Anyone know why GHWBush is in Russia visiting Putin?

[Generic Other]

Quite frankly, the thought makes my blood run cold.

I wonder what they sit around and talk about? Sodium pentathal cocktails? The view from the grassy knoll? The best way to liquidate a third world head of state?

Lizards basking in the new world order. <shudder>

[bfusco]

1. Probably right

Maybe getting advice on how he handled Chechnyea and hopes to apply it to Iraq. Didn't shrub just return from vacation. Couldn't wait to run out of town.

[Generic Other]

4. Not Junior

I'm talking about Poppy and Babs.

It just seems a strange social call.

[BurtWorm]

22. It is strange, which is probably why it's not a social call.

What you suspect about it--that Poppy is doing advance work for the boy--is probably right.

[HawkerHurricane]

2. He's getting his marching orders.

What else would this traitorous President be doing in the home of communism?
(Well, that's what the freeps would say if Clinton did it!)

[leftofthedial]

3. no idae, but it can't be good

[KoKo]

5. Ah you read that article from the Guardian in Editorials! Creepy....very

creepy......and yet .......Clinton spent years being investigated for Whitewater....while Poppy does "influence peddling" with foreign countries. Should the Limbaughs be all out of wack about Poppy doing business with those "Communists" over there?

Why isn't there an investigation? Isn't poppy almost 80 years old! What's he doing over there? Why isn't he retired....like most Americans probably think he is......

Disgusting. :puke:

[hang a left]

6. Or how about World War III

[unpsyops]

7. Kissinger is also there!

Henry is lobbying for some multimillionaire Russian.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/EI13Ag02.html

[newyawker99]

21. Hi unpsyops!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Bruce McAuley]

8. Bush senior is on retainer to Carlysle, who's merging with Alfa Group..

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2003/09/12/002.html
Here's one version...

Bruce

[Generic Other]

9. When an ex-CIA head and an ex-KGB head lie down together

we know the mattress must be stuffed with cash.

I should have guessed this was a working vacation for Poppy.

[Donna Zen]

10. Oil deals in Russia

It was on CNN last night. Also, the US wants Russian support in the UN on Iraq. I think it was the NYT this morning that said the US is trying to isolate France who is pushing for more UN control.

Yep...it's totally bad for the human race when a bush goes anywhere.

[Beetwasher]

11. Help me DADDY!!

It's my theory he's there trying to drum up support in the UN for his fuck-up of a sons Iraqi adventure...

[Generic Other]

12. If you are right it is very telling because he has kept a low profile

He must think things are really looking bad for junior.

So what new bribe will we offer Putin to side with us? Will we give him Afghanistan?

[kaitykaity]

14. I think it's a "Help My Son or Else" meeting.

There will be a lot of cash involved, sure, but in the
end old Pootie Poot will help Shrub. Bank on it.

[Beetwasher]

29. I disagree. I don't think they'll help.

Iraq is a bad investment and we really don't have all that much cash at the moment to bribe with. It's in Russia's best interest to not get involved and sit back and watch Iraq destroy the US's standing in the world. The US goes down, Russia goes up...

We can offer them several things the way I see it. Immediate cash, which we don't have so we can't really offer it. Permission for them to use a free hand in Chechnya, which it's not our place to offer them anyway, and they already have. We're not going to get involved w/ the Chechnya affair no matter what Russia does and they know it. Part of the Iraqi spoils at some indeterminate point in the future after the country is pacified, which is a terrible investment and hinges on them trusting the Bushies to keep their word. Maybe we could offer them some piece of Afghanistan too, but again, that's another bad investment as the Taliban is back. What else? Trade concessions? I dunno, not much wriggle room there...What else have we got to bribe them with? They're much better off doing nothing and watching the US self destruct so that they can fill the vacuum...

[Beetwasher]

27. He's offering them all sorts of empty promises

and chances to be involved in the Iraqi spoils. I doubt they'll go along with it as they really don't have much to gain. Iraq is a bad investment for a lot of reasons.

[never cry wolf]

15. I think that must be it

just like he and his pals had bailed shrub out of every other fuck-up in a long list of fuck-ups in the past.

[nomaco-10]

19. Yep, that's what I've been thinking too...

Brokering the deal to save jr.'s ass from the fire for 2004.

[shugah]

13. probably because pooty-poot reminds pappy

of dobby, the bush family house-elf!

(gawd, i am enthralled of that sentence! i can't believe i had opportunity to write it in my lifetime! ;-) )

[moondust]

16. Bribery mission to get troops.

Help wanted: Tons of troops to save Dumbya boy's ass.

Germany and France "baaad, baaad!" Russia could be "gooood, gooood!" Future oil contracts "gooood, gooood!" What say, Pootie-Poot?

[Gloria]

17. Check out the article in the WMW....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=114205

Smoothing the way for Jr, I figure.....

[coda]

18. Iran

They're building Iran's nuke plant. Lots of focus on Iran behind the scenes, IMO. Maybe offering a trade-off for Russia to keep the oilfield development contract that Saddam canceled in December.




Iraq Snubs Moscow, Scraps
Big Russia Oil Contract
By Richard Balmforth
Reuters
December 12, 2002

Iraq has scrapped a $3.7-billion oilfield deal with Russia's LUKOIL, the company said on Thursday, dealing a blow to Moscow's hopes of keeping a strong economic foothold there after U.S. military action.

