Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Charlie Hebdo suspect said Abu Ghraib torture pics drove him to enlist in Jihad against USA in 2008 [View all]Octafish
(55,745 posts)139. Not as far as I know.
Why do you say that? The article I posted has nothing to indicate that. What it does contain is information demonstrating the close connections between the Bush family and the bin Laden family. Here's more:
The Family That Preys Together
by Jack Colhoun
Covert Action Information Bulletin, Issue No. 41, Summer, 1992
GEORGE JR.'S BCCI CONNECTION
"This is an incredible deal, unbelievable for this small company," energy analyst Charles Strain told Forbes magazine, describing the oil production sharing agreement the Harken Energy Corporation signed in January 1990 with Bahrain.
Under the terms of the deal, Harken was given the exclusive right to explore for gas and oil off the shores of the Gulf island nation. If gas or oil were found in waters near two of the world's largest gas and oil fields, Harken would have exclusive marketing and transportation rights for the energy resources. Truly an "incredible deal" for a company that had never drilled an offshore well.
Strain failed to point out, however, the one fact that puts the Harken deal in focus: George Bush, Jr., the eldest son of George and Barbara Bush of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC, is a member of Harken's board of directors, a consultant, and a stockholder in the Texas-based company. In light of this connection, the deal makes more sense. The involvement of Junior-George Walker Bush's childhood nickname-with Harken is a walking conflict of interest. His relationship to President Bush, rather than any business acumen, made him a valuable asset for Harken, the Republican Party benefactors, Middle East oil sheikhs and covert operators who played a part in Harken's Bahrain deal.
In fact, Junior's track record as an oilman is pretty dismal. He began his career in Midland, Texas, in the mid-1970s when he founded Arbusto Energy, Inc. When oil prices dropped in the early 1980s, Arbusto fell upon hard times. Junior was only rescued from business failure when his company was purchased by Spectrum 7 Energy Corporation, a small oil firm owned by William DeWitt and Mercer Reynolds. As part of the September 1984 deal, Bush became Spectrum 7's president and was given a 13.6 percent share in the company's stock. Oil prices stayed low and within two years, Spectrum 7 was in trouble.
In the six months before Spectrum 7 was acquired by Harken in 1986, it had lost $400,000. In the buyout deal, George "Jr." and his partners were given more than $2 million worth of Harken stock for the 180-well operation. Made a director and hired as a "consultant" to Harken, Junior received another $600,000 of Harken stock, and has been paid between $42,000 and $120,000 a year since 1986.
Junior's value to Harken soon became apparent when the company needed an infusion of cash in the spring of 1987. Junior and other Harken officials met with Jackson Stephens, head of Stephens, Inc., a large investment bank in Little Rock, Arkansas (Stephens made a $100,000 contribution to the Reagan-Bush campaign in 1980 and gave another $100,000 to the Bush dinner committee in 1990.)
In 1987, Stephens made arrangements with Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) to provide $25 million to Harken in return for a stock interest in Harken. As part of the Stephens-brokered deal, Sheikh Abdullah Bakhsh, a Saudi real estate tycoon and financier, joined Harken's board as a major investor. *5 Stephens, UBS, and Bakhsh each have ties to the scandal-ridden Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI).
It was Stephens who suggested in the late 1970s that BCCI purchase what became First American Bankshares in Washington, D.C. BCCI later acquired First American's predecessor, Financial General Bankshares. At the time of the Harken investment, UBS was a joint-venture partner with BCCI in a bank in Geneva, Switzerland. Bakhsh has been an investment partner in Saudi Arabia with Gaith Pharoan, identified by the U.S. Federal Reserve Board as a "front man" for BCCI's secret acquisitions of U.S. banks.
Stephens, Inc. played a role in the Harken deal with Bahrain as well. Former Stephens bankers David and Mike Edwards contacted Michael Ameen, the former chief of Mobil Oil's Middle East operations, when Bahrain broke off 1989 talks with Amoco for a gas and oil exploration contract. The Edwardses recommended Harken for the job and urged Ameen to get in touch with Bahrain, which he did.
"In the midst of Harken's talks with Bahrain, Ameen- simultaneously working as a State Department consultant-briefed the incoming U.S. ambassador in Bahrain, Charles Hostler," the Wall Street Journal noted, adding that Hostler, a San Diego real estate investor, was a $100,000 contributor to the Republican Party. Hostler claimed he never discussed Harken with the Bahrainis.
Harken lacked sufficient financing to explore off the coast of Bahrain so it brought in Bass Enterprises Production Company of Fort Worth, Texas, as a partner. The Bass family contributed more than $200,000 to the Republican Party in the late 1980s and early 1990s. *9 On June 22, 1990, George Jr. sold two-thirds of his Harken stock for $848,560-a cool 200 percent profit. The move was well timed. One week after Junior sold his stock, Harken announced a $23.2 million loss in quarterly earnings and Harken stock dropped sharply, losing 60 percent of its value over the next six months. On August 2, 1990, Iraqi troops moved into Kuwait and 541,000 U.S. forces were deployed to the Gulf.
"There is substantial evidence to suggest that Bush knew Harken was in dire straits in the weeks before he sold the $848,560 of Harken stock," asserted U.S. News & World Report. The magazine noted Harken appointed Junior to a "fairness committee" to study possible economic restructuring of the company. Junior worked closely with financial advisers from Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Company, who concluded "only drastic action could save Harken."
