BAE: secret papers reveal terror threats to Britian from Saudi prince

[Ichingcarpenter]

Saudi Arabia's rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to attack London unless corruption investigations into their arms deals were halted, according to court documents revealed yesterday.

Previously secret files describe how investigators were told they faced "another 7/7" and the loss of "British lives on British streets" if they pressed on with their inquiries and the Saudis carried out their threat to cut off intelligence.

Prince Bandar, the head of the Saudi national security council, and son of the crown prince, was alleged in court to be the man behind the threats to hold back information about suicide bombers and terrorists. He faces accusations that he himself took more than £1bn in secret payments from the arms company BAE.

He was accused in yesterday's high court hearings of flying to London in December 2006 and uttering threats which made the prime minister, Tony Blair, force an end to the Serious Fraud Office investigation into bribery allegations involving Bandar and his family.

The threats halted the fraud inquiry,


http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/feb/15/bae.armstrade

[TwilightGardener]

1. Wow. AND it worked. If anyone doubts the whole 9/11-Saudi thing now, they're just

willfully stupid.

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. A Kiss is just a KIss as time goes by

?d=1347686239

[billhicks76]

17. Real Criminals

How they didn't all get arrested after 911 is beyond me.

[kelliekat44]

36. And we still believe that Snowden revealations caused us no harm?

[blm]

4. Bushes-Bath-BinLaden and Saudi royals. Global fascist agenda relied on terror tactic since the 70s.

.

[Octafish]

54. Some DUers laugh at the BFEE.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024183809#post4

Even when it's explained as a handy handle for keeping tabs of traitors, I get grief. Why would that be, blm?

[Octafish]

2. Bandar Bush, BFEE

Big line of corruption.

Brothers in Arms: Bandar Bush Took a Billion in Bribes to Push UK Weapons Deal

Written by Chris Floyd
Empire Burlesque
Thursday, 07 June 2007

So says the Guardian, which has had a sneak peek at the evidence compiled by Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in its lengthy investigation of vast corruption in a decades-long arms deal between Saudi Arabia and the Anglo-American arms merchant, BAE, Tony Blair's favorite war profiteer. The SFO's probe was preemptorily quashed by Blair's ever quiescent attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, last December. Now the Guardian has learned that BAE paid a quarterly bribe to Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud-- long-time ambassador to the United States, and so intimate with America's ruling family that the president nicknamed him "Bandar Bush." BAE was plying Prince Bush with $30 million every quarter -- for ten years. Nice work if you can get it.

The background to this sordid business can be found in a piece I did last year: Last Bad Deal Gone Down: War Profits Trump the Rule of Law. A brief excerpt below sets the scene:

Slush funds, oil sheikhs, prostitutes, Swiss banks, kickbacks, blackmail, bagmen, arms deals, war plans, climbdowns, big lies and Dick Cheney – it's a scandal that has it all: corruption and cowardice at the highest levels, a festering canker at the very heart of world politics, where the War on Terror meets the slaughter in Iraq. Yet chances are you've never heard about it – even though it happened just a few days ago. The fog of war profiteering, it seems, is just as thick as the fog of war.

But here's how the deal went down. On Dec. 14, the UK Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith (Pete Goldsmith as was, before his longtime crony Tony Blair raised him to the peerage), peremptorily shut down a two-year investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) into a massive corruption case involving Britain's biggest military contractor and members of the Saudi royal family. SFO bulldogs had just forced their way into the holy of holies of the great global backroom – Swiss bank accounts – when Pete pulled the plug. Continuing with the investigation, said His Lordship, "would not be in the national interest."

