James R Bath connects Bush, bin Laden, Petrodollars, BCCI & BFEE.
I think this is the only known photo of Bath
James R Bath connects Bush, bin Laden, Petrodollars, BCCI & BFEE.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1928339 James (Jim) R. Bath's campaign donations
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1930028 The FBI investigated James Bath & Bush!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1905988 James R Bath, SuperTurd of the BFEE
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2053861 Call to Octafish: We need massive linkage on BCCI and IranContra.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2118878 Michael Moore: Re: James Bath....
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2344047 How many here know who Adnan Khashoggi is?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2316608 .
Know your BFEE: James R Bath - Bush - bin Laden Link
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3571293 James R Bath Links Bush and BFEE to House of Bin Laden (PROOF)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3234845 Know your BFEE: Killer Businessmen who Put Power & Profit Before Country.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4401300 My Republican neighbor came over and asked who was James R. Bath?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=1483048#1483278 Highlights
Bush, Bath, BCCI and the Caymans
Posted by Octafish on Mon Mar-07-05 09:51 PM
Where the loot went...
Follow the Money: The Bush-bin Laden Connection
President Bush's September 2001 address to the American people will live on in infamy. In it, Bush roused the American people to a "war on terrorism," which was to consist of rooting out the financial sources of support for terrorist activities. A global effort ensued in the following weeks. Bush then signed an executive order freezing the financial assets of several alleged charities reputed to be "fronts" for the al-Qaida network. According to a report by Christopher Byron dated 9/24/01 entitled "Terrorists, dollars and a tangled web", however, one glitch got ahead of Bush's fanaticism: following this money trail would require investigators to "probe deep into the offshore activities of America's mightiest banks and the financial affairs of many of America's leading public figures," including George W. and George H.W. Bush. It all starts with the Bank for Credit & Commerce International, now infamous as the "BCCI Scandal." The BCCI, with its main offices in London and New York, was bankrolled by Saudi Arabian money handlers. The BCCI was engaged in widespread bribery of officials in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas; its criminal activities touched nearly every country on Earth. According to Byron, the BCCI "laundered money on a global scale, intimidated witnesses and law enforcement authorities, engaged in extortion and blackmail; supplied the financing for illegal arms trafficking and global terrorism; financed and facilitated income tax evasion, smuggling and prostitution." As Byron also explains, BCCI operated via secrecy through various front organizations, and "penetrated the top-most echelons of American business, co-opting and exploiting many of the most visible and influential public figures in America."
The tentacles of BCCI began to touch George W. Bush when he sold his young, struggling oil company to Harken Energy. This, according to Byron, "set in motion a chain of events that wound up entangling Bush, briefly but awkwardly, in the affairs of not just BCCI but of the bin Laden family itself." Specifically, what is the bin Laden connection?
James Bath, one of Bush's original partners in his oil company, had contacts in the Middle East. According to Byron, Bath was named in a 1976 trust document as the business representative for Salem bin Laden, Osama bin Laden's half-brother, who was killed in a private plane crash in Texas in 1988. William White has claimed that Bath was involved in a secret conspiracy to funnel Saudi money into the U.S., and that since 1976-the year Bush Sr. became head of the CIA-Bath had worked as a CIA liaison to Saudi Arabia. White has made the claim, which Bath denies, that "Bath ran an aviation business and obtained several aircraft from the CIA."
As Byron reports, Bath did run Skyway Aircraft Leasing Ltd., an aviation business based in the Cayman Islands, which was owned by Saudi banker Khalid bin Mahfouz. In 1977, bin Mahfouz joined up with Saudi front man for BCCI, Ghaith Pharaon, and became an investor in the Main Bank of Houston, in which Bath also held a stake.
CONTINUED...
Does George W. Bush Have Something To Hide?
Mahfouz’s past also includes business dealings with George W. Bush, having invested $50,000 in the younger Bush’s first company, Arbusto Energy, through his U.S. representative James R. Bath, an aircraft broker and friend of Mr. Bush from their days together in the Texas Air National Guard. (Wall Street Journal (WSJ), “Vetting the Frontrunners: From Oil to Baseball to the Governor’s Mansion,” 9-28-1999)
Legal papers regarding Bath's contested divorce listed one of his assets as a $50,000 investment in Arbusto Oil -- Bush's first company. Moreover, Bath's business partner said he had no substantial money of his own at the time he made the Arbusto investment, implying that Bath received the money from someone else: "Most of Bath's investments....were really fronts for Mahfouz and other Saudis connected with the Bank of Credit and Commerce (BCCI)." (The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride Into the Secret Heart of BCCI, Random House, Beaty & Gwynne, 1993, page 229.)
