[continued from previous message]   
      
   for the construction of thousands of homes in Haiti. In reality, no homes   
   have been built. A few dozen model units were constructed but even they   
   have not been sold. Rather, they are now abandoned and have been taken   
   over by squatters.   
      
   The Schools They Never Built   
      
   USAID contracts to remove debris in Port-au-Prince went to a Washington-   
   based company named CHF International. The company’s CEO David Weiss, a   
   campaign contributor to Hillary in 2008, was deputy U.S. trade   
   representative for North American Affairs during the Clinton   
   administration. The corporate secretary of the board, Lauri Fitz-Pegado,   
   served in a number of posts in the Clinton administration, including   
   assistant secretary of commerce.The Clintons claim to have built schools   
   in Haiti. But the New York Times discovered that when it comes to the   
   Clintons, “built” is a term with a very loose interpretation. For example,   
   the newspaper located a school featured in the Clinton Foundation annual   
   report as “built through a Clinton Global Initiative Commitment to   
   Action.” In reality, “The Clinton Foundation’s sole direct contribution to   
   the school was a grant for an Earth Day celebration and tree-building   
   activity.”   
      
   The Clintons claim to have built schools in Haiti. But the New York Times   
   discovered that when it comes to the Clintons, ‘built’ is a term with a   
   very loose interpretation.   
      
   USAID contracts also went to consulting firms such as New York–based   
   Dalberg Global Development Advisors, which received a $1.5 million   
   contract to identify relocation sites for Haitians. This company is an   
   active participant and financial supporter of the Clinton Global   
   Initiative. A later review by USAID’s inspector general found that Dalberg   
   did a terrible job, naming uninhabitable mountains with steep ravines as   
   possible sites for Haitian rebuilding.   
      
   Foreign governments and foreign companies got Haitian deals in exchange   
   for bankrolling the Clinton Foundation. The Clinton Foundation lists the   
   Brazilian construction firm OAS and the InterAmerican Development Bank   
   (IDB) as donors that have given it between $1 billion and $5 billion.   
      
   The IDB receives funding from the State Department, and some of this   
   funding was diverted to OAS for Haitian road-building contracts. Yet an   
   IDB auditor, Mariela Antiga, complained that the contracts were padded   
   with “excessive costs” to build roads “no one needed.” Antiga also alleged   
   that IDB funds were going to a construction project on private land owned   
   by former Haitian president Rene Preval — a Clinton buddy — and several of   
   his cronies. For her efforts to expose corruption, Antiga was promptly   
   instructed by the IDB to pack her bags and leave Haiti.   
      
   In 2011, the Clinton Foundation brokered a deal with Digicel, a cell-   
   phone-service provider seeking to gain access to the Haitian market. The   
   Clintons arranged to have Digicel receive millions in U.S. taxpayer money   
   to provide mobile phones. The USAID Food for Peace program, which the   
   State Department administered through Hillary aide Cheryl Mills,   
   distributed Digicel phones free to Haitians.   
      
   Digicel didn’t just make money off the U.S. taxpayer; it also made money   
   off the Haitians. When Haitians used the phones, either to make calls or   
   transfer money, they paid Digicel for the service. Haitians using   
   Digicel’s phones also became automatically enrolled in Digicel’s mobile   
   program. By 2012, Digicel had taken over three-quarters of the cell-phone   
   market in Haiti.   
      
   Digicel is owned by Denis O’Brien, a close friend of the Clintons. O’Brien   
   secured three speaking engagements in his native Ireland that paid   
   $200,000 apiece. These engagements occurred right at the time that Digicel   
   was making its deal with the U.S. State Department. O’Brien has also   
   donated lavishly to the Clinton Foundation, giving between $1 million and   
   $5 million sometime in 2010–2011.   
      
   Coincidentally the United States government paid Digicel $45 million to   
   open a hotel in Port-au-Prince. Now perhaps it could be argued that   
   Haitians could use a high-priced hotel to attract foreign investors and   
   provide jobs for locals. Thus far, however, this particular hotel seems to   
   employ only a few dozen locals, which hardly justifies the sizable   
   investment that went into building it. Moreover, there are virtually no   
   foreign investors; the rooms are mostly unoccupied; the ones that are   
   taken seem mainly for the benefit of Digicel’s visiting teams.   
      
   https://youtu.be/pkESDOIQmmw   
      
   In addition, the Clintons got their cronies to build Caracol Industrial   
   Park, a 600-acre garment factory that was supposed to make clothes for   
   export to the United States and create — according to Bill Clinton —   
   100,000 new jobs in Haiti. The project was funded by the U.S. government   
   and cost hundreds of millions in taxpayer money, the largest single   
   allocation of U.S. relief aid.   
      
   Yet Caracol has proven a massive failure. First, the industrial park was   
   built on farmland and the farmers had to be moved off their property. Many   
   of them feel they were pushed out and inadequately compensated. Some of   
   them lost their livelihoods. Second, Caracol was supposed to include   
   25,000 homes for Haitian employees; in the end, the Government   
   Accountability Office reports that only around 6,000 homes were built.   
   Third, Caracol has created 5,000 jobs, less than 10 percent of the jobs   
   promised. Fourth, Caracol is exporting very few products and most of the   
   facility is abandoned. People stand outside every day looking for work,   
   but there is no work to be had, as Haiti’s unemployment rate hovers around   
   40 percent.   
      
   The Clintons say Caracol can still be salvaged. But former Haitian prime   
   minister Jean Bellerive says, “I believe the momentum to attract people   
   there in a massive way is past. Today, it has failed.” Still, Bellerive’s   
   standard of success may not be the same one used by the Clintons. After   
   all, the companies that built Caracol with U.S. taxpayer money have done   
   fine — even if poor Haitians have seen few of the benefits.   
      
   Then there is the strange and somehow predictable involvement of Hillary   
   Clinton’s brother Hugh Rodham. Rodham put in an application for $22   
   million from the Clinton Foundation to build homes on ten thousand acres   
   of land that he said a “guy in Haiti” had “donated” to him.   
      
   “I deal through the Clinton Foundation,” Rodham told the New York Times.   
   “I hound my brother-in-law because it’s his fund that we’re going to get   
   our money from.” Rodham said he expected to net $1 million personally on   
   the deal. Unfortunately, his application didn’t go through.   
      
   Rodham had better luck, however, on a second Haitian deal. He mysteriously   
   found himself on the advisory board of a U.S. mining company called VCS.   
   This by itself is odd because Rodham’s resume lists no mining experience;   
   rather, Rodham is a former private detective and prison guard.   
      
   The mining company, however, seems to have recognized Rodham’s value. They   
   brought him on board in October 2013 to help secure a valuable gold mining   
   permit in Haiti. Rodham was promised a “finder’s fee” if he could land the   
   contract. Sure enough, he did. For the first time in 50 years, Haiti   
   awarded two new gold mining permits and one of them went to the company   
   that had hired Hillary’s brother.   
      
   I wouldn’t go so far as to say the Clintons don’t care about Haiti. Yet it   
   seems clear that Haitian welfare is not their priority.   
      
   The deal provoked outrage in the Haitian Senate. “Neither Bill Clinton nor   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)