It certainly wasn't in the interest of BAE Systems, the British arms merchant which has become one of the top 10 U.S. military firms as well, through its voracious acquisitions during the profitable War on Terror – including some juicy hook-ups with the Carlyle Group, the former corporate crib of George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush and still current home of the family fixer, James Baker. BAE director Phillip Carroll is also quite at home in the White House inner circle: a former chairman of Shell Oil, he was tapped by George II to be the first "Senior Adviser to the Iraqi Ministry of Oil" in those heady "Mission Accomplished" days of 2003. BAE has allegedly managed to "disappear" approximately $2 billion in shavings from one of the largest and longest-running arms deals in history – the UK-Saudi warplane program known as "al-Yamanah" (Arabic for "the dove&quot . Al-Yamanah has been flying for 18 years now, with periodic augmentations, pumping almost $80 billion into BAE's coffers, with negotiations for $12 billion in additional planes now nearing completion. SFO investigators had followed the missing money from the deal into a network of Swiss bank accounts and the usual Enronian web of offshore front companies.

Bandar Bush was instrumental in setting up the deal in the first place, the Guardian notes, wheeling and dealing with Maggie Thatcher from his Washington redoubt. The prince -- one of the leading figures in perhaps the most repressive and extremist Islamic state on earth -- has continued to be influential with the White House even after stepping down as ambassador in 2005. (He's now head of the repressive state's security organs.) He's also played a key role in L'il Bush's political career -- making a deal to cut oil prices before the 2004 vote and publicly endorsing his "brother" in the election. One cannot but speculate on how much of the dirty BAE money was used to grease the overt and covert ops of the Bush political machine. According to the Guardian, Bandar's BAE bribes were drawn from BAE's slush fund and deposited in Bandar's account in Washington's Riggs Bank -- the notorious money-laundering outfit used for decades by American and foreign elites to wash their filthy lucre. L'il Bush's uncle, Jonathan Bush, was a top executive at Riggs Bank when it was hit with a record $25 million fine in 2004 for skirting money-laundering laws, as David Sirota -- and then the Washington Post -- report.

CONTINUED w/links...

http://baltimorechronicle.com/2007/060707Floyd.shtml

Thank you for the heads-up, Ichingcarpenter!

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. Chris Floyd, the author, has a blog.

I love this bit, from one of his articles on the blog:

All the “official” stories -- 9/11, both Iraq Wars, Iran-Contra, Libya, Kosovo, the Osama rub-out, on and on -- are full of holes.
Holes, evasions, misdirections, outright lies: black oil-smoke to hide the enormity and ubiquity of state crime, which each scandal and catastrophe threatens to expose, whether or not there is some direct official culpability in the particular matter at hand.
The whole business of empire is carried out in a rolling, heaving hairball of infinitely tangled connections between the upperworld and the underworld, where ruthless factions use, betray, fight and ally with each other in ever-changing combinations. Any sliver of light falling anywhere on the hairball must be snuffed out immediately, lest it illuminate the true nature of the system.

http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/2359-distant-mirror-a-nation-of-patsies-50-years-on.html

[truth2power]

9. Wow! Chris Floyd really takes it to 'em. I love his writing....

And that slimy little weasel, Bandar. His fingers are in everything that's filthy. No wonder GW liked him.

We are truly screwed by these psychopaths.

[Berlum]

48. "Tough shit, America. There's money to be made. Smirk." - xCommander AWOL Bush (R)

[snagglepuss]

14. Bkmrd thanks or posting.

[dixiegrrrrl]

19. Just found his stuff, figured others would like it.

[Enthusiast]

30. That is good!

I love it too.

[Octafish]

35. From the Money Trumps Department: Questions over secret bank transfers

Questions over secret bank transfers

· £13m allegedly paid to firm linked to lobbyist
· Family says payments not connected to Saudi deal

David Leigh and Rob Evans
The Guardian, Sunday 10 June 2007

The arms company BAE Systems used a secret payments system to transfer more than £13m to a company linked to David Hart, the controversial former Conservative defence adviser, according to legal sources.

He has acted as a lobbyist both for Britain's biggest arms company and also for the giant military manufacturer Boeing in the US.

Mr Hart, an Old Etonian who lives in a Suffolk mansion, became notorious in the 1980s for helping the then prime minster Margaret Thatcher break the miners' strike in an operation he ran from a luxury suite at Claridges hotel, in London.

