Semi-Daily Journal

This one really had me laughing... Until I realized it was reality.

You may notice that Brad's link to the article on Unfogged didn't work. Try this one instead:

http://www.unfogged.com/archives/week_2003_06_29.html#000472

Great article.

Unusual for Dick Darman to allow a mistake like that right under his nose...

Unusual for Dick Darman to allow a mistake like that right under his nose...

Well, now we know that even bigwig corporate board president types make mistakes evaluating people. Dr. Rubenstein couldn't see Mr. Bush's potential even after three years.

But Bush went on to win voter approval to pay for a new baseball stadium for rich team owners. Then he won the Governor's office and went on to come close enough to winning the presidency that Republicans on the Supreme Court could install him there.

Obviously, the Carlyles simply failed to find ways to use his talents.

makes me like him even more...

Well, now we know that even bigwig corporate board president types make mistakes evaluating people. Dr. Rubenstein couldn't see Mr. Bush's potential even after three years.

But Bush went on to win voter approval to pay for a new baseball stadium for rich team owners. Then he won the Governor's office and went on to come close enough to winning the presidency that Republicans on the Supreme Court could install him there.

Obviously, the Carlyles simply failed to find ways to use his talents.

It's good to be royalty. Man, I can't seem to do a damn thing to help my generally well qualified good friends out of long term unemployment hell and there are people that can talk to a few people and get you on corporate boards. Makes me feel even more weak and powerless than I already did.

WTF? I thought that the Carlyle Group's core competances could be summed up with the phrases 'military-industrial complex' and 'crony capitalism'. Why would one of their directors say that about a very well-connected guy? Even if he wasn't considered competant as a board member (?!?!?!?), he'd still be in their Rolodex. Surely they could have eased him into another position, and then kept their mouths shut.

I'm with Barry. I'm not saying it isn't true, but it sure is a wierd thing for someone from the Carlyle Group to say. It's just not the way the game is played by these people. Hmmm.

Barry writes: "WTF? I thought that the Carlyle Group's core competances could be summed up with the phrases 'military-industrial complex' and 'crony capitalism'. Why would one of their directors say that about a very well-connected guy? Even if he wasn't considered competant as a board member (?!?!?!?), he'd still be in their Rolodex. Surely they could have eased him into another position, and then kept their mouths shut."

Why would they need Bush Jr., a failed oilman and C student, when they've almost certainly got Bush Sr. in their rolodex, along with other people far better connected, and more credible, than Bush Jr.?

Bush Jr. was redundant, and didn't add much. High level access to Republicans is Carlyle's core competency, after all.

The reason to keep Bush II around is that it maintains access to Bush I. Think of it as giving a cush job to the son of somebody you want to stay in good favor with. And they should be able to slide him into a position which keeps him from messing up the actual business. And even if they didn't, why would they say such a thing publicly?

The reason to keep Bush II around is that it maintains access to Bush I. Think of it as giving a cush job to the son of somebody you want to stay in good favor with. And they should be able to slide him into a position which keeps him from messing up the actual business. And even if they didn't, why would they say such a thing publicly?

Barry, I think Carlyle's connections are such that they would have had access to Bush I no matter what. Their connections were that deep. There were probably half a dozen people on their board with long associations with Bush I. Frank Carlucci for starters.

It's not clear when Bush II was involved with Carlyle. Bush I joined Carlyle after his presidency; I don't know if he's still involved, but he might be.

Clearly, the relationship between Carlyle and Bush I was strong enough for Bush I to ask that his neer-do-well son get a sinecure on the board, a position for which he was eminently unqualified. Having granted the favor, and kept Bush II on for 3 years, I can't see how Bush I could complain about his being let go.

If Bush I accepted a position with Carlyle after Bush II was let go, it's clear there were no hard feelings. Hell, Bush I probably knew darn well he was handing Carlyle a turd, and would be lucky if they took Dubya at all.

As to why this is being said now, well, it's been a while. And I've heard Carlyle is diversifying, so they're not as dependent on government handouts.

Actually, according to the Carlyle site, Bush Senior is still on one of their advisory boards as Senior Advisor for Carlyle Asia (ie, Middle East).

http://www.thecarlylegroup.com/eng/company/l3-company738.html

James Baker is also involved.

