At the National Security Agency, Arab-speaking linguists eavesdropped on phone conversations. But, even after Secretary of State Colin Powell put his credibility on the line, in a damning, dot-connecting speech before the United Nations last February, questions persisted about the solidity of the alleged links between Saddam and Osama. ...
Now there is a new and demonstrable connection, but it is not the kind that the Bush Administration had in mind. ...
It turns out that a money trail runs—albeit rather circuitously—from the lucrative business of rebuilding Iraq to the fortune behind Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden’s estranged family, a sprawling, extraordinarily wealthy Saudi Arabian dynasty, is a substantial investor in a private equity firm founded by the Bechtel Group of San Francisco. Bechtel is also the global construction and engineering company to which the U.S. government recently awarded the first major multimillion-dollar contract to reconstruct war-ravaged Iraq. In a closed competitive bidding process, the United States Agency for International Development chose Bechtel to rebuild the major elements of Iraq’s infrastructure ...
When the contract was awarded, two weeks ago, the Administration did not mention that the bin Laden family has an ongoing relationship with Bechtel. The bin Ladens have a ten-million-dollar stake in the Fremont Group, a San Francisco-based company formerly called Bechtel Investments, which was until 1986 a subsidiary of Bechtel.
...
Not mentioned? Well, how uncharacteristic for this sunshine-filled administration. A closed bidding process? I assume that means a pre-ordained winner? So for a small 500K donation to a Bush alma-mater, the Saudi's once again clean up on our dime, damn they must be laughing their arab asses off in Riyadh every time they pull a string and watch these clowns dance.
On any given day, the average merchant in an arab bazaar is more honest, intelligent and trustworthy than the Smirkster.
Oh, and in a culture where family counts, I have my doubts that with like 50 or so siblings, that ObL is totally estranged; perhaps just for the record.