BAE is alleged to have paid the money into a previously unknown offshore company linked to Mr Hart called Defence Consultancy Ltd (DCL).

The company was registered anonymously in 1997 in the British Virgin Islands, with a bank account in the Channel Islands tax haven of Guernsey, at the Henry Ansbacher merchant bank. Mr Hart's late father, Louis "Boy" Hart, was the bank's chairman.

CONTINUED...

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jun/11/bae

BAE paid less than a half-billion dollar fine and that was that -- unfortunately for Justice, Democracy and Peace.

PS: Absolutely spot-on, dixiegrrrrl! Chris Floyd's got guts and he's a compelling scribe.

[starroute]

10. You can also tie Mitch McConnell into the BAE scandal

This was posted at DU in 2007. The original story no longer seems to be available, but here's the DU link and quote:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2150275

McConnell marks funds for contractor firm under investigation for bribery

Posted on Sat, Oct. 27, 2007

HERALD-LEADER.COM
By John Cheves

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is pushing $25 million in earmarked federal funds for a British defense contractor that is under criminal investigation by the U.S. Justice Department and suspected by American diplomats of a "longstanding, widespread pattern of bribery allegations." McConnell tucked money for three weapons projects for BAE Systems into the defense appropriations bill, which the Senate approved Oct. 3. The Defense Department failed to include the money in its own budget request, which required McConnell to intercede, said BAE spokeswoman Susan Lenover.

BAE is based in Great Britain but has worldwide operations, including a Louisville facility that makes naval guns and employs 322. McConnell has taken at least $53,000 in campaign donations from BAE's political action committees and employees since his 2002 re-election. United Defense Industries, which BAE purchased two years ago, pledged $500,000 to a political-science foundation the senator created, the McConnell Center at the University of Louisville.

In June, BAE confirmed that the Justice Department is investigating possible corruption in its Saudi Arabian deals. According to British media reports, BAE set up a slush fund with hundreds of millions of dollars in a Washington, D.C., bank to bribe Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan in order to win weapons contracts. Bandar, who heads the Saudi National Security Council, has denied the allegation. BAE cannot discuss the allegation, Lenover said.

[Octafish]

32. Big Money Mitch and BAE Systems

Great memory, yours, starroute:

Big Money Mitch and BAE Systems

Submitted by Adam Smith on Thu, 10/23/2008 - 00:00

Although earmarks make up a small amount of the federal budget, they are also the locus of many of the backroom deals between politicians and lobbyists that have corrupted Washington in recent years. This is especially true for congressional leaders like Sen. Mitch McConnell, who is better than almost anyone else at getting his way when it comes to inserting language into appropriations bills.

McConnell has requested many earmarks throughout his career, but none may be as infamous as a $23.6 million set-aside he lined up in 2007 for British defense contractor BAE Systems.(1) At the time, the company was under investigation by the Justice Department for a “longstanding, widespread pattern of bribery allegations,” including a slush fund with hundreds of millions of dollars intended to buy influence with Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan. And in 2002, BAE and another defense contractor, Lockheed Martin, agreed to pay the Justice Department $6.2 million to settle a case involving defective equipment they sold to the Navy.

If it isn’t clear why McConnell would go to bat for a foreign company suspected of bribing the Saudi government and selling worthless goods, a look at the senator’s campaign finance disclosure data may help explain: McConnell has taken at least $60,000 in campaign donations from BAE's political action committees and employees since his 2002 re-election.(2) One of them, vice president for homeland defense Mike Seale, has given McConnnell $21,500 and believes he has gotten his money’s worth. “It isn’t partisan,” Seale said. “If a Democratic senator had supported our factory the way Sen. McConnell has, I’d have given to his campaigns, too.”(3)

1. John Cheves, “McConnell Marks Funds for Contractor,” The Lexington Herald-Tribune, October 27, 2007.
2. Campaign finance and lobbying figures are based on Campaign Money Watch analysis of data obtained from the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan organization that tracks and codes campaign finance data by industry and tracks lobbying. Campaign finance data include individual contributions ($200+) and from Political Action Committees (PACs) to campaign committees and leadership PACs. Data for the 2008 cycle were downloaded in October 2008.
3. John Cheves, “Slashing of McConnell Earmarks Demanded,” The Lexington Herald-Leader, November 2, 2007.

