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The Mammoth Book of Cover-Ups

Lyndon LaRouche et al., «The Coming Fall of the House of Windsor», Executive Intelligence Review, 28 October 1994, vol. 21, No. 43

Carol Schitzner White, The New Dark Ages Conspiracy: Britain’s Plot to Destroy Civilization, 1980

<p>Bush-Bin Laden connection</p>

The Bushes and the bin Ladens. One family is a straight-arrow American political dynasty, the other a Saudi construction-industry clan whose scion is the most wanted terrorist on Earth, the head honcho of al-Qaeda. Never the twain shall meet, right?

Wrong. Ponder this. On the very morning of the 9/11 attacks, former president of the US George H. W. Bush was in a meeting at the Ritz Carlton Hotel with Shafiq bin Laden, Osama’s brother. Yes, that’s right: the incumbent US President’s father was meeting with the 9/11 mastermind’s brother.

And ponder this, too. In the days immediately after 9/11, commercial flights from the US were locked down. There was one exception. A 747 departed to Saudi Arabia with members of the bin Laden family aboard. They were, the FBI concurs, allowed out without questioning.

The Bushes and the bin Ladens go way back. They first became connected in Houston, Texas, in the 1970s when George H. W. Bush’s Arbusto 78 oil company received a $1 million investment from Salem bin Laden, Osama’s older brother. The investment came courtesy of the offices of Jim Bath, a Bush family friend who also happened to be the US representative of Salem bin Laden, the head of the vast bin Laden building, arms and car-dealing enterprise. (The bin Ladens, due to a cosy deal with the House of Saud, were the official builders in Saudi Arabia; so extensive was their wealth that they once loaned money to the Saudi Treasury.) Despite the bin Laden investment, Arbusto 78 was a failure, and by 1987 the company, and Bush’s other oil ventures, had been taken over by Harken Energy. In that same year, Harken had $25 million underwritten by the Union des Banques Suisses and BCCI. Shortly afterwards, BCCI would be investigated for money-laundering for the CIA and for funding terrorism. Jim Bath also found himself under official scrutiny; the FBI believed he was directing Saudi funds into Texan companies in hopes of influencing American foreign policy. Once he became US President, George W. Bush initially claimed not to know Bath — despite evidence that they had been friends since serving in the Texas National Guard together. Bath had also bankrolled Bush Junior’s Texas gubernatorial campaign.

While the BCCI scandal rumbled on, Bush Senior was out of the business loop, being first VP and then President of the US. (Some more paranoid, or maybe more clear-minded, conspiracy researchers consider that Bush Senior was every inch the tycoon whilst in the White House, being CEO of America Inc. and fighting the Gulf War to ensure that Iraq did not get a stranglehold on Kuwaiti oil supplies.) On leaving the White House, he resumed his financial wheeling and dealing. One company which welcomed him with open arms was the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm based in Washington DC. Founded in 1987, the Carlyle Group handled an arms, technology and security portfolio estimated at $25 million. On the group’s behalf, George Bush Sr went at least twice to Saudi Arabia to meet — guess who? — the bin Laden family. Guess who invested heavily in the Carlyle Group? Bingo. Bush’s old homeys, the bin Laden family.

It was a meeting of the Carlyle Group that Bush Senior and Shafiq bin Laden were attending on the fateful morning of 9/11. By some accounts Bush, bin Laden and former US Defense Secretary James Baker watched TV coverage of the attacks together.

What of Bush Jr, meanwhile? President George W. Bush was given a briefing by the CIA in August 2001 outlining al-Qaeda’s intention to attack the US. The name Osama bin Laden is reported as having been explicitly mentioned. The Bush White House has consistently refused to release a copy of the briefing, even to the Congressional inquiry into 9/11.

Did Bush Jr turn a blind eye to the activities of Osama bin Laden because he was the son (even if the black sheep son) of the Bush family friends the bin Ladens? Did Bush make an error of judgment because the Bushes and the bin Ladens had a three-decade-long tie?

If he did, many Americans paid the highest price.

A footnote: George W. Bush appointed Thomas Kean to chair the 9/11 Investigation. Thomas Kean has had business ties with Khalid bin Mahfouz, Osama bin Laden’s brother-in-law.

George W. Bush made errors of judgment pre-9/11 because of his family’s ties to the bin Ladens: ALERT LEVEL 8