Cockburn
/ St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War
Now Available!
Today's
Stories
May
15 / 16, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Green Lights for Torture
May
14, 2004
Dr.
Susan Block
Bush's POW Porn
Ron
Jacobs
Secret History of the War on Drugs
William
Blum
God, Country and Torture
Michael
Donnelly
The People v. Corporate Greed: A Victory on the North Coast
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
India Shines
Stephen
Gowans
Building Democracy in Iraq and Other
Absurdities
May
13, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Where is Kerry?
Colm
O'Laithian
Torture and Degradation: Revenge American Style?
Saul
Landau and Farrah Hassan
Wal-Mart: Scrooge with Hi-Tech Accounting
Practices
Ralph
Nader
An Open Letter to Bush on the Inhumane Treatment of Iraqi Prisoners
Willliam
James Martin
Deir Yassin Massacre Recalled
Marc
Salomon
Reality TV Bites
Forrest
Hylton
Law 'n Order in La Paz: All Quiet
on the Southern Front?
May
12, 2004
Blanton
/ Kornbluh
Prisoner Abuse: Cheney Warned in
1992
Virginia
Tilley
So, Who's to Blame?
Bruce
Jackson
James Inhofe, the Dumbest Senator
of Them All
Thomas
P. Healy
No Enemies: Making Peace with Bert Sacks
Linda
S. Heard
Racism and Ignorance: a Lethal Cocktail in Iraq
Norman
Solomon
Spinning Torturegate
Lisa
Viscidi
The People's Voice: Community Radio in Guatemala
Jack
Heyman
View from the Bay Bridge: Longshoremen Plan Mass Workers March
on DC
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Rummy's Reprieve
CounterPunch
Wire
Teamsters Corruption Scandal: Hoffa Exec. Assistant Alleged to
Have Quashed Investigation into Mob Influence
Christopher
Brauchli
Detention Camp, USA
William
S. Lind
Bush's Waterloo?
May 11, 2004
Mark
Engler
On the "Necessity" of Torture
Ray
McGovern
More Troops? A March of Folly
Kurt
Nimmo
Dirty Nukes and Jefferson's Grand Experiment
Mickey
Z.
Less Than Hero
Christopher
Reed
Torture on the Homefront: America's Long History of Prison Abuse
Dennis
Hans
When John Negroponte was Mullah Omar
Bruce
Jackson
Pete Seeger at 85
Mike
Whitney
Killing al Sadr
Simon
Helweg-Larsen
Shrinking the Guatemalan Military
William
A. Cook
The Unconscious Country: Righteous Indignation,
Nakedly Displayed
May
10, 2004
Robert
Fisk
From Hollywood to Abu Ghraib: Racism
and Torture as Entertainment
Wayne
Madsen
The Israeli Torture Template: Rape,
Feces and Urine-Soaked Cloth Sacks
Col.
Dan Smith
The Shame of Abu Ghraib
Joe
Bageant
John Ashcroft, Keep Your Mouth Off My Wife!
Ron
Jacobs
Rummy's Prisongate Blues: Don't Leave Mad; Just Leave
Ben
Tripp
Getting in Touch with Your Inner Savage
Ray
Hanania
Why They Hate Us: Racism, Bigotry and Abuse
Reza
Fiyouzat
"Mishandled" Invasions
Diane
Christian
Images & Abstractions &
Genitals
Website
of the Day
Crushing Iraqi Skulls with Tanks for Sport?
May
8 / 9, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Torture: as American as Apple Pie
Adam
Jones
America's Srebrenica: What About the Hundreds of POWs Suffocated
and Shot at Kunduz?
Douglas
Valentine
Who Let the Dogs Out?: Torture, the CIA and the Press
Kurt
Nimmo
Rush Limbaugh and the Babes of Abu Ghraib
Brian
Cloughley
Humpty Dumpty is Falling
Lucia
Dailey
Forbidden Games
Joanne
Mariner
* * * *: Redacting Moussaoui
Mickey
Z.
