Chicago, Case Study of Foreign Takeover

Chicago is in financial trouble and could be the next major metropolitan city to stand in bankruptcy court. This is not a recent condition yet in 2004, infrastructure was being sold off to raise revenue.

The Brookings Institution found that the Chicago region had more than 4,000 foreign-owned establishments that employed more than 223,000 people, according to 2011 data, the most recent available. In total employment at foreign-owned companies, Chicago ranks third in the nation, behind New York and Los Angeles.

Toll roads in Chicago are now in the ownership of Cintra, the largest private sector transportation corporation. Cintra is based in Spain and layers deep the King of Spain Juan Carlos is a player. No wonder that Michelle Obama has visited Spain twice eh?

Another move for Chicago, Al Faisal Group (one of Qatar real estate investment arms) bought the Radisson Blu Aqua hotel.

Qatar Airways announced plans to expand its U.S. service in 2014 by adding Dallas, Miami and Philadelphia to a lineup of destinations that includes Houston, Washington, New York and Chicago. And last month, Qatar said it will spend $19 billion to buy 50 Boeing 777 aircraft, part of a larger deal between the U.S. aviation company and Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The number of Qatari students at U.S. universities has jumped fivefold in the past decade, and the Qatari Foundation International is spending $5 million this year to encourage U.S. schools to teach Arabic. *** Qatar provided financial and political support for Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the ruling Ennahda party in Tunisia, but it has more recently backed away from that role, especially after a military coup ousted Qatar’s allies from control of Egypt.

Then there is China and a new foothold in Chicago.

Wanda announces $900 million investment in Chicago hotel project

The Wanda Group announced on June 8 that it would invest US$900 million in the United States’ second largest city Chicago, to build the city’s third tallest building.

The Chicago site is located in the vibrant and affluent Lakeshore East development in downtown Chicago, one of the last remaining sites within the Lakeshore East area. Many of Chicago’s well-known sites and attractions are within walking distance from the site, such as the Theatre District, Museum Campus and Michigan Ave.

Wanda Group will build a 350-meter high, 89-floor skyscraper, which will have a gross floor area of 131,400 square meters. The building will also house a 240-room luxury five-star hotel as well as luxury apartments and a commercial center. The project will begin construction this year and officially open in 2018.

The Chicago project is Wanda Group’s third overseas five-star hotel project, following announcements of luxury hotel projects in London and Madrid.

“Investing in Chicago property is just Wanda’s first move into the US real estate market,” said Wanda Group Chairman Wang Jianlin, “Within a year, Wanda will invest in more five-star hotel projects in major US cities like New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. By 2020, Wanda will have Wanda branded five-star hotels in 12-15 major world cities and build an internationally influential Chinese luxury hotel brand.” If you go to the movies, an AMC theater….China.

In January 2011 The Chicago Council on Global Affairs released the report Capturing Chicago’s Global Opportunity. The report found that although Chicago ranks as one of the top ten global cities, “it lags its global peers in the amount of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) in the city.” This was based on the 2010 PricewaterhouseCoopers Cities of Opportunity study in which Chicago scored seventeenth out of twenty-one capital market centers around the world on physical growth due to the low level of FDI. The more recent 2011 Cities of Opportunity study ranked Chicago twenty-fourth out of twenty-six cities in attracting FDI capital investments and greenfield projects.

To better understand the challenges and opportunities of FDI in Chicago and develop a comprehensive FDI strategy for the area, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs convened a group of prominent Chicago business and civic leaders that began meeting in January 2012. The study was cochaired by Michael H. Moskow, former president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and currently vice chairman and senior fellow for the global economy at The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and William A. Osborn, former chairman and chief executive officer of Northern Trust Corporation. After months of research, interviews, meetings on the issue and on the strategies and experiences of other major global metropolitan areas, the study group developed key recommendations to help the city reach out to foreign-owned companies and increase FDI through existing and new sources of investment.

This report presents the findings and recommendations of the study group members on how to best advance Chicago’s economic development through global engagement.

Oh, if you happen to shop for fine and distinctive jewels at Tiffany’s, well Qatar has ownership in that too. So, what foreign entity owns your company, your roads, your grocery store or has financial influence on the school your child attends?

