Former Reagan Chief-of-Staff, ex-Treasury Secretary,
ex-Secretary of State, ex-NSC Council Member, ex-GWB chief
legal advisor, etc, and recent US Special Envoy for Iraq debt
is the invisible man in the middle of this mess.
James A. Baker is Senior Partner of Baker Botts, a
legal firm
very active in Middle East affairs perhaps never more visibly
then as legal representation for the Saudi Royal family in
the lawsuits brought by the families of 9/11 victims. Baker
Botts happens to include Halliburton among its many
clients
and is active in
According to Baker Botts
<http://www.bakerbotts.com/> , on
April 15, 2005: "the firm expanded its presence in the region
by opening a Middle East regional office in
complement our existing office in
Why? "Baker Botts'
in a number of sectors in the energy industry, including oil
and gas exploration and development, oil field services,
electric power, LNG, petrochemicals, pipelines, and
gas-to-liquids." I bet they do. Clearly Baker Botts
has a
vested interest in the Bush Administration's push toward a
"free" trade agreement with the UAE.
I'll return to the
We've only just glimpsed the tip of the proverbial
Bakerberg. James A. Baker also serves as Senior
Counsel to
the secretive Carlyle Group where The Guardian has
reported his equity stake at an estimated $180 million US.
The Carlyle Group has made hundreds of millions of
dollars in the "war on terror" as owner or part owner of
defense contractors: The Aerostructures
Corporation,
Combined Tactical Systems, Inc., DHS Technologies,
Landmark Aviation, Stellex Aerostructures,
Inc., Vought
Aircraft Industries, Inc., Canada's Standard Aero Holdings,
Inc., Italy's Avio SpA,
US/Brit split Firth Rixson Limited and
Britain's NP Aerospace & recently privatized QinetiQ.
Due to
increased scrutiny of their war profiteering (brought on
primarily due to Baker's role as Iraq debt envoy), Carlyle has
within the past two years "exited" their long-time
investments in United Defense (CG's very first
defense
contractor acquisition in 1997) as well as United States
Marine Repair, Aviall and Indigo Systems.
The Carlyle Group's sway over US policies both foreign
and domestic doesn't end with the military-industrial
complex. They have their grubby fingers in a whole lotta
pies. A good primer on Carlyle including how they gave GWB
a job in 1991 and how they influence U.S.-Korean policy can
be found here: Carlyle's Way.
<http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=6793&hed=Carlyle>
Suffice to say that when Baker and Daddy both say "frog",
W jumps.
On December 12, 2003 President Bush called on
this was just a day after the Pentagon announced The
White House-approved policy excluding those nations from
bidding for Iraqi reconstruction projects. A secretive
"committee of officials" agreed that the most lucrative
contracts must be reserved for political or military
supporters such as Baker Botts client Halliburton and
those within the Carlyle Group portfolio.
Shortly thereafter Baker acted as US Special Envoy for
debt toured debtor countries eventually winning agreements
from
dollars. At the same time,
staggering $1.8 billion in reparations--substantially more
than the battered country's 2004 health and education
budgets combined, and more than the
far managed to spend in
could that happen?
One word: Baker.
via The Nation: James Baker's Double Life
<http://www.thenation.com/doc/20041101/klein> (a
must-read if you haven't already):
"Carlyle has sought to secure an extraordinary $1 billion
investment from the Kuwaiti government, with Baker's
influence as debt envoy being used as a crucial lever. The
secret deal involves a complex transaction to transfer
ownership of as much as $57 billion in unpaid Iraqi debts.
The debts, now owed to the government of
be assigned to a foundation created and controlled by a
consortium in which the key players are the Carlyle Group,
the Albright Group (headed by another former Secretary of
State, Madeleine Albright) and several other well-connected
firms. Under the deal, the government of
give the consortium $2 billion up front to invest in a private
equity fund devised by the consortium, with half of it going to
Carlyle. ...The consortium's proposal spells out the threat:
Not only is Kuwait unlikely to see any of its $30 billion from
Iraq in sovereign debt, but the $27 billion in war reparations
that Iraq owes to Kuwait from Saddam Hussein's 1990
invasion 'may well be a casualty of this U.S. [debt relief]
effort.'"
Brandishing a mighty "lever" indeed in Baker as envoy,
this deal is structured so that Baker & co. get $1
billion up
front regardless of the outcome. Nice work if you can get it.
It's worth noting also that while the Europeans have been
extremely generous in this debt forgiveness process (up to
.90 on the dollar), there is precious little info on
how much, if
any,
the Bush administration does not hold the
economic allies to the same standards that they do the
rest of the world including our #1 military ally,
Britain
Back to
for $300 million and just two year's later flipped it to the
company now known as Dubai Ports World for a near 400%
profit at a cool $1.12 billion. Again nice work, and a sweet
price. Especially since John Snow had all but run CSX into the
ground. Since 1991 CSX's profits have shrunk drastically
with its stock underperforming its rivals' by more than 65%.
CFIUS Chair John Snow was head of CSX for some 20 years
before "retiring" from his post to become Treasury Secretary.
