Although the United States continuously preaches the world how to ensure rule of law – several senators of the ruling Democratic Party have clearly ignored their own “ideology” by extending support to Prof Muhammad Yunus, Nobel laureate and founder of Grameen Bank – a microcredit venture that has already been termed by economists and researchers as “high-interest taking big business”. Furthermore, while receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, Yunus pledged to sending poverty into museum while after 18 years – it is proved – Yunus did not send poverty to museum – instead, by borrowing money from his high-interest ventures, millions of poor women in Bangladesh has been pushed towards acute poverty and sufferings.
On January 22, 2024, several senators of Democratic Party, including pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s defender Dick Durbin, have publicly stood in defense of controversial Nobel Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus.
In a letter dated January 22, 2024, to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Senator Richard J. Durbin (Dick Durbin), Senator Todd Young, Senator Tin Kaine, Senator Dan Sullivan, Senator Jeffrey A. Merkley, Senator Edward J. Markey, Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Senator Peter Welch, Senator Sherrod Brown, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Senator Ron Wyden, and Senator Cory A. Booker wrote:
We write urging you to end to the persistent harassment of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus and the pattern of abusing laws and the justice system to target critics of the government more broadly.
For more than a decade, Professor Yunus has faced more than 150 unsubstantiated cases brought against him in Bangladesh. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk and human rights organizations such as Amnesty International have noted irregularities in proceedings against him, including the most recent six month prison sentencing for allegedly violating the country’s labor laws that is being appealed. These reputable organizations argue the speed and repeated use of criminal proceedings are indicative of politically motivated judicial abuses.
Moreover, the repeated and sustained harassment of Yunus mirrors what many Bangladeshi civil society members also face in an increasingly restrictive environment…
Meanwhile, in an opinion-editorial, British newspaper The Daily Express has criticized the “unexpected radical Islamist support for” him stating it is “not just a domestic affair but signals a disconcerting trend that could have far-reaching implications”.
The Daily Express said, “Dr. Yunus, once a symbol of innovative economic empowerment, along with his associates, faced severe legal repercussions that have significantly dented his once stellar reputation”.
It further said, “… If the political accusations held substantial truth, one might expect the charges and penalties against Dr. Yunus to be far more severe or ‘dramatic’.
“The relatively measured nature of the court’s verdict suggests that, contrary to the claims of some critics, justice may have been served without the undue influence of political machinations….”
Commenting on privileges Muhammad Yunus enjoys in the world, The Daily Express said, “The prestige and high profile enjoyed by Dr. Yunus should not exempt him from scrutiny or accountability, especially when faced with serious legal accusations. Indeed, the very principles of justice and equality demand that he, like any other citizen, is held accountable in a court of law if accused of wrongdoing”.
It may be mentioned here that, Senator Dick Durbin has on-record condemned “US treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base to the “atrocities committed by “Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime — Pol Pot or others – that had no concern for human beings”. Durbin later apologized to the military for the 2005 remarks, which he said were “a very poor choice of words”.
It is possible that the latest letter issued by Dick Durbin and his colleagues in the Democratic Party is the result of push by Hillary and Bill Clinton, while there also might be secret hands of Barack Obama. Lobbyists of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) might also have pushed secret envelopes to Durbin and others in exchange for this letter.
It may be mentioned here that, while receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, Yunus had openly pledged of sending poverty to the museum, while after 18 years – now it is proved – instead of sending poverty to the museum, Yunus has pushed millions into dire poverty.
It may also be mentioned here that for years, Prof Yunus has been consistently backed by Hillary Clinton. According to The Hill, during the combined two decades she served as a US senator and secretary of State, Hillary Clinton’s patrons regularly donated to her family charity when they had official business pending before America’s most powerful political woman. The pattern of political IOUs paid to the Clinton Foundation was so pernicious that the State Department even tried to execute a special agreement with the charity to avoid the overt appearance of “pay-to-play” policy.
Still, the money continued to flow by the millions of dollars, from foreigners and Americans alike who were perceived to be indebted to the Clinton machine or in need of its help.
Lately, Hillary Clinton came up to defend Muhammad Yunus – her friend and a major donor of Clinton Foundation. Although the Clinton Foundation website earlier declared that Muhammad Yunus had donated US$300,000 from his millions of dollars deposited in various foreign banks, the link to this declaration on the Clinton Foundation website has been mysteriously removed by the Clintons.