Oops, there goes another conspiracy theory...

http://www.dailytexanonline.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2001/12/11/3c15aae1abad4

" George W.'s escalation of the war will create more and more military contracts, boosting stocks in Carlyle portfolios, profiting the elder Bush and, eventually, George W."

Oops, there goes another conspiracy theory...

http://www.dailytexanonline.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2001/12/11/3c15aae1abad4

" George W.'s escalation of the war will create more and more military contracts, boosting stocks in Carlyle portfolios, profiting the elder Bush and, eventually, George W."

Barry and Rob miss the point of the story. David Rubenstein was not telling a deprecating story about George W. Rather the ancecdote recounts the trials and tribulations of a young "legacy" finding his place in the "isn't life grand" world of the super rich and connected.

Alternatively, you can read Thomas Sowell's encouraging data about mobility between income groups. He points to incomeless university students rising from the bottom income quintile to the top in the ten short years between turning 21 and becoming corporate junior vice-presidents.
The fact that those go-getters have parents on corporate boards is superfluous to the point Sowell is making.

Now if Rubenstein and Sowell could teach welfare moms to network a little, another problem solved.

There really isn't much mystery as to why Rubenstein would tell the story, I don't think.

It came up as sort of a broader morality play in which Rubenstein was explaining the need to maintain perspective. He had just related how during the time period under discussion (1990), Carlyle had made a poor investment in an airline catering busniness; a business that suffered due to the surprise outbreak of Gulf War I.

The story of Bush II was an amusing anecedote stemming from the airline food debacle that was meant to further illustrate how life, even for Carlyle, can be full of surprises.

Now Carlyle is a huge private equity fund, the men (and women?) that control it are bigger than any president (or two presidents). They make presidents and presidents work for them.

So perhaps the story contains a more sublime message of perspective as well; and perhaps it was meant to, consciously or even subconsciously.

Despite all the recent scandal involving short sighted profiteers in the US markets, some organizations really are in for the long haul and play the game accordingly.

These folks know economics and finances as well as anybody.

If the various Bush II policies are as totally FUBAR as many of us reasonable and thoughtful participants here find them to be, then don't you think Carlyle can see this as well?

Carlyle does not need Bush. No doubt his executive policies have not made him any more endearing to Carlyle than when he was a useless spoiled brat on their board.

Then there is always personal pride. A guy like Rubenstein works for a living. He made it up the ladder by making tough decisions and made enough correct ones to keep his position.

It must be a complete personal affront to such a man to see so much handed to an undeserving drooling incompetent. It's just got to steam him sometimes to see Bush II making a bludgeoned mess of the English language during a speach, all the while spewing inanely conceived concepts, lies and damned lies.

I'll bet Rubenstein couldn't help himself but to tell that little tale.

Almost as good as the story Ed Stanton told me about the country bumpkin lawyer who was supposed to help him on a railroad case. They blew the guy off, and 15 years later Stanton is his Secretary of War (and proudly telling the world how he'd misunderestimated old Abe).

George W. Bush was on the following boards:

Board/Trustee/Director: Tom Brown, Inc. (Director, resigned 1994) Caterair International, Inc. (Director, resigned 1994) Harken Energy, Inc. (Director, resigned 1993) Silver Screen Partners (board member) Lucky Chance Mining Co. (board member)

Bush was on the Caterair International, Inc. board, not the Carlyle board. If Carlyle group director David Rubenstein is going to tells a story he should get his facts straight (although, it may have been the reporter who wrote the headline, HOW BUSH GOT BOUNCED FROM CARLYLE BOARD, that got the facts wrong. I don't know since only an exerpt has been printed here.)

Rubenstein says, "And I said, thanks - didn't think I'd ever see him again. His name is George W. Bush. He became President of the United States. So you know if you said to me, name 25 million people who would maybe be President of the United States, he wouldn't have been in that category."

Bush defeated Democrat Anne Richards to become governor of Texas in 1994, the same year he resigned from the Caterair International, Inc. board, not the Carlyle board. Isn't it currious that Rubenstein didn't know that Bush, a former board member, had become the Governor of Texas.

