|
|
| |
George Bush is a Texas oilman, although not a very successful one. His company,
Arbusto, merged with Spectrum 7 in 1984 as it was on the verge of bankruptcy.
Spectrum was bought out by Harken Energy in 1986, giving Bush a seat on Harkens
board, some stock options and a $120,000 consulting contract. The energy
industry pumped
$2.8 million into Bush's 2000 campaign.
Bush's father, the former president and ex-CIA director, is part of the
Carlyle
Group, a $12 billion international equity firm. Carlyle's portfolio is heavy in
defense and telecommunications holdings. In addition, The Wall Street Journal
reported on September 31 that Bush One and Osama bin Laden's family, which is also
is part of the Carlyle Group, have business dealings with each other.
| |
|
 |
|
| |
Bush only won the 2000 election after his brother removed 94,000 Florida voters from the
electoral role on the basis that they were criminals. 90% (91,000) were in fact innocent
of any crime. As these voters were predominantly black and thus overwhelmingly democrats,
it can be said with a fair degree of certainty that they would have swung the vote away
from Bush by more than the 537 vote difference had they been granted their right to vote.
| |
|
|
|
| |
Dick Cheney was, from 1995 to 2000, the CEO of Halliburton, the worlds
largest oil field services company. Halliburton, through its European subsidiaries, sold
spare parts to Iraq's oil industry, despite U.N. sanctions, and had contracts to rebuild
oil infrastructures destroyed in Bush One's Gulf War (during which Cheney was secretary
of defense). He sold $59m of his shares as Chief Executive of Halliburton, after accounting
changes allegedly inflated the share price by $445m. The shares later collapsed, and
Cheney and Halliburton are now
under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Cheney was also a member of the Kazakhstan Oil Advisory Board. U.S. oil companies now hold
a nearly three-fourths stake in the Tengiz oil fields in Kazakhstan.
| |
|
|
|
| |
As a house rep from Wyoming from 1978 to 1989, he cosponsored a measure to open up the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil drilling and voted against the Clean
Water Act which required industries to release publicly their records on toxic emissions.
The Sierra Club, quoting from 1997 EPA data, point out that Halliburton's facility in
Duncan, Oklahoma, was in the top 20 percent of the dirtiest in the United States.
| |
|
|
|
| |
Cheney has consistently opposed increased gun control and environmental laws. He has also voted
to fund the Nicaraguan contras and against imposing sanctions on the apartheid
regime in South Africa.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Condoleezza Rice sat on Chevron's Board of Directors from 1991 to 2001, and Chevron
named a 129,000-ton oil tanker after her. Rice used her expertise as a Soviet foreign
relations specialist on the National Security Council during Bush One to advise Chevron
on its investments in the Caspian Sea during her board tenure.
| |
|
|
|
| |
Donald Rumsfeld was on the board of technology giant ABB when it won a deal to supply
North Korea with two nuclear power plants, netting a $200 million contract.
| |
|
|
|
| |
In 1983, a month after the US received intelligence reports of "almost daily use of CW
[chemical weapons]" by Iraq, Donald Rumsfeld met Saddam Hussein in Baghdad and passed on
the US willingness to help his regime and restore full diplomatic relations.
| |
|
|
|
| |
In 1998 he and Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz undertook a full-fledged lobbying
campaign to get former President Bill Clinton to start a war with Iraq and topple
Saddam Hussein's regime, claiming that the country posed a threat to the United States.
This included this,
and this letter.
| |
|
|
|
| |
In the Vietnam war, Colin Powell attempted to cover-up the
My Lai massacre.
| |
|
|
|
| |
In 1986, he supervised the transfer of 4,508 TOW missiles to the CIA, and
then sought to hide the transaction from Congress and the public (for the reason that
these missiles were part of the
Iran-Contra
scandal's arms-for-hostages deal). He later worked diligently on behalf of the
contra guerrillas who were killing civilians in Nicaragua (for which the
US was later condemned by the World Court).
| |
|
|
|
| |
Collin Powell met with General Mahmoud Ahmad on Sept 12+13, 2001. Ahmad was the
'money-man' behind the Sept 11 hijackers.
| |
|
|
|
| |
Don Evans spent 25 years at Tom Brown Inc., a Denver-based oil and gas company. He
was chairman and CEO of the $1.2 billion company and also sat on the board of TMBR/Sharp
Drilling, an oil and gas drilling operation.
| |
|
|
|
| |
Spencer Abraham was the No. 1 recipient of campaign contributions from the automotive
industry, receiving more than $700,000 for his failed Senate run in 2000 from contributors
like General Motors, Ford and Lear Corp. One of his top contributors, DaimlerChrysler, is
introducing an extra large SUV to the U.S. market this year. Daimlers SUV, considered a
"military spin-off," is a foot longer than the SUVs currently on the road and will only get
about 10 miles per gallon.
| |
|
|
|
| |
In yet another conflict of interests, Norman Mineta has corporate ties with Lockheed
Martin, Northwest Airlines, Greyhound, United Airlines, Union Pacific and Boeing.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
View comments