Under Snow's leadership, CSX paid no federal income
taxes in three of the past four years. He also presided
over the CSX sale to Baker's Carlyle Group. In addition to
the many extravagant perks of his contract (including a $2.47
million lifetime yearly pension), Snow will score tens of
millions of dollars more due to a clause triggered upon the
transfer of CSX to D P World (or any other buyer for that
matter).
The crony circle closes even tighter with the nomination of DP
former Head of European and Latin American Operations,
David Sanborn, who has been handpicked by President Bush
as his nominee for the Administrator of the Maritime
Administration. Sanborn is a graduate of The United States
Merchant Maritime Academy. According to DP World
<http://www.dpworld.com/> , he "previously
held senior
roles with shipping lines CMA-CGM (
Sea-Land and has been based, besides the
Europe, Hong Kong and
served in the US Naval Reserve. Sanborn was hired by DP in
2005." That one year with Dubai Ports was all he needed
to broker the Dubai Ports deal to purchase CSX. Sanborn
left that post to oversee our ports (subject to Congressional
approval) three weeks before the DP World deal is approved
by the secretive John Snow-chaired Committee on Foreign
Investment in the
very capable executive but somehow his past year spent
flitting around makes me more anxious rather than more
comfortable.
Those are the facts as I see 'em. They have left me
pondering two things:
1. Carlyle bought CSX World Terminals for $300 million in
2003 and sold it to UAE/DP World just two years later for
$1.12 billion. By all accounts, CSX is a financial mess. If I read
it correctly its 2003 net profit was down 42% to $246,000
which is not even half the salary of their #5 executive
<http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=CSX> . Obviously,
UAE/DP World massively overpaid for CSX. What exactly
were they buying? Baker's and others' influence on behalf
of the proposed free" trade agreement with
eventual entree into the management of US ports? And/or
something else?
2. Putting aside the various documented 9/11, bin Laden &
other UAE terrorism connections and their I remain
greatly
concerned that the UAE Government-controlled Dubai Ports
World would have any influence at all on managing our
country's major ports. It has everything to do with the UAE
as a unparalleled hub of criminal activity yet nothing
to
do with its Arab ethnicity.
By all accounts UAE is a fine place to live or to visit or what
have you. It sure looked snazzy when I saw it on PBS'
Globetrekker program. But it is also historically
and
currently the worldwide money-laundering capital -- it
wouldn't be a surprise if any or all of the "missing" $9
billion+ from
lax financial regulations going. Hell, until 2004 at the
strong urging of the
exchange had no written instructions whatsoever
concerning money laundering.
Additionally,
major worldwide transshipment portal for illegal drugs
(mostly heroin), but also the sale of nuclear technologies
(even prior to Bush prezzy debate fave
Khan"'s use of
of
$20 billion+ 1991 Bank of Credit and Commerce International
(BCCI) collapse and subsequent scandal managed to
combine money-laundering, drug smuggling, child & adult
prostitution, the sale of nuclear technologies, terrorism, arms
trafficking, the Mujahideen, bribery, training of Medellin
Cartel death squads, etc., (Kerry/Brown BCCI Report. pt. 4)
<http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/04crime.htm>
all with the active participation of the UAE's emir
of Abu Dhabi
and quite likely the CIA. BCCI was the world's worst ever
financial scandal (see: wikipedia BCCI)
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Credit_and_Commerce_International> .
Even if the government of the UAE no longer actively
participates in the wide variety of major crimes still
committed via their ports and through their banking system,
they don't seem to be terribly committed to preventing
them. Since the UAE fails to stop such illegal activities in
their backyard and they continue to show at best a
luke-warm interest in enforcement, why should we
believe
that the UAE would in any way serve as a deterrent in
preventing them from reaching us in some catastrophic
way here? If in fact the UAE government continues to
actively participate in these illegal activities, we're really
screwed. If the integrity of one various individual government
departments involved in either DP World or UAE security is
compromised, we're well fucked. This is where the threat to
our National security lies not with the ethnicity of the
principals involved given that our ports are the exhaustively
well-documented weakest link in the brittle chain that is
Homeland Security.
I'll leave it to the conspiracy theorists to speculate as to
what the level of White House Chief of Staff (1981-1985)/
Treasury Secretary (1985-1989)/Secretary of State
(1989-1992) James A. Baker's involvement in and/or
knowledge of BCCI's shenanigans. Nor will I postulate
as to
what dubious
Vice President/President Poppa Bush may have had from
1976-1991 and beyond.
Regardless, it did occur to me that Baker Botts had a
slew of
choices (i.e.
where to open a second Middle East office to "complement"
the
laundering/drug smuggling/prostitution capital of
Note that
non-Saudi cities to
less than a two-hour flight away. Yep,
where Baker Botts has considerable business and a
location
would give them ideal regional coverage.
where they could keep a close eye on any developments in
Baker's $1 billion+ Carlyle Group deal.
how much of Baker Botts decision to open an office in
Dubai
has to do with DP World, "free" trade, Dubai's struggling
stock market, etc. I do know that there has to be a whole
lotta money coming down that UAE pipeline for
the
foreseeable future.
There's much more here than meets the eye and most of it
leads back to the Baker man.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/2/23/14935/2494