In case anybody still believes that Hillary Clinton would seriously alter the incestuous relationship between government and companies for whom 9/11 has been wonderful business, read on:
Just days after the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Hillary Clinton and several Democratic lawmakers will be getting uncomfortably cozy with moneyed interests who have stood to reap billions in post-9/11 homeland security spending, watchdog groups say.
On the sixth anniversary of the attacks which killed nearly 3,000 people, Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton is slated to attend a sober memorial service near Manhattan’s Ground Zero.
One week later, the junior New York senator is scheduled to speak at a homeland security-themed, $1,000-a-plate fundraiser for her campaign in the downtown Washington, D.C. offices of a powerful legal firm.
“Being a week after 9/11, it appears unseemly and politically opportunistic,” said Steve Ellis, a former Coast Guard officer who is now vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington, D.C. good government group.
Clinton’s fundraising audience is expected to include many of the government contractors and lobbyists whose fortunes have soared in the years since the attacks, which triggered a massive government reorganization and billions in new government spending.
But that’s not the only objectionable feature of the event, critics say.
For the price of a ticket — from a $1,000 personal donation to a $25,000 bundle — attendees will get a special treat after the luncheon: an opportunity to participate in small, hour-long “breakout sessions” hosted by key Democratic lawmakers, many of whom chair important subcommittees on the Homeland Security committee.
“It’s an outrage,” said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Washington, D.C. good-government group Project on Government Oversight.
“You never want to see lawmakers trading on their national security credentials”¦to people making large donations,” Ellis concurred.
After all, as Noami Klein writes in her new book, war is great for profits.