"bought off in Little Rock by Riady "
Clinton designated some park in Utah as off limits to coal mining. As a result, his buddy Riady in Indonesia made a fortune.
I am reminded here of Zaire,
where the ink was dry on the contract
even as the blood continued to flow in the streets.
It was the largest mineral rights contract in history,
worth billions.
The signatories were
a fledgling company from Hope, Arkansas,
American Mineral Fields (AMF)
and the Kabila rebels.
AMF is headed up by
Hope native Mike McMurrough
and Jean Raymond Boulle
the ex-chief diamond buyer for DeBeers.
McMurrough, a land surveyor,
first met Boulle when they were both
exploring for diamonds in Arkansas.
Both were later principals of
Diamond Fields Resources.
Boulle and McMurrough in1988 formed
the Arkansas Diamond Development Co.
to develop diamond operations on state-owned lands.
In 1972, the diamond-rich area of southwest Arkansas
was purchased by the state and was designated
Crater of Diamonds State Park
to prevent private mining.
In 1986, then-Gov. Clinton began a
feasibility study
to allow commercial operations
in the state park.
In 1989, Clinton,
despite strong opposition from environmentalists,
gave Boulle's mining company the okay to begin exploration.
(Sorta like the quid pro coal Utah land grab in reverse.)
While the American press
has totally ignored the AMF-Arkansas connection,
the foreign press hasn't.
The Italian paper Corriere della Sera
described AMF's link
with Clinton's home state of Arkansas,
with Clinton's home town of Hope,
as a "wicked coincidence."
And it is a coincidence that encompasses Stephens Inc.
the powerful Little Rock-based investment house
that has consistently backed Clinton
in his campaigns for governor and his 1992 presidential run.
The Wall Street Journal reported on possible U.S.
assistance to the rebels
using neighboring Burundi as a conduit for arms
ultimately destined for Uvira,
just across Burundi's border in Zaire,
the cradle of Kabila's revolt.
So the quid is covert U.S. assistance for the Kabila rebels;
the quo is the richest mineral rights contract for FOB's.
But there is more.
Clinton repeatedly refused to freeze
the Mobutu multi-billion dollar booty,
plundered over three decades
from the impoverished Zairean people.
Was Clinton's inaction part of the self-enriching deal?