In 2010, as a Grameen Bank managing director, Yunus faced multiple charges of financial improprieties, including accusations in a Danish documentary that he diverted US$100 million from Grameen and transferred them toward his own entities. The charges sparked an immediate uproar in Bangladesh.
Hillary Clinton repeatedly and directly threatened Bangladesh on behalf of Muhammad Yunus, warning Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina that the World Bank could revoke a previously approved US$1.2 billion loan to build the Padma Bridge. Subsequently, at the request of Yunus, Hillary Clinton had exerted direct influence of the World Bank officials, while it is also alleged that she had used the Federal Investigation Agency (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in blackmailing at least two key officials of the World Bank thus compelling them in cancelling the approved loan for the Padma Bridge.
Hillary Clinton took full advantage and wielded tremendous pressure as the United States being the largest donor to the World Bank, which in 2011 contributed US$1.50 billion to the bank.
Hillary Clinton’s notorious actions against the Padma Bridge project were designed to undermine and humiliate Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina – only female heads of the government in the Muslim world.
On June 1, 2017, Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley asked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to respond to reports that Hillary Clinton tried to pressure Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina by threatening her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy with an IRS tax audit while he was living in the United States. Link to this matter has also been mysteriously deleted from the website of Senator Chuck Grassley.
For more than 30 years, Yunus oversaw the distribution of Grameen Bank “micro-credit loans” to the poor to set up small businesses. He was eventually regarded as a saint among many anti-poverty activists.
But he also got a big helping hand over the three decades Bill and Hillary Clinton actively promoted him and repeatedly showcased him as a celebrity figure at major Clinton Foundation functions. The former president Bill Clinton is credited with launching a personal lobbying campaign to press the Nobel Committee to award its peace prize to Yunus. It did so in 2006.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s mixing of official work with foundation donors is reportedly the focus of a second, less publicized FBI public corruption investigation of the former secretary of state. The more widely known FBI probe focuses on her use of a private email server located in her New York residence to conduct official government business.
Emails from Hillary Clinton’s private server disclose that Bill and Hillary Clinton closely monitored the Bangladesh government’s investigation of Muhammad Yunus.
David Bossie, president of the conservative activist group Citizens United and a long-time Clinton critic, called for the FBI to look into possible conflicts of interest linked to the long association between Yunus and the Clintons.
“The mixing of State Department and US government business with Clinton Foundation donors and interests is a prime example of what the FBI could be investigating in addition to the private email server setup”, Bossie told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
The Clinton-Yunus relationship dates from Bill Clinton’s tenure as Arkansas governor, when he and Hillary fell in love with the concept of micro-credit loans.
Former Secretary Hillary Clinton and her husband closely followed Yunus’ mounting problems. A June 11, 2012 email from Amitabh Desai, the foundation’s foreign policy director, for example, alerted Hillary Clinton of a Yunus response to the Bangladesh investigation.
“In case you haven’t seen it already, WJC wanted HRC and you to see this”, Desai said in the email routed through Cheryl Mills, Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff, and Huma Abedin, her deputy chief of staff. “WJC” is Bill Clinton and “HRC” is Hillary Clinton.
According to an expert seeking anonymity, the email “is potentially an indicator of the co-mingling of state business with the Clinton Foundation. It is very concerning”.
When back in January 11, 2007, an-army backed interim government came to power, Hillary Clinton made frantic bids in influencing the key figures of that government to consider Muhammad Yunus as the “new leader of Bangladesh”, by executing “minus-two formula” of forcing Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia into retirement and forced exile. The BBC reported April 7, 2007, that “the army would sponsor Nobel Peace prize winner Dr. Muhammad Yunus as a new leader”.
The report of Hillary Clinton’s brass knuckle tactics and her use of the World Bank on behalf of a Clinton foundation donor Muhammad Yunus could widen an ongoing investigation by the US Congress, as Special Counsel John Durham recently has released reports on ‘Russia collusion’ allegation that Hillary Clinton had manufactured against Donald Trump.
In Bangladesh, Prof Yunus has been collaborating with Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in unseating Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from power. Recently it has been disclosed – BNP has connections with Al Qaeda and Hezbollah while it has launched “India Out” movement reciprocating that of Maldives with the goal of jeopardizing Bangladesh’s existing relations with India.
