recruited for their skills and abilities.

    “Staff expressed concerns that recruitment of susceptible offenders could increase the size of the radicalized offender population and create management challenges,” the presentation says.

    Internal notes say the Correctional Service doesn’t have specific programs for radicalized offenders.

    In response to questions, a prison service spokeswoman said the agency continues to review the most effective practices for managing such inmates.

    The agency tailors existing practices to each offender as part of the inmate’s correctional plan, drawing on psychological and chaplaincy services as well as education and employment programs, she said.

    “A correctional plan is produced for each offender, which becomes the blueprint for their sentence and is used to measure their progress towards their correctional goals.”

    http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/scant-evidence-prisons-are-terrorist-breeding-grounds-federal-research-301657671.html

  7. Turkish politician: ‘Blonde girl’ Marie Harf should comment on Baltimore

    Melih Gokcek, the mayor of the Turkish capital, Ankara, since 1994 and a prominent figure in Turkey’s governing Justice and Development Party, has taken to Twitter to criticize the United States’ handling of protests in Baltimore.

    In a number of tweets published on Wednesday, Gokcek attempted to highlight what he saw as the hypocrisy shown by the U.S. government and media, who had been some of the most prominent critics of Turkey’s heavy-handed response to the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul during 2013.

    However, Gokcek appeared to take a more personal shot at Marie Harf, the deputy spokesperson for the State Department, labeling her as a “blonde girl” and demanding that she comment on Baltimore in two messages to his 2.4 million Twitter followers.

    The first tweet also included an image of Jen Psaki, a former State Department spokesperson, though it appeared to be addressed to Harf.

    In the second tweet, Gokcek used an image of a headline from pro-government news outlet Ensonhaber.com, which referred to Harf as “aptal sar???n” – or “dumb blonde.” The article argued that the U.S. State Department, the branch of the American government that deals with foreign affairs, had remained silent on the events in Baltimore.[…]

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/04/29/turkish-politician-blonde-girl-marie-harf-should-comment-on-baltimore/

    https://twitter.com/06melihgokcek

    • Why, she’s our very own Spokes-Bimbo!
      And she’ll move on with the next administration.

      Whereas he’s an MB tool-fool at best, and he’ll always be an idiot.

  8. Charlie Hebdo’s Luz quits Muhammad cartoons (BBC, Apr 29, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32520563

    “Charlie Hebdo cartoonist “Luz”, who designed the front page of the magazine that appeared after the Paris attacks, has said he will no longer draw the Prophet Muhammad.

    Renald Luzier has told French magazine Inrocks that drawing Muhammad “no longer interests me”.
    Twelve people were murdered when two Islamist gunmen burst into the Charlie Hebdo offices on 7 January.

    The attack prompted a wave of sympathy under the banner “Je suis Charlie”.

    Within days of the attack, the satirical magazine’s surviving staff produced a defiant edition with the headline “All is forgiven” above Luz’s cartoon showing the Prophet weeping, while holding a sign saying “I am Charlie”.

    Pictorial depictions of the founder of Islam are considered forbidden by most Muslims.

    Following the January attack, the magazine’s normal print run of 60,000 eventually climbed to eight million.

    “I’ve got tired of [drawing Muhammad], just like I got tired of drawing Sarkozy. I’m not going to spend my life drawing them,” Luz said in answer to a question about the famous January edition.

    Luz is about to release a book of cartoons entitled “Catharsis”, which he says in his interview was his way of expressing himself after the murder of his colleagues….”

  9. 3 Killed in Attack in Mali’s North (abcnews, Apr 29, 2015)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/killed-attack-malis-north-30677153

    “Gunmen in three cars attacked a town in Mali’s north on Wednesday, killing three people including the head of the national guard, a resident and an official said.

    The Coordination of Azawad Movements, a coalition of autonomy minded groups including ethnic Arabs and Tuaregs known by the French acronym CMA, said one of its members staged the attack.

    Hours later armed men from another coalition group also took over the town of Lere, said a CMA spokesman, Almouzamil Ag Mohamed. He blamed militias allied with the government for starting this latest round of violence with attacks on Monday that broke a cease-fire agreement, and said the coalition groups had a right to self-defense.

    Lere’s mayor confirmed the attacks.

    Mali’s government in a statement Wednesday condemned the attacks, saying the violence by the coalition is a “deliberate intent to collapse the peace process.”

    Gunmen entered the town of Goundam, 100 kilometers (62 miles) west of Timbuktu, on Wednesday and killed the head of the national guard, his deputy and a third person, said the resident who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

    A Mali government official said the third person killed was a girl. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to speak to the press.