It's also currious that Rubenstein would have thought of 25 million other people becoming President before coming to a two-term Governor of the State of Texas.

Rubenstein's head must be up his ass.

In my dreams Rubenstein says,

"And after a while I kind of said to him, after about three years - you know, I'm not sure the presidency is really for you. Maybe you should do something else."

He said, "Well I think I'm getting out of this business anyway. And I don't really like it that much. So I'm probably going to resign from the presidency."

"Hey guys... don't shoot the messenger!"

Bush's Former Oil Company
Linked To bin Laden Family
By Rick Wiles
American Freedom News.com
c. 2001 American Freedom News
10-3-1

President Bush recently signed an executive order to freeze the US financial assets of corporations doing business with Osama bin Laden. He described the order as a "strike on the financial foundation of the global terror network."

"If you do business with terrorists, if you support or succor them, you will not do business with the United States," said President Bush.

He didn't say anything about doing business with a terrorist's brother - or his wealthy financier.

When President George W. Bush froze assets connected to Osama bin Laden, he didn't tell the American people that the terrorist mastermind's late brother was an investor in the president's former oil business in Texas. He also hasn't leveled with the American public about his financial connections to a host of shady Saudi characters involved in drug cartels, gun smuggling, and terrorist networks.

Doing business with the enemy is nothing new to the Bush family. Much of the Bush family wealth came from supplying needed raw materials and credit to Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. Several business operations managed by Prescott Bush - the president's grandfather - were seized by the US government during World War II under the Trading with the Enemy Act.

On October 20, 1942, the federal government seized the Union Banking Corporation in New York City as a front operation for the Nazis. Prescott Bush was a director. Bush, E. Roland Harriman, two Bush associates, and three Nazi executives owned the bank's shares. Eight days later, the Roosevelt administration seized two other corporations managed by Prescott Bush. The Holland-American Trading Corporation and the Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation, both managed by the Bush-Harriman bank, were accused by the US federal government of being front organizations for Hitler's Third Reich. Again, on November 8, 1942, the federal government seized Nazi-controlled assets of Silesian-American Corporation, another Bush-Harriman company doing business with Hitler.

Doing business with the bin Laden empire, therefore, is only the latest extension of the Bush family's financial ties to unsavory individuals and organizations. Now that thousands of American citizens have died in terrorist attacks and the nation is going to war, the American people should know about George W. Bush's relationship with the family of Osama bin Laden.

Salem bin Laden, Osama's older brother, was an investor in Arbusto Energy. - the Texas oil company started by George W. Bush. Arbusto means "Bush" in Spanish. Salem bin Laden died in an airplane crash in Texas in 1988.

Sheik Mohammed bin Laden, the family patriarch and founder of its construction empire, also died in a plane crash. Upon his death in 1968, he left behind 57 sons and daughters - the offspring he sired with 12 wives in Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. About a dozen brothers manage Bin Laden Brothers Construction - one of the largest construction firms in the Middle East.

Fresh out of Harvard Business School, young George W. Bush returned to Midland, TX, in the late 1970s to follow his father's footsteps in the oil business. Beginning in 1978, he set up a series of limited partnerships - Arbusto '78, Arbusto '79, and so on - to drill for oil.

One of President Bush's earliest financial backers was James Bath, a Houston aircraft broker. Bath served with President Bush in the Texas Air National Guard. Bath has a mysterious connection to the Central Intelligence Agency.

According to a 1976 trust agreement, Salem bin Laden appointed James Bath as his business representative in Houston. Revelation about Bath's relationship with the bin Laden financial empire and the CIA was made public in 1992 by Bill White, a former real estate business partner with Bath. White informed federal investigators in 1992 that Bath told him that he had assisted the CIA in a liaison role since 1976 - the same year former President George Herbert Walker Bush served as director of the CIA.

During a bitter legal fight between White and Bath, the real estate partner disclosed that Bath managed a portfolio worth millions of dollars for Sheik Khalid bin Mahfouz and other wealthy Saudis. Among the investments made by Bath with Mahfouz's money was the Houston Gulf Airport.