 

 

ISIS Adheres to Sun Tzu

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

This week, very few documents taken from Abbottabad, Pakistan during the bin Ladin raid have been released. Yet of those published, it was clear that Usama bin Ladin studied his enemy and carefully planned all terror operations.

Islamic State, ISIS is doing the very same thing and what is more they published what they know, telling the enemy in advance of their knowledge and predicted targets.

In both cases, these terror groups know their enemy after careful and continued study. The United States under Barack Obama continues to fall short of being a student in the Art of War and refuses to both offer a strategy or refine it in cases of al Qaeda and Islamic State.

 

SPECIAL – ISIS Praises Texas Jihadists in New Issue of Dabiq, the Jihadi Group’s Official Magazine

Not surprisingly, the ninth issue of the Islamic State’s (ISIS) digital English-language magazine, Dabiq, heaped praise on Nadir Soofi and Elton Simpson – the two radicalized Muslims and Phoenix, Arizona roommates killed in a May 3 firefight in Garland, Texas for their attempt to storm into the Curtis Culwell Civic Center in Garland, Texas with long guns to kill as many attendees of the Stop Islamization of America and the American Freedom Defense Initiative  where a contest for the best cartoon of Prophet Muhammad was being held.

 

Homeland Security Today reported early on that evidence quickly was unearthed tying the two shooters – especially Simpson — to radical Islamist social media – including a suspected ISIS member in Syria.

On March 29, American ISIS operative with the alias Abu Khalid Al Amriki claimed on Twitter he was in contact with ISIS supporters in the US and that one of them was prepared to carry out an operation.

Only minutes before and after their attempted attack was thwarted — when law enforcement shot both men dead — Abu Hussain Al Britani appears to have had foreknowledge of the attack. He tweeted from his “AbuHussainAlBritani” Twitter account just before the attack that, “The knives have been sharpened; soon we will come to your streets with death and slaughter! #QaribanQariba [soon, soon].”

Almost immediately after the shooting, the two were praised by ISIS and other jihadists via social media for their martyrdom in defending the sanctity of Prophet Muhammad.

In a news bulletin by the Islamic State’s official radio station, Al Byyan, which broadcasts out of Mosul, the Islamist jihad organization claimed responsibility or the attack by Simpson and Soofi.

Since the attack in which both men were killed, federal investigators have found there was substantive advance notice of what the two avowed jihadists intended to do on various social media postings.

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which monitors jihadi social media sites, pointed out that, “Abu Khalid Al Amriki, upon learning of the attack on Twitter, praised the attempt and threatened more to come. He tweeted, ‘This one should hit the front page! Dawlah [ISIS] is in America! Allahu Akbar … How much do you love the Prophet? I’m sure the brothers earned their spot next to the messenger of Allah … The drawn Sword on the one that Insults the messenger of Allah. Let this be a wakeup call for all cartoonists. We are coming for you.’”

MEMRI said, “Online ISIS supporters immediately reacted to the Texas attack by praising the perpetrators and elevating them to the rank of martyrs in the cause of jihad. For example, ISIS supporter ‘Australi Witness,’ who recently called for targeting Australian cartoonists, tweeted: ‘May Allah reward the Garland Mujahedeen with a seat right next to the Prophet in Jannah [heaven].’”

“Two of the Caliphate’s soldiers attacked an exhibition in the American [town of] Garland, Texas” which “staged a competition of cartoons that were insulting to the Prophet Muhammad,” the broadcast stated. “The brothers opened fire on the exhibition, and as a result one of the police officers in charge of protecting the exhibition was injured. The brothers were killed in the exchange of fire. We pray Allah to accept them in the highest paradise.”

In concluding, the ISIS broadcast said, “We say to the protector of the Cross, America, that what is coming will be more bitter and calamitous. The soldiers of the Islamic State will show you what will harm you, Allah willing. Tomorrow draws near.”

Meanwhile, Homeland Security Today reported, ISIS, jihadist groups may have inspired “hundreds, maybe thousands” in the US, and that directed attacks in the US are believed planned by ISIS followers.