SOURCE: http://www.campaignmoney.org/blog/2008/10/23/big-money-mitch-and-bae-systems

Their day of reckoning is fast approaching.

[okaawhatever]

41. I wondered why the Saudis who flew out of the country after 9/11 while the FAA still had everything

grounded took off from Louisville. I guess now we know they probably left on a BAE-owned jet. I wonder if more about that will come out. I know people have been looking into it recently.

[Berlum]

49. "Smirk." - Itchy Mitchy (R)

[starroute]

13. And here are some more allegations

I can't vouch for this blog -- but the allegations seem believable.

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2008/05/bae-in-the-news.html

23 May 2008

The U.S. Department of Justice is agressively pursuing their case against BAE Systems, the British arms company, which is accused of paying billions of dollars in bribes to Saudi officials, including the former Ambassador in Washington, Prince Bandar. Bandar alone is said to have received over $2 billion in BAE kickbacks, for his role in the "Al Yamamah" deal between Britain and Saudi Arabia (I hear that the actual figure paid to Bandar and some of his henchmen was closer to $10 billion). On May 12, two top executives of BAE, Chairman Mike Turner and an outside director who is also vice chairman of Barclay's Bank, were detained by U.S. officials as they arrived at Houston and Newark airports, respectively. They were handed grand jury subpoenas, and had their laptops, cell phones and papers temporarily confiscated. The latest from the DOJ is that the career prosecutors are so furious at the British government's stonewalling, that they are threatening RICO prosecutions against BAE.

Remember, that the real story behind the BAE "Al Yamamah" scandal is that, under the arms-for-oil barter deal, the British accumulated well-over $100 billion, in off-the-books, offshore funds, that have been used to finance covert operations, for the past 23 years (the deal was first signed in 1985, and has been regularly updated ever since). The other nagging matter around the BAE case is that Prince Bandar "inadvertently" helped finance the 9/11 attacks, through funds provided by him and his wife to two Saudi intelligence operative in California, who, in turn, bankrolled two of the hijackers. ...

To summarize: BAE delivered about $40 billion in arms and services to Saudi Arabia. BAE padded the bills substantially, up to nearly $80 billion. The pad was used, in part, to bribe Saudi officials who helped swing the deal, including Bandar and Prince Turki bin-Khaled, a top official of the Saudi Ministry of Defense. That part is fully detailed in the Guardian and other British coverage of the BAE scandal, going back three or four years. What is not covered in the British press is the fact that Saudi Arabia paid for the arms with oil. The oil was sold on the spot market, and this generated an estimated (in current dollars) $160 billion in cash. I am told by former U.S. Treasury Department officials that the funds generated from the oil sales, after BAE got their cut, went into offshore bank accounts. Those funds were invested by the usual hedge funds, etc. in places like the Cayman Islands, BVI, etc., and the profits over the past 23 years from those investments, multiplied the size of the fund tremendously.

[Octafish]

34. FBI investigating Prince Bandar so he hires former FBI director Freeh and Stanley Sporkin

While the BAE investigation apparently ran aground in Britain, it has gained enough interest in the United States to cause some of those in the middle of it to secure high-profile legal advisers. Prince Bandar, a confidant of the Bush family, recently retained the former Federal Bureau of Investigation director Louis J. Freeh, as well as one of the fathers of the F.C.P.A., the retired federal judge Stanley Sporkin, to represent him.



http://www.whereisthemoney.org/hotseat/stanleysporkin.htm

UnAnswered Questions for Stanley Sporkin

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2346218

Tip o' the pin to Mighty DUers of Old:

http://election.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2350839

[starroute]

38. Also this tidbit from Robert Parry

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2000/121900b.html

December 19, 2000

In 1984-85, as the Iran-contra storm clouds built, one-star Gen. Colin Powell was the “filter” for information flowing to Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger.