CONTINUED...
http://mediafilter.org/caq/BushFamilyPreys.html
I think that's what really bothers you. Otherwise, you'd want people to understand that is the most important point. That, and you wouldn't follow me around for years pointing out irrelevant crapola.
Edit history
Please sign in to view edit histories.
224 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
RecommendedHighlight replies with 5 or more recommendations
Charlie Hebdo suspect said Abu Ghraib torture pics drove him to enlist in Jihad against USA in 2008 [View all]
Octafish
Jan 2015
OP
And we believe mass murderers now? Look...some people just like to kill, and like to find
msanthrope
Jan 2015
#2
Like the US leadership gives a rats ass about the millions of civilians they've killed either.
NewDeal_Dem
Jan 2015
#117
Well, shit.....people never lie in court, or come up with excuses for their anti-social behavior! nt
msanthrope
Jan 2015
#12
Agreed. Like how Dennis MILLER and his ilk claim they turned wingnut over 9-11. n/t
UTUSN
Jan 2015
#7
Without the invasion of Iraq, those determined to kill would have to find another excuse.
msanthrope
Jan 2015
#44
So you don't think anyone was motivated by the Abu Ghraib tortures and murders?
riderinthestorm
Jan 2015
#66
I think plenty of people take tragedy and murder and use it as motivator to do the really
msanthrope
Jan 2015
#73
That's fine but the State department has specifically said there's been blowback
riderinthestorm
Jan 2015
#77
The comment was made in 2008 to explain why he wanted to become a jihadist
riderinthestorm
Jan 2015
#213
george w bush made it to iraq though, with divisions. speaking of mass murderers.
NewDeal_Dem
Jan 2015
#120
I'm in full agreement with your post. (And with this OP in general as well)
dissentient
Jan 2015
#40
I totally see how you could mistake French cartoonists for US Army reserves. nt
msanthrope
Jan 2015
#13
"starting with April Glaspie" -- actually, I think you need to go back a bit farther in time, at
KingCharlemagne
Jan 2015
#38
Thanks (I think). I'm not sure there's any way to 'love' a specific post the way
KingCharlemagne
Jan 2015
#58
We could push the starting point back to 1953 when the CIA and FDR's grandson
KingCharlemagne
Jan 2015
#83
prescott's dad sam: war industries board WWI, rockefeller/harriman associate,
NewDeal_Dem
Jan 2015
#128
Just think if the BFEE would have stuck to the Afghanistan war and left Iraq alone.
Rex
Jan 2015
#37
Does anyone bring up the CONNECTIONS between the House of Bush and House of Bin Laden anymore?
Octafish
Jan 2015
#42
I suspect they are defending the status quo, meaning the Military Industrial Complex.
Octafish
Jan 2015
#96
Why do alleged progressives think that right wing homophobes, anti-Semites and racists are credible?
SidDithers
Jan 2015
#171
Why do alleged progressives laugh about the BFEE and try to pretend it doesn't exist?
Rex
Jan 2015
#172
You're just going to ignore the promotion of blatant homophobe shitbag Wayne Madsen?...
SidDithers
Jan 2015
#180
Beside giving your word, you have failed to show where he is any of those things.
Octafish
Jan 2015
#183
Interesting, that same asshole was instrumental if fucking up the BOG when it first started
Rex
Jan 2015
#98
The source was ''In These Times.'' You really don't contribute a thing, do you, SidDithers?
Octafish
Jan 2015
#95
Because you have an agenda? What do you think about Bush, Bin Laden and HARKEN?
Octafish
Jan 2015
#107
No. I was not shocked because you never give a shit how loony or disgusting your source is.
zappaman
Jan 2015
#108
Wayne Madsen is a homophobic, anti-Semite who writes for a Holocaust denial site.
zappaman
Jan 2015
#136
Is that the same rense your Tag Team buddy SidDithers of DU quoted in post 75?
Octafish
Jan 2015
#148
Why are you deflecting from your support of a writer who is a homophobic, anti-semite?
zappaman
Jan 2015
#150
You are acting desperate, zappaman. As the facts aren't on your side, understandable.
Octafish
Jan 2015
#154
Never. That's why I post on the BFEE and the crimes of the national security state.
Octafish
Jan 2015
#193
No. Our difference is that I don't give legitimacy to homophobes, racists and anti-Semites...
SidDithers
Jan 2015
#203
You could wipe out my entire state and I still wouldn't travel to another country and kill people.
randome
Jan 2015
#55
And they made easy targets for terrorists who were on the No-Fly List for Years.
Octafish
Jan 2015
#129
So the years of the little bush were a massive give-away to the...
Dont call me Shirley
Jan 2015
#181
If it was me, I would have self deleted when shown I was using turds as sources.
zappaman
Jan 2015
#124
I never knew the staff at Charlie Hebdo worked at Abut Ghraib... N.T.
Donald Ian Rankin
Jan 2015
#190
Poor sociopath needs a map of the world. He's got the 2 sides of the Atlantic ocean mixed up
Pooka Fey
Jan 2015
#197
We have and still are the driving force behind their recruitment efforts in the ME. We are still
jwirr
Jan 2015
#207
Yes, out corporations and their stockholders are making bundles off of endless war and they finally
jwirr
Jan 2015
#211
In 2009, Gen. Jones reported Al Qaeda was down to less than 100 members in Afghanistan.
Octafish
Jan 2015
#216