According to MEMRI’s Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM), the foreword of the current issue of Dabiq “glorifies the attack by Soofi and Simpson, noting, ‘Their determination to support the cause of Allah and punish those who insult the Prophet (sallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) should serve as inspiration to those residing in the lands of the crusaders who are still hesitant to perform their duty.’”

The writer of the foreward goes on to state that, “Those men who have read the countless ayat and ahadith on the virtues of jihad and have made sincere dua [prayer] to Allah asking Him for shahadah [martyrdom] but have yet to act, should consider that Allah will not grant them their dua until they take a step towards this noble duty.”

The foreward further noted that it is also possible to achieve martyrdom even without emigrating to Islamic lands. It said, “Many of those who attained shahādah fighting the crusaders in their own lands had first taken steps to make hijrah to the lands of jihād. These preparatory steps were enough to demonstrate their sincerity, so they were granted shahādah without facing the difficulties of hijrah” [emigrating to Islamic lands].”

Continuing, the article stated that, “As the crusaders continue to reveal their intense hatred and animosity towards Islam through their relentless bombing and drone campaigns on the Islamic State, a new breed of crusader continues shedding light on the extent of their hatred towards the religion of truth. This breed of crusader aims to do nothing more than to anger the Muslims by mocking and ridiculing the best of creation, the Prophet Muhammad Ibn ‘Abdillāh (sallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam), under the pretext of defending the idol of ‘freedom of speech.’”

“Yet, such brazen attacks on the honor of the Prophet (sallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam), rather than deterring or disheartening the Muslims, serve as further incitement, spurring them into confronting the forces of kufr with whatever means they have available. Such was the case with Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, two brave men who took it upon themselves to remind the enemies of Allah and His Messenger (sallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam)

   that as long as they choose to wage war on Islam, they would have no peace and security, would not be able to walk their own streets without looking over their shoulders, and would not be able to make public appearances without being surrounding by a legion of bodyguards and security personnel,” stated the forward to the latest issue of ISIS’s magazine.

“The two lions of the Khilāfah arrived at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas three weeks ago during a convention that featured a competition to draw the Prophet (sallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) in an attempt to mock and ridicule him,” the article stated, noting that, “The two mujāhidīn came armed and ready to wage war, ignited a gun battle with the policemen guarding the center, and attained a noble shahādah in pursuit of vengeance for the honor of our beloved Prophet (sallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam).”

“Their determination to support the cause of Allah and punish those who insult the Prophet (sallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) should serve as inspiration to those residing in the lands of the crusaders who are still hesitant to perform their duty,” the article. Those men who have read the countless āyāt and ahādīth on the virtues of jihād and have made sincere du’ā’ to Allah asking Him for shahādah but have yet to act, should consider that Allah will not grant them their du’ā’ until they take a step towards this noble duty,” the article continued, adding, “{And if they had intended to go forth, they would have prepared for it [some] preparation. But Allah disliked their being sent, so He kept them back, and they were told, ‘Remain [behind] with those who remain’} [At-Tawbah: 46].”

Dabiq’s glorification of the Texas attack further stated that, “Many of those who attained shahādah fighting the crusaders in their own lands had first taken steps to make hijrah to the lands of jihād. These preparatory steps were enough to demonstrate their sincerity, so they were granted shahādah without facing the difficulties of hijrah.”

“As for those who continue to suffer from the disease of being indifferent towards the obligations of hijrah, jihād and bay’ah,” the article continued, “so much so that they see nothing wrong with residing amongst, and paying taxes to, the very crusaders who belittle the Sharī’ah on their news and entertainment programs, who arm the secularists and Rawāfid in Muslim lands, who imprison and torture Muslim men and women, and on top of all who burn the Qur’an and mock the Prophet (sallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam), then let them prepare their flimsy excuses for the angels of death {Indeed, those whom the angels take [in death] while wronging themselves – [the angels] will say, ‘In what [condition] were you?’ They will say, ‘We were oppressed in the land.’ The angels will say, ‘Was not the earth of Allah spacious [enough] for you to emigrate therein?’ For those, their refuge is Hell – and evil it is as a destination} [AnNisā’: 97].”