    An increase in violence began in Mali’s north on Monday when a militia allied with the government took over a Tuareg town, Menaka. Fighting continued outside the town Tuesday, and armed separatist fighters fired upon U.N. peacekeeping vehicles near Timbuktu the same day.

    The fighting breaks a cease-fire reaffirmed in February, and could upset a peace accord signing on May 15….”

  10. Girls, Women Rescued From Boko Haram Need Psychological Care (abcnews, Apr 29, 2015)
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/military-evacuating-girls-women-rescued-boko-haram-30667722

    “Some of the nearly 300 girls and women freed by Nigeria’s military from the forest stronghold of Boko Haram were so transformed by their captivity that they opened fire on their rescuers, and experts said Wednesday they would need intensive psychological treatment.

    The military was flying in medical and intelligence teams to evaluate the former captives, many of whom were severely traumatized, said army spokesman Col. Sani Usman.

    He said earlier that none of the schoolgirls kidnapped from the northeastern town of Chibok a year ago appeared to be among the 200 girls and 93 women rescued Tuesday. But on Wednesday he said further screening was needed before their identities could be determined.

    “The processing is continuing, it involves a lot of things because most of them are traumatized and you have got to put them in a psychological frame of mind to extract information from them,” Usman said.

    A counselor who has treated other women freed from Boko Haram captivity said some had become indoctrinated into believing the group’s Islamic extremist ideology, while others had established strong emotional attachments to militants they had been forced to marry….”

  11. North American Turks protest at Armenian claims

    Turkish communities in Austria, Canada and the U.S. on Friday protested against Armenian “genocide” claims. In Vienna, Ottawa and Los Angeles, thousands of Turks held demonstrations to counter demands for the deaths of Armenians during World War I to be recognized as “genocide.”

    Der Standard newspaper reported that around 4,500 Turks gathered in Vienna to decry attempts to label the incidents of 1915 as “genocide,” a claim Turkey refutes. On Wednesday, the Austrian parliament recognized the “genocide,” leading Turkey to recall its ambassador.

    Austrian police arrested one person at the demonstration after objects were thrown between Turkish protesters and a group backing the Armenian claims. Three people were slightly injured.

    In Los Angeles, a Turkish counter-demonstration was held outside the Turkish consulate calling for an “end to lies.” The Los Angeles Times said around 30 Turkish demonstrators faced a 100,000-strong pro-Armenian protest. Around 200,000 Armenian-Americans live in southern California, the largest in the U.S.

    Around 1,000 Turks also gathered outside parliament in the Canadian capital of Ottawa.

    The 1915 events took place during World War I when a portion of the Armenian population living in the Ottoman Empire sided with the invading Russians and revolted.

    Turkey has called for the establishment of a joint commission of historians and the opening of archives to study and uncover what happened between the Ottoman Empire and its Armenian citizens.

    The relocation by the Ottomans of Armenians in eastern Anatolia following the revolts resulted in numerous casualties. Turkey does not dispute that there were casualties on both sides, but rejects the definition of “genocide.”

    http://www.turkishweekly.net/news/184382/north-american-turks-protest-at-armenian-claims.html
    =========================================================
    Vienna – Austria :Allahu akbar !

  12. Islamization of Canadian schools: Hamilton school board wastes your money to buy Hijabs for Muslims

  13. India cancels licences of thousands of aid groups (BBC, Apr 28, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-32493116

    “India has cancelled the registration of nearly 9,000 foreign-funded NGOs saying they have failed to comply with rules.

    The charities had not filed their annual tax returns for three years and had failed to explain the delay, a home ministry order said.

    In the last few months, India has taken a tough stance against aid groups.

    Last week, the Ford Foundation was put on a watch list and ordered to seek government permission before giving money to local organisations.

    And earlier this month, India froze the national bank accounts of Greenpeace, accusing it of violating the country’s tax laws and working against its economic interests by “stalling development projects”.

    In an order, the home ministry said notices were issued to thousands of non-governmental organisations in October last year.

    The groups were asked to furnish their tax details within a month, specifying the amount of foreign funds received, sources and the purpose for which they were received and how they were spent.

    The government said only 229 have replied to the notices and that it was cancelling the registration of 8,975 groups “with immediate effect”. Hundreds of other cases are still being reviewed.

    Analysts say Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is suspicious of foreign-funded aid organisations and a government intelligence report last year accused many activists of taking help from foreign countries to stall India’s economic growth.”

