While his accounts are being scrutinized by Obama’s search committee, a Kuwaiti report indicates Bill Clinton reaped $500,000 for a single speech there Sunday.
The National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) has paid $500,000 to Bill Clinton for a single lecture he delivered in Kuwait City on Sunday on his assessment of Barack Obama’s foreign and economic policies. It was delivered the day after the Kuwaiti stock market resumed trading after it was suspended by order of a Kuwaiti court on Thursday to avoid a total collapse.
Without mentioning reports that Clinton’s finances were coming under close scrutiny as his wife, Hillary Clinton, is being vetted for the job of secretary of state, the Arab-language Kuwaiti newspaper Awan published a front-page story under the headline “Clinton’s lecture at NBK cost $500,000.”
$500,000 would be a high fee, even for Bill Clinton. In 2006 he averaged almost a speech a day, at an average of about $140,000 a speech.
Delivered before “a packed audience” and attended by local dignitaries, ambassadors, and senior officials, Clinton offered advice to the president-elect on the world financial crisis, urging him to continue to pump liquidity into the American system until confidence came back, according to a press release by the National Bank of Kuwait, which organized the event at the Sheraton Hotel.
$500,000 would be a high fee, even for Bill Clinton. In 2006 he averaged almost a speech a day, at an average of about $140,000 a speech.
He has earned far more per speech, particularly from Middle Eastern or foreign organizations wishing to hear his views on a range of topics. The Dabbagh investment firm in Saudi Arabia paid $600,000 for two speeches, and China's JingJi Real Estate Development Group paid $200,000 for a single speech. The Mito City Political Research Group in Japan paid him $400,000 in 2002 for a single speech.
Gold Services International, an event organizer based in Bogota, Colombia, flew Clinton to Latin America in 2005 for a series of speeches for which he was paid $800,000. The Power Within, a motivational-speech company in Toronto, paid Clinton $650,000 for speeches in Canada in 2005, and he returned to give more speeches for an undisclosed sum the following year. Goldman Sachs paid him $650,000 for a series of four speeches, and Citigroup paid $250,000 for a speech in France in 2004.
“It's the very presence of Bill Clinton in places like this National Bank of Kuwait symposium that is complicating matters for his wife,” wrote ABC News' senior White House correspondent, Jake Tapper. “His web of extensive international business dealings for his philanthropic endeavors—such as the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation—for the Clinton Library, and for his own personal business dealings that stand as such a complex briar patch of potential conflicts of interest for his wife being the nation's top diplomat.”
John P. Avlon is the author of Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics. He writes a weekly column for The Daily Beast and is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Previously, he served as Chief Speechwriter for New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and was a columnist and associate editor for The New York Sun.
Max Blumenthal is a senior writer for The Daily Beast and writing fellow at The Nation Institute, whose book, Republican Gomorrah (Basic/Nation Books), is forthcoming in Spring 2009. Contact him at maxblumenthal3000@yahoo.com.
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Kevin Buckley was a reporter and Saigon bureau chief for Newsweek between 1968 and 1972. He is the author of Panama—The Whole Story (Simon & Schuster, 1991). He is a contributing editor of Playboy and an adjunct professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Michael O'Hanlon specializes in national security policy at the Brookings Institution. He is senior author of the Iraq Index. As a defense budget analyst, he advised members of Congress on military spending.
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Salameh Nematt is the international editor of The Daily Beast. He is the former Washington bureau chief for the international Arab daily Al Hayat, where he reported on US foreign policy, the war in Iraq, and the US drive for democratization in the broader Middle East. He has also written extensively on regional and global energy issues and their political implications.
Salameh Nematt is the international editor of The Daily Beast. He is the former Washington bureau chief for the international Arab daily Al Hayat, where he reported on US foreign policy, the war in Iraq, and the US drive for democratization in the broader Middle East. He has also written extensively on regional and global energy issues and their political implications.
Salameh Nematt is the international editor of The Daily Beast. He is the former Washington bureau chief for the international Arab daily Al Hayat, where he reported on US foreign policy, the war in Iraq, and the US drive for democratization in the broader Middle East. He has also written extensively on regional and global energy issues and their political implications.
Salameh Nematt is the international editor of The Daily Beast. He is the former Washington bureau chief for the international Arab daily Al Hayat, where he reported on US foreign policy, the war in Iraq, and the US drive for democratization in the broader Middle East. He has also written extensively on regional and global energy issues and their political implications.
Mr. Nematt
While i respect you as a journalist but i have to say that your article above is nothing but a misleading piece. I expected from a renowned journalist as yourself to present more accurate information to the American public. As an Arabic speaker myself i tried finding the news article you have based your whole article on. To my dismay i discovered i it does not exist which explains why the link you have provided links back to your article.
There are two articles on Awan's website discussing the issues mentioned above; the first reports what Clinton said in his speech in Kuwait without mentioning the $500,000 you have mentioned above. The other is a translated article from the Washington Post containing an analysis of Hillary's future if she is chosen Sec. of State (which also does not mention the numbers you have provided above or give any new piece of information we have not heard in the American media).
Maybe Clinton actually received $500,00, but i would appreciate it if you would attribute whatever info you provide to real sources next time.
Wow, well this is bullshit news. It should be completely irrelevant where Bill Clinton decides to give speeches. The fact that people are trying to invent a talking point out of this proves the worthlessness of our news media
I disagree, this is a taste of the sick and twisted world of globalization. The shrewd Obama has opened this door for us all to see. My hat's off to him. I hope more people wake up and realize the Clintons are Captains in the army of the "One World Order" the Neo-Cons are the Lieutenants and Bush Jr. is a corporal ....Hitler was a corporal too....
If Bill Clinton was getting 500.000 for teaching the Arabs to turn salt water to drinking water, How would it have been seen by the talking heads?
Are "we" paying security for Clinton world wide travel? Security costs for travel outside US for paid speeches should be covered by Clinton.
Is $500,000 too much?
The value is what someone is willing to pay.
I run a public speaking /presentation training company and speak myself. Of course, I would have done it for half that.
Bill Clinton delivers though. He embodies exactly what great communicators have, and what business leaders reading the blog must have:
The audience needs to move through 4 key areas:
-The need to UNDERSTAND the messages
-They need to REMEMBER the key messages
-ACTION should be created in an audience
-Ideally, the audience will be able to PASS ON the information to others.
Jess Todtfeld
Media Training Worldwide
The speech money is how powerful people run bribes and payoffs through the system.
I actually attended this speech a few days ago. I personally thought it was an OK speech at most, but the real value came from the Q&A session, which covered everything from Middle East issues to Hillary's job offer to new world powers.
A few points really came out, and his passion and ability to analyze global politics came through during this session much more than the typical speech which basically recounted the financial crisis and how it happened.
The full details of the speech are on my website http://www.kuwaitism.com/2008/11/17/bill-clinton-speech-at-nbk-annual-sympo sium/
Thank you.
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