After the scandal broke in 1986, Powell managed to escape its consequences, in part, by claiming that much of what Weinberger knew about the secret deals had not gone through that “filter.” Powell said he knew next to nothing about unlawful 1985 shipments of U.S. weapons from Israel to Iran -- or about illegal third-country financing of the Nicaraguan contra rebels. But was the general lying? . . .

Weinberger was one of the first officials outside the White House to learn that Reagan had put the arm on Saudi Arabia to give the contras $1 million a month in 1984, as Congress was cutting off the CIA's covert assistance through what was known as the Boland Amendment. Handling the contra-funding arrangements was Saudi ambassador Prince Bandar, a close friend of both Weinberger and Powell. Bandar and Powell had met in the 1970s and were frequent tennis partners in the 1980s.

So it was plausible -- perhaps even likely -- that Bandar would have discussed the contra funding with Powell, Weinberger or both. But exactly when Weinberger learned of the Saudi contributions and what Powell knew remain unclear to this day.

[Octafish]

50. Bill Casey's chums kept the Safari Club going during Carter Administration...

...not that Lee Hamilton and the unreformed would ever notice, seeing how fast "things" move in Washington.

...Apparently both Fahd and Prince Abdullah, at the time commander of the National Guard, travelled to mecca to offer special prayers for Carter's re-election.

Their prayers were in vain as Ronald Reagan swept to power in the 1980 election. As the only Saudi royal to have met Reagan, Bandar was chosen to make first contact with the new President. When the Secretary of State, Alexander Haig Jr, visited Saudi Arabia in April 1981 to drum up support fort the anti-communist crusade, he was told that the Saudis' key concerns were the Palestinian issue and the acquisition of the AWACS system. While discussing the problem of getting the sale past Congress, Haig suggested that 'maybe Prince Bandar could come back and help with Congress.' Fahd agreed. Bandar was no officially the chief Saudi lobby with with a royal mandate.

SOURCE: "The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade" by Andrew Feinstein, pp. 49

http://books.google.com/books?id=OpV0VkwQCsIC&pg=PA54&lpg=PA54&dq=prince-bandar+%2B+william-casey&source=bl&ots=iw2Hw1e3YB&sig=V0XVzjXs4mz8UGsd2vWTeadeiWg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=RtnCUpa5DuHhygGyhIHoCw&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=prince-bandar%20%2B%20william-casey&f=false

Thanks for the kind reminder, starroute! These Machiavellan warmongers RULE!

[starroute]

44. Here's another DU oldie but goodie from 2007

It starts with a very long OP full of links -- The Guardian on how "British ministers are refusing to grant a six-month-old official request from the US department of justice for mutual legal assistance, in defiance of the UK's anti-bribery treaty obligations." YouTube links for an Al Jazeera investigation into the Al-Yamamah scandal. A number of the comments are from Octafish with the same stuff he's posted here, but there's also more. A real treasure trove.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2346218

[Octafish]

53. DU's records show: Prince Bandar was the rich uncle for William Casey at CIA.

Unlike Corporate McPravda, DU delivers Truth for Democracy. F'r another example:

Bizarre eBay auction: Adnan Khashoggi's abandoned papers!

Edited on Fri Apr-14-06 08:48 AM by newyawker99

Okay, first off a pre-emptive apology if this is a multiple post, but I <i>did</i> search for it first:
Somebody on eBay is offering

"More than 200 pounds of political, personal, and business papers belonging to Adnan Khashoggi, abandoned by him in his old apartment in Puerto Banus, Spain. Upon purchasing the apartment, several boxes were found filled with Khashoggi's private papers.