Please Forgive U.S.? (There Are No Innocent Bystanders)
John
Chuckman
The Thing with No Brain
Doug
Giebel
Someone Knew: There Were No WMDs
Norm
Dixon
How the Bush Gang Exploited 9/11
Sam
Bahour
A Guiding Light Falls on Ramallah
Susan
Davis
Disorderly Conduct as Fine Art
Dave
Marsh
In a Pig's Eye: Alan Lomax, Dead But Still Stealing
Laura
Flanders
Life with Dick and Lynne
Dave
Zirin
Fans Push Spiderman Off Base
Carolyn
Baker
Why I Won't Vote in 2004
Prince
"Ain't No Sense in Voting"
Dr.
Susan Block
Onan for Two: Liberating Masturbation
Poets'
Basement
Smith, Sleeth, Ford, Albert and Saska
May
7, 2004
Human
Rights Watch
10 Prisons; 9,000 Prisoners: US Detention
Facilities in Iraq
Ron
Jacobs
UnAmerican? I Wish It Were So
Robert
Fisk
An Illegal and Immoral War
Ahmad
Faruqui
The 50th Anniversary of Dien Bien
Phu
Alexander
Zaitchik
From Terrell Unit in Texas to Abu Ghraib: Doesn't It Ring a (Prison)
Bell?
Mike
Whitney
The Price of Victory
Norman
Solomon
This War, Racism and Media Denial
M.
Shahid Alam
A Comic Apology
May
6, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
They Did It for Jessica: Smeared with
Shit; Kicked to Death
Kathy
Kelly
May Day in Pekin Prison: Prison Labor
for the War Machine
Werther
The Sunk Cost Fallacy: War as Vegas
Casino Game
Lawrence
Ferlinghetti
Totalitarian Democracy
Robert
Fisk
"Smoke Him": Video Shows Wounded
Men Being Shot by US Helicopter
John
Janney
Torturing the Way to Freedom?
Christopher
Ketcham
Outlaw Heterosexual Marriage Now!
Alan
Farago
Dead Oceans: So Long, Thanks for the Fish
Sam
Hamod
Bush on Arab TV: Worthless and Demeaning
James
Brooks
Sullen Spring
William
S. Lind
On the Brink of Defeat in Iraq
May
5, 2004
Maj.
Gen. Antonio M. Taguba
Complete US Army Report on Abuse of
Iraqi Prisoners
Kathleen
and Bill Christison
Kerry: a Lost Cause for Progressives?
Will
Youmans
Deal with the Devil: a Palestinian
Zionist and the End of the World
Patrick
B. Barr
Terrorists R Us: the Powerful are Exempt from the Label
Lawrence
Magnuson
Nightline's All-American Morgue
Greg
Moses
Pocketbook of Denuded Ideals
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Tormenting Prisoners, Torturing
Truth
Lee
Ballinger
Cinco de Mayo and Unity
Gilbert
Achcar
Bush's Cakewalk into the Iraq Quaqmire
Website
of the Day
Operation Phoenix & Iraq
May
4, 2004
Human
Rights Watch
A Timeline of Torture and Abuse Allegations
and Responses
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Privatized Torture
David
Peterson
CBS, Self-Censorship & Iraq
Barry
Lando
CACI's Private Torture Chambers
Patrick
Cockburn
Torture: Iraqis Disgusted, But Not Surprised
Dr.
Susan Block
Indecent Insurgents: Watch What You Say
Fidel
Castro
A Mindless, Unnecessary War
Mike
Whitney
Empire of Torture
Sonali
Kolhatkar
How to Stop the War: Demonstrate Against
John Kerry
Josh
Frank
The Lost Sierra Club
Stan
Goff
The Role: Another Open Letter to US Troops in Iraq
Agustin
Velloso
Spare Us Your Disgusting Ethics
Stew
Albert
American Know-How
Website
of the Day
Scenes from a Cover-Up
May
3, 2004
Virginia
Tilley
Let the Wall of Silence Fall
May
1 / 2, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
An Army in Disgrace, a Policy
in Tatters, the Real Prospect of Defeat
Robert
Fisk
"Good Guys" Who Can Do No
Wrong
Alexander
Cockburn
Watching Niagara: Stupid Leaders,
Useless Spies, Angry World
Heather
Williams
Gringo, We're Going Home: Latin
American Troops Flee Iraq
Diane
Rejman
An Army Vet on Torture in Iraq:
Abu Ghraib as My Lai?
