http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0111-01.htmexcerpt:
During these years, Bush's four sons — George W., Jeb, Neil and Marvin — were following in the family footsteps, lining up business deals with Saudi, Kuwaiti and Bahraini moneymen and cozying up to BCCI. The Middle East was becoming a convenient family money spigot.
Eldest son George W. Bush made his first Middle East connection in the late 1970s with James Bath, a Texas businessmen who served as the North American representative for two rich Saudis (and Osama bin Laden relatives) — billionaire Salem bin Laden and banker and BCCI insider Khalid bin Mahfouz. Bath put $50,000 into Bush's 1979 Arbusto oil partnership, probably using Bin Laden-Bin Mahfouz funds.
In the late 1980s, after several failed oil ventures, the future 43rd president let the ailing oil business in which he was a major stockholder and chairman be bought out by another foreign-influenced operation, Harken Energy. The Wall Street Journal commented in 1991, "The mosaic of BCCI connections surrounding Harken Energy may prove nothing more than how ubiquitous the rogue bank's ties were. But the number of BCCI-connected people who had dealings with Harken — all since George W. Bush came on board — likewise raises the question of whether they mask an effort to cozy up to a presidential son."
Other hints of cronyism came in 1990 when inexperienced Harken got a major contract to drill in the Persian Gulf for the government of Bahrain. Time magazine reporters Jonathan Beaty and S.C. Gwynne, in their book "The Outlaw Bank," concluded "that Mahfouz, or other BCCI players, must have had a hand in steering the oil-drilling contract to the president's son." The web entangling the Bush presidencies was already being spun.
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http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/chap_08.htmexcerpt:
In raising the $15 million bridge financing for the HAWKs spare parts, Khashoggi in April 1986 asked British entrepreneur Tiny Rowlands to invest. After Rowlands declined, Khashoggi turned to Oussama Lababidi who, using the name ``Kremdale Corporation,'' put up $5 million. The remaining $10 million came from Vertex International in the Cayman Islands, backed by investors Ernie Walter Miller and Donald Fraser of Canada. Khashoggi said he created a company ``Trivert International,'' to handle the Vertex loan.40
40 Khashoggi, FBI 302, 5/8/87, p. 10, and 11/4/87, p. 5. According to bank records obtained by Independent Counsel, on May 14, 1986, a $10 million payment was made into Lake Resources by Trivert International by order of W.E. Miller. On May 16, 1986, Lake Resources received $5 million from Garnet Overseas at BCCI; Garnet received the funds from Khashoggi's account and Khashoggi's account received the funds from Ray Trading. Because Ghorbanifar only repaid $8 million, the investors lost $7 million of their initial investment. Ghorbanifar received from Iran only $4 million; it is unclear where he obtained the other $4 million to partially repay the investors.
In June 1986, the Iranians obtained a U.S. price list for the HAWK spare parts. After seeing the list, they refused to pay the radically inflated amount -- $24 million -- Ghorbanifar had charged them. As a result, Ghorbanifar paid back Khashoggi a total of only $8.1 million on the $15 million bridge-financing loan, which with the 20-percent bridge-financing commission required payment to Khashoggi of $18 million.
While these financial disputes were brewing, the Reagan Administration decided to pursue a ``second channel'' into the Iranian parliament, cutting out Ghorbanifar, his Iranian contact and Nir. When Poindexter told Nir about the second channel in September 1986, Nir responded that making a switch would require paying off Ghorbanifar's $10 million debt to the financiers.41
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http://www.etext.org/Politics/AlternativeOrange/2/v2n3_wts.htmlexcerpt:
October Surprise:
— approached Israeli government and encouraged them to cooperate with Reagan campaign.
— elements in CIA may have aided Reagan in order to avenge Carter’s distrust of the agency.
Iran-Contra:
— former CIA official Alan Fiers stated that the CIA knew that proceeds from US shipments to Iran were being diverted to aid the contra’s.
— CIA assets used in scheme, e.g., an air base near Tucson for the covert resupply of contra’s when Congress had prohibited aid.
BCCI Scandal:
— was channeling funds for several covert operations through BCCI, including aid to Afghan rebels.
— by 1984, had targeted BCCI as source of information about money laundering by drug dealers and terrorists; CIA may have ignored BCCI’s illegal activities to collect intelligence from inside the bank.
— investigators are looking into CIA’s failure to properly alert government regulators once they became aware of BCCI’s activities.
— CIA has admitted to using BCCI for the transfer of funds to covert operations at the same time it was investigating the bank.
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