It has been alleged that Rice faced a conflicted position related to the Keystone XL pipeline proposal, with the family's portfolio standing to benefit if their tar sand extraction holdings were to gain in value from an output routing to the Texas Gulf coast, for refining there and/or transit overseas - which is what the Keystone pipeline proposal is all about. As to bank holdings in the Rice-Cameron portfolio, I expect the central bankers in our globalized world were not unhappy to see Gaddafi deposed, even if theories of central bank displeasure with the Libyan regime may be speculative exaggerations. Was the man a gold bug with that problematic given the Libyan oil reserves and oil marketing? Who's to say? I only know what's been reported, and mainstream coverage did not get into gold and central banking questions.
With Rice's name withdrawn, we move FORWARD to a possible Kerry nomination.
“We’re cautiously optimistic,” is the reported word of others, reportedly moving FORWARD.
____________UPDATE____________
Atlantic Wire, here. I first read of the Rice investment portfolio motivations and questions, Sybil Edmonds, here. The deeper the story, the more FORWARD may resonate with those not wanting to awaken the sleeping dog, the big slow dog which might not know whether it was kicked or stumbled over.
_________FURTHER UPDATE_________
While The New American at its website foot indicates John Birch Society ties, so that its publishing has that flavor, the gold bug theory seems consistent with pricing oil in dollars, etc. The one post had links at the bottom, which gave 404 page unavailable error messages when I tried them. Of interest, the Alex Newman New American article reports:
According to more than a few observers, Gadhafi’s plan to quit selling Libyan oil in U.S. dollars — demanding payment instead in gold-backed “dinars” (a single African currency made from gold) — was the real cause. The regime, sitting on massive amounts of gold, estimated at close to 150 tons, was also pushing other African and Middle Eastern governments to follow suit.
[YouTube link in original]
Presuming that 150 Tons of gold report is true, what happened to it, where is it now?
Was this a big time gold robbery? Interesting reporting is that Turkey is buying Iranian oil in exchange for gold, indirectly so, but, this google; and this. About a week ago Libya announced it would be paying "compensation" to Turkish firms.
Daily Paul, here, a link from the first return page, this google. This blog post, on gold bug possibilities.
Again, 150 tons of gold is not an insubstantial thing to verify, and account for, with it so far not appearing to be of interest to US mainstream press, nor any part of Sen. McCain's distrust of Benghazi events where his perspective is on most recent events and deaths, and not on accounting for gold reserves history and actualities during war torn chaos prior to the four US deaths.
We should be sympathetic to Secretary Clinton's recent illness and fall and concussion which will delay her testimony on Benghazi. Apparently she now is forced to send surrogates to testify indirectly, at present, on what she knew and when she knew it.
Jodi Seth, a spokeswoman for Senate Foreign Relations Committee head John Kerry, said that given her condition, Clinton's testimony would be postponed, but did not say until when. Seth said the planned hearings would be held with other senior officials appearing in Clinton's place.
The Republican chair of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, issued a statement saying she was sorry to hear of Clinton's ill health, but it was "unfortunate" she was unable to testify before the committee next week.
"We still don't have information from the Obama Administration on what went so tragically wrong in Benghazi that resulted in the deaths of four patriotic Americans.
"We have been combing through classified and unclassified documents and have tough questions about State Department threat assessments and decision-making on Benghazi. This requires a public appearance by the Secretary of State herself."
Ros-Lehtinen's statement said Deputy Secretary William Burns and Deputy Secretary Thomas Nides would provide testimony in Clinton's place.
Reading gold-related speculation makes me think of Bogart and John Huston, in "Treasure of the Sierra Madres." And the famous, "We don't need no stinking badges," banditry segment, bandits leaving when the real Federales fortuitously appeared. That epic film had its own explanation at the end for where the extracted gold disappeared.