“The hypocrites will sit back, the true men will step forward, and the kuffār will have no peace and no security … May Allah accept our two brothers amongst the leaders of the shuhadā’ in Jannah.”

ISIS Bombs Mosque in Saudi, 20 Killed

20 people killed after suicide bomber strikes Shia mosque

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, US-based monitoring group SITE tweeted. The militant group identified the suicide bomber as Abu ’Ammar al-Najdi, SITE said. The claim could not be independently verified. The bombing in al-Qadeeh in Qatif province was the first to target Shia Muslims in Saudi Arabia since November, when gunmen killed at least eight people in an attack during a Shia religious anniversary celebration, also in the east. Activist Naseema al-Sada told the Associated Press the suicide bomber attacked worshippers as they were commemorating the birth of Imam Husayn ibn Ali, a revered figure among Shias. Lebanon’s Al-Manar television channel, run by the Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah, carried still, blurry pictures of pools of blood inside what appeared to be the mosque where the attack took place. It also showed still images of bodies stretched out on red carpets, covered with sheets.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The Islamic State extremist group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia on Friday. Local media reports said the bombing had killed at least 21 people during midday prayers.

It appeared to be the first official claim of an attack inside the kingdom by the Islamic State, which has seized control of much of Syria and Iraq.

The group attributed the attack to a new unit, the Najd Province, named for the central region of Saudi Arabia around Riyadh. But it was unclear whether the attack was planned by Islamic State leaders, initiated independently by a Saudi sympathizer, or merely claimed opportunistically after the fact.

The attack was a sign that Saudi Arabia’s intervention in the sectarian conflict in Yemen may be escalating tensions at home.

Members of the Shiite minority in Saudi Arabia, who make up about 15 percent of the population and live mainly in the Eastern Province, have long complained of insults and discrimination by Saudi Arabia’s Sunni majority and its clerical establishment.

Annotated maps showing the Houthi rebels’ drive south, U.S. airstrikes and historical divisions.

  

During Saudi Arabia’s two-month air campaign against the Houthi movement in Yemen, which practices a form of Shiite Islam and receives backing from Saudi Arabia’s regional rival, Iran, imams at Sunni mosques and commentators in Saudi news media have frequently rallied the public around the war, in part by repeatedly denouncing Shiites as dangerous infidels.

The Saudi Arabian news media has portrayed the Houthis as proxies of Shiite-led Iran and characterized the Yemen campaign as a vital defense against an Iranian incursion.

At the same time, Saudi Arabia’s participation in the American-led military campaign in Iraq and Syria against the Sunni extremists of the Islamic State has raised fears of a backlash from its sympathizers at home. Thousands of Saudis have traveled to join the Islamic State, which follows a puritanical school of Islam that scholars say is similar to that of Saudi Arabia.

Leaders of the Islamic State have called with increasing vehemence for their supporters to carry out attacks in the kingdom, accusing its rulers of hypocrisy. Saudi Arabia’s rulers and clerics deny any similarity between their understanding of Islam and that of the Islamic State.

Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki, a spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry, said in an interview Friday night that investigators were examining DNA samples and other evidence to establish the identity of the bomber.

General Turki said the kingdom was already on guard for attempts by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, to establish itself in Saudi Arabia. He noted that Saudi officials had blamed the Islamic State for an attack on Shiites in the same area last fall, although the group did not claim responsibility.

Saudi Arabia also announced last month that it had arrested 65 people accused of “forming a terrorist organization related to ISIS, and their goal was to carry out terrorist attacks and enflame sectarian conflict,” the general said. He insisted that such attempts would fail “because Saudi citizens are unified.”

A group of Islamic State supporters released a video late last year that they said showed the group’s fighters killing a Danish man, Thomas Hoepner, who was shot while driving in Riyadh. The claim did not appear to come from the Islamic State’s leaders, and could not be confirmed.

Saudi Interior Ministry officials said in interviews this week that they had seen an increase in violence by Sunni extremists, including three separate attacks near the capital, Riyadh, that killed a total of three police officers and injured two others.