A powerful banker in Saudi Arabia, Mahfouz was one of the largest stockholders in the Bank of Credit and Commerce International. BCCI was a corrupt global banking empire operating in 73 nations and was a major financial and political force in Washington, Paris, Geneva, London, and Hong Kong. Despite the appearance of a normal banking operation, BCCI was actually an international crime syndicate providing "banking services" to the Medellin drug cartel, Pamama dictator Manuel Noriega, Saddam Hussein, terrorist mastermind Abu Nidal, and Khun Sa, the heroin kingpin in Asia's Golden Triangle.

The BCCI scandal implicated some of the biggest political names in Washington - both Democrats and Republicans - during the first Bush White House. The bank was accused of laundering money for drug cartels, smuggling weapons to terrorists, and using Middle Eastern oil money to influence American politicians.

The chief of the Justice Department's criminal division under former President Bush was Robert Mueller. Because the major players came out of the scandal with slaps on the wrists, many critics accused Mueller of botching the investigation. Mr. Mueller was recently appointed by President George W. Bush as the new Director of the FBI, replacing Louis Freeh who did nothing while William Jefferson Clinton allowed the Red Chinese to loot our national security secrets.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a division of the Justice Department, reviewed allegations by Bill White in 1992 that James Bath funneled money from wealthy Middle Eastern businessmen to American companies to influence the policies of the Reagan and Bush administrations. Robert Mueller, the new FBI chief, was in a senior position at the Justice Department at the time of the review.

White told a Texas court in 1992 that Bath and the Justice Department had "blackballed" him professionally and financially because he refused to keep quiet about his knowledge of an Arabic conspiracy to launder Middle Eastern money into the bank accounts of American businesses and politicians.

In sworn depositions, Bath admitted he represented four wealthy Saudi Arabian businessmen as a trustee. He also admitted he used his name on their investments and received, in return, a five- percent stake in their business deals.

Indeed, Texas tax documents revealed that Bath owned five percent of Arbusto '79 Ltd., and Arbusto '80 Ltd. Bush Exploration Company controlled the limited partnerships, the general partnership firm owned by young George W. Bush.

Although George W. Bush's Texas oil ventures were financial failures, his financial backers recovered their investments through a series of mergers and stock swaps. He changed Arbusto's name to Bush Exploration, then merged the new firm into Spectrum 7 Energy Corporation in 1984.

The Bush-controlled oil business eventually ended up being folded into Harken Energy Corp., a Dallas-based corporation. Mr. Bush joined Harken as a director in 1986 and was given 212,000 shares of Harken stock. Bush used his White House connections to land a lucrative contract for the obscure Harken Energy Corp. with the Middle Eastern government of Bahrain. On June 20, 1990, George W. Bush sold his Harken stock for $848,000 and paid off his loan he took out to buy his small share in the Texas Rangers. The Bahrain deal was brokered by David Edwards, a close pal to Bill Clinton and a former employee of Stephens Inc. Shortly after Bush sold his stock, Harken's fortunes nose-dived when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Some critics claim young George was tipped off in advance by his father about the soon-coming Gulf War.

George W. Bush, however, worked wonders for Harken Energy Corp. before the stock collapse. Using the Bush family name, he managed to bring much-needed capital investment to the struggling firm. George W. Bush traveled to Little Rock, AR, to attend a meeting with Jackson Stephens - a powerful Arkansas tycoon who help bankroll the state campaigns of young Bill Clinton. He first gained political prominence as a fund-raiser for President Jimmy Carter. Stephens was also deeply involved in the BCCI scandal by helping the corrupt bank take control of First American Bank in Washington, DC.

Jack Stephens didn't need an introduction to young George W. Bush. Mary Anne Stephens, his wife, managed Vice President George Bush's 1988 presidential campaign in Arkansas. Stephens Inc., the well connected brokerage firm owned by Jack Stephens, donated $100,000 to a Bush campaign fundraising dinner in 1991. When George W. Bush won the contested Florida election in 2000, Jack Stephens made a substantial contribution to the Bush inauguration. Recently, former President Bush played golf on April 11, 2001, with Jack Stephens at the Jack Stephens Youth Golf Academy in Little Rock. The former president told Stephens, "Jack, we love you and we are very, very grateful for what you have done."