  14. UN peacekeepers repel rebel attack in Timbuktu (BBC, Apr 30, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-32525642

    “Swedish peacekeepers in Mali say they have repelled a rebel attack on Timbuktu twice in two days.

    Heavily armed rebels in trucks fitted with machine guns retreated north of the city on Wednesday, a Swedish commander told the BBC.

    Fighting has also intensified in other parts of the country in recent days.

    A pro-government militia said it had recaptured the eastern town of Menaka, while a coalition of Tuareg rebels claimed to have taken the town of Lere.

    The group, known as the Coordination of Movements for Azawad, made the claim on Twitter. It also said it was behind the murder of three people in a Malian military camp in Goundam early on Wednesday.

    Reports of the rebel offensives have worried civilians in Timbuktu, despite the presence of peacekeepers, the BBC’s Alex Duval Smith reports from Mali…..”

  15. Facebook Is Eating the Internet: The state of the media in 2015 begins and ends with the tech giant.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/04/facebook-is-eating-the-internet/391766/

    Facebook, it seems, is unstoppable. The social publishing site, just 11 years old, is now the dominant force in American media. It drives a quarter of all web traffic. In turn, Facebook sucks up a huge portion of ad revenue—the money that keeps news organizations running—and holds an enormous captive audience.

    We already know, from a Pew poll last year, that nearly half of the adults who use the Internet report getting their news from Facebook alone….

  16. Look at the numbers… 449 tools of ignorance…

    Migrant crisis: European Parliament calls for bolder action (BBC, Apr 29, 2015)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32516497

    “The European Parliament has adopted a resolution calling for the EU to take bolder action to deal with the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean.

    The resolution, which is non-binding and has no legal force, says all EU countries should be required to accept a certain number of asylum seekers.

    It comes after EU leaders held an emergency meeting last week.

    More than 750 people died as they tried to make the perilous crossing from Libya on 19 April.

    The resolution adopted on Wednesday asks the European Commission to establish “a binding quota for the distribution of asylum seekers amongst all Member States”.

    The issue is controversial. At a EU summit last week, no agreement was reached between EU countries on a common asylum system or quotas for northern European countries.

    The UK has said it would provide naval support, but would not accept more asylum seekers.

    A total of 449 MEPs voted in favour of the resolution, 130 voted against and there were 93 abstentions.

    It was supported by the two biggest groups in the parliament, the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) and the centre-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D).

    German MEP Martin Weber, who chairs the EPP, said southern countries such as Italy and Greece were bearing too much of the burden.

    “Only a handful of states deal with migrants,” he said. “We need a fairer system.”

    Italy’s Gianni Pittella from S&D said: “We are united in our approach. We want binding mechanisms for burden sharing for asylum seekers, because it’s unfair for a few states to take 80% of asylum seekers.”

    But Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) who also heads the Eurosceptic group Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD), said opening Europe’s doors to large numbers of people fleeing war-torn countries posed a “direct threat to our civilisation”.

    “We simply can’t accept countless millions. Already in countries like mine, 77% of the population say we cannot take immigration at current levels.””

    • ‘One possible explanation for these perverse policies that has been put forward by highly regarded scholars, such as Samuel Huntington, is that the current leadership of the EU is composed of left-wing authoritarians who are enemies of the Western liberal tradition. According to Huntington, “Multiculturalism is in its essence anti-European…” and opposes its civilization. The official repression of dissent and pursuance of unpopular policies by undemocratic means suggests that such ideologues wish to turn the EU into a centrally controlled empire similar to the Soviet Union. If that is the case, then their current policies make a good deal of sense, in that they flood the continent with people who have lived under autocratic regimes and never lived in democratic republics. Such people may well be willing to tolerate repressive regimes provided they can maintain a moderate standard of living and their own traditional religious practices. As Huntington points out, imperial regimes often promote ethnic conflict among their minority citizens to strengthen the power of the central authority, with the not unrealistic claim that a powerful central authority is essential to maintain civil order.’

      – Byron M. Roth, The Perils of Diversity: Immigration and Human Nature (2010) p. 495

  17. Syria’s Revitalized Rebels Make Big Gains in Assad’s Heartland

    Backed by Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, the Islamist Army of Conquest is putting the hurt on the Syrian regime.