But sectarian conflict and violence have been a longstanding issue in the Eastern Province, which contains much of the country’s oil but lags far behind other regions in economic development. The last major outburst came six months ago, when gunmen killed eight people in the Shiite village of Dalwa, in the Al Ahsa region of the Eastern Province, at the end of the Shiite holiday of Ashura. That was the sectarian attack that Saudi officials attributed to the Islamic State.

The bombing on Friday took place in the town of Al Qudaih, near Qatif, the regional center. The area has been the site of sectarian tensions and of calls for democratic reform in the aftermath of the Arab Spring revolts four years ago, including sporadic, Shiite-dominated street protests.

Saudi Arabia, in response, has jailed at least two prominent Shiite clerics who have called for political overhauls such as adopting a constitutional monarchy. Last year, one firebrand cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, was sentenced to death for his role in leading street protests in Qatif, and his sentence set off new protests around the region.

In what appeared to be an attempt to tamp down tensions after the attack on Friday, state television broadcast a telephone call from Saudi Arabia’s senior religious authority, the grand mufti, Abdulaziz al-Asheikh, who called the attack a “painful” and “criminal” act against the “sons of the homeland.”

But on social media, some Saudis rushed to blame Iran for the bombing, asserting that it might have been carried out to provoke Shiites in Saudi Arabia to turn against the kingdom.

“Iran won’t hesitate in scarifying Shia, to create a war between Sunni and Shia,” Luftallah Khoja, a prominent Saudi religious scholar, said in a Twitter message. He blamed Iran for creating the Islamic State, as well.

A number of Saudis said they were refusing to donate blood for Shiites who were injured in the bombing. “I wish to donate, but I am afraid I would donate and a Shia would take it, and he does not deserve even my spit,” one Saudi posted online. “You donate to infidels?” another wrote.

Jafar al-Shayeb, head of the Qatif Municipal Council and a Shiite community leader, blamed the “sectarian discourse” that has spread through Saudi Arabia since the start of the air campaign in Yemen. “People feel like this is a direct result of the atmosphere that is turning everybody against each other through speeches and media and social media,” he said. “It will lead young people to sacrifice themselves and kill others in this region, and people are very angry about it.”

Frederic Wehrey, an analyst who follows Saudi Arabia at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, argued that the tension might persist even after the Yemen campaign. “Sectarianism, once you have unleashed it, you can’t bottle back it up,” he said. “It afflicts people every day.”

Clinton’s History, Sex, Jewels, Money and Bribes

A pattern has been proven, a daily headline fit for the National Enquirer where the entire Clinton dark circle surfaces. Personally, I have read the FBI Epstein investigation file and that was bad enough so the additional Clinton soirees are filling in even more daily activities.

The Clintons and the Sultan of Brunei Have a History

Bill Clinton hinted at post-presidency money obsession from Brunei palace

In words spoken from the Sultan of Brunei’s lavish Empire Hotel in 2000, President Bill Clinton told reporters that his post-presidency would be about making money: “Now I have a United States senator to support, I understand that’s an expensive proposition.”

Clinton traveled to Brunei with his daughter, Chelsea, for an economic summit that was also attended by leaders such as President Vladimir Putin of Russia and Jiang Zemin, then China’s president.

The sultan, known in Brunei as His Majesty Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, put on an exhibition of luxury for his summit guests. Four hundred ninety three new cars were purchased to transport the various dignitaries around town.

Perhaps the abundance of wealth had an effect on Clinton, who according to New York Times reporters also in Brunei, “made a strong case for his need to start producing some serious revenue flow.”

Forging a relationship with the Sultan of Brunei would aid him in that goal.

The government of Brunei contributed between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation in 2002, which said that the donation went toward the construction of the Clinton Presidential Library in Arkansas.

Clinton would return to Brunei that same year—this time without his daughter.

Clinton was picked up at a Japanese naval base by Jeffrey Epstein and his private Boeing 727—known to many as either “the orgy jet” or “Lolita Express”—and flown to Brunei to visit with Sultan Bolkiah, according to flight records.

