I think George Herbert Walker Bush just made a ton of money

[WilliamPitt]

OCT 31,2003 9:02 PACIFIC 12:02 EASTERN

http://www.pressrelations.de/index.cfm?start_url=http%3A//www.pressrelations.de/search/release.cfm%3Fr%3D138222%26style%3D

( BW)(VA-UNITED-DEFENSE)(UDI) Carlyle Group to Sell 1.5 Million United Defense Shares

Business Editors

ARLINGTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 30, 2003--United Defense Industries, Inc. (NYSE:UDI) announced today that certain of its stockholders, primarily affiliates of The Carlyle Group, sold 1.5 million shares of its common stock, or approximately $50.5 million, in a public offering led by J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. United
Defense Industries will not receive any proceeds from the offering.

A shelf registration statement relating to these securities was filed and has been previously declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commissions (the 'SEC'). A prospectus supplement relating to the offering will be filed by United Defense Industries Inc. with the SEC and will be available on the SEC's Web site at www.sec.gov.

...more...

So...Papa George retires from Carlyle a couple of weeks ago, and then cashes in his United Defense stock.

This is United Defense, by the way:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/industry/carlyle.htm

The Carlyle Group bought United Defense in October 1997. United Defense has the widest product line of systems for land forces and a strong position in naval armaments. United Defense has its headquarters in Arlington, VA and its 5100 employees operate on a global basis to serve its customers.

United Defense provides Combat Vehicle Systems, Fire Support, Combat Support Vehicle Systems, Weapons Delivery Systems, Amphibious Assault Vehicles, and Combat Support Services. UDLP's current programs include:

Bradley Family of Vehicles
M113 Family of Vehicles
M88A2 Recovery Vehicle
Grizzly
M9 ACE
Composite Armored Vehicle
M6 Linebacker
M7 BFIST
Armored Gun System
M4 Command and Control Vehicle
Battle Command Vehicle
Paladin
Future Scout and Cavalry System
Crusader
Combat Systems Integration
Integrated Defense Systems
Electric Drive Vehicles
FBCB2
Electric Gun Technology/Pulse Power
Advanced Simulations and Training Systems
Fleet Management

...more...

War is good for business, and great for the Bush family finances.

[roguevalley]

1. What he doesn't stuff into Barbara's bustle, he can put in the Swiss

bank account along with Samuel's Kaiser money and Prescott's
Auschwitz money, the Nazi. What a group of fascist, lying losers.
I just have to believe that it *is* easier for a camel to pass
through the eye of a needle than a Bush to enter the Kingdom
of Heaven. <paraphrase alert>

[grasswire]

17. the visual....

.....of Poppy stuffing anything into Barbara's bustle is just too close to obscene. Please. Ugh.

[billbuckhead]

2. So Cynthia McKinney was right after all?

I'll be damned.

[Eloriel]

6. Oh, please

Are you being sarcastic, or were you a McKinney basher?

I hope you were being sarcastic. Of COURSE she was right. Damn. I hate it when people don't listen.

Eloriel

[WilliamPitt]

7. Maybe you should have another drink?

*ducking, fleeing, giggling*

[seemslikeadream]

16. was Barrick's Congo gold mining company

funding both sides of a civil war and perpetuating that bloody conflict? Only one Congressperson demanded hearings on the matter.
Cynthia McKinney.

Top human rights investigators had evidence that a mine that Barrick bought in 1999 had, in clearing their Tanzanian properties three years earlier, bulldozed mine shafts...burying about 50 miners alive. She was trying to save the life of Tundu Lissu, an internationally famous lawyer who was charged by the Tanzanian police with sedition for calling for an investigation.

Maybe there was another reason Andrew Young and Vernon Jordan let McKinney swing. They are both on Barrick's payroll at least that's what Greg Palast says.
http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/unitedstates/democracy/700.html.pf

[fabius]

3. News Flash - BFEE War Profiteering

Dog bites man...no news here...

[xray s]

4. "Combat Support Vehical Systems"

Hmmm...I wonder if they make the "Transfer Tube"

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1102-08.htm

[WilliamPitt]

5. They make pulse power technology

You know, the thing that turns airplanes off in midair.

*cough* Wellstone *cough*

[Eloriel]

8. O.M.G.

I think I'm going to be sick. Or faint. Or both.