    […]Two key regional developments have helped fuel these rebel gains. The first is the rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and its old rivals, Qatar and Turkey. The rapprochement helped avoid the usual bickering among the rebels that preceded major battles. Opposition sources say Ankara and Riyadh agreed, during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s meeting with King Salman in March, to increase support to Syrian rebels, “including groups that Riyadh would not support before” — a reference to groups affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood or with ties to al Qaeda.[…]

    https://archive.is/hN9Yg

  18. Iran says warships at entrance to key Yemen strait

    TEHRAN: Two Iranian destroyers, sent to the Gulf of Aden to protect commercial ships, have reached the entrance of Bab el-Mandab, a strategic strait between Yemen and Djibouti, Iran’s navy said Thursday.

    In another sign of tensions between Gulf rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, the Saudi charge d’affaires was summoned to the foreign ministry in Tehran to hear a “strong protest” over Saudi military action which prevented an Iranian plane from landing in Sanaa.

    “We are present in the Gulf of Aden in accordance with international regulations to ensure the safety of commercial ships of our country against the threat of pirates,” said the head of the Iranian navy, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayari, quoted by the official IRNA news agency.

    The navy has sent the Alborz and Bushehr destroyers to patrol the entrance to the strait, he added.

    Bab el-Mandeb, a narrow body of water, is the key strategic entry point into the Red Sea, through which around four million barrels of oil pass each day on ships headed to or from the Suez Canal.

    Last week, U.S. officials said an American aircraft carrier and a cruiser left the waters off Yemen and headed back to the Gulf after an Iranian naval convoy also turned back from the area.

    Washington suspected the convoy of carrying weapons destined for Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen.

    “The information that the Iranian ships received warnings and left the area is not correct,” Sayari said, insisting that Iran will not enter “the territorial waters of other countries” in reference to Yemen.

    Saudi Arabia, which heads a Sunni Arab coalition conducting airstrikes on Yemeni rebels since March, has imposed an air and sea blockade.

    Sayari said the two destroyers would stay posted around Bab el-Mandab until late June.

    Iran denies having armed Houthi rebels and has called for the immediate end of coalition airstrikes as a condition for resuming dialogue aimed at ending the crisis in Yemen.

    The Iranian navy has deployed warships in the Gulf of Aden and in the Indian Ocean for a number of years to stave off the threat of hijacking for commercial vessels.

    In Tehran, the top Saudi diplomat posted in Iran was summoned Thursday to the foreign ministry which “strongly protested” over an incident in which Saudi warplanes bombed Sanaa airport runway to prevent an Iranian plane from landing.

    Tuesday’s action “endangering the lives of the crew and members of the Iranian Red Crescent, who brought medical aid to Yemenis and wanted to transfer the wounded, is unacceptable,” said a senior Iranian diplomat, quoted by IRNA.

    It was the fourth time in a month the Saudi charge d’affaires was summoned.

    http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2015/Apr-30/296362-iran-says-warships-at-entrance-to-key-yemen-strait.ashx

  19. MEMRI – Tunisian Scholar Mohamed Talbi: The Quran Does Not Prohibit Alcohol, Prostitution, or Homosexuality ( 9 min 38 )

  20. NYT – Canadian Partnership Shielded Identities of Donors to Clinton Foundation

    Aides to former President Bill Clinton helped start a Canadian charity that effectively shielded the identities of donors who gave more than $33 million that went to his foundation, despite a pledge of transparency when Hillary Rodham Clinton became secretary of state.

    The nonprofit, the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership (Canada), operates in parallel to a Clinton Foundation project called the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership, which is expressly covered by an agreement Mrs. Clinton signed to make all donors public while she led the State Department. However, the foundation maintains that the Canadian partnership is not bound by that agreement and that under Canadian law contributors’ names cannot be made public.

    […]“This is hardly an effort on our part to avoid transparency,” said Maura Pally, acting chief executive of the Clinton Foundation.

    Instead, the foundation said that the partnership was created by the Canadian mining financier Frank Giustra to allow Canadian donors to get a tax benefit for supporting his work with Mr. Clinton — a benefit that came with the price of respecting Canada’s privacy laws. On Wednesday, the partnership issued a statement citing a legal opinion that “charitable donors have an expectation and right of privacy.”

    However, interviews with tax lawyers and officials in Canada cast doubt on assertions that the partnership was necessary to confer a tax benefit; an examination shows that for many donors it was not needed, and in any event, since 2010, Canadians could have donated to the foundation directly and received the same tax break. Also, it is not at all clear that privacy laws prohibit the partnership from disclosing its donors, the tax lawyers and officials in Canada said.

    more on the page :

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/30/us/politics/canadian-partnership-shielded-identities-of-donors-to-clinton-foundation.html?_r=0

  21. Russia: Vladimir Putin meets former Canadian PM Jean Chretien during private visit