-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [gaiafoundationwa] George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 01:20:49 -0000
From: jdcroft@...
Reply-To: gaiafoundationwa@yahoogroups.com
To: gaiafoundationwa@yahoogroups.com

Hi folks

I have a little internet sleuthing to share with you all.

George Bush has claimed he is going to hunt out and eliminate all who
have funded terrorism. If he is honest, then he will have to hunt
out and eliminate the CIA, some of his best friends, and his father,
ex-President George Bush senior.

It all goes back to the time when George Bush senior was head of the
CIA. (George Bush snr. had been appointed by President Ford to head
the CIA from 1976–77.) "During George Bush's tenure as CIA director,
the agency was allegedly involved in a very curious business deal
with James R. Bath, a Texas businessman who is a friend and sometime
financial backer of one of Bush's sons (George Bush, Jr.). Bath was
also a business associate of Khalid bin Mafouze and an important BCCI
insider." from http://www.freerepublic.com/forum.a1000396.htm

This is the first step of the personal, family and business dealings
between George W. Bush and Osama Bin Laden. "George W. Bush said he
met Bath [in the 1970s] when both were fighter pilots at the Air
National Guard base at Ellington [Field, a former Air Force base near
Houston]. (Interestingly, both Dubya and Bath were both suspended
from flying in August and September 1972, respectively, for "failure
to accomplish annual medical examination.") The younger Bush (the
current President)... described Bath as a friend who is "a lot of
fun.' George W. Bush said he last saw Bath about three years ago, and
speaks to him perhaps once a year."

"Bath told me he was in the CIA...he had been recruited by George
Bush himself. 1n 1976 when Bush was director of the agency...Bath and
George, Jr. were pals and flew together in the same Air National
Guard unit, and Bath lived down the street from the Bush family when
George, Sr. was living in Houston...he became representative for
Sheikh Khalid bin-Mafouz...one of the richest men in the world, and
he was a controlling shareholder in...BCCI..." from The Outlaw Bank,
page 228.

In June 1977, George W. Bush (Dubya) formed his own oil drilling
company, Arbusto Energy ("arbusto" means "bush" in Spanish), in
Midland, Texas, with the help of Jonathan Bush, he assembled several
dozen investors in a limited partnership including Dorothy Bush,
Lewis Lehrman, William Draper, and James Bath, by then a Houston
aircraft broker associated with the bin Laden family of Saudi Arabia.
Like his father before him, Dubya founded his oil business with the
financial backing of investors, including James R. Bath, a Houston
businessman whom Dubya apparently first met when they were in the
same Texas Air National Guard unit.

George W. Bush said he had never been in business with Bath, the
American agent to part of the bin Laden fortune. This assertion,
however, was less than completely true, if subsequent stories in Time
magazine and the Houston Chronicle are to be believed.

"In sworn depositions, Bath said he represented four prominent Saudis
as a trustee and that he would use his name on their investments. In
return, he said, he would receive a 5 percent interest in their
deals," a Houston Chronicle piece about a lawsuit between Bath and a
business partner said. One of those prominent Saudis was Osama bin
Laden's brother. "Tax documents and personal financial records show
that Bath personally had a 5 percent interest in Arbusto '79 Ltd.,
and Arbusto '80 Ltd., limited partnerships controlled by George W.
Bush, the current President of the USA. "Bath invested $50,000 in the
limited partnerships, according to the documents. There is no
available evidence to show whether the money came from Saudi
interests." But given that most of Bath's own moneys come from Saudi
connections it is quite possible that some of the money used to fund
George Bush's own company came from bin Laden insterests.

Time, which first confirmed the Bath/ Bush investment connection,
wrote this about the airplane broker: "Bath controlled a fleet of
companies connected to his aircraft business, and he enjoyed unusual
carte blanche to direct the U.S. investments of several wealthy
Middle Easterners. Associates confirm that Bath has brokered more
than $150 million in private plane deals in recent years,
concentrated in sales and leases to Middle Eastern royalty and other
influential figures. ... The firm that incorporated Bath's companies
in the Cayman Islands is the same one that set up a money-collecting
front company for Oliver North in the Iran-contra affair." George
Bush senior was involved in this in an attempt to funnel money to the
Contra Terrorists who were attacking the democratically elected
Sandanista government in Central America.

The Chronicle and Time pieces have a sort of breathless, agape tone,
as if Bath's connections were almost magically far-reaching. "Bath,
while insisting he is nothing more than a "small, obscure
businessman,' is associated with some of the most powerful figures in
the U.S. and Middle East," Time observed.

Time magazine described Bath in 1991 as "a deal broker whose alleged
associations run from the CIA to a major shareholder and director of
the Bank of Credit & Commerce." BCCI, as it was more commonly known,
closed its doors in July 1991 amid charges of multibillion-dollar
fraud and global news reports that the financial institution had been
heavily involved in drug money laundering, arms brokering, covert
intelligence work, bribery of government officials and—here's the
kicker—aid to terrorists.

Bath was never directly implicated in the BCCI scandal, but according
to The Outlaw Bank, an award-winning 1993 book by Time
correspondents, Jonathan Beaty and S.C. Gwynne, Bath originally "made
his fortune by investing money for [Sheikh Kalid bin] Mahfouz and
another BCCI-connected Saudi, Sheikh bin Laden," reportedly the
brother of none other than Osama bin Laden. According to court
documents, Bath swore that in 1977 he represented four prominent and
wealthy Saudi Arabians as a trustee and used his name on their
investments in the United States. In return, he received a 5 percent
interest in their deals. Time reporters Beaty and Gwynne suggest in
their book that the $50,000 Bath invested in Dubya's Arbusto Energy
drilling company may have belonged to Bath's Saudi clients since the
Houston businessman "had no substantial money of his own at the time."

The FBI and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network later
investigated Bath after allegations were made by one of his American
business partners that the Saudis were using Bath and their giant
piggy bank to influence U.S. policy.

Osama bin Laden, whose funds were inherited from his father, Sheikh
bin Laden's BCCI investments, has been operating out of Afghanistan
since he was established as a conduit for CIA funds in the
1980's. "Afghanistan was by far the biggest; it was, in fact, the
biggest CIA operation of all time, both in terms of dollars spent ($5-
$6 billion) and personnel involved..."from the book The CIA's
Greatest Hits.

Just before the New York events, the latest New York Times/CBS News
poll showed President Bush's approval rating fell to 53 percent from
57 percent a few weeks ago, its lowest since he took office. Only 50
percent of those polled approved of his handling of the economy,
while 47 percent approved of his foreign policy performances. Some 44
percent felt Dubya was not respected by foreign leaders, a mere 39
percent agreed with his policies on the environment, and a whopping
61 percent of Americans believed the new prez was not addressing the
issues they care most about. Obviously, the pollsters didn't call
Dubya's sugar daddies—the oil and gas companies. Because he damn sure
is taking care of their interests.

So, folks, the Middle Eastern oil money used to underwrite the first
business venture of our future president of the United States, was
derived at least in part from the family fortune of Saudi terrorist
Osama bin Laden, who is now being accused of masterminding the events
in New York. Is George Bush junior serious about hunting out
International Terrorism? Or is he more interested in silencing the
al-Qeyda network of a man who has personal links back to the Bush
family? The world is still awaiting proof of the connection between
Osama bin Laden and the WTC bombings.

For the Earth

John