Madame Secretary of State designee Hillary Clinton has some big time headaches with yesterday’s disclosure about the fountain of tens of millions of dollars of contributions from Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia to the William J. Clinton, Presidential Library Foundation . There were other conflicts, as well; however, these were the most egregious among the approximately 205,000 contributors identified in the disclosure report released yesterday. These looks like conflicts of interests that even a Democratic majority in the US Senate might choke on.

Besides this New York Post news article with the tag line “Desert Despots Give Charity Millions Headache for Hillary’s Cabinet Bid” today’s New York Post has an editorial, “Bill’s Pals, Hill’s Problems” and Dick Morris and Eileen McGann commentary, “500 M problems for Madame Secretary” on this troublesome disclosure.

Question is will these conflicts of interest raise problems about what Hillary Clinton would do vis a vis making a decision about possible US attendance at Durban II in April, 2009 and “scope-locking” Israel to implement UNSC resolution 1850 imposing a ‘peace’ agreement on the next Israeli government, barely 50 days away from a general election on February 10th?

Here’s what the New York Post news article disclosed:

Desert-dwelling donors, including Gulf states, billionaire Saudis and Arab-focused charities, gave big to his William J. Clinton Foundation in what could be called the world’s biggest sheik shakedown.

The oil-rich kingdom of Saudi Arabia alone gave between $15 million and $35 million to the nonprofit.

In all, more than 200,000 individuals and entities gave to Clinton - for a total of nearly $500 million. And that means 200,000 possible conflict-of-interest headaches for wife Hillary, President-elect Barack Obama’s pick for secretary of state.

Friends of Saudi Arabia, a government-sponsored agency that fosters ties between the kingdom and the United States, gave an additional $1 million to $5 million on top of the direct $10 million to $25 million from the kingdom itself.

And Saudi billionaires Sheik Mohammed H. al-Amoudi and Nasser al-Rashid donated in the $5 million-to-$10 million range. Hamza B. al Kholi, a Saudi construction titan, gave between $100,000 and $250,000.

The Persian Gulf governments of Kuwait, Qatar and Oman and the Far Eastern sultanate of Brunei each gave between $1 million and $5 million, and another $250,000 to $500,000 came from the US Islamic World Conference.

The United Arab Emirates-based Dubai Foundation, which aims to promote education in the Middle East, gave between $1 million to $5 million, as did the Zayed family, that country’s ruling family.

Note these comments from the New York Post editorial:

The donations from Arab countries could complicate Secretary Clinton’s efforts - particularly those from the Saudis, who are looking to become key players in Middle East negotiations.

And the possible conflicts don’t just involve foreign governments and interests.

None of this should automatically disqualify Hillary Clinton from serving as secretary of state.

But it’s worth noting that the list was made public only as a precondition of her nomination. Clearly, the names raise many questions - and the confirmation process is a perfect time for Congress to get the answers.

Morris and McGann, no fans of Bill and Hillary hit the proverbial nail on the head with this comment:

How could a US senator possibly serve dispassionately while her husband was collecting money from these donors on this kind of scale? And how could we have almost elected a president without realizing these conflicts existed? And how on earth can a secretary of state function with these conflicts hanging over her head?