W in da house (3) - De Bush Dynasty

Michael Moore is zonder twijfel de bekendste Bush-bestrijder, vooral met zijn film Fahrenheit 9/11, en met zijn boeken Stupid white men en Dude, where's my country ? Maar hij is niet alleen. Verscheidene journalisten hebben boeken over Bush gepubliceerd met weinig aan de verbeelding overlatende titels.

Joe Conason - Big Lies
David Corn - The Lies of George W. Bush
Molly Ivins - Bushwhacked
Ron Suskind - The price of loyalty
Kevin Phillips - American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush

Hund i snor wil niet zover gaan om zijn lezers aan te sporen al die boeken ook effectief te lezen ( er is interessantere lectuur ) maar belicht enkele highlights uit het boek van Kevin Phillips. Zijn conclusies zijn sterk analoog aan de inhoud van Fahrenheit 9/11. Hoeft dat te verbazen ? Phillips geeft een pittig overzicht van de "businessactiviteiten" van de Bush Bros.

The Bush dynasty differs from other American families that have mixed wealth with political prominence. While the Kennedys and the Rockefellers may have a sense of entitlement, they also display a sense of noblesse oblige—what one might call an urge to repay, with charitable contributions and public service, their good fortune. The Bushes don't have that problem; there are no philanthropists or reformers in the clan. They seek public office but, if anything, they seem to feel that the public is there to serve them.

Let's put W. to one side for a moment, and look at how his brothers used their political connections to enrich themselves. Here are a few highlights:

• Before he was elected governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, in partnership with a Cuban refugee whom Phillips suggests had CIA connections, bought an office building with $4.6 million borrowed from a savings and loan. When the S&L went bankrupt, the loan was taken over by the federal Resolution Trust Corporation, which for some reason allowed the partners to settle their debt for only $500,000. In another deal, Jeb was paid handsomely by a company selling pumps to Nigeria that somehow received large-scale financing from the US Export-Import Bank.

• Neil Bush sat on the board of another S&L, Silverado, which made $200 million in loans—subsequently defaulted—to an oil company that in turn gave Neil large loans with no obligation to repay. In recent divorce proceedings it has emerged that a firm backed by Chinese businessmen, including the son of former Chinese president Jiang Zemin, paid Neil large sums in return for vaguely defined services.

• After the first Gulf War Marvin Bush, who went to Kuwait seeking business in 1993, served on the boards of several companies controlled by the Kuwait-American Company. A member of Kuwait's royal family is one of Kuwait-American's major shareholders, and it seems reasonable to say that in effect Marvin works for the al-Sabahs.

• And then there's the story of how George W. himself became rich. Many people now know the tale—the failed companies that somehow got bought out at premium prices, the insider stock sale that somehow was never properly investigated, the government generosity that made the Texas Rangers such a good deal for the businessmen who picked W. to be their public face. Several of these deals, like those of brother Marvin, had Middle East connections. Bush's first venture, Arbusto, may have involved bin Laden family money. The story of George W.'s stake in Harken Energy—which he sold two months before it announced large losses—involved a puzzling surprise deal with the government of Bahrain.

Phillips vat het zo samen:
All in all, if presidential family connections were theme parks, Bush World would be a sight to behold. Mideast banks tied to the CIA would crowd alongside Florida S&Ls that once laundered money for the Nicaraguan contras. Dozens of oil wells would run eternally without finding oil, thanks to periodic cash deposits by old men wearing Reagan-Bush buttons and smoking twenty-dollar cigars. Visitors to "Prescott Bush's Tokyo" could try to make an investment deal without falling into the clutches of the yakuza....

Nota : Die Prescott Bush is de grootvader van George W, een PB die het ook niet gehaald heeft op de lijst PB's omwille van zijn hoge louchheidsgraad. Didi Bota omschrijft hem als de 'louche PB'. Jawel, erger dan JR in Dallas ...