Diane
Christian
Blood Spilling: Osama, Bush and
Sharon Speak the Same Language
Patrick
Cockburn
Seems Like Old Times in Fallujah
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Torturous Logic: Shocked,
Shocked, Shocked
Chris
Floyd
Suicide Bomber: Neocons, Nihilists
and Annihilation
April
29 / 30, 2004
Dave
Zirin
A Pawn in Their Game: the Unlonesome
Death of Pat Tillman
Kathy
Kelly
The Warden's Tour
Greg
Weiher
Fallujah and the Warsaw Ghetto: the
Banality of Evil
Michael
S. Ladah
Terrorism and Assassination: the
Ultimate Depception
Patrick
Cockburn
The Fallujah Mutinies
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
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Weekend
Edition
May 15/16, 2004
Investing in
War
The Carlyle
Empire
By ERIC LESER
The biggest private investor in the
world, deeply entrenched in the weapons' sector, is a discreet
group that cultivates dealings with influential men, including
Bush father and son.
One year ago, May 1, 2003,
George Bush, strapped up in a fighter pilot's suit, landed on
the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham-Lincoln along the
coast of California. The image became famous. Under a banner
proclaiming "Mission Accomplished", the president prematurely
announced the end of military operations in Iraq and his victory.
Back on dry land the next day, he made another martial speech,
not far from San Diego, in a United Defense Industries' weapons
factory.
This company is one of the
Pentagon's main suppliers. It manufactures, among other things,
missiles, transport vehicles, and the light Bradley armored vehicle.
Its main shareholder is the biggest private investor in the world,
a discreet group, called Carlyle.
It's not listed on the stock
market and doesn't have to show its accounts to any but its 550
investors- billionaires or pension funds. Carlyle manages eighteen
billion dollars today, invested in defense and high tech (notably
biotech), space, security-linked information technology, nanotechnologies,
and telecommunications. The companies it controls share the characteristic
that their main customers are governments and administrations.
As the company wrote in its brochure: "We invest in the
opportunities created in industries strongly affected by changes
in government policy."
Carlyle is a unique model,
assembled at the planetary level on the capitalism of relationships
or "capitalism of access" to use the 1993 expression
of the American magazine New Republic. Today, in spite of its
denials, the group incarnates the "military-industrial complex"
against which Republican President Dwight Eisenhower warned the
American people when he left office in 1961.
That didn't prevent George
Bush senior from occupying a position as consultant to Carlyle
for the ten years ending October 2003. It was the first time
in United States' history that a former president worked for
a Pentagon supplier. His son, George W. Bush, also knows Carlyle
well. The group found him a job in February 1990, while his father
occupied the White House: administrator for Caterair, a Texas
company specialized in aerial catering. The episode does not
figure in the president's official biography. When George W.
Bush left Caterair in 1994, before becoming Governor of Texas,
the company was in bad shape.
"It's not possible to
get closer to the administration than Carlyle is," asserts
Charles Lewis, Director of the Center for Public Integrity, a
non-partisan organization in Washington. "George Bush senior
earned money from private interests that worked for the government
of which his son was president. You could even say that the president
could one day profit financially, through his father's investments,
from the political decisions he himself took," he adds.
The collection of influential
characters who now work, have worked, or have invested in the
group would make the most convinced conspiracy theorists incredulous.
They include among others, John Major, former British Prime Minister;
Fidel Ramos, former Philippines President; Park Tae Joon, former
South Korean Prime Minister; Saudi Prince Al-Walid; Colin Powell,
the present Secretary of State; James Baker III, former Secretary
of State; Caspar Weinberger, former Defense Secretary; Richard
Darman, former White House Budget Director; the billionaire George
Soros, and even some bin Laden family members. You can add Alice
Albright, daughter of Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of
State; Arthur Lewitt, former SEC head; William Kennard, former
head of the FCC, to this list. Finally, add in the Europeans:
Karl Otto Poehl, former Bundesbank president; the now-deceased
Henri Martre, who was president of Aerospatiale; and Etienne
Davignon, former president of the Belgian Generale Holding Company.
Carlyle isn't only a collection
of power people. It maintains holdings in close to 200 companies
and, above all, provides returns on its investments that have
exceeded 30% for a decade. "Compared to the five hundred
people we employ in the world, the number of former statesmen
is quite small, a dozen at most," explains Christopher Ullmann,
Carlyle Vice-President for communication. "We're accused
of every wrong, but no one has ever brought proof of any kind
of misappropriation. No legal proceeding has ever been brought
against us. We're a handy target for whoever wants to take shots
at the American government and the president."