Perhaps the former president was thanking him for the money Stephens provided young George W. Bush. Stephens arranged for a $25 million investment from the Union des Banques Suisses. The Swiss Bank held the minority interest in the Banque de Commerce et de Placements, a Geneva-based subsidiary of BCCI.

Both Stephens and Abdullah Taha Bakhsh, a wealthy and well-connected Saudi real estate investor, signed the financial transaction. The Geneva transaction was paid through a joint venture between the Union Bank of Switzerland and its Geneva branch of BCCI.

The BCCI connection, therefore, linked George W. Bush with Saudi banker Khaled bin Mahfouz. Known in Arab circles as the "king's treasurer," Mahfouz held a 20 percent take in BCCI between 1986 and 1990. Mahfouz is no stranger to the Bush family. He was a big investor in the Carlyle Group, a defense-industry investment group with deep connections to the Republican Party establishment. Former President Bush is a former member of the company's board of directors. George W. Bush also held shares in Caterair, a Carlyle subsidiary. Sami Baarma, a powerful player in the Mahfouz-owned Prime Commercial Bank of Pakistan, is a member of the Carlyle Group's international advisory board.

President Bush certainly is aware of that his former Saudi sugar daddy is still financing Osama bin Laden's terrorist network. USA Today newspaper reported in 1999 that a year after bin Laden's attacks on US embassies in Africa, Khaled bin Mahfouz and other wealthy Saudis were funneling tens of millions of dollars each year into bin Laden's bank accounts. Five top Saudi businessmen ordered the National Commercial Bank to transfer personal funds and $3 million pilfered from a Saudi pension fund to the Capitol Trust Bank in New York City. The money was deposited into the Islamic Relief and Bless Relief - Islamic charities operating in the US and Great Britain as fronts for Osama bin Laden.

The Capitol Trust Bank is run by Mohammad Hussein al-Amoudi. His lawyer is Democratic Party bigwig Vernon Jordan, close friend of former President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky.

Abdullah Taha Bakhsh, the Arab who cosigned the $25 million cash infusion into George W. Bush's Harken Energy Corporation, appointed Talat Othman to manage his 17.6 percent share in Harken Energy Corp. Othman, a native Palestinian, is president and CEO of Dearborn Financial Inc. - an investment firm in Arlington Heights, IL.

Bakhsh also bought a 9.6 percent stake in Worthen Banking Corporation, the Arkansas bank controlled by Jack Stephens. Abdullah Bakhsh's share was the identical percentage as the amount of shares sold by Mochtar Riady, the godfather of the wealthy Indonesian family with close ties to the Chinese communists, Bill Clinton and evangelist Pat Robertson. Bakhsh is represented by Rogers & Wells, a well-connected Republican law firm in New York whose partners include former Secretary of State William P. Rogers.

Independent investigator reporter David Twersky reported in the early 1990s that Othman had a seat on Harken's board of directors and met three times in the White House with President George Herbert Walker Bush. Organized by Chief of Staff John Sununu, Othman's first meeting with President Bush at the White House was in August 1990, just days after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.

There exist to this day an Arab-Texas connection. Khalid bin Mahfouz, financier of both George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden, still maintains a palatial estate in Houston, TX. Former President George Bush also lives in Houston. James Bath, Texas political confidant of George W. Bush, managed to obtain a $1.4 million loan from Mahfouz in 1990. Bath and Mahfouz, along with former Secretary of Treasury John Connally, were also co-investors in Houston's Main Bank. Bath was also president of Skyway Aircraft Leasing Ltd, a Texas air charter company registered in the Cayman Islands. According to published reports in the early 1990s, the real owner was bin Mahfouz. When Salem bin Laden, Osama' brother, died in 1988, his interest in the Houston Gulf Airport was transferred to bin Mahfouz.

Since Osama bin Laden's bloody attack on America on September 11, the federal government has moved quickly to freeze bank accounts connected to Osama bin Laden, Khalid bin Mahfouz, and a host of Islamic charities.

Perhaps federal agents should freeze the financial assets of the Bush family too. It would not be the first time Bush-family assets were seized by the US government for trading with the enemy.