Award-winning author and journalist at the Houston Chronicle and “The Economist,” Peter Brewton, consulted James R. Bath’s resume and wrote that in early summer 1976 Bath received a huge business break:
“Bath was named a trustee for Sheikh Salem bin Laden of Saudi Arabia , a member of the family that owns the largest construction company in the Middle East. Bath’s job was to handle all of bin Laden’s North American investments and operations.” ( The Mafia, CIA, and George Bush, Shapolsky Book Pub., 1992)
Shortly thereafter, Bath also began working for billionaire Sheikh Mahfouz, NCB banker for Saudi billionaire financier Abdullah Bakhsh. Meanwhile, George Junior’s failing Arbusto company was renamed Bush Exploration -- hoping to trade on his father‘s increasing importance; however, it was soon merged with Spectrum 7 Energy, as oil prices were collapsing.
While hard times continued for Spectrum, in 1988 Harken Energy Corporation absorbed the company, according to WSJ. And in return for adding the famous Bush name as a corporate asset, Texas-based Harken in effect bailed out the future president’s failing fortunes with generous stock options, a salaried seat on Harken’s board of directors, low-interest loans, and other helpful perks. < Harken Energy: George W.‘s Perfect Storm, 7-15-2002 --
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0207/S00104.htm >
James R Bath Links Bush and BFEE to House of Bin Laden (PROOF)
Posted by Octafish on Mon Mar-07-05 04:38 PM
Back when George W was defendin' Texas from the Air Force of North Vietnam, he met a man by the name of James R Bath. They both were drummed off the flight line for failing to take physical exams -- coincidently, I'm sure, right about the same time the government starting testing pilots for illegal drugs.
Here's the document:
Here's the document James R Bath signed to be the official US business agent of the bin Laden family. Neet, huh?
Here's a great, fair-and-balanced in the best sense of the phrase, article:
Mystery man
Why the White House deleted the name of Bush pal and Saudi go-between James Bath from the president's military records is a tantalizing but unanswered question.
By Craig Unger
April 27, 2004 | Last month, before the 9/11 commission began its public hearings and Iraq exploded in renewed warfare, the White House tried to quell a gathering storm regarding President Bush's military service, releasing hundreds of documents about Bush's tenure in the Texas Air National Guard some 30 years ago. A close examination of the documents reveals that they not only fail to answer lingering questions about Bush's service but prompt a crucial new area of inquiry that could play a role in the presidential campaign -- a long and lucrative, but low-profile, relationship between Saudis and the Bush family that goes back 30 years.
The document that raises that question is dated Sept. 29, 1972, and notes that 1st Lt. George W. Bush was suspended from flying because of his "failure to accomplish annual medical examination." Since he had just received hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of training as a jet fighter pilot, the fact that Bush let his medical certification lapse raises a troubling matter. Why did he allow himself to become ineligible to fly when he still had two years of service left? Given that random drug testing by the military had just started, some have suggested that Bush had not yet given up his partying ways and may have begged off because he had a substance abuse problem.
The records released by the White House last month fail to answer that question, but they do add one compelling fact to the story -- namely, that Bush was not the only man in his unit to be suspended for failing to take the physical, and that someone else at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston was suspended for exactly the same reason at almost the same time. However, in the documents, the second man's name was inexplicably redacted -- raising new questions.
Throughout the reams of documents released by the administration, standard practice was to allow each National Guardsman's name to be printed in full. Why did the White House make an exception in this case? Why would the Bush administration want to make sure this name in particular did not make it into the public eye?
The White House declined to answer these questions. However, the same document that was redacted by the White House had been the subject of a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Marty Heldt, who was investigating the story before the 2000 presidential election. In the same document that the White House selectively censored for release to the public, the name of the man who was also suspended with Bush is clearly printed. His name: James R. Bath.
CONTINUED...(worth wading through the commercial to retrieve)...
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/04/27/james_bath /
Anyone seen Mr. Bath lately? Hope his health is holding up, seeing what happens to those who know too much about the BFEE and all.