Includes many Iran Contra documents, copies of Iran Contra checks, Mcfarlane's letters to Adnan, Gorbanifar's original suggestion to Adnan that started the entire affair, Oliver Noth's subpoena, secret reports on Iran Contra affair. The Lockheed scandal. The Ismelda, Ferdinand Marcos indictments. Correspondence with King Fahd, Saudi ambassador to USA Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, several US presidents.

Iraqi tank deal, all Middle East Peace Plans from Nixon to Reagan in draft versions submitted to Adnan for review. Photo of Richard Nixon and B.B. Reboso in bathing suits on the beach in Key Biscayne toasting the start of Operation Groggy (wherein the CIA started importing cocaine into the USA).

A report that the CIA paid $1,000,000 in the late 1980's to now Prime Minister of India Singh. A report on King Fahd's state visit to Ronald Reagan in Washington DC.

An offer by Gorbanifar for Adnan to submit to the Saudi government that, in exchange for $100,000,000 payment, Gorbanifar would warn the Saudis when Iran would launch suicide boats laden with explosives against the Saudi petroleum instalations in the persian Gulf, in retaliation for the killing of the Iranian pilgrims during the Hajj.

Still located in Adnan's old apartment in Puerto Banus, Marbella, Malaga Spain."

A BUSTED OL' LINK: http://cgi.ebay.com/ADAN-KHASOGGIS-POLITICAL-PAPERS-IRA...

OP from DU2: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x927183

That thread shows why authoritarians did all they could to get a good DUer banned. Seemslikeadream carried a lot of water for Truth, Justice and Democracy. Thank you for remembering, starroute!

[snooper2]

6. I can't wait till the House of Saud is under attack from internal or external forces

Fuck those POS...

Might as well just replace them with the Taliban. Least we know their real intentions-

[JCMach1]

8. Maybe so, but you really don't want to meet the barrel of shite the House of Saud

keeps a lid on... It ain't pretty.

[GeorgeGist]

7. From 2008.

[johnnyreb]

12. Yep, a major entry in my notes from then. Anything since?

[RobertEarl]

11. You truthers have got to stop doing this

You realize that most of America will curl up in a ball in fear if they find out that they have been lied to? Where is your sense of humanity? bush protected us and you aren't dead, so quit mucking up what the rulers have designed for you.

The Saudis are not that bad!! Not everyone there has a slave.

[billhicks76]

18. Hahaha

Yep. The Saudis own the Bush family.

[elehhhhna]

15. Bandar was the Saudi Ambassador to the US

when the BAE stories started he fled and sold his property here.

[bobthedrummer]

16. K&R- and some links for those of us that love the truth

Here's one from a few years back, a thread I started 1-18-11
UK government blocks release of Blair Iraq notes
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x222859

Here's a link to yesterday's Guardian article by Nicholas Watt
Chilcot inquiry into Iraq war set to publish findings in new year
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/dec/29/chilcot-inquiry-iraq-war-new-year

Thanks for starting this thread.

[loudsue]

20. I'm bookmarking this thread. This is HUGE. If it ever grows legs,

we could see some serious changes going down. Therefore, it will probably not grow any legs, since the powers that be have NO intention of changing things.

[SCVDem]

21. The "Saudi" part of Arabia is optional

It's way past time for the people there to have their own Arab spring.

[bvar22]

22. We have known since 9-11 (and before) that Saudi Arabia

...is the chief financier, supporter, and a main source of International Terrorism,

...yet NOBODY in the Leadership of either Political Party has the courage to Stand Up and address the REAL problem in the Middle East.

Until the Community of Western Nations has the integrity to stand up to this outlaw nation,
and one of the worst Human Rights Abusers on the planet,
nothing much will change.

[Enthusiast]

29. But the propaganda system insists

that Iran is the main source of International Terrorism.

[okaawhatever]

42. I think Obama has. Why do you think Saudi Arabia has been making friends with everyone else

lately? I think Obama has let the house of Saud know we won't be their bitches anymore. Ditto Israel. Saudi Arabia is looking for someone to do all their dirty work, clearly Obama and maybe some in the UK have let them know it won't be us. That's pretty significant.