Copyright 2001 American Freedom News

"And what about Bob"

A strange intersection of Bushes, bin Ladens
11/11/01 -Tom Brazaitis Senior Editor in The Plain Dealer's Washington Bureau

Movie producers would reject the script as too implausible even for Hollywood.
Here's the bizarre plot twist: The father of the president of the United States stands to profit from the war his son is waging against terrorists, and so does the family of the leading terrorist.
Until recently, the Texas-based Bush political dynasty that produced two presidents and the Saudi Arabian-based bin Laden family that spawned the FBI's most wanted terrorist reaped dividends from the same source.
Details of the case of strange business bedfellows have dribbled out over the last several months, raising at least the perception of conflicts of interest. But the Bush family and the White House maintain there is no impropriety.
Critics do not contend that President George W. Bush is waging war for his family's financial benefit. But they say the fact that the family stands to gain from any military action puts the family in a compromising position, even if the circumstances are purely coincidental. Former President Bush is a senior adviser to the Carlyle Group, a private equity company that buys failing defense and telecommunications enterprises and sells them for a profit. Carlyle's investors have collected returns averaging 34 percent over the last decade.
With assets of more than $12 billion, Carlyle is the 11th-largest defense contractor in the United States. It owns companies making tanks, aircraft wings and other military hardware.
Bush reportedly gets $80,000 to $100,000 for each of a half-dozen or more speeches he delivers for the Carlyle Group each year, and takes payment in Carlyle stock. How much the former president's stake is worth can't be determined because Carlyle's business dealings are private. An aide to the former president answered "no comment" to questions about his Carlyle compensation.
Until recently, the family of Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes against the United States, held at least $2 million in Carlyle stock. The family, which has publicly disavowed its black sheep, Osama, agreed to sell its Carlyle holdings last month to quash negative publicity. Details of this and the other relationships had been in reported publications including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
Former President Bush has no such qualms about his relationship with Carlyle.
The former president's close ties with the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia and with leaders in Korea and other Asian nations reportedly helped Carlyle attract wealthy investors. But Jean Becker, the former president's chief of staff in Houston, said Bush does not lobby for Carlyle with either the American or foreign governments.
As for the appearance of a conflict, Becker said, "President Bush just feels strongly that this was a relationship that he had before his son became president, and because of the way in which he conducts himself in this relationship there is no conflict of interest. He feels very comfortable with it."
Becker confirmed that the former president had met twice with the bin Laden family on visits to Saudi Arabia in November 1998 and January 2000. Those visits, she said, were "irrelevant to the fact that he was there for Carlyle."
President George W. Bush himself has been a beneficiary of Carlyle's largesse. In 1990, before the younger Bush ran for governor of Texas, Carlyle put him on the board of directors of its subsidiary Caterair, an airline catering company.
The younger Bush also had a tenuous connection to the bin Laden family. In 1979, James Bath, a close friend, gave Bush $50,000 for a 5 percent stake in Arbusto Energy, Bush's first business. Bath was the U.S. business representative for Salem bin Laden, one of Osama's brothers, who headed the family's business enterprises. It has been speculated that Bath invested the bin Ladens' money, but the White House recently denied this, saying Bath invested his own money.
As governor, Bush appointed the board that managed the Texas teachers pension fund. Last November, the board voted to invest $100 million in Carlyle. The University of Texas has invested $15.6 million in funds managed by the Carlyle Group.
Tucker Eskew, a White House spokesman, said, "There is absolutely no conflict of interest in the view of the White House or any credible source that we're aware of."
Not everyone shares that view.
Judicial Watch, a self-described public-interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government abuse and corruption, has called on the former president to cut his ties to the Carlyle Group. Judicial Watch's criticism of the Bushes is noteworthy because the group was one of the chief antagonists of the Clinton administration.
Tom Fitton, president of the watchdog group, said, "It's an obvious conflict of interest. It's a unique situation where you have the president's father, an ex-president, out there negotiating and dealing with foreign governments and advising foreign entities. It just leads to confusion. Does he speak for the Carlyle Group or for the government of the United States? Obviously, the Carlyle Group benefits from that confusion. Otherwise, they wouldn't have hired him."
Fitton said the bin Laden family's withdrawal from the Carlyle Group is a good thing, but doesn't absolve the former president.
Another Carlyle principal with ties to both Bushes is James A. Baker, the secretary of state in the first Bush administration, and the point man for George W. Bush during his legal fight with Al Gore last year over Florida's presidential votes. Baker holds the title of senior counselor for Carlyle.
Carlyle's president is Frank Carlucci, who was defense secretary in the Reagan administration. Carlucci was a college roommate of the current defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld.
Carlucci is open about his discussions with Rumsfeld on Pentagon politics, but he told the New York Times, "I've made it clear I don't lobby the defense industry. I will give our Carlyle bankers' advice on what they might do and who they should talk to. But I do not pick up the phone and say, 'You should fund X, Y or Z.' "
The Washington-based Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group, has been investigating Carlyle's connections with former government officials. But information on Carlyle and its subsidiaries is hard to find because private companies are not compelled to reveal their inner workings, and Carlyle does not volunteer information, said Peter Eisner, the group's managing director.
"We don't know anything about former President Bush's financial arrangement with Carlyle, who his contacts are when he travels as a representative of Carlyle, and what information he provides back to his son or anybody in the U.S. government," Eisner said.
The revolving-door between government and business has been spinning merrily for many years. Henry Kissinger, who was secretary of state and national security adviser for Presidents Nixon and Ford, started a consulting firm that has made him a multimillionaire since he left government service.
William Cohen, a former Republican senator from Maine who was President Clinton's defense secretary, is a consultant to corporations. Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger; his former chief of staff, Mack McClarty; his ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke; and the former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, William Kennard, also are cashing in on their years of government service. Kennard has signed on with Carlyle.
What makes the Bushes' situation unique, Eisner said, is the father-son connection, coupled with the ongoing war on terrorism.
"The revolving door makes it possible for current government officials, including the president of the United States, to profit from decisions that take place now, especially when his father, the former president, advises a company which has major defense contracts," said Eisner.
Contact Tom Brazaitis at: tbrazaitis@plaind.com, 216-999-4212
© 2001 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/tom_brazaitis/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/opinion/100538827930563196.xml