James R Bath, SuperTurd of the BFEE
Posted by Octafish on Fri Jul-23-04 10:22 PM
James R Bath is George W Bush's buddy from the Texas Air National Guard. They got grounded together for refusing to take a physical (read: drug test) in 1972. If you want to see a copy of the actual document, ask and I'll post it for you.
So... later that decade, Bath becomes a bidnessman, Texas-style, and serves as the official business representative of two of the wealthiest Saudi families: the bin Mahfouz (banking, like, um BCCI) and the bin Laden (construction, Mecca and Afghan mountain redoubt).
The Honorable Skip Fox of the DU, made a solid post to chronicle the Little Turd from Crawford's life as a crooked businessman. Behold:
Forum: DCForumID38
Thread Number: 4933
< Go back to previous page >
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Original Message
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"HarkenGate, July 9, 2002 file:"
Posted by skip fox on Jul-09-02 at 04:38 PM
HarkenGate readily breaks down into five areas for investigation and discussion:
1.W. possibly built oil company and interests through favoritism or trading off his father's name (esp. Bahrain's naming of Harken as the oil company for the country's off-shore interests).
2. Harken's posted of phony financial statements, claiming incoming assets for a subsidiary it bought from itself. (A mere $8-12 million, a low-rent version of what Enron did a decade later.)
3. W.'s trading of stock based on possible knowledge of potential stock devaluation i.e., insider trading (2 possibilities):
–a. Knowledge of secret State Dept. memo claiming Hussain was ready to attack neighbors.
–b. Knowledge of Harken's dire straits as one member of a three-member "Fairness" (auditing) committee.
4. W.'s late filing of stock sales to SEC and variation in story as to reasons.
5. Possible favoritism shown to Bush's business "indiscretions" by SEC through father's influence and/or the possible reward to SEC investigator(s) by W. himself.
According, this first file breaks into these five areas with hotlinks and clipping of the stories focusing on each issue. The second file provides the base of documents from which the first file was drawn in a manner that the reader might follow the progression of the story. Both files begin with BACKGROUND, citing Joe Conason's thorough and clear overview of the narrative of W.'s fortune. To Joe's credit, he brings up nearly all of the five issues (and sub-issues) listed above. Pizzo's article is also a good background piece.
************************************************
************************************************
BACKGROUND:
--Joe Conason's "Notes on a Native Son," Harper's Magazine, Feb. 2000. (A thorough, given article parameters, overview of George W. Bush's fortune. Harken is covered primarily on pp. 4-6 of item. Due to this article, Conason has been frequently quoted on Bush's corporate dealings):
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1111/1797_300/59086099/p1/article.html –Stephen Pizzo, "Bush Family Values," Mother Jones, Sept.-Oct. 1992 (another good example of early reporting on Bush's fortunes):
http://www.motherjones.com/news_wire/bushboys.html Will Pitt's December 18, 2001 DU article, "King Midas in Reverse," also summarizes the major issues well and is a good read:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/01/12/18_midas.html ************************************************
************************************************
1.THE POSSIBILITY THAT W. BUILT OIL INTERESTS BY TRADING OFF HIS FATHER'S NAME AT THE LEAST, FAVORITISM AT THE MOST:
Read Conason and Pizzi in Background.
Kevin Sack's "George Bush the Son Finds That Oil and Blood Do Mix," NY Times, May 8, 1999 (another excellent background piece concerning W.'s acquisition of a fortune, but Sack's clearly draws the personal and familial connections):
http://www.csus.edu/indiv/f/friedman/spring02/govt1/schedule/j/j1/bush.html <snip>
In October 1991, Time Magazine questioned why the tiny country of Bahrain would stake so much of its financial future on Harken Energy, which it labeled an "obscure, money-losing company with no refineries and no experience in offshore oil exploration." But the magazine also noted that oil-insiders speculated that Bahrain's rulers saw the arrangement as a way to gain influence with the Bush administration.
Mysteriously, primary reporters have also ignored what could point to a nexus regarding foreign policy and personal financial interests. Interestingly, the Village Voice in January 1991 reported that in 1990 the Bush administration signed an agreement with Bahrain that chose the small country as the permanent principal allied base in the Middle East, although it was some 200 miles away from the hostilities in Iraq and Kuwait.
The military-base deal came after Harken announced its Jan. 30, 1990, joint oil-drilling venture with Bahrain. So President Bush's key contributors and his son George W. were carrying on personal financial business with Bahrain at the same time decisions were being made regarding the possibility of a war in the Gulf.