[polynomial]

23. Incredible, just incredible

this went on and no with no mainstream media razzle dazzle. There is enough scandal in this stuff to reset Wall Street ten times to crash and sale for a roller coaster ride that spins like Limbaugh clouds of lies, or Fox News wars on anything they could think of day after day.

Interesting news in depth real corruption that definitely is not talked about anywhere else that is so true. Thank you for the story it must be told to expand the sham and shame of the Bush Bandar connection. It was until recently that my own research and personal happenings found how connected the Bush family is to the Union Pacific rail road, and very connected to that rail road Harriman owned or took part in.

The average person does not realize how connected these Bush Republicans are. I can understand why many insiders know why the Union Pacific rail road is run like a cattle drive. From my own experience now with an OSHA, in a claim about safety. A complaint has been filed against the Union Pacific rail road. Currently, within a whistle blower claim to OSHA because the Union Pacific management with deception tried to ditch an injury report.

This should be interesting to see what OSHA is going to do about my claim. It has to do with the culture of corruption in management and training. It has to be made a public record to shame all those involved. If OSHA does not take any action in my favor then with the deepest intentions I will write a book about it. The general public needs to know these issues, especially the post by Ichingcarpenter it so important to banish these people from politics.

[mitty14u2]

24. No No No Talk about Benghazi, the IRS, That Bearded Guy on TV or Palin - Not This

[cantbeserious]

25. With Friends Like This ...

eom

[truebrit71]

26. And then you couple this with the 23 pages of redacted stuff from the 9/11 commission...

...and you REALLY start to wonder who is pulling the strings...and ask who was it that was allowed to fly out of the country when every other plane in the USA was grounded??

[The Wizard]

27. Saudi Arabia

is named after the House of Saud. It's the only country named after a family. I liked it better when it was just Arabia.

[Enthusiast]

28. Holy shit!

[Enthusiast]

31. Kicked and recommended a whole bunch. Way to go, Ichingcarpenter!

[dixiegrrrrl]

33. bookmarked,rec's and...kick! n/t

[starroute]

37. I've wondered how much of what gets blamed on Israel ...

Last edited Tue Dec 31, 2013, 02:29 AM - Edit history (1)

... is actually a result of pressure from the Saudis.

Certainly the push for war with Iran is in both their interests.

But then again, one reason for the US to placate the Saudis is because they take the pressure off Israel and direct it everywhere else. One of those unwritten gentleman's agreements -- and it goes back at least to the 1970s.

[YoungDemCA]

39. Interesting thoughts

I hadn't thought about it that way before.

[Octafish]

56. Stuff left out of corporate media coverage from an interesting blogger...

Blood and iron (and oil)

Hidden Cause, Visible Effects

A disturbing clue to why American policy in the Middle East is becoming unhinged is revealed in an article in the August 21, 2013, issue of As-Safir (an Arabic language Lebanese daily), which was recently translated by Al-Monitor. The article discloses what Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan told Vladimir Putin in their meeting in July. Bandar’s comments show that the Saud family has a dangerously activist agenda based on a delusional world view.

It has been obvious that since the Reagan Administration that the U.S. began seeing the Middle East from the Saudi viewpoint. (Two key members of that Administration, Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger were directors and senior officers of the Bechtel Group, an engineering firm with substantial projects in the Kingdom.) American military actions against Iraq, the distrust of the Muslim Brotherhood, the incessant sword-rattling with Iran and the newly minted antagonism to Syria’s dictatorship are all hallmarks of Saudi’s interests in the region. This is not to discount Israel’s substantial influence on our policy in the Middle East. In many important respects Israel and Saudi Arabia seek similar responses from the United States. The current obsession with Syria, however, seems the particular hobbyhorse of Saudi Arabia. (Saudi Arabia has come to terms with certain strains of Muslim extremism, some of which exist in the Syrian opposition; Israel has not.)

