Hazards of Borrowing Private Jets

Hazards of Borrowing Private Jets
Wednesday, February 20, 2008 By John Gibson
Print
ShareThis
The trouble begins… now! Does John's My Word make your blood boil? Click here to listen live to The John Gibson Show on FOX News Radio (weekdays, 6-9 p.m. ET). It's your chance to call in and argue with John!
You may have noticed the biggest and best perk for any aspiring movie star, rock mogul or corporate big shot is moving from flying commercial to flying private.
As Barack Obama said in one of his books private jet travel is great. It's so convenient. It's so, well, private — nobody but you and your friends on the plane. It goes when you're ready to go.
But it takes a lot of money to have a private jet, even a small one, and even part time. Way, way more than a first-class ticket flying commercial.
Even a guy like Bill Clinton — who has made millions giving speeches since he left office — still can't afford his own private jet.
So Bubba has been flying OPJ — Other People's Jets.
In fact, Bill Clinton has gotten himself hooked up with a Canadian mining mogul named Frank Giustra evidently because Giustra has a big private jet. And he seems to let Bubba use it about anytime he wants for anything he wants.
var adsonar_placementId="1425894",adsonar_pid="150758",adsonar_ps="-1",adsonar_zw=224;adsonar_zh=93,adsonar_jv="ads.adsonar.com";

The former president flies to paid speeches on it, he flies to fund-raise for Hillary and he flies to raise millions for the Clinton Foundation.
Giustra is such a generous guy with his private jet. It costs thousands and thousands per hour to operate. But Giustra evidently says, hey, who's counting?
Giustra was trying to move along a half-billion dollar deal with Kazakhstan to mine uranium fields in that country.
His new best friend, Bill Clinton, the same one who uses his jet all the time, just happened to know the president of Kazakhstan so they flew off to Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, and they had dinner with president Nazarbayev, who is reputed to be one of the most corrupt leaders of a country in the world.
Column Archive
Fixing The Los Angeles Times' Khalidi Tape Problem
Los Angeles Times Sweeps Obama Tape Under the Rug
Who Is Rashid Khalidi?
ACORN: Connecting the Dots
Welcome to Day 5 of 'Stealing Ohio's Election'
Full-page My Word Archive
Show Info
Airs Weekdays at 5 p.m. ET
E-mail the Show:myword@foxnews.com


My Word Archive
Interview Archive
Giustra's half-billion dollar deal came though and Clinton got a half-million dollar check from Nazarbayev for his Clinton Foundation. God only knows what the president of Kazakhstan got.
It's nice to know people with private jets, isn't it? Nicer still to know a former president of the United States who likes private jets.
Watch John Gibson weekdays at 5 p.m. ET on "The Big Story with John Gibson and Heather Nauert" and send your comments to: myword@foxnews.com