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http://www.inthesetimes.com/issue/25/25/feature3.shtml
QUESTIONABLE TIES
Tracking bin Laden's money flow leads back to Midland, Texas
by Wayne Madsen
On September 24, President George W. Bush appeared at a press conference in
the White House Rose Garden to announce a crackdown on the financial
networks of terrorists and those who support them. �U.S. banks that have
assets of these groups or individuals must freeze their accounts,� Bush
declared. �And U.S. citizens or businesses are prohibited from doing
business with them.�
But the president, who is now enjoying an astounding 92 percent approval
rating, hasn�t always practiced what he is now preaching: Bush�s own
businesses were once tied to financial figures in Saudi Arabia who currently
support bin Laden.
In 1979, Bush�s first business, Arbusto Energy, obtained financing from
James Bath, a Houstonian and close family friend. One of many investors,
Bath gave Bush $50,000 for a 5 percent stake in Arbusto. At the time, Bath
was the sole U.S. business representative for Salem bin Laden, head of the
wealthy Saudi Arabian family and a brother (one of 17) to Osama bin Laden.
It has long been suspected, but never proven, that the Arbusto money came
directly from Salem bin Laden. In a statement issued shortly after the
September 11 attacks, the White House vehemently denied the connection,
insisting that Bath invested his own money, not Salem bin Laden�s, in
Arbusto.
In conflicting statements, Bush at first denied ever knowing Bath, then
acknowledged his stake in Arbusto and that he was aware Bath represented
Saudi interests. In fact, Bath has extensive ties, both to the bin Laden
family and major players in the scandal-ridden Bank of Commerce and Credit
International (BCCI) who have gone on to fund Osama bin Laden. BCCI
defrauded depositors of $10 billion in the �80s in what has been called the
�largest bank fraud in world financial history� by former Manhattan District
Attorney Robert Morgenthau. During the �80s, BCCI also acted as a main
conduit for laundering money intended for clandestine CIA activities,
ranging from financial support to the Afghan mujahedin to paying
intermediaries in the Iran-Contra affair.
When Salem bin Laden died in 1988, powerful Saudi Arabian banker and BCCI
principal Khalid bin Mahfouz inherited his interests in Houston. Bath ran a
business for bin Mahfouz in Houston and joined a partnership with bin
Mahfouz and Gaith Pharaon, BCCI�s frontman in Houston�s Main Bank.
The Arbusto deal wasn�t the last time Bush looked to highly questionable
sources to invest in his oil dealings. After several incarnations, Arbusto
emerged in 1986 as Harken Energy Corporation. When Harken ran into trouble a
year later, Saudi Sheik Abdullah Taha Bakhsh purchased a 17.6 percent stake
in the company. Bakhsh was a business partner with Pharaon in Saudi Arabia;
his banker there just happened to be bin Mahfouz.
Though Bush told the Wall Street Journal he had �no idea� BCCI was involved
in Harken�s financial dealings, the network of connections between Bush and
BCCI is so extensive that the Journal concluded their investigation of the
matter in 1991 by stating: �The number of BCCI-connected people who had
dealings with Harken�all since George W. Bush came on board�raises the
question of whether they mask an effort to cozy up to a presidential son.�
Or even the president: Bath finally came under investigation by the FBI in
1992 for his Saudi business relationships, accused of funneling Saudi money
through Houston in order to influence the foreign policies of the Reagan and
first Bush administrations.
Worst of all, bin Mahfouz allegedly has been financing the bin Laden
terrorist network�making Bush a U.S. citizen who has done business with
those who finance and support terrorists. According to USA Today, bin
Mahfouz and other Saudis attempted to transfer $3 million to various bin
Laden front operations in Saudi Arabia in 1999. ABC News reported the same
year that Saudi officials stopped bin Mahfouz from contributing money
directly to bin Laden. (Bin Mahfouz�s sister is also a wife of Osama bin
Laden, a fact that former CIA Director James Woolsey revealed in 1998 Senate
testimony.)
When President Bush announced he is hot on the trail of the money used over
the years to finance terrorism, he must realize that trail ultimately leads
not only to Saudi Arabia, but to some of the same financiers who originally
helped propel him into the oil business and later the White House. The ties
between bin Laden and the White House may be much closer than he is willing
to acknowledge.
Wayne Madsen, an investigative journalist based in Washington, is the author
of Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa 1993-1999.
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