SNIP...

The report says that the meeting, which took place in Moscow, was proposed by the United States and “some European partners.” Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz proposed the meeting to Putin on July 30 and the secret meeting was quickly arranged. After first meeting with his Russian counterpart, Bandar met in a close-door session with Putin in his country house for four hours. Bandar reportedly implied that he had plenipotentiary powers to negotiate, not only on behalf of the monarchy but on behalf of the United States as well:

“(A)ny understanding we reach in this meeting will not only be a Saudi-Russian understanding, but will also be an American-Russian understanding. I have spoken with the Americans before the visit, and they pledged to commit to any understandings that we may reach, especially if we agree on the approach to the Syrian issue.”

SNIP...

That the United States has bought into this world-view can be explained only by considering the unreflecting group-think (based on beloved realpolitik) that has resulted in so much of our blundering in the area. But to throw our lot in with the Saudis is clearly folly. The Saudi approach to managing extremists is to export them to elsewhere than the Kingdom. Its interest is not in suppressing fundamentalism, but rather to preserve autocracy, which it believes is the only safe form of government. But whether the House of Saud wants to believe it or not, a medieval monarchy that oppresses its subjects with beliefs and by means long rejected by the developed world cannot long endure. By hitching our foreign policy wagon on a strutting, delusional world view of an outdated and out-of-touch family, we will continue to be led down the rat hole of disastrous military adventures.

CONTINUED...

https://hiddencause.wordpress.com/tag/caspar-weinberger/

[City Lights]

40. Bookmarked for future reference.

Thanks, Ichingcarpenter!

[okaawhatever]

43. I wonder if Prince Bandar is one of the Saudis who flew out of the US after 9/11 while all other

flights were still grounded. For those who haven't read the recent revelations it's been confirmed that some left from Lousiville, KY. You know, where the BAE plant is.

[Kurska]

45. Has an "ally" ever been so universally despised by the populace of their allied nation?

Why are we still propping up the house of Saud and their butchers?

[Ichingcarpenter]

46. Recent.... Saudis threaten Russia with Terror over Syria

Leaked transcripts of a closed-door meeting between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan shed an extraordinary light on the hard-nosed Realpolitik of the two sides.
Prince Bandar, head of Saudi intelligence, allegedly confronted the Kremlin with a mix of inducements and threats in a bid to break the deadlock over Syria. “Let us examine how to put together a unified Russian-Saudi strategy on the subject of oil. The aim is to agree on the price of oil and production quantities that keep the price stable in global oil markets,” he said at the four-hour meeting with Mr Putin. They met at Mr Putin’s dacha outside Moscow three weeks ago.
“We understand Russia’s great interest in the oil and gas in the Mediterranean from Israel to Cyprus. And we understand the importance of the Russian gas pipeline to Europe. We are not interested in competing with that. We can cooperate in this area,” he said, purporting to speak with the full backing of the US.

As-Safir said Prince Bandar pledged to safeguard Russia’s naval base in Syria if the Assad regime is toppled, but he also hinted at Chechen terrorist attacks on Russia’s Winter Olympics in Sochi if there is no accord. “I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us,” he allegedly said.
Prince Bandar went on to say that Chechens operating in Syria were a pressure tool that could be switched on an off. “


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/10266957/Saudis-offer-Russia-secret-oil-deal-if-it-drops-Syria.html


Anyone think somebody had to finance
the latest suicide bombers in Russia and somebody ''switched on" these guys?

[nilesobek]

47. Did we imprison the wrong guys in Gitmo?

It looks more and more like Saudi Arabia has been the real enemy all along.

[Laelth]

51. Interesting. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[think]

52. Crazy.... /nt

[LeftishBrit]

55. Words fail me.

Darling Tony. Dragging us into Iraq, threatening our civil liberties to join Bush's 'war on terror'; and at the same time capitulating to Saudi threats. Blair is disgusting, not that most Prime Ministers and American Presidents haven't appeased the Saudis.