Carlyle was created in 1987
in the salons of the New York eponymous palace, with five million
dollars. Its founders, four lawyers, including David Rubenstein
(a former Jimmy Carter advisor), had the -limited- ambition at
the time of profiting from a flaw in fiscal legislation that
authorized companies owned by Eskimos in Alaska to give their
losses to profitable companies that would thus pay reduced taxes.
The group vegetated until January 1989 and the arrival at its
helm of the man who would invent the Carlyle system, Frank Carlucci.
Former Assistant Director of
the CIA, National Security Advisor, then Ronald Reagan's Defense
Secretary, Mr. Carlucci counted in Washington. He is one of current
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's closest friends. They were
roommates as students at Princeton together. Later, their paths
crossed in several administrations and they even worked for a
time at the same company, Sears Roebuck.
Six days after officially quitting
the Pentagon, January 6, 1989, Frank Carlucci became Carlyle's
Director General. He brought trusted lieutenants from the CIA,
the State Department, and the Defense Department with him. Nicknamed
"Mr. Clean", Frank Carlucci has a sulfurous reputation.
This diplomat was posted during
the 1970s to countries such as South Africa, the Congo, Tanzania,
and Portugal, where the United States and the CIA had played
a questionable political role. He was the number two at the American
embassy in the Belgian Congo in 1961 and was suspected of being
implicated in the assassination of Patrice Lumumba. He has always
firmly denied it. The American press has also accused him of
being implicated in several cases of arms trafficking in the
1980s, but he has never been prosecuted. For a while, he directed
Wackenhut, a security company with a hateful reputation, implicated
in one of the biggest espionage scandals ever, the hijacking
of Promise software. Frank Carlucci had the mission of cleaning
up after the Iran-Contra affair in the Reagan administration
and he succeeded John Pointdexter as National Security Advisor.
As he took over his new position, he chose a young general to
be his assistant... Colin Powell.
Frank Carlucci's name attracted
capital to Carlyle. In October 1990, the group took over BDM
International, which participated in the "Star Wars"
Program and constituted a bridgehead to it. In 1992, Frank Carlucci
allied himself with the French group Thomson-CSF to take over
LTV's aerospace division. The operation failed, Congress opposing
the sale to a foreign group. Carlyle found other associates,
Loral and Northrop, and got hold of LTV Aerospace, quickly renamed
Vought Aircraft, which contributed to the manufacture of the
B1 and B2 bombers.
At the same time, the fund
was multiplying its strategic acquisitions, such as Magnavox
Electronic Systems, a pioneer in radar imagery, and DGE, which
owns the technology for cruise missile electronic relief maps.
Three companies specializing
in nuclear, chemical, and biological decontamination (Magnetek,
IT Group and EG & G Technical Services) followed. Then, through
BDM International, a firm linked to the CIA, Carlyle acquired
Vinnell, which was among the first companies to supply the American
army and its allies with private contractors, i.e., mercenaries.
Vinnell's mercenaries train the Saudi armed forces and protect
King Fahd. During the first Gulf War, they fought alongside Saudi
troops. In 1997, Carlyle sold BDM and Vinnell, which had become
too dangerous. The group didn't need it any more. It had become
the Pentagon's eleventh biggest supplier by gaining control of
United Defense Industries that same year.
Carlyle emerged from the shadows
in spite of itself on September 11, 2001. That day, the group
had organized a meeting at Washington's Ritz Carlton Hotel with
five hundred of its largest investors. Frank Carlucci and James
Baker III played masters of ceremony. George Bush senior made
a lightning appearance at the beginning of the day. The presentation
was quickly interrupted, but one detail escaped no one. One of
the guests wore the name bin Laden on his badge. It was Shafiq
bin Laden, one of Osama's many brothers. The American media discovered
Carlyle. One journalist, Dan Briody, wrote a book about the group's
hidden side, "The Iron Triangle", and takes an interest
in the close relations between the Bush clan and the Saudi leadership.
Some ask about George Bush
senior's influence on American foreign policy.
