Tea at Trianon: When Russia Bought US Uranium Mines

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, October 14, 2022

When Russia Bought US Uranium Mines

From a few months ago but worth remembering. From Mark Hyman:

In June 2010, Rosatom (Russian State Atomic Nuclear Agency) announced its purchase of 51 percent majority share of Uranium One. Some of the holdings of Uranium One were US uranium mines, a strategic asset that required US government scrutiny. The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 mandated that the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission make a determination if a license transfer was in the security interest of the United States.

Three months earlier, in March 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met privately with then-Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitri Medvedev to discuss several issues, including nuclear matters. Those private talks may have included discussions of Rosatom’s intention to purchase Uranium One.

US government scrutiny included more than just the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The heads of several major US government agencies are members of the Committee for Foreign Investment in the United States. This committee has responsibility to review all sales involving a strategic US asset.

Several cabinet secretaries and other agency heads were members of the committee, including: Hillary Clinton (State), Tim Geithner (Treasury), Gary Locke (Commerce), Robert Gates (Defense), Steven Chu (Energy), Janet Napolitano (Homeland Security), Eric Holder (Attorney General), Ron Kirk (US Trade Representative), and John Holdren (Office of Science and Technology Policy).[i]

As is typical in similar committees, the principal members could appoint a subordinate as a proxy to carry out their wishes. Clinton instructed Jose Fernandez to act on her behalf as her committee representative. Suggestions made later that committee principals were not knowledgeable on the topic and had no idea how their subordinates would vote are patently absurd. (Read more.)