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Authors: Peter Schweizer
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percent control of Uranium One. It didn’t even bother to ask the Obama administration for approval this time, because the transaction “involved the same parties” and the move did not technically “change the corporate structure of Uranium One.” 83
Pravda hailed the move with an over-the-top headline: “ RUSSIAN NUCLEAR ENERGY CONQUERS THE WORLD .” Taking full control of Uranium One would “consolidate control over uranium assets in the former Soviet Union and pave the way for the expansion of access to resources in Australia and South Africa.” 84 The Russian takeover of Uranium One yielded shareholders a premium price. Rosatom offered Telfer and other shareholders a 32 percent premium on the share price, yielding them millions. 85
In the fall of 2013 Rosatom passed operational control of the Bushehr nuclear reactor to Iran, and in September Vladimir Putin and Iranian president Hassan Rouhani announced that “Tehran and Moscow will cooperate in the future constructionof a second nuclear power plant at Bushehr,” adding that “construction work is to start soon.” 86
Meanwhile, Uranium One made an audacious bid to mine for uranium on state land in Arizona, near the Grand Canyon. Using a shell corporation called Wate Mining, it proposed accessing the site through Navajo Nation lands. The company apparently hoped that the Navajo Nation wouldn’t notice who controlled the company, which was obscured on government forms. “The fact that the applicant failed to fully disclose ownership information does not sit well,” said the Navajo Nation Department of Justice. 87 Plans for the mine have been suspended in light of protests. 88
Global deals involving the transfer of funds and nuclear technology were not limited to Russia. Another troubling transaction that occurred during the same period, while Hillary was in the Senate, involved characters representing India whose political interests appear to have been advanced by their friendship with the Clintons—accompanied in turn by large donations and payments.
CHAPTER 4
Indian Nukes
H OW TO W IN A M EDAL BY C HANGING H ILLARY’S M IND
I n May 1998 the government of India shook the world. With a series of five underground nuclear tests, the government set off a corresponding series of political explosions.
Code-named Operation Shakti (the word means “strength” in Sanskrit), the 58th Engineer Regiment of the Indian Army took special measures to ensure that test preparations went undetected by the United States. With its bold act, India, in the words of one of the country’s leading commentators, “acquired de facto nuclear weapon status.” 1
For President Bill Clinton, the tests were a surprise slap in the face. Preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and technologies had been a Clinton administration priority. Early in his presidency he had launched “a personal initiative to halt, roll back and eliminate the nuclear [programs] of both India andPakistan.” 2 The tests were an embarrassing public dismissal of these efforts.
Clinton was livid. He erupted in a “volcanic fit” when he heard the news, according to foreign policy adviser and longtime friend Strobe Talbott. 3 Clinton took the tests as a personal affront, as well as a threat to the nuclear nonproliferation and test ban treaties he was pushing. He responded with “an intense effort to threaten international isolation” unless India signed the test ban treaty and “took other steps to reduce nuclear dangers.” 4
The nonproliferation treaty (NPT) entered into force in 1970 and recognized five countries as nuclear powers: the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, France, and China. The NPT was designed to prevent any other country from attaining nuclear weapon status. If a country signed the treaty, it would be given the benefit of access to peaceful nuclear technology.
Clinton chose to denounce India’s nuclear tests with Chinese president Jiang Zemin at his side. (This
Pravda hailed the move with an over-the-top headline: “ RUSSIAN NUCLEAR ENERGY CONQUERS THE WORLD .” Taking full control of Uranium One would “consolidate control over uranium assets in the former Soviet Union and pave the way for the expansion of access to resources in Australia and South Africa.” 84 The Russian takeover of Uranium One yielded shareholders a premium price. Rosatom offered Telfer and other shareholders a 32 percent premium on the share price, yielding them millions. 85
In the fall of 2013 Rosatom passed operational control of the Bushehr nuclear reactor to Iran, and in September Vladimir Putin and Iranian president Hassan Rouhani announced that “Tehran and Moscow will cooperate in the future constructionof a second nuclear power plant at Bushehr,” adding that “construction work is to start soon.” 86
Meanwhile, Uranium One made an audacious bid to mine for uranium on state land in Arizona, near the Grand Canyon. Using a shell corporation called Wate Mining, it proposed accessing the site through Navajo Nation lands. The company apparently hoped that the Navajo Nation wouldn’t notice who controlled the company, which was obscured on government forms. “The fact that the applicant failed to fully disclose ownership information does not sit well,” said the Navajo Nation Department of Justice. 87 Plans for the mine have been suspended in light of protests. 88
Global deals involving the transfer of funds and nuclear technology were not limited to Russia. Another troubling transaction that occurred during the same period, while Hillary was in the Senate, involved characters representing India whose political interests appear to have been advanced by their friendship with the Clintons—accompanied in turn by large donations and payments.
CHAPTER 4
Indian Nukes
H OW TO W IN A M EDAL BY C HANGING H ILLARY’S M IND
I n May 1998 the government of India shook the world. With a series of five underground nuclear tests, the government set off a corresponding series of political explosions.
Code-named Operation Shakti (the word means “strength” in Sanskrit), the 58th Engineer Regiment of the Indian Army took special measures to ensure that test preparations went undetected by the United States. With its bold act, India, in the words of one of the country’s leading commentators, “acquired de facto nuclear weapon status.” 1
For President Bill Clinton, the tests were a surprise slap in the face. Preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and technologies had been a Clinton administration priority. Early in his presidency he had launched “a personal initiative to halt, roll back and eliminate the nuclear [programs] of both India andPakistan.” 2 The tests were an embarrassing public dismissal of these efforts.
Clinton was livid. He erupted in a “volcanic fit” when he heard the news, according to foreign policy adviser and longtime friend Strobe Talbott. 3 Clinton took the tests as a personal affront, as well as a threat to the nuclear nonproliferation and test ban treaties he was pushing. He responded with “an intense effort to threaten international isolation” unless India signed the test ban treaty and “took other steps to reduce nuclear dangers.” 4
The nonproliferation treaty (NPT) entered into force in 1970 and recognized five countries as nuclear powers: the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, France, and China. The NPT was designed to prevent any other country from attaining nuclear weapon status. If a country signed the treaty, it would be given the benefit of access to peaceful nuclear technology.
Clinton chose to denounce India’s nuclear tests with Chinese president Jiang Zemin at his side. (This
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