Third Party & Independents: Archives

Excellent reference material, Stephen. Somebody needs to summarize it and bundle it for news distribution. 48 minutes is asking web folks for a very long attention span, but, for those with the time, this is worth every minute of listening to and watching.

Eisenhower’s warning has indeed become reality, and the threats to American democracy and public welfare appear very real to me.

The Economist says of the Carlyle Group: “The Carlyle Group is a godsend for conspiracy theorists who are convinced that the world is run by, and on behalf of, a shadowy network of wealthy men. Sure enough, it was not long before Cynthia McKinney, a Democrat member of Congress, pointed a finger at Carlyle, noting in an interview that “persons close to this administration are poised to make huge profits off America’s new war” and that, despite “numerous warnings”, they did not alert the “people of New York who were needlessly murdered”. “What”, she asked, “do they have to hide?””

While they share some of your concerns, they’re a bit less hyperbolic about them. Read the whole thing.

Richard, the following from The Economist may not be quite as hyperbolic, but, it surely summarizes neatly, if tamely, the need to heed Eisenhower’s caution.

“At a time when America is aggressively promoting democracy and capitalism abroad, including by military means, it would be helpful if its politicians and businesses were regarded as cleaner than clean. Shrouded in secrecy, Carlyle calls capitalism into question.”

Indeed, they are understating the case. It calls the structure of our very government into question. With Saddam’s assasination attempt upon G. Bush Sr., and the hawkish predisposition of the President’s immediate advisors, there was a lot of motivation to create the pretext for war, and designate Iraq as the target, which had nothing to do with domestic security or the public welfare.

Richard, I dispute your rebuke that there was a conspiracy theory here. This is more in-you-face than conspiracy could ever claim to be. The fact that father and son are engaging in financial dealings where they have control of the foreign policy and events is disturbing at best and horrifying at it’s worst.

To hide in the shrouds of a private business and yet have so much influence in public banks, foreign governments and the like tips me off that there is something far more sinister going on that simple business deals with old politicians. True to my non-partizan form, I urge you to follow the money deals and you will also find Clinton up to his neck in dealings with them in Asia and the Pacific Rim and his urgings to the IMF to require Asia to open up banks to foreign control in their time of crisis.

Richard, I also see you quoted instead of interjecting your own opinion, very daft.

Yes, it needs to be packaged for mass consupmtion. I fear it will take until Micheal Moore releases his next flick, which will feature this conflict.

Stephen, did you mean “deft” insread of daft?

Although when speaking of Mr Bennett’s writing and “logic”, daft might be more appropriate.

Yes, I meant deft, but in afterthought, perhaps daft is more appropriate ;)

You sound bitter, Rick.

I thought the purpose of this site was to engage each other in thoughtful discussion, not to cross over to the other side’s comment sections to make ad hominem attacks.

Wait, now I’m the one who sounds bitter.

But it’s something I’ve observed more than once.

Perhaps you would be interested in this article, which I wrote last year, on the Carlyle Group, Bin Laden, Bush and Anthrax.

Bin Laden Profits from US Anthrax Vaccine Manufacture?
By Ian Gurney.
Author of “The Cassandra Prophecy.”

