A LITTLE BUSHED OVER TIES THAT BLIND
www.theage.com.au
By TERRY
LANE
Sunday 28 October 2001
Stop me if you've heard this one, but it is news to me. "If the US boosts defence spending in its quest to stop Osama bin Laden's alleged terrorist activities, there may be one unexpected beneficiary: Mr bin Laden's family.
"Among its far-flung business interests, the well-heeled Saudi Arabian clan - which says it is estranged from Osama - is an investor in a fund established by Carlyle Group, a well-connected Washington merchant bank specialising in buyouts of defence and aerospace companies.
"Through this investment and its ties to Saudi royalty, the bin Laden family has become acquainted with some of the biggest names in the Republican Party. In recent years, former President Bush, ex-Secretary of State James Baker and ex-Secretary of Defence Frank Carlucci have made the pilgrimage to the bin Laden family's headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Mr Bush makes speeches on behalf of Carlyle Group and is senior adviser to its Asian Partners fund, while Mr Baker is its senior counsellor. Mr Carlucci is the group's chairman."
Do you think that Mr Howard has apprised the departing troops of this intelligence? It comes from The Wall Street Journal of September 29.
A pal said to me this week: "Have you heard the story that George Bush the Smaller was once a business partner of bin Laden's brother?" I hadn't, and it sounded too good to be true. But a quick search of the Fairfax archives came up with this: "By the time Osama was growing up, the bin Ladens were very rich. They began to develop close American contacts, according to political scientist John Cooley, which the CIA would later exploit to fund the fight against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. His older brother, Salem, would become a partner in the young George W. Bush's failed oil firm."
Never mind six degrees of separation, when it comes to George the Smaller and Osama we are down to one. At first, George the Bigger denied having any sort of pally relationship with the bin Laden clan, but when his spokeswoman was confronted with a note that the former president had sent to the bin Ladens, thanking them for their hospitality, the official fudger went to water. And this was in early 2000, when the bin Ladens were still officially on the nose for Osama's involvement in the US embassy bombings in Africa.
What a tangled web. In order to wiggle out of the mounting evidence the Bushes, Bigger and Smaller, claim that Osama is the black sheep of the family and he has been, to all intents and purposes, expelled from the clan. None of his multitude of brothers, sisters, uncles, cousins, mothers and aunts talks to him any more.
Never mind how naive you would have to be to swallow that one, it leaves this question dangling: so where does the money come from?
When Osama's father, Muhammad, went to join the Prophet in Paradise Osama's personal fortune shot up by $80million. That was 34 years ago, but the money is still coming from somewhere.
While I was astonished to fall upon this information as a result of a chance remark by a friend, I was not surprised. Let me explain the contradiction. The War on Terrorism is the perfect war for a globalised 21st century and is in no way different from the wars of the early 20th.
In those days, when Britain, Russia, Germany and Austria went to war, it was pretty much a family squabble. It was a case of cousins and siblings sending their peasants into battle to die in pointless inter-family wars. The royal families were rich, powerful, share-holders in the national armaments industries and never short of dumb peasants.
In the 21st century, the royals have been replaced by the monarchs of business. They also are not too numerous, are well-connected with armaments manufacturers, related through business and well-placed to profit from the deaths of their peasants. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.
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