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The Clintons' ties to uranium makers

What's a legacy? Political leaders are said to be concerned with their legacies, the historically significant achievements of their tenure in office.

Bill Clinton's legacy is about "rare earth." Rare earths are a series of chemical elements found in the earth's crust that are vital to many modern technologies, including communications, clean energy, advanced transportation and national defense. Allowing the sale of a factory in the heart of Indiana, home to the magnet maker Magnequench Inc. until it relocated its high-tech machine tools to Tianjin, China. Clinton administration approved the deal, despite national security concerns on transfer of military technology on smart bombs. China has a virtual monopoly, roughly 90 percent, of the mining, refining and processing of rare earths. It's especially troubling, because it was America that started the "rare earth" revolution in the first place.

Hillary Clinton's legacy is about "uranium." Both uranium and plutonium are used to make bombs before they became important for making electricity and radioisotopes. In 2013, we learned how the Russian atomic energy agency, Rosatom, had taken over a Canadian company with uranium-mining stakes stretching from Central Asia to the American West. The deal made Rosatom one of the world's largest uranium producers. At the heart of the tale are several men, leaders of the Canadian mining industry, who have been major donors to the charitable endeavors of former President Bill Clinton and his family. Among the agencies that eventually signed off was the State Department, and then headed by Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Robert Meale

Woodstock

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