It’s a story straight off the pages of a John Le Carre or Robert Ludlum
thriller. A mysterious Lebanese millionaire, who already owns telecoms
companies in Venezuela and El Salvador, uses his influence to take over
the sole manufacture, production and distribution of one of Americas
most sought after defence products. Meanwhile, the world’s most wanted
terrorist appears to be profiting from his family’s investment in the self
same manufacturing process, assisted by no less a personage than the
father of the President of the United States. Sounds fanciful?
Well, on December 1st. last year the Pakistan News Service announced
that documents belonging to a United States company called BioPort
Corporation were found in the possession of the al-Qaeda in Kabul,
Afghanistan. Seven weeks later, on January 16th, the United States Food
and Drug Administration, which had, since 1999 prohibited BioPort from
manufacture and production at its Michigan laboratories, announced that
it had given its conditional approval for BioPort to begin the manufacture,
production and shipping of its product to the US military. On February
1st. the US government gave BioPort Corp a green light on to resume
production that had been shut down by the Food and Drug Administration
for three years.
So, exactly what is BioPort, what do they produce and who runs the
company? Well, BioPort, based in North Lansing, Michigan, is the only
corporation in the United States with a license to make the Anthrax
vaccine. Except that BioPort doesn’t actually make the vaccine, BioPort
simply bought the laboratory that does make the vaccine, Michigan
Biologic Products Institute, from the State of Michigan in 1998.
Less than a month after it took over the business, BioPort acquired
Michigan Biologic Products Institute’s sole and exclusive customer for
the Anthrax vaccine, the US Department of Defence, and an exclusive
$29 million contract with the Department of Defence to “manufacture,
test, bottle and store the anthrax vaccine.” The Pentagon agreed to pay
BioPort $4.70 per shot and each member of the armed forces, that’s 2.4
million soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, is supposed to get six shots
over an 18-month period. That’s a huge, guaranteed market for BioPort’s
product. Indeed, according to former Central Intelligence Agency
military analyst Patrick Eddington, the estimated $60 million worth of
anthrax vaccine BioPort is expected to produce for the Defence
Department over the next five years could just be the beginning.
“The Pentagon has a $322 million, 10-year programme to develop at least
three, and perhaps as many as a dozen additional biological warfare
vaccines, making BioPort a huge profit.” Eddington told ABCNews.
However, since acquiring Michigan Biologic Products Institute, BioPort
has only delivered a small amount of the anthrax vaccine to the US
Defence Department. In fact, just 4% of the vaccine contracted for has
so far been delivered because Food and Drug Administration audits
uncovered suspicious record keeping as well as security and contamination
problems at BioPort’s laboratories, causing the FDA to ban delivery of
the product until a few days ago.
So now lets look at who owns and runs BioPort Corporation. Let’s begin
with Admiral William J. Crowe Jr. former Head of the US Joint Chiefs of
Staff and a former US ambassador to Great Britain. It seems that back
when President George H. W. Bush was setting up Osama Bin Laden as a
“freedom fighter” (Afghanistan’s “freedom fighters” were credited with
shooting down more than 270 Soviet aircraft using American made
Stinger missiles in the 1980’s) the good Admiral and his associates on the
Joint Chiefs of Staff were, according to some reports, selling American
made weapons-grade Anthrax to Saddam Hussein in the hopes that he
would use it against Iran. These days Admiral Crowe sits on the Board of
Directors and owns 13% of BioPort Corp.
According to ABC News reporter Howard L. Rosenberg: “BioPort Corp.
was created solely to take over the assets of Michigan Biologic Products
Institute by Admiral Crowe, his partners in a company called Intervac
L.L.C. and a group of former managers of the Michigan-based institute.”
It is Intervac that has the most interesting history here. According to
Crowe’s associate and spokesman, Jay Coupe, Crowe owns 22.5 percent of
Intervac shares, although he hasn’t “invested a penny” in the venture.
Another 30 percent of Intervac shares are owned by Nancy El-Hibri, a
mother and homemaker in suburban Maryland and the rest of the
company is in the hands of “I&F Holdings,” a company directed by Nancy
El-Hibri’s father-in-law, Ibrahim El-Hibri, a Venezuelan citizen, and her
husband, Fuad El-Hibri, a German citizen of Lebanese descent. According
to Coupe, when Crowe returned from England in 1997, he was approached
by Fuad El-Hibri’s father, Ibrahim El-Hibri. The elder El-Hibri, whom the
admiral had met a decade before, invited Crowe to serve on the board of
Intervac.
Fuad El-Hibri appears to be the real day-to-day director of Intervac and
is listed by Dun & Bradstreet as the “chief executive” of Bioport. The
reclusive Ibrahim El Hibri, who grants no interviews, has homes in
Caracas, Maryland, Paris and Beirut, which he visits all year around, being
careful of avoiding tax residence in any of them. Where he got his
millions is a mystery. He invested in Porton International, a British