In January 2001, while George
Bush junior was breaking off negotiations over missiles with
North Korea, the dismayed South Koreans intervened with his father.
Carlyle has important interests in Seoul. In June 2001, Washington
resumed discussions with Pyongyang.
Another example: in July 2001,
according to the New York Times, George Bush senior telephoned
Saudi Prince Abdullah who was unhappy with the positions the
president took on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. George Bush
senior reassured the prince that his son "is doing good
things" and "has his heart in the right place."
Larry Klayman, Director of
Judicial Watch, a resolutely conservative organization, demands
that "the president's father resign from Carlyle. The group
has conflicts of interest that can create problems for American
foreign policy." Finally, in October 2003, George Bush senior
leaves Carlyle, officially because he's nearing eighty years
old.
It doesn't matter that Carlyle
put an end to all relations with the bin Laden family in October
2001; the evil was already done. The group, along with Halliburton,
has become the target of Bush administration opponents.
"Carlyle has replaced
the Trilateral Commission in conspiracy theories," David
Rubenstein acknowledged in a 2003 Washington Post interview.
For the first time, the group put someone in charge of communications
and changed its boss. Frank Carlucci became honorary president
and Lou Gerstner, a respected executive who saved IBM, officially
took the reins.
That operation seems mostly
cosmetic. Mr. Gerstner doesn't spend much time in his office;
but Carlyle wants to become respectable.
The Group has created an Internet
site. It has opened certain funds to investors bringing "only"
250,000 dollars (210,000 euros). It will have reduced its holdings
in United Defense Industries, and asserts that defense and aeronautics
represent no more than 15% of its investments.
However, Carlyle continues
to make intensive use of fiscal havens and it's difficult to
know the names of the companies it controls or its perimeter.
Carlyle is also increasing
its efforts in Europe. In September 2001, it took control of
the Swedish weapons manufacturer Bofors through United Defense.
Subsequently, it tried, unsuccessfully, to take over Thales Information
Systems and, in the beginning of 2003, to acquire those parts
of France Telecom that are in Eutelsat, which plays an important
role in the European Positioning System by Galileo satellite--a
competitor of the American GPS. From 1999 to 2002, it managed
a holding in Le Figaro. In Italy, it made a breakthrough, by
taking up Fiat's aeronautics subsidiary, Fiat Avio. This company
is a supplier to Arianespace and allows Carlyle to be part of
the European Rocket Council. In another coup in December 2002,
Carlyle bought a third of Qinetic, the private subsidiary of
the British military's Research and Development Center. Qinetic
occupies a unique advisory role with the British government.
"To anticipate the technologies
of the future and the enterprises which will develop them is
our first role as an investor. Pension funds bring us their money
for that. You can't blame us for trying to take strategic positions,"
Mr. Ullmann stresses.
This article originally
appeared in Le Monde Diplomatique.
Weekend
Edition Features for May 8 / 9, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Torture: as American as Apple Pie
Adam
Jones
America's Srebrenica: What About the Hundreds of POWs Suffocated
and Shot at Kunduz?
Douglas
Valentine
Who Let the Dogs Out?: Torture, the CIA and the Press
Kurt
Nimmo
Rush Limbaugh and the Babes of Abu Ghraib
Brian
Cloughley
Humpty Dumpty is Falling
Lucia
Dailey
Forbidden Games
Joanne
Mariner
* * * *: Redacting Moussaoui
Mickey
Z.
Please Forgive U.S.? (There Are No Innocent Bystanders)
John
Chuckman
The Thing with No Brain
Doug
Giebel
Someone Knew: There Were No WMDs
Norm
Dixon
How the Bush Gang Exploited 9/11
Sam
Bahour
A Guiding Light Falls on Ramallah
Susan
Davis
Disorderly Conduct as Fine Art
Dave
Marsh
In a Pig's Eye: Alan Lomax, Dead But Still Stealing
Laura
Flanders
Life with Dick and Lynne
Dave
Zirin
Fans Push Spiderman Off Base
Carolyn
Baker
Why I Won't Vote in 2004
Prince
"Ain't No Sense in Voting"
Dr.
Susan Block
Onan for Two: Liberating Masturbation
Poets'
Basement
Smith, Sleeth, Ford, Albert and Saska
|