And the decision seemed sure to rebound on Baghdad's political ties with Russia, Iraq's closest ally on the United Nations Security Council.

A LUKOIL spokesman said an Iraqi deputy oil minister had told company president Vagit Alekperov by letter that the contract to develop Iraq's huge West Qurna oilfield had been canceled on December 9.

In an angry reaction, spokesman Alexander Vasilenko said LUKOIL would challenge the cancellation of the deal -- regarded as the jewel in the crown of Russian contracts in Iraq -- in the courts.



more....

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/oil/2002/1212snub.htm

[Cocoa]

20. what's up with Poppy's shoes?

[Nlighten1]

25. Those shoes...

are wimp shoes

[dbt]

23. And while we're asking...

What the FUCK was Poppy doing in the White House on September 11, 2001? CBSnews.com contains this interesting tidbit:

"Nine hundred miles to the north, Laura Bush also started the day early. In her husband's absence, the job of taking Spot the English springer spaniel and their frisky black Scottish terrier Barney for their morning walk had fallen to the First Lady. Afterward, Laura returned to the second-floor family quarters for a quick breakfast with her in-laws. George H. W. Bush and his wife Barbara had spent the night at the White House and were about to board a private jet bound for a speaking engagement in Minnesota." (Emphasis added.)


:freak:
dbt

[lindashaw]

24. Russia just went to the Saudis and made a pact with them...

They are going to supply oil to the Middle East. There are some links around to verify. The Saudis don't have the oil they used to have and the US is severing ties with them. And Russia(since Iraqi oil will be sabatoged for the foreseeable future) now has a great market opportunity. My opinion is, Russia would rather do oil "bidness" with the Middle East than with the US, despite Putin's little trip down to Crawford.

[ginantonic40]

30. That doesn't make sense..

That's like hauling coal to Newcastle. The Saudi's have plenty of oil reserves left plus the fact that the middle East is probably one of the lowest consumers of oil for domestic use. Why would they need Russian oil? I'd guess (purely a guess since I haven't got up to speed on this story so I may be completely out in left field) that the Russians are trying to get into OPEC or trying to get Saudi financing to develop their oil production.

[9215]

26. Cheney, Halliburton and Russian Mob

Cheney Led Halliburton
To Feast at Federal Trough
State Department Questioned Deal
With Firm Linked to Russian Mob
By Knut Royce and Nathaniel Heller <http://www.publicintegrity.org/staff.html>
<http://www.public-i.org/story_01_080200.htm>
Washington, August 2) Under the guidance of Richard Cheney, a get-the-government-out-of-my-face conservative, Halliburton Company over the past five years has emerged as a corporate welfare hog, benefiting from at least $3.8 billion in federal contracts and taxpayer-insured loans.


One of these loans was approved in April by the U.S. Export-Import Bank. It guaranteed $489 million in credits to a Russian oil company whose roots are imbedded in a legacy of KGB and Communist Party corruption, as well as drug trafficking and organized crime funds, according to Russian and U.S. sources and documents.
Those claims are hotly disputed by the Russian oil firm’s holding company.
Halliburton, which lobbied for the Ex-Im loan after the State Department initially asserted that the deal would run counter to the "national interest,” will receive $292 million of those funds to refurbish a massive Siberian oil field owned by the Russian company, the Tyumen Oil Co., which is controlled by a conglomerate called the Alfa Group.


Another discussion here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php

[bicentennial_baby]

28. Three letters: O-I-L

" So Putin can afford himself the pleasure of observing how the legendary warmaker in Vietnam, and peacemaker in the Middle East - maybe I've got the war and peace back to front - lays out the pitch for Khodorkovsky, Kissinger's current paymaster and chief executive officer of Yukos-Sibneft, the Russian oil giant, and a deep-pocket contributor to a bunch of different political parties."

-snip-

" But then again, the idea that Khodorkovsky has told Kissinger what he needs doing, and what he wants done, could be someone's idea of a joke. Why else would the Russian market listen to the current rumor that Yukos-Sibneft is engaged in negotiations with a US oil major that could lead to the announcement of an equity stake sale, either during the September 24 meeting of the Russia-US energy partnership in St Petersburg, or not long after, during the Putin-Bush meeting in the US?

Why would a US oil major think of such a risky venture if the Kremlin is likely to veto it, and maybe keep two Yukos shareholders in prison, instead of one? What Khodorkovsky needs Kissinger for right now is plain enough. He wants to know what the Bush administration is prepared to do if Khodorkovsky agrees to sell, merge or swap his and Platon Lebedev's shares in Yukos with an American oil company."

-snip-

" On the other hand, Bush isn't looking as if he's made of strong stuff either. The failure of Khodorkovsky's appeals for White House help have encouraged the Kremlin to toughen its position towards the sell-off of assets like Yukos, and to convince Khodorkovsky that he should expect more trouble if he provokes Putin's anger in a showdown over who should own Yukos-Sibneft, and on what terms. The weakness of the Americans has also accelerated the decline of the pro-Americans inside the Kremlin. This has exposed with embarrassingly clarity that this faction, led by Alexander Voloshin, the chief of staff, is out of tune with their boss and unable to influence or predict what he will do next. "

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/EI13Ag02.html