pharmaceutical firm where his son worked, in the early 90’s and according
to a US Congressional review, Porton International sold anthrax vaccines
to the Saudi Arabian Government. In Venezuela, Ibrahim El Hibri runs
the country’s third largest cell phone operator Digitel, despite having sold
control of the company to Telecom Italia Mobile. Meanwhile in El
Salvador, his son Fuad El Hibri, finds the time to run Digicel, a cellular
telephone concession which the family bought two years ago.
After the attacks of September 11th. President Bush placed BioPort’s
North Lansing laboratory under protection, invoking the national interest.
Interestingly enough, the Italian magazine Il Manifesto reported, in its
October issue, that this happened at the same time that the FBI also
placed the El Hibri’s at the top of their list of suspects for sending
anthrax spores through the mail system.
So, it seems that Admiral Crowe, the El-Hibris and their fellow investors
in BioPort are set to make a nice profit from the Anthrax scare. And who
are those fellow investors? Reports in the US media, denied by BioPort,
have suggested that one major investor in the company is the Carlyle
Group, one of America’s most successful investment companies, well
known for generating “extraordinary returns” for its customers through
investments in the US defence industry. Because the Carlyle Group
remains privately held, it is not required to disclose details of its
investments or business activities, it has, however, an impressive array of
board members. Former President George Bush Sr. and former UK Prime
Minister John Major are directors of The Carlyle Group, as are other top
US Republicans including former Secretary of State James A. Baker, and
former Defence Secretary and deputy CIA Director Frank Carlucci.
Now comes the interesting part of this story. According to reports in the
US media, until October last year a major investor with The Carlyle
Group was (and you had better sit down before you read this) the bin
Laden family! For many years The Carlyle Group has maintained financial
ties with the family of Osama bin Laden, but those links were supposedly
severed after September 11th. when it was agreed that the relationship
was becoming a tad embarrassing for all concerned.
The story behind the Carlyle Group and the links between George Bush
Sr. and the bin Ladens is fascinating to say the least.
In the 1970’s, Salem Bin Laden, the eldest of Osama Bin Laden’s 55
brothers and sisters, invested heavily in George H. W. Bush’s first
business venture, Arbusto Energy. Salem became Bush’s business partner
through James Bath, a close friend of the future American president.
Salem appointed Bath as his representative in Houston, Texas. It was
Bath who invested $50,000 in Bush’s company Arbusto and also bought
Houston Gulf Airport on behalf of Osama’s elder brother. Since then
business links between Bush Sr. and the Bin Laden family have flourished,
particularly since Bush Sr. joined the Carlyle Group. On September 27th.
last year The Wall Street Journal reported that:
“George H.W. Bush, the father of President Bush, works for the bin
Laden family business in Saudi Arabia through the Carlyle Group, an
international investment consulting firm. The senior Bush has met with
the bin Laden family at least twice.
Osama bin Laden has supposedly been “disowned” by his family, which
runs the Saudi Bin Laden Group, a multi-billion dollar construction
business in Saudi Arabia. However, Osama’s sister-in-law, in a recent
interview with America’s ABC News, said that she believed that members
of her family still supported Osama bin Laden.
If the rumours are correct about the Carlyle Group’s investment in
BioPort, then it’s quite possible the bin Laden family is an investor in the
only company able to make Anthrax vaccine in the United States, and
because their beloved Osama might have some of the stuff, the family
will make a fortune. In fact, the shortage of vaccine created by the now
withdrawn FDA ban will make all those involved in BioPort extremely
wealthy, as market forces drive the price of the vaccine up. A very cosy
arrangement. The Bushes, El Hibri’s and bin Ladens (and the occasional
complicit Admiral) could all be making money off the fear and death of
Americans. Is it any wonder, then, that documents relating to BioPort
were found in the possession of bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network in Kabul?

Copyright: Ian Gurney. 2002.
Ian Gurney is the author of the bestseller “The Cassandra Prophecy-Armageddon Approaches” www.caspro.com

I don’t know about you, but I’ve got my tin foil hat on!

Hold on, my filling is getting a signal!

Rick, I’ve seen this defense mechanism at work before. The truth is so bad you don’t want to believe it.

Bush Sr. is guilty of treason. He will probably never be tried for it, but it is pretty obviosu it happened. Luckily, Reagan couldn’t remember. Nice ploy. Very GOP.

I only fear what the future has for my children and all of our friend’s children.They will have to live with the choice’s these criminals are making for money. It is said that the present generation of teenagers are out of control. Actually it is the present old politicians that are going to ruin the world for us all. God does not sleep is what they should all be worried about not the teenagers.