Washington Babylon — June 30, 2009, 3:50 pm
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Two trusted sources have sent me a picture of former President Bill Clinton posing for the camera with a woman who the sources say is Gulnara Karimova, daughter of the dictator of Uzbekistan, one of the world’s worst regimes. The picture is undated but was clearly taken recently. I haven’t published it because I don’t know who owns the rights, but I have compared it with photographs of Gulnara on the web and it certainly appears to be her.
Gulnara is not your run-of-the-mill dictator’s daughter. She may succeed her father as head of Uzbekistan and she has been implicated in a long string of scandals. Last year, the Daily Mail of London published a photograph of Gulnara with the controversial financier Nathaniel Rothschild. The accompanying story said:
[Gulnara] has had problems with the American authorities…A 36-year-old Harvard graduate, [she] was made the subject of an arrest warrant after she defied a court and took her two children by a U.S. man of Uzbek origin back to her homeland…
Craig Murray, former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, said: ‘This woman is not just the daughter of one of the most violent tyrants on Earth, she is also directly implicated in atrocities and the major beneficiary of the looting of the Uzbek state. ‘I am stunned that Rothschild would want to pose with her.’
I have contacted the Clinton Foundation to ask about the photo. I wrote:
I was sent a recent picture of Bill Clinton with Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of the dictator of Uzbekistan. She is a very controversial figure in her own right.
Has Gulnara or any of her companies given money to the foundation? Has anyone from Uzbekistan given money? if so, how much and when?
The pic looks like an official portrait. Do you have a copy i can post online?
Finally, why would President Clinton chose to associate with someone as reviled as Gulnara?
I have yet to hear back from the foundation’s press office. If I do, I will update this story immediately.
Note: There is no mention of Gulnara as a contributor on the foundation’s website.
More from Ken Silverstein:
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Ohio was judged to be the most profane state.
“This is the heart of the magic factory, the place where medicine is infused with the miracles of science, and I’ve come to see how it’s done.”