Eloriel

[WilliamPitt]

9. You didn't know?

Check out MPRI while you're at it. Actgually, if you want to sleep, don't.

(P.S. I hope you don't get mad at my quip above. I was kidding)

[maggrwaggr]

13. help me out with this MPRI thing.

or give us a hint. What is it?

[WilliamPitt]

15. Military Professionals Resources, Incorporated

In other words, a private army for hire.

http://tvmacedonia.tripod.com/private_armies.htm

[La_Serpiente]

10. Wholly shit

[Lars39]

19. So I didn't imagine it!

I remember seeing on 60 minutes or some-such show a long time ago about this technology, but couldn't remember the name or more than just a few details. That's my pet theory regarding Wellstone, too.

[JanMichael]

23. Will? No...No...You too?

While I certainly don't put anything past the Bushites, who would at this juncture? But you don't think that a flash of energy, fired from the ground by a related company, took down a Dem Senator that was as likely to lose as to win his re-election?

Why?

[Old and In the Way]

11. 21st Century Republican corporate business model

Find a defenseless country, with natural resources and an "evil leader". Destroy infrasture with Carlyle products. Rebuild with no-bid contracts to corporate political benefactors. Clean-up. Repeat as necessary and opportunity dictates.

[maggrwaggr]

12. I have to laugh. That says it all, doesn't it!!??

Man oh man ........

I wish I still drank ..........

[seemslikeadream]

14. War is Golden for the Bush Administration

The opening of a long-delayed civil suit in a London courtroom; a brief, buried article on a judical nomination; a fluctuation in the commodities market; three mundane, seemingly-unrelated items in the news last week that combined to give a fleeting glimpse of the ugly reality behind the frantic, diversionary facade of the "civilized world".

The Italian bank BNL was one of BCCI's main tentacles. BNL's Atlanta branch was the primary funnel used by the first Bush Administration to send millions of secret dollars to Saddam for arms purchases, including deadly chemicals and other WMD material supplied by the Chilean arms dealer Cardeon and various politically-connected operators in the US like weapons merchant Matrix Churchill.

As soon as the BNL case broke, President Bush 1 moved to throttle the investigation. He appointed lawyers from both Cardeon and Matrix to top Justice Department posts--where they supervised the officals investigating their old companies.

Which brings us to the judical appointment. One of the White House aids who unlawfully intervened in the BNL prosection was a certain factotum named Jay S. ByBee. Last week, said factotum was nominated by the current warmer of the Oval Office seat, George W. Bush, to a place on the federal appeals court-- a lifetime sinecure of perks and power. ByBee was confirmed on March 13,2003.

And the commodities connection? President Pretzel's relentless hissy-fit for war on Iraq has of course goosed the price of gold enormously-- and that's set Bush Family coffers a clinking. How so? In the waning days of his failed presidentcy, Bush 1 invoked an obscure 1872 statue to give Canadian firm, Barrick Corporation, the right to mine $10 billion in gold from US public lands. US taxpayers got $10,000 fee in return. Bush then joined Barrick as a highly paid "international consultant," brokering deals with various dictators of his close acquaintance. Barrick reciprocated with big bucks for Junior's presidental run. And in another quid for the pro quo, last year Junior dutifully approved Barrick's controversial aquisition of a major rival.
http://www.counterpunch.org/floyd02152003.html

[WilliamPitt]

18. Kick

[VelmaD]

20. Jeezus H Christ...

on a popsicle stick I'm glad I didn't see this last night. I never would have gotten to sleep. Every time I think it can't get any scarier I learn something new. We're living in a fucking nightmare.

What I really want to know is why Poppy retired and how much he just made off that stock and what horrible shit is about to go down.

[AP]

21. What if DU could pool its resources and buy a controlling interest in CG?

Wouldn't that be sweet.

First thing I'd do would be to vote in a whole new Board of Directors. Then I'd have them fire all the managers. Then I'd comb the company records and turn over any evidence of wrong doing to state and federal attorneys general in the US and all over the world.

[Tyler Durden]

22. Will, why does this surprise ANYONE?

These are some seriously evil people. I am truly beginning to believe that they are completely apolitical, irrelegious, pathologically avaricious, prevaricating, lying filth.

I would advocate certain courses of action, but they go against DU rules and are hazardous to my health.