And neither the president nor his adviser, George Jr., let the press know that Bahrain had been permitted to infuse $7.7 million in foreign cash to hire U.S. public relations firm Hill & Knowlton to lobby Congress and the American people; a stunning variety of opinion-forming devices and techniques were employed to inflame U.S. patriotic passions of war while personal financial interests were on the line.
<snip>
And it's even possible that some bin Laden money went to Bush's launching pad in the oil business (Arbusto) as the wealthy Saudi family sought to maintain favor with the Republican administration as Wayne Madsen reports in In These Times:
<snip>
In 1979, Bush's first business, Arbusto Energy, obtained financing from James Bath, a
Houstonian and close family friend. One of many investors, Bath gave Bush $50,000 for a
5 percent stake in Arbusto. At the time, Bath was the sole U.S. business representative
for Salem bin Laden, head of the wealthy Saudi Arabian family and a brother (one of 17)
to Osama bin Laden. It has long been suspected, but never proven, that the Arbusto
money came directly from Salem bin Laden. In a statement issued shortly after the
September 11 attacks, the White House vehemently denied the connection, insisting
that Bath invested his own money, not Salem bin Laden's, in Arbusto.
In conflicting statements, Bush at first denied ever knowing Bath, then acknowledged
his stake in Arbusto and that he was aware Bath represented Saudi interests. In fact,
Bath has extensive ties, both to the bin Laden family and major players in the
scandal-ridden Bank of Commerce and Credit International (BCCI) who have gone on to
fund Osama bin Laden. BCCI defrauded depositors of $10 billion in the '80s in what has
been called the "largest bank fraud in world financial history" by former Manhattan
District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. During the '80s, BCCI also acted as a main conduit
for laundering money intended for clandestine CIA activities, ranging from financial
support to the Afghan mujahedin to paying intermediaries in the Iran-Contra affair.
<snip>
************************************************
************************************************
2. HARKEN'S POSTING OF PHONY FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CLAIMING ASSETS WITHOUT NOTING DEBITS AND BUSH'S KNOWLEDGE OF THE FRAUDLENT ACCOUNTING.
Paul Krugman's July 7 column spells it out:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/07/opinion/07KRUG.html <snip>
That's exactly what happened at Harken. A group of insiders, using money borrowed
from Harken itself, paid an exorbitant price for a Harken subsidiary, Aloha Petroleum.
That created a $10 million phantom profit, which hid three-quarters of the company's
losses in 1989. White House aides have played down the significance of this maneuver,
saying $10 million isn't much, compared with recent scandals. Indeed, it's a small
fraction of the apparent profits Halliburton created through a sudden change in
accounting procedures during Dick Cheney's tenure as chief executive. But for Harken's
stock price — and hence for Mr. Bush's personal wealth — this accounting trickery made
all the difference.
Oh, and Harken's fake profits were several dozen times as large as the Whitewater land
deal — though only about one-seventh the cost of the Whitewater investigation.
Mr. Bush was on the company's audit committee, as well as on a special restructuring
committee; back in 1994, another member of both committees, E. Stuart Watson,
assured reporters that he and Mr. Bush were constantly made aware of the company's
finances. If Mr. Bush didn't know about the Aloha maneuver, he was a very negligent
director.
<snip>
An unattributed editorial in the St. Louis Post Dispach July 7, 2002, puts it succinctly:
http://home.post-dispatch.com/channel%5Cpdweb.nsf/TodaySunday /
86256A0E0068FE5086256BEF002DD29E?OpenDocument&PubWrapper=Editorial
(You'll have to bind http address together to go directly.)
<snip>
...Harken sold a subsidiary to a group of its own insiders. It lent those insiders much of the money to make the purchase. Then Harken claimed a profit from the sale. It was almost as if the company were claiming profits for selling something to itself. Shades of Enron, Qwest and Dynegy, among others. The SEC cried foul. It forced the company to restate its earnings to show a much larger loss.
Did Mr. Bush approve of such accounting sleight of hand? After all, he was on Harken's audit committee. Or was he snoozing while management had fun with figures?
<snip>
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/07/08/MN139428.DTL <snip>
Democrats hope to draw attention to a controversial deal by Harken to sell one of its subsidiaries, Aloha Petroleum, to a group of Harken insiders. The SEC later found that deal might have disguised at least $8 million in losses by Harken and asked the company to restate its 1989 earnings. Bush was on the audit committee of Harken's board at the time.
