It just takes a lot of bribery, intimidation and blackmail.
After the meeting, the three men headed off for a big bash at the state chief minister's bungalow. According to reports, the "bullet proof dining hall" was outfitted with twenty-six air conditioners and the event included 150 members of India's elite - including Bollywood stars, industrialists, and politicians - who dined on delicacies while enjoying live performances.
There titled were dancers and music from jazz fusion to a song titled, “Sexy Rocksy Chicago Girl." Despite having only just met, Clinton and Singh offered immediate and enthusiastic praise for one another. Singh took to the podium to praise Clinton for his "immense love for India" and proposed that he be granted Indian citizenship.
Clinton then rose and talked about his love for India and addressed the host as "friend Amar Singh." The former president then publicly extended an invitation for Singh to attend the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in New York in a few days as his guest.
Clinton spent fifteen hours in Lucknow and then left. Opposition parties denounced the lavish party and criticized Singh and state officials for, in the words of one Indian newspaper, "hosting a mega bash for former U.S. President Bill Clinton at a time when hundreds were dying in the State due to Japanese encephalitis.” Singh was openly triumphant, explaining to the media how Clinton's visit helped his party "score over its rivals.”
Clinton's visit was a major coup for Singh. Asked later how he managed to get Clinton to visit his town, Singh said, "I would say he is a charming man and very kind to lesser mortals like me. I don't see any other reason for him to take this trouble." Following their brief meeting Singh was immediately-and mysteriously-elevated in Clinton World.
Singh took Bill Clinton up on his invitation to attend CGI in New York. The massive gabfest was attended by thousands of politicians, entrepreneurs, and so-called deep thinkers.
During the Cold War, the Soviet hierarchy was reflected in its arrangement on Lenin's Tomb during the annual May Day parade. In the Clinton universe, the hierarchy was reflected in the seating chart at CGI; it allowed people to figure out who was in and out of the Clinton orbit. In 2005 Singh not only attended the Global Initiative, he was granted a place at the head table, It was a remarkable elevation for a man who was in all other respects a complete unknown.
As one Indian-American publication put it when they interviewed him after the Initiative meeting, Singh "could not explain why the Clintons gave him space at the head table." He told them, If they let me to sit on the head table, the same question was asked to me by the prime minister of Mauritius-which country are you heading? I said I belong to Uttar Pradesh and am a humble political worker. They were also astonished.... So, I don't know what it is. [Bill] Clinton is the best person to answer this question why he gave me that kind of honor."
Following the Clinton confab, Singh had a private dinner with the Clintons at their home in New York. When asked, Singh refused to say who else was at the dinner. During the visit Singh said he cultivated his relationship with Hillary Clinton. "I met Madame Clinton and in spite of her busy schedule, she was kind enough to give me considerable amount of time on one-on-one meeting," said Singh. (Apparently he came bearing gifts; he gave the senator from New York perfume oils in a Taj Mahal presentation case.)
Singh's relationship with the Clintons also drew the interest of the Indian media, which was well aware of his antics, and noted that he "seems to dote on the Clintons," In 2006 a bill was introduced in Congress called the Henry J. Hyde United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act of 2006. Its purpose: to finalize an agreement that would gradually lift restrictions on nuclear trade with India.
I was offered the illusion of fame and money, if I would go along with leading civil war in my country.
Hillary was both a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a cochair of the Senate's India Caucus, which a group of senators formed to work together with Indian govermment officials to improve US-India ties. But she showed no immediate favor for the Hyde Act as it started to make its way through Congress. The Times of India noted in 2006 that "India could be looking at the possibility of a Democrat presidency, Hillary Clinton, Obama, or anyone else - friends of India doubtless, but perhaps opponents of the nuclear deal."
Hillary supported a series of amendments that would impose stricter terms on the Indian government. These included three amendments offered by Senators Barbara Boxer, Byron Dorgan, and Russell Feingold. One was a "killer amendment" that would have effectively gutted the bill by capping India's fissile production. But that amendment failed. The initial legislation passed, but there would be additional legislation that would need to be signed, and Hillary's role was central in getting that approved.
