Bush's Carlyle Leeches Onto Britian's Defence Piggybank

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Carlyle 'given sweetener' in Qinetiq deal

Fresh uncertainty over flotation plans as MPs call for new probe into MoD's largest contract

Sunday January 15, 2006
The Observer
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,1686478,00.html

The 25-year deal to manage the Ministry of Defence's 22 practice ranges is currently the MoD's largest contract. It was awarded to Qinetiq without competition and signed off on 28 February 2003, the same day that Carlyle paid £42.3m for a 34 per cent stake in Qinetiq. Senior defence sources have described it as, in effect, a 'dowry' from taxpayers to Carlyle.

Carlyle is now expected to make an eightfold return on its 34 per cent stake when 49 per cent of Qinetiq is floated next month, while executive chairman John Chisholm stands to see his £129,000 investment grow to around £23m.

The deal to sell the stake to Carlyle has attracted severe criticism for being too cheap, including from former defence minister Lord Moonie, who handled it while at the MoD. Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vincent Cable, who has already called for the sale to be investigated by the National Audit Office, told The Observer: 'The award of the contract appears to be highly questionable and there needs to be a thorough forensic investigation into what was going on.'

Senior defence sources have expressed deep concern over the contract, which is known as the Long Term Partnering Agreement, and the fact that it provided a guaranteed 25-year revenue stream to Carlyle worth up to £224m a year, according to the MoD. One said that it amounted to Carlyle 'using our money' to buy the stake by refinancing its deal on the back of the future revenues.

full article: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,1686478,00.html

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1. Uh, one of the founders of Carlyle was a flunky under President CARTER

As with Tweety and Pat CADDELL, both of whom have spent the intervening years blasting Dems.

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2. but it is now Bush's Carlyle as I wrote in the headline

Hard to imagine that Carter appointees will have much influence at Carlyle while they have both Bushes in pocket.

As for Tweety and Pat CADDELL, who actually thinks they're Democrats?

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3. Here

*******QUOTE*******

http://www.carlyle.com/eng/team/l5-team446.html

David M. Rubenstein
Founder
Washington, DC



David M. Rubenstein is a Founding Partner and Managing Director of The Carlyle Group, one of the world’s largest private equity firms. Mr. Rubenstein co-founded the firm in 1987. Since then, Carlyle has grown into a firm with 25 offices around the world with more than $34 billion under management. Mr. Rubenstein is based in Washington, DC.

Prior to co-founding Carlyle, Mr. Rubenstein practiced law in Washington with Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge (now Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman). Prior to this, during the Carter Administration from 1977-1981, Mr. Rubenstein was Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy. From 1975-76, he served as Chief Counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments. From 1973-75, Mr. Rubenstein practiced law in New York with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

Mr. Rubenstein, a native of Baltimore, is a 1970 magna cum laude graduate of Duke where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa. Mr. Rubenstein graduated in 1973 from The University of Chicago Law School where he was an editor of the Law Review.

Mr. Rubenstein is on the Board of Directors, Trustees or Overseers of Duke University, Johns Hopkins University, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (Vice Chairman), the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Institute for International Economics, Freedom House and the Dance Theatre of Harlem.

Mr. Rubenstein is also a member of the Visiting Committee of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, the Advisory Board of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, the Trustees’ Council of the National Gallery of Art, the Madison Council of the Library of Congress, the Trilateral Commission and the National Advisory Committee of JPMorgan Chase.

********UNQUOTE*******

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4. more relevant here

"Carlyle is as deeply wired into the current administration as they can possibly be," said Charles Lewis, executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit public interest group based in Washington. "George Bush is getting money from private interests that have business before the government, while his son is president. And, in a really peculiar way, George W. Bush could, some day, benefit financially from his own administration's decisions, through his father's investments. The average American doesn't know that and, to me, that's a jaw-dropper."

It is difficult to determine exactly how much money the senior Mr. Bush and Mr. Baker have made. Mr. Baker is a Carlyle partner, and Mr. Bush has the title senior adviser to its Asian activities. With a current market value of about $3.5 billion on Carlyle's equity and with the firm owned by 18 partners and one outside investor, Mr. Baker's Carlyle stake would be worth about $180 million if each partner held an equal stake. It is not known whether he has more or less than the other partners.

Unlike Mr. Baker, Mr. Bush has no ownership stake in Carlyle; he is an adviser and an investor and is compensated by obtaining stakes in Carlyle investments. Carlyle executives cited, for example, Mr. Bush's being allowed to put money he earns giving speeches for Carlyle into its investment funds. Mr. Bush generally receives $80,000 to $100,000 for a speech. He sits on no corporate boards other than Carlyle's.

Carlyle also gave the Bush family a hand in 1990 by putting George W. Bush, who was then struggling to find a career, on the board of a Carlyle subsidiary, Caterair, an airline-catering company.

more: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0305-03.htm

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5. The point ain't whether it's BUSH's Carlyle, the point is that a

CARTERite is a founder.