and……

Under cover of war, Bush tinkers
11/18/01 -Tom Brazaitis Senior Editor in The Plain Dealer's Washington Bureau

After last week's column on the Bush-Carlyle-bin La den connection, one angry reader wondered why I was wasting his time writing about such things while the president wages war to protect our freedoms, and our troops are in harm's way.
As he put it, "Over 5,000 people dead, the economy on its knees hundreds of thousands of people out of work and an anthrax scare to tie a ribbon on a package. All this and much more and you just continue your vitriolic attack on President Bush and his family. Close to a 90 percent approval rating and you continue your unrelenting assault."
Well, sir, I too, mourn the Sept. 11 carnage of innocent people and the ripple effects from that day on the U.S. economy. I, too, worry about the threat of anthrax, smallpox and nukes in the hands of suicidal terrorists.
But I worry also that the Bush administration is exploiting popular support for this "different kind of war" to justify the indefinite detention of more than 1,000 people without saying who they are, what charges they face, if any, or even whether they have lawyers.
I wonder whether we will someday regret the swift passage of the "USA Patriot" bill that expanded the federal government's wiretapping powers, made it possible for the government to search your home when you're not there, endorsed Internet spying by the FBI, and subverted lawyer-client privilege for prisoners.
I can't help noticing that Attorney General John Ashcroft, an avowed states' rights advocate, found time to crack down on a California law allowing the distribution of marijuana for medical purposes and to threaten prosecution of any doctor who prescribes lethal medication for terminally ill patients under an Oregon law that was upheld by 60 percent of the state's voters.
Finally, I'm flabbergasted that Bush, with all that he's got on his mind, took time to issue an executive order that seals the government records of former presidents and vice presidents from historians, the press and the public unless they obtain the permission of the former office-holder and the current president.
Under provisions of the Presidential Records Act of 1978, which guaranteed the public access to all former presidents' records except those that might endanger national security or do unnecessary harm, 68,000 archived records from the Ronald Reagan administration were to be released in January. The 1978 law provided for a 12-year waiting period before the records could be made public.
Reagan issued an executive order implementing the 1978 law. But Bush delayed release of the Reagan records for almost 10 months while the Justice Department drafted a new executive order, which was issued on Nov. 1.
The 1978 law and the earlier passage of the Freedom of Information Act, which gave the public access to millions of government records, came as a response to the Watergate scandal, which forced the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Nixon tried to argue that his records, including the tapes he secretly recorded, belonged to him. The Supreme Court and Congress said they belonged to the public.
Bush's order gives former presidents and vice presidents veto power over the release of their records and empowers the current president to overrule a decision by a predecessor on releasing records. Those seeking records must reveal why they want them, another new demand. If a request is refused, the petitioner's only recourse is to the courts.
"This is a real monster," Vanderbilt University historian Hugh Graham told the Washington Post. Newspaper editorials have asked, "What is the president trying to hide?"
Some have remarked pointedly that Bush's order safeguards the records of his father, George H.W. Bush, who was vice president under Reagan and later president. Suspicions linger that the elder Bush knew more than he admitted about the Iran-contra scandal that tainted the Reagan administration.
Others have speculated that revelations from the Reagan years might embarrass prominent members of the current administration, including Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, and Budget Director Mitch Daniel Jr. All had roles in the Reagan administration.
Bush's executive order someday will give him dominion over public access to records of his own administration, which is what the 1978 law sought to avoid.
Opposition to the new order is not purely partisan. After conducting a hearing on the matter, Rep. Steve Horn, a California Republican who heads the House Government Reform Committee, suggested that "the administration should revisit the issue."
So, cheers to the administration for its steadfastness in ridding Afghanistan of the Taliban, which at this point appears to be proceeding as planned; but brickbats, too, for using the war as a patriotic smokescreen for mischief on the home front.
Brazaitis is a senior editor in The Plain Dealer's Washington bureau.
Contact Tom Brazaitis at: tbrazaitis@plaind.com, 202-638-1366
© 2001 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.

