Criminal Family

We should be aware that current president Bush isn't the first in his family to engage in war profiteering. George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography by Webster G. Tarpley and Anton Chaitkin, reminds us that on October 20, 1942, the U.S. government ordered the seizure of Nazi German banking operations in New York City that were being conducted by Prescott Bush, the father of former president George Herbert Walker Bush.

Under the Trading with the Enemy Act, the U.S. government took over the Union Banking Corporation, in which Prescott Bush was a director. The U.S. Alien Property Custodian seized Union Banking Corporation stock shares, all of which were owned by E. Roland Harriman, Prescott Bush, three Nazi executives, and two other associates of Prescott Bush.

President Franklin Roosevelt's Alien Property Custodian, Leo T. Crowley, signed Vesting Order Number 248 seizing the property of Prescott Bush under the Trading with the Enemy Act. The order, published in obscure government record books and kept out of the news, explained nothing about the Nazis involved; only that the Union Banking Corporation was run for the Thyssen family of Germany and/or Hungary, nationals of a designated enemy country.

This act by the U.S. government made it clear that Prescott Bush and the other directors of the Union Banking Corp. were in essence front men for the Nazis. By keeping news of this seizure quiet, the American government avoided the more important issue: in what way were Hitler and his Nazi cohorts set up, armed, and supported by the New York and London cartel of which Prescott Bush was an executive manager?

On Oct. 28, the government issued orders seizing two Nazi front organizations run by the Bush-Harriman bank: the Holland-American Trading Corporation and the Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation.

Nazi interests in the Silesian-American Corporation, long managed by Prescott Bush and his father-in-law, George Herbert Walker, were seized under the Trading with the Enemy Act on November 17, 1942. In this action, the government announced that it was seizing only the Nazi interests, leaving the Nazis' U.S. partners to carry on the business.

These were actions taken by the U.S. government during wartime, but Prescott Bush and his collaborators had already played a central role in financing and arming Adolf Hitler for his takeover of Germany. Harriman, Bush and the others in the cabal had financed the buildup of Nazi war industries for the conquest of Europe and war against the U.S.A. They had also helped in the development of Nazi genocide theories and racial propaganda, with the slave labor and extermination camps as the result.

Since he left office, ex-President and ex-CIA Director George Bush, working as a consultant, has been using his influence and contacts for the Washington-based Carlyle Group, a $12 billion private equity firm and eleventh largest defense contractor in the U.S. Carlyle's portfolio is heavily invested in defense and telecommunications firms.

The Bin Laden family has large investments in Carlyle. The New York Times has reported that former President George Bush met with the bin Laden family in Saudi Arabia in 1998 and 2000.

Bush senior's Carlyle connection means he is on the payroll of corporate interests that receive defense contracts from the U.S. government while his son is president. Charles Lewis of the Washington-based Center for Public Integrity, indicated that "in a really peculiar way, George W. Bush could, some day, benefit financially from his own administration's decisions, through his father's investments."

Bush Senior specializes in Saudi Arabia and therefore has a personal interest in the corrupt Saudi regime's survival and continued profitability. The public-interest law firm Judicial Watch earlier this year strongly criticized Bush senior for his ties with the Bin Laden family, pointing out in a March 5 statement that it is a "conflict of interest [which] could cause problems for America's foreign policy in the Middle East and Asia."

In a Sept. 29 statement, Judicial Watch added that, "This conflict of interest has now turned into a scandal. The idea of the president's father, an ex-president himself, doing business with a company under investigation by the FBI in the terror attacks of September 11 is horrible." Judicial Watch demanded that President Bush make his father pull out of the Carlyle Group.

The New York Times on October 26, 2001 reported that, "The Saudi family of Osama bin Laden is severing its financial ties with the Carlyle Group, a private investment firm known for its connections to influential Washington political figures, executives who have been briefed on the decision said today." Some of those influential figures include George H.W. Bush and his son, President Bush.

George junior is no slouch when it comes to shady deals with the Bin Laden family and other crooked interests such as drugs.

"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."