The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton, and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party @Drain0 http://archive.is/PDpL3#selection-157.0-154.2  The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton, and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party ....by deciding who would get foreign aid grants and who would not.   Their influence over Yeltsin was such that he frequently bypassed the Russian Parliament, issuing presidential decrees to enact the Harvard team’s reforms. At times, the men from Harvard would even draft Yeltsin’s decrees with their own hands.72 All of this meddling in Russia’s internal affairs might have been excusable and even commendable, had the Garvardniki proved wise and trustworthy counselors. All too often, however, they used their influence to push bad policy for selfish reasons.  The Harvard Institute’s Russian operations quickly became a hotbed of corruption, as its envoys exploited their access to Yeltsin and the Russian oligarchs for personal gain. Jeffrey Sachs has not been accused of profiting personally from these activities. Nevertheless, the cloud of scandal which consumed the Institute on his watch reflects poorly on his leadership, to say the least. Sachs resigned as director of the Institute on 25 May 1999, even as US Justice Department investigators were probing its Russian operations.73  Harvard shut down the scandal-ridden Institute in January 2000, but not soon enough to avoid a Justice Department lawsuit charging Institute personnel with fraudulent misuse of USAID funds. Harvard settled the case out of court for $26 million—a mere wrist slap considering the damage the Institute had done to the Russian economy and to US-Russian relations.74  Oddly, the Russia scandal left no perceptible marks on Professor Sachs’ reputation. As we shall see in Chapter 11, his career is flourishing today as never before. Throughout the ’90s, George Soros navigated the breakers of Russia’s economic turmoil like a champion surfer, finding the experience energizing, exhilarating and highly profitable. A reporter for the New Republic asked Soros in 1994 how he should describe to his readers the immense power and status the mighty philanthropist enjoyed in the former Soviet states. Soros replied, “Just write that the former Soviet Empire is now called the Soros Empire.”75 The Soros Empire was short-lived. By 1998 federal investigators in the United States were scrutinizing billions of dollars in illegal transfers flowing out of Russia through the Bank of New York and other US financial institutions. As the magnitude of the pilferage began leaking into Western media, foreign aid and foreign investment slowed to a trickle. Everything finally came to a screeching halt on “Black Monday,” 17 August 1998, when Russia was forced to devalue the ruble and default on its debt.  Rep. Jim Leach, head of the House Banking Committee, announced on 1 September 1999 that the Russia scandal could prove to be “one of the greatest social robberies in human history.” Based on preliminary inquiries, Leach declared that he was “very confident” that at least $100 billion had been laundered out of Russia, an unknown portion of which may have been diverted from the International Monetary Fund and other foreign aid loans.76 The true Clinton prequel to the Russian 'Reset'? Journalist Anne Williamson, appearing before Leach’s House Banking Committee on 22 September 1999, explained to a panel of stunned congressmen how so many US taxpayer dollars had managed to go missing in Russia.  She told the committee that the Clintons had set up an “international patronage machine.” Clintonites in the guise of “consultants” to the Russian government requested and received loans, virtually at will, through such international lending agencies as the IMF, the World Bank, the US Agency for International Development, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Export-Import Bank.  Few questioned the loans, said Williamson, because the Clinton administration had designated Russian “privatization” a “national security” priority. Much of the money simply vanished into offshore accounts and the New York Stock Exchange. Other monies were invested in Russian junk bonds, privatization auctions and other lucrative schemes. A handful of inside players, Russian and American alike, got rich, while the average Russian—not to mention the US taxpayer—got fleeced.77