Epstein is a registered sex offender who would regularly host Clinton and many others at his private Caribbean island before being put in prison for sexually abusing underage girls around the globe.

He spent five years in prison for the charges, though evidence is reported to have existed that could have led to more serious federal charges such as using his private jet for sex trafficking.

Two of the alleged “madames” linked to Epstein’s case—one of whom reached an immunity deal with prosecutors—were also aboard the flight to Brunei, according to the flight records.

Clinton stayed in the Emperor Suite of the sultan’s Empire Hotel, a $16,600 per night “football-field sized suite that features its own swimming pool and carpets flecked with real gold”

Clinton returned to Brunei in 2005, to thank Sultan Bolkiah for the donation he made to the Clinton library.

“I’m now going to Brunei for a private visit,” wrote Clinton on his personal blog. “I want to thank His Majesty the Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah for his generous donation to the Clinton library.”

He owns a Boeing 747, which he purchased for $400 million and pilots himself. He is also the owner of an Airbus 340, 16 other planes, two helicopters, 9,000 luxury cars, and a palace with 1,788 rooms in it.

Also like Epstein, he has been accused of sexual wrongdoing. In 1997, he was sued by a former Miss USA who said she was held as a sex slave, drugged, and molested by Brunei’s royal family. The lawsuit was dropped after the Sultan and his brother claimed diplomatic immunity.

The sultan and his brother Prince Jefri have become “infamous for their sex parties and their harems composed mainly of underage girls.”

Jillian Lauren, who at 18 years of age was recruited for Jefri’s harem, wrote a book about her experience in which she claimed that “there’s no such thing as underage” in Brunei. Lauren also had sexual relations with the sultan.

The sultan, however, has also pushed the small country toward radical Sharia law over his decades-long reign.

The shift was accelerated on May 1, 2014, when he announced in a royal decree that “the enforcement of Sharia law phase one” has begun and would be “followed by the other phases.”

Crimes such as homosexuality, sodomy, adultery, and the discussion of faith by non-Muslims are now punishable by amputation of limbs, public flogging, or death by stoning.

This shift has made association with the sultan and the nation of Brunei a red flag in the progressive community.

Hollywood stars boycotted the iconic Beverly Hills Hotel, owned by the sultan, after Brunei formally adopted strict Islamic law. The City of Beverly Hills government even adopted a formal resolution urging him to divest from the hotel.

The hotel turned into a “ghost town,” as events hosted by the likes of Jeffrey Katzenberg were moved to other venues.

The Beverly Hills Hotel then hired Mark Fabiani, a former Clinton White House aide who handled crisis communications for the administration, to help it deal with the backlash.

The Clinton Foundation has previously stated that the contribution from Brunei was a “one-time donation” and that it does not expect any further donations. A request for comment about whether it has considered returning the money given Brunei’s turn towards repressive Sharia law went unreturned.

As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton traveled to Brunei in 2012 to “meet with senior officials to emphasize the importance of the increasingly vibrant U.S.-Brunei relationship.” She joined the sultan for dinner at one of his palaces.

Clinton also accepted $58,000 worth of jewelry from Brunei while she was with the State Department.

*** Then that Arkansas Clinton Library has its own Hillary history.

Documents show Hillary Clinton pushed tax breaks for nonprofits while husband solicited library donations

As first lady in the final year of the Clinton administration, Hillary Clinton endorsed a White House plan to give tax breaks to private foundations and wealthy charity donors at the same time the William J. Clinton Foundation was soliciting donations for her husband’s presidential library, recently released Clinton-era documents show.

The blurred lines between the tax reductions proposed by the Clinton administration in 2000 and the Clinton Library’s fundraising were an early foreshadowing of the potential ethics concerns that have flared around the Clintons’ courting of corporate and foreign donors for their family charity before she launched her campaign for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.

White House documents in the Clinton Library reviewed by The Associated Press show Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton were kept apprised about a tax reduction package that would have benefited donors, including those to his presidential library, by reducing their tax burden. An interagency task force set up by Bill Clinton’s executive order proposed those breaks along with deductions to middle-class taxpayers who did not itemize their returns. Federal officials estimated the plan would cost the U.S. government $14 billion in lost tax payments over a decade.

