Saudi-Libyan-Bush(?) connections...

[T Roosevelt]

oh the places google leads you...

(Dirty Dozen)2

by Acqualin © 2003

...

The Prince is chairman of the Kingdom Holding Company, located in his home town of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital. In February of this year (2003), Lybian leader Gen. Muammar Qaddafi and Prince Alwaleed met in Tripoli, Lybia’s capital, and were joined by the chairman of the Libyan Foreign Investment Company (LAFICO), to discuss future projects between KHC and LAFICO—two weighty financial and investment institutions.

Despite, or maybe because of, the al Quida-Saudi connection still a touchy issue (especially with the WTC victims’ families suing Saudis for damages) Prince Alwaleed had already signed a development contract for hotels in Tripoli, and the February meeting included, among other current event topics, discussion of even more hotel investments. Gee, I didn’t know tourism in Lybia was on the upswing, but then I didn’t realize the State Department had been meeting with Gen. Qaddafi, or more precisely, the newly re-imaged Gen. Qaddafi. Looks like there’s a move to rework the U.S.’s relationship, or lack thereof, with Lybia. Maybe rubbing elbows with Prince Alwaleed has had a positive effect on Muammar because he’s more into global investments via "financial engineering" than global terrorism these days. In other words, "cat and mouse" with the U.S. Treasury is more his speed than "Guess where the bomb is?" You just never know, do you? In November of 2001, The Malta Financial and Business Times reported Qaddafi’s financial manager as saying something interesting two months earlier to Bloomberg News in the U.S:

Now Mr Huwej wants to invest directly in the US, where all of Gaddafi’s (sic) assets, a total of about US$1 billion - largely deposits belonging to Libyan Arab Foreign Bank -have been frozen since 1985. "Merrill Lynch, we are ready for you," Mr Huwej said to Bloomberg, only half-joking.

[Old and In the Way]

1. I've seen ads on CNN for Kingdom Holdings, recently.

Very....interesting.