<snip>
************************************************
************************************************
3. BUSH'S SELLING OF HARKEN STOCK BASED ON POSSIBLE KNOWLEDGE OF POTENTIAL STOCK DEVALUATION, I.E, INSIDER TRADING (2 possibilities):
–a. BUSH'S KNOWLEDGE OF A SECRET STATE DEPARTMENT MEMO CLAIMING HUSSAIN WAS OUT OF CONTROL AND READY TO ATTACK KUWAIT
Pizzo lays out the case:
http://www.motherjones.com/news_wire/bushboys.html <snip>
In May 1990, the U.S. State Department sent a chilling but still classified report to Scowcroft. The report warned that Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was out of control and was threatening his neighbors:
May 16, 1990
SECRET
Attached is a paper containing a list of options for responding to recent actions and statements by the Government of Iraq. ...We ask that you pass this paper to Robert Gates for his review.
Under "options" the memo suggested: Ban Oil Purchases: The largest benefit Iraq receives from the US is through our oil purchases...
PRO -- A total ban on oil purchases would have some short-term impact.
CON -- Such action might also have an impact on US Oil prices.
Oil companies had learned, during the years of the long Iran-Iraq war, that trouble in the gulf hurts companies with oil interests because, for one thing, at the first sound of a rifle shot in the gulf region, Lloyds of London jacks up insurance rates on oil tankers and company installations. The "wartime" rates are very high and cut deeply into company profits and investor confidence. If things really get out of hand, pipelines are destroyed and waterways are mined.
The secret memo augured ill for Harken's fledgling venture.
<snip>
(Memo is May, Bush sells in June!)
–b. KNOWLEDGE OF HARKEN'S POOR FINANCIAL SITUATION AS A MEMBER OF A THREE-MEMBER "FAIRNESS" (read: AUDIT) COMMITTEE :
Read Conason and Pizzi in Background.
Molly Ivins Feb. 15, 2002 Texas Observer article:
http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=562 <snip>
A month before Bush sold his stock, the Harken board appointed Bush and another company director, E. Stuart Watson, to a "fairness committee" determine how restructuring would affect ordinary stockholders.
Smith, Barney, Harris, Upham & Co., the financial consultants hired by Harken, told Bush and Watson only drastic action could save the company. So Bush sold his stock before the news became public. According to U.S. News & World Report, there was "substantial evidence to suggest that Bush knew Harken was in dire straits."
<snip>
Daschle's desire to look into the SEC's 1991 investigation of Bush (mostly on late filings, but also on possible insider trading):
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/07/08/MN139428.DTL ************************************************
************************************************
4. BUSH'S LATE FILING OF STOCK SALES TO SEC AND VARIATIONS IN THE STORY
Real problems are brewing in this area. Did you notice that the story changed again in the last 24-36 hours?? The initial story had been that the SEC had misplaced the filings. But that didn't wash (since nobody at SEC was willing to take the heat for W.'s incompetence in a high profile case.) Recently he claimed that the hold up was due to Harken's lawyers. At Bush's Monday (June 8) press conference, he said that they are not clear what happened. Why can't the previous story, that Harken's lawyers filed months late, stand up under scrutiny??
A July 4, 2002, NYTimes story by Elisabeth Bumiller succinctly provides details on W's changed story about late filing:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/04/politics/04BUSH.html?ex=1026532800 &en=249a29fcb97603b8&ei=5040&partner=MOREOVER
You'll have to paste address together and register to read, but a shortened version without NYTimes registration necessity at:
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/3599668.htm <snip>
Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary, said Wednesday. that Bush failed to promptly disclose the sale of stock 12 years. ago because of a ``mix-up'' with his lawyers. In 1994, however,. Bush blamed not his lawyer but the Securities and Exchange Commission for misplacing the proper forms.
Fleischer could not completely explain the inconsistency, and he said he did not know when or why Bush changed his explanation about the reason the sale was disclosed late.
. . .
Bush, who was on Harken's board of directors, has said that he quickly realized that the stock's slide would raise concerns that he had sold based on inside information, a potential crime. The suspicions grew when the SEC said that it did not have a document from Bush, a Form 4, that insiders must file when they sell stock. Bush did not file the Form 4, and officially report the sale, until March 1991.
But Bush had promptly filed another required document, a Form 144, disclosing his intent to sell the stock.