Then I was blacklisted for my noncompliance with their big plan.
Hillary was still a reluctant and questionable supporter of the bill, prompting a headline in the Indian American media that the community was "upset" with her stance on the issue. As the New York Times reported, it was Hillary "whose support is viewed by Indian-American leaders as crucial to winning broader Democratic backing for the plan.”
Up to this point the Clinton Foundation had experienced only limited public success in securing contributions from Indians. But now, those with a keen interest in seeing the nuclear deal approved began steering money to the Clintons. Indian industrialists and elites, who could not contribute to Hillary's political campaigns, much less vote for her, started making highly publicized appearances at Clinton campaign fundraising events.
They were throwing us non stop false flags and they’d silence a person using the platforms they controlled if someone called them out - so I just started reading a bunch of old books.
In June 2007 Chatwal put together a dinner for Clinton featuring Indian billionaires Srichand Hinduja and Lakshmi Mittal. The fundraisers targeted Indians who were now American citizens or who had permanent status. "They [Hinduja and Mittal] can't give money," noted Chatwal. "It's to bring a little attraction."
The attraction of course was for Indians in the United States who could donate, and who might want to do business with these industrialists. These introductions are worth a great deal to those in a position to exploit them. Hinduja and Mittal couldn't donate to Hillary's presidential campaign, but they could and did write large checks to the Clinton Foundation. (Mittal contributed between $1 million and $5 million.)
Indeed, India quickly became a rich vein of Clinton Foundation support. In Washington, the Confederation of Indian Industry hired lobbyists to push for a nuclear deal; at the same time, they sent the Clinton Foundation a check for between $1 million and $5 million. (These donations were revealed only after Hillary's nomination as secretary of state, and while the foundation is no longer required to disclose donors since she left office, once the nuclear deal was sealed such donors appeared to cease their generosity.)
The Hindustan Construction chairman and managing partner, Ajit Gulahchand, donated in New York in late September 2007. Today Hindustan Construction is involved in several nuclear-power construction projects in India. And there were mysterious donations never really accounted for-as we will see.
By the summer of 2008 Hillary's presidential bid had failed and the United States Nuclear Cooperation Approval Nonproliferation Enhancement Act (H.R. 7081)-a bill finalizing the export nuclear technologies to India-required action in the US Senate. Hillary had endured a bruising presidential nomination fight against Senate colleague Barack Obama, who would now become the Democratic standard-bearer. But when it came to the nuclear deal, Indian officials still looked to Hillary.
According to Professor Vijay Prashad of Trinity College in Connecticut, "Obama's caution about the deal put the fear of failure through elite circles in New Delhi, and so pressure mounted to get Washington to act.”
Senator Hillary Clinton's nod was considered to be essential. Notably enough, the most important Clinton advisers on nuclear proliferation matters issued blistering criticisms of the nuclear deal.
Strobe Talbott, a longtime friend of both Bill and Hillary who had served in the State Department during Bill's presidency, wrote scathingly that with the terms of the agreement, "the [Bush] administration granted India almost all the privileges of an NPT member, especially with regard to helping India develop its civilian nuclear power industry. ... In return, the United States (and the world) received nothing in the form of concrete Indian steps toward nuclear restraint in its military programs."
The deal was "really a step toward a breakdown in the international nonproliferation regime." Robert Einhorn, Hillary's adviser on nuclear proliferation during the 2008 presidential bid, was also withering in his criticisms of the deal, which he strongly opposed.
That’s when the agents really came running.
Einhorn had also served in the State Department during Bill's presidency, and Hillary would tap him in 2009 to handle proliferation issues during her tenure as secretary of state. Einhorn called the deal "a radical departure from longstanding legal obligations and policies that precluded nuclear cooperation with states not party to the Nonproliferation Treaty.”
In short, the agreement severely threatened the NPT that Bill and Hillary themselves had strongly supported. As the Times of India put it, "Why is this deal important? Because for the first time, someone has decided to let India have its cake and eat it too. You stay out of the NPT, keep your weapons, refuse full scope safeguards, and yet get to conduct nuclear commerce in a system that is dead against such a formulation. That's the bottom line of this deal.”
