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‘Greenpeace, Ford sought help from Podesta on India troubles’
WASHINGTON: Ford Foundation and Greenpeace, whose financing and contributions were under scrutiny by Indian government, had enlisted Clinton campaign chair John
WASHINGTON: Ford Foundation and Greenpeace, whose financing and contributions were under scrutiny by Indian government, had enlisted Clinton campaign chair John Podesta’s help, a new set of hacked emails released by WikiLeaks showed.
Podesta did try to help, the emails revealed. One of them said he was the “primary reason for the positive turn” in the fortunes of Ford Foundation, which survived the scrutiny and was back in business in March. Greenpeace was less fortunate, and was thrown out in November 2015, a development Podesta foresaw.
Ford Foundation has been a major donor to Podesta’s think tank, Center for American Progress (CAP), and one of its trustees reminded Podesta of this in an email about the “India issue” - “I am always happy to see Ford grants to CAP.”
“Ford has become a mainstay for CAP too,” Podesta conceded in his reply, confirming his think tank had received funding from the charity he tried to save from the Indian government.
“Want to talk to the head of Greenpeace?” Podesta wrote in an email to his brother Tony Podesta, who heads a lobbying firm that had India among its major clients then.
“Kumi Naidoo (the Greenpeace head) is a very well known South African with a big international following, but I think GOI (government of India) is likely to stick it to them.” He added, “Separately, I am trying to help Ford Foundation which also got on the wrong side of GOI, but whose case I think can be more easily resolved.”
Ford Foundation was cleared to resume business as usual just a month before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US.
A lobbyist who once worked with Greenpeace wrote to Podesta, saying, “I have had a request from some colleagues at Greenpeace as they are facing a very serious situation in India. In a nutshell: an Indian Intelligence Bureau report was ‘leaked’ alleging Greenpeace India was responsible for a loss of 2-3% of the country’s GDP.”
“Kumi Naidoo was hoping to speak with you or to get advice on who might be able to help behind the scenes explaining to people close to the Prime Minister that their campaigns are about the issues of clean air and clean water,” wrote the lobbyist.
Podesta then put Greenpeace in touch with his brother.