In 1994, when Bush was asked why he had not filed the Form 4, he said he thought he had and that the SEC must have misplaced it. But on Wednesday, Fleischer said the problem was a ``mix-up, a clerical mistake'' by lawyers for Harken.
``The best explanation is the attorneys thought the form hadbeen filed, which is what led George W. Bush to say he thought it had been filed and the SEC had lost it,'' Fleischer said. ``That was not the case.''
<snip>
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/2002/07/08_Harken.html <snip>
Ari Fleischer who, if you read the. transcript of July 3, 2002's White House Press Briefing, craftily alleged. that Harken Energy's corporate attorneys were grossly incompetent. No, he didn't "say" they were grossly incompetent, but if you follow Fleischer's logic, you would have to conclude that this is what he meant. Apparently the attorneys neglected to read the deadline and filing instructions printed at the top of SEC Form-4: "This Form must be filed on or before the tenth day after the end of the month in which a change in beneficial ownership has occurred (the term "beneficial owner" is defined in Rule 16a-1(a)(2) and discussed in Instruction 4)." That is the tenth day after the end of the month . . .. Not 34 weeks.
. . .
I have never once worked with what I'd call an "upright" attorney who would dare miss a director's SEC filing deadline. In fact, if I were the assigned secretary to that lawyer, I would have been fired had I failed to note the deadline on my own working calendar.
<snip>
The third change in the story, Chicago Trib:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum /
duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=25150&forum=DCForumID5
(You'll have to paste address back together to go direct and then register, but here is the salient paragraph.)
<snip>
Changing his response for a third time, Bush said he did not know why some of the
forms he was required to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission about his
1990 sale of nearly $850,000 in Harken Energy Corp. stock were 34 months late reaching
the SEC. He earlier had blamed the SEC for losing the documents, and then a "mix-up"
by Harken's attorneys.
<snip>
David Scheim, for Campaign Watch, summarizes the SEC's final disposition on Bush's sales:
http://www.campaignwatch.org/more1.htm <snip>
. . . the SEC had not exonerated Bush. On October 18, 1993, Bruce A. Hiler, the SEC's associate director for enforcement, wrote a letter to Bush's lawyer stating that "the investigation has been terminated as to the conduct of Mr. Bush, and that, at this time, no enforcement action is contemplated with respect to him."7 Bush claimed he had been cleared, and the head of the SEC's enforcement division, William McLucas, went beyond the letter and stated that "there was no case there."8
Yet Hiler's official letter had added that it "must in no way be construed as indicating that the party has been exonerated or that no action may ultimately result from the staff's investigation ."9
<snip>
Knut Royce's report for The Public i stresses the SEC connection:
http://www.public-i.org/story_01_100400.htm and he follows it up with another:
http://www.public-i.org/story_01_100400.htm Informational: Nederland posted this in DU July 8, 2002
<snip>
Mr. Bush followed the law by informing regulators of his intention to sell stock in Harken Energy Corp., a Texas oil company, in 1990. But he conceded that because of a "mix-up, a clerical mistake" by Harken lawyers, Mr. Bush had not promptly reported the sale after it took place.
Link:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/07/03/politics/main514190.shtml As I mentioned before, its the intention to sell (form 144) that is the important document. The document indicating that you actually sold your stock (form 4), is generally regarded as a formality.
<snip>
and Nederland follows up with:
<snip>
This form must be filed with the SEC as notice of the proposed sale of restricted securities or securities held by an affiliate of the issuer in reliance on Rule 144. Notice on the form is only required when the amount to be sold during any three-month period exceeds 500 shares or units or has an aggregate sales price in excess of $10,000. The sale must take place within three months of filing the form and, if the securities have not been sold, an amended notice must be filed.
Link:
http://www.sec.gov/answers/form144.htm As you can see, the form must be filed within three months of the sale, not in the "next couple of years" . . . .
<snip>
The seriousness of late filings?? Frank Rich's "All the President's Enrons," NY Times (July 6) provides only a brief paragraph on Harken, but includes the sentence, "A Presidential spokesman assured us . . . that this infraction amounted to nothing more than driving 60 in a 55-mile-an-hour zone.")