(Corrected a spelling error.)

George W. Bush was on the following boards:

Board/Trustee/Director: Tom Brown, Inc. (Director, resigned 1994) Caterair International, Inc. (Director, resigned 1994) Harken Energy, Inc. (Director, resigned 1993) Silver Screen Partners (board member) Lucky Chance Mining Co. (board member)

Bush was on the Caterair International, Inc. board, not the Carlyle board. If Carlyle group director David Rubenstein is going to tell a story he should get his facts straight (although, it may have been the reporter who wrote the headline, HOW BUSH GOT BOUNCED FROM CARLYLE BOARD, that got the facts wrong. I don't know since only an exerpt has been printed here.)

Rubenstein says, "And I said, thanks - didn't think I'd ever see him again. His name is George W. Bush. He became President of the United States. So you know if you said to me, name 25 million people who would maybe be President of the United States, he wouldn't have been in that category."

Bush defeated Democrat Anne Richards to become governor of Texas in 1994, the same year he resigned from the Caterair International, Inc. board, not the Carlyle board. Isn't it currious that Rubenstein didn't know that Bush, a former board member, had become the Governor of Texas.

It's also currious that Rubenstein would have thought of 25 million other people becoming President before coming to a two-term Governor of the State of Texas.

Rubenstein's head must be up his ass.

I am always amazed that a man who can graduate from Yale, Harvard Biz, learn to fly supersonic jets, make 22 million in one business deal, beat the smartest woman in the Democratic Party for Governor, and the smartest Democratic man for POTUS can be so underestimated by Democrats.

My only question now is how long it will take the Democrats to face the fate of the Whigs?

I am always amazed that a man who can graduate from Yale, Harvard Biz, learn to fly supersonic jets, make 22 million in one business deal, beat the smartest woman in the Democratic Party for Governor, and the smartest Democratic man for POTUS can be so underestimated by Democrats.

My only question now is how long it will take the Democrats to face the fate of the Whigs?

I am always amazed that a man who can graduate from Yale, Harvard Biz, learn to fly supersonic jets, make 22 million in one business deal, beat the smartest woman in the Democratic Party for Governor, and the smartest Democratic man for POTUS can be so underestimated by Democrats.

My only question now is how long it will take the Democrats to face the fate of the Whigs?