US arms group (Bush's Carlyle Group) heads for Lisbon

Directors of one of the world’s largest armament companies are planning on meeting in Lisbon in three weeks time. The American based Carlyle Group is heavily involved in supplying arms to the Coalition forces fighting in the Iraqi war.

It also holds a majority of shares in the Seven Up company and Federal Data Corporation, supplier of air traffic control surveillance systems to the US Federal Aviation Authority. The 12 billion dollar company has recently signed contracts with United Defence Industries to equip the Turkish and Saudi Arabian armies with aviation defence systems.

Top of the meeting’s agenda is expected to be the company’s involvement in the rebuilding of Baghdad’s infrastructure after the cessation of current hostilities. Along with several other US companies, the Carlyle Group is expected to be awarded a billion dollar contract by the US Government to help in the redevelopment of airfields and urban areas destroyed by Coalition aerial bombardments.

The Group is managed by a team of former US Government personnel including its president Frank Carlucci, former deputy director of the CIA before becoming Defence Secretary. His deputy is James Baker II, who was Secretary of State under George Bush senior. Several high profile former politicians are employed to represent the company overseas, among them John Major, former British Prime Minister, along with George Bush senior, one time CIA director before becoming US President.

The financial assets of the Saudi Binladen Corporation (SBC) are also managed by the Carlyle Group. The SBC is headed up by members of Osama bin Laden’s family, who played a principle role in helping George W. Bush win petroleum concessions from Bahrain when he was head of the Texan oil company, Harken Energy Corporation - a deal that was to make the Bush family millions of dollars. Salem, Osama bin Laden’s brother, was represented on Harken’s board of directors by his American agent, James R. Bath.

Corporate Criminal of the Week: The Carlyle Group

By Anthony DiMaggio

The Carlyle Group is a multi-billion dollar corporation that specializes in buying, restructuring, and selling financially troubled companies. The Carlyle Group is also the 11th largest military contractor in the United States. With these statistics, it may seem odd that the Indy would single out this corporation, except for one important reason: the Carlyle Group has been doing business with the Saudi Bin Laden Group (a multi-billion-dollar construction group run by Osama Bin Laden's brother). While this connection was mainly ignored in the corporate media, the Carlyle Group was eventually exposed by the independent media for a $2 million deal it made with the Bin Laden Group. The firm also made approximately $50 million a year training the Saudi Arabian National Guard (Carlyle also advises the Saudi royal family on its Economic Offset Program).

There is no doubt that Carlyle Group has been doing business with members of Osama Bin Laden's family. At the very best (even though members of Osama's family claimed they have cut him off), there is really no way to verify whether Osama's brother (running the Bin Laden Group) has really severed all ties to Osama Bin Laden. At the very worst, the Carlyle Group is guilty of working with those that may have been directly involved in financing and supporting the attacks of September 11th. Unfortunately, we will never know because the corporate media has not had the courage to ask this question.

What is certain though, is that many politicians in high positions in the U.S. government have been involved with the Carlyle Group. George Bush Sr. works as an advisor for the group, along with former Secretary of State James Baker. Both have made hundreds of thousands of dollars promoting the Carlyle Group.

But the connections in government to the Carlyle Group do not end there. George Bush's old firm Arbusto Energy, was also funded by an investment banker named James Bath,(an advisor for the Bin Laden family). One of the Bin Laden companies' major partners is the H.C. Price Company, a joint partnership between Dresser Industries and Shaw Industries, which are both owned by the Halliburton corporation. And guess who ran Halliburton? You guessed it, none other than Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney even coordinated the Dresser-Shaw purchase back in 1998.

With all the connections between U.S. politicians and Osama Bin Laden's family in mind, it is important to ask exactly what these connections mean. Judicial Watch spokesman Larry Klayman has said, "This conflict of interest has now turned into a scandal. The idea of the President's father, an ex-president himself, doing business with a company under investigation by the FBI in the terror attacks of September 11th is horrible." David Singer from the New York Times stated, "It stands to reason, that President Bush consults with his father on issues of the day. In a normal situation, this would be appropriate, but President Bush's father being effectively an agent of the Saudi Arabian government, it raises, in the least, a conflict of interest problem."

If Bin Laden's brother may still be supporting Osama (with Carlyle Group compliance), the question then becomes, do we want to bomb Saudi Arabia and Washington to take a firm stand against terrorism? Is this the way a rational state should pursue its foreign policy? Instead of bombing innocent people in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, the American people need to question the Bush Administration's links to radical terrorist groups.

The American people should demand a full investigation into the Bin Laden Group and the Carlyle Group, even if it leads to an indictment against George Bush Sr., Dick Cheney, and head officials of the Carlyle Group. This is a direct way that Americans will be able to hinder terrorist groups and make the U.S. a safer place. The connection between the Bush and bin Laden families can also be traced to the collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) in the 1990s. Members of the Anglo Pakistani bank’s board of directors included Richard Helmes and William Casey, business partners of George Bush senior and former CIA agents. During their time at BCCI both Helmes and Casey worked alongside fellow director, Adnan Khasshoggi, who also represented the bin Laden family’s interests in the US.

The Portugal News has been told by a reliable source that the Carlyle Group meeting in Lisbon will discuss the relationship between the Saudi Binladen Corporation (SBC) and Osama bin Laden. Many US officials claim that the SBC continues to finance his political activities, and has done so for many years. If true, this would place George Bush senior and his colleagues at the Carlyle Group in an embarrassing position. As managers of SBC’s financial investments they might well be accused of indirectly aiding and abetting the United States’ number one enemy.

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printed from US arms group (Bush's Carlyle Group) heads for Lisbon on 2004-05-06 07:03:42