In a January 2000 memo to Hillary Clinton from senior aides, plans for a “philanthropy tax initiative roll-out” showed her scrawled approval, “HRC” and “OK.” The document, marked with the archive stamp “HRC handwriting,” indicated her endorsement of the tax package, which included provisions to reduce and simplify an excise tax on private foundations’ investments and allow more deductions for charitable donations of appreciated property. The Clinton White House pushed the tax plan in its final budget in February 2000, but it did not survive the Republican-led Congress.

“Without your leadership, none of these proposals would have been included in the tax package,” three aides wrote to Hillary Clinton in the memo, days before she led a private conference call outlining the plan to private foundation and nonprofit leaders.

Federal law does not prevent fundraising by a presidential library during a president’s term. But in directly pushing the legislation while the Clinton Library was aggressively seeking donations, Hillary and Bill Clinton’s altruistic support for philanthropy overlapped with their interests promoting their White House years and knitting ties with philanthropic leaders. Hundreds of pages of documents contain no evidence that anyone in the Clinton administration warned anyone about potential ethics concerns or sought to minimize the White House’s active role in the legislation.

“The theme here for the Clintons is a characteristic ambiguity of doing good and at the same time doing well by themselves,” said Lawrence Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the Hubert H. Humphrey School at the University of Minnesota. Jacobs said the Clinton administration could have relied on a federal commission to decide tax plans or publicly supported changes but not specific legislation.

Spokesmen for Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Clinton Foundation declined to comment, deferring to the former president’s office.

A spokesman for Bill Clinton’s office said his administration was not trying to incentivize giving to the foundation, but instead was spurred by a 1997 presidential humanities committee that urged tax breaks for charities to aid American cultural institutions. Bruce Reed, Bill Clinton’s chief domestic policy adviser at the time, also responded Thursday that the former president “wanted to give a break to working people for putting a few more dollars in the plate at the church. Not for any other far-fetched reason.” Gene Sperling, former economic adviser to both Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama, added that the tax reduction package was “developed at the Treasury Department, endorsed by experts and designed to encourage all forms of charitable giving.”

The tax changes would have indirectly helped the Clinton Foundation — as well as many other U.S. charities — by freeing nonprofits’ investments and donations that otherwise would have gone into tax payments. A reduction of the excise tax would have boosted the assets of private foundations. Higher deductions for appreciated investments and property would have also aided the Clinton Foundation, which accepts non-cash gifts. In 2010, for example, the charity declared more than $5 million in donated securities on its federal tax returns.

By the time the Clinton administration introduced its tax package in February 2000, the foundation had already raised $6 million in donations, according to tax disclosures.

Months before proposing the tax breaks, Clinton White House officials began courting leaders from some of the nation’s most influential charities in advance of a planned White House conference to celebrate American philanthropy at the turn of the millennium. A September 1999 White House list proposing possible “philanthropy heroes” to highlight at the conference included wealthy donors of “large recent gifts,” among them Microsoft’s Bill Gates and his wife, Dell computer founder Michael Dell and investors George Soros and Eli Broad.

They all later donated to the Clinton Foundation through their companies or private foundations. There are no indications that White House officials discussed future Clinton Foundation gifts with any nonprofit.

Aides told Hillary Clinton in a September 1999 memo that funding for the event would be absorbed by the Treasury Department and several foundations and donors, among them the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Getty Foundation, AOL and Jill Iscol, a close Hillary Clinton friend and donor later named finance co-chair of the first lady’s New York Senate campaign.

Iscol’s IF Hummingbird Foundation later donated between $250,000 and $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation. The Ford Foundation has donated more than $1 million and the MacArthur Foundation and the Mott Foundation have each donated more than $250,000.

One voice for tax breaks was the actor Paul Newman, who routed the after-tax profits and royalties from his Newman’s Own food products to charity. An October 1999 Treasury memo to Clinton aides recounts a 1998 meeting between Newman and then-Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin in which the actor lobbied for “increasing the limits on charitable deductions for corporations and individuals.”