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/06/opinion/06RICH.html Daschle's desire to look into the SEC's 1991 investigation of Bush (mostly on late filings, but also on possible insider trading):
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/07/08/MN139428.DTL ************************************************
************************************************
CONTINUED. THIS IS ONE IMPORTANT READ. GO TO THE LINK AND GET THE ENTIRE THREAD:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=4933&forum=DCForumID38&archive= 14 page interview w/ Bill White, mentioned above
Posted by rog on Thu Jul-01-04 10:05 PM
14 page interview from the CBC website
http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/conspiracytheories/white.pdf Conspiracy Theories: Broadcast on the fifth estate Wednesday, October 29 2003 on CBC-TV
http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/conspiracytheories /
Google "george w bush" "james r bath" "bill white"
http://tinyurl.com/yv4jo More articles, including the complete "part 1" of the Jerry Urban article from the Houston Chronicle.
http://tinyurl.com/yq43d Part 1 also available here (about 1/3 of the way down):
Feds Looked Into G.W. Bush-Bin Laden Connection
http://www.bushnews.com/attack.htm Can't seem to find part 2, supposedly published on the following day, June 5, 1992.
The FBI investigated James Bath & Bush!
Posted by ALago1 on Thu Jul-01-04 09:05 PM
Just doing some random Google searches turned up this 1992 article from the Houston chronicle:
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/1990s/houstonchronicle060492.html "Federal authorities are investigating the activities of a Houston businessman -- a past investor in companies controlled by a son of President Bush -- who has been accused of illegally representing Saudi interests in the United States.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network -- known as FinCEN -- and the FBI are reviewing accusations that entrepreneur James R. Bath guided money to Houston from Saudi investors who wanted to influence U.S. policy under the Reagan and Bush administrations, sources close to the investigations say. FinCEN, a division of the U.S. Department of Treasury, investigates money laundering. Special agents and analysts from various law enforcement agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Customs Service, are assigned to work with the FinCEN staff.
"The federal review stems in part from court documents obtained through litigation by Bill White, a former real estate business associate of Bath. White contends the documents indicate that the Saudis were using Bath and their huge financial resources to influence U.S. policy.
Moore should have mentioned that the Feds were on to them (or at least appeared to be) in his film. Anyone else ever heard of this?
James (Jim) R. Bath's campaign donations
Posted by President Jesus on Tue Jul-06-04 08:01 AM
http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?st=TX&last=Bath&first=Jim James R Bath connects Bush, bin Laden, Petrodollars, BCCI & BFEE.
Posted by Octafish on Tue Jul-06-04 12:12 AM
If Corporate McPravda should ever get off its bloated backsides long enough, they might trace and document the BFEE's many nefarious connections to Smirko's blacked-out Texas Air National Guard buddy -- James R Bath.
Named in Fahrenheit 9/11, the guy ties the BFEE to Saudi petrodollars, international terrorism, money-laundering, drug-dealing and a whole lot more, including nuclear proliferation.
The press won't t be doing the nation any favors calling Bath a linchpin or missing link: It would be doing its job. And if they do, it's likely the nation would discover what Danny Casolaro termed "The Octopus."
Here's an excerpt from a BBC interview with Bath's one-time business partner, a brave man named Bill White. There's also a link to the interview.
BILL WHITE
Interview by: Bob McKeown
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
EXCERPT...
SO IN A SENSE, AT THE POINT WHEN YOU FIRST MET HIM WAS BATH THIS LINK BETWEEN THE BUSHES ON ONE SIDE AND THE BIN LADEN’S AND SAUDIS? Right. That link had already been established and Jim was actually in an operational mode. He spent probably ninety-five percent of his time, I’d call it hand-holding the Arabs. He bought a bank for them. He bought an airport for them. He started an airline for them among other ventures in Houston, Texas and was the nominee or the front man for their ownership of these various entities. He would spend most of his time dealing with their interests while I concentrated on running our real estate development company.
WHAT WAS THE EXTENT OF THE INTEREST OF THE SAUDIS IN AND AROUND HOUSTON? WHY DID THEY COME TO TEXAS AT THIS TIME? Well they had a large presence here because of their oil interests (Aramco & Saudia are headquartered in Houston). And they had banking interests by virtue of Bush Senior’s association with First International Bank which subsequently became InterFirst. And there was also John Connolly, who was a former Democrat who turned Republican and worked in the Nixon Administration with Bush, he ran First City NationalBank. We also had James Baker and his Baker & Bott’s Law Firm, so you basically had a confluence of political and business interests that were friendly to the Saudi Royal Family here in Houston.
IN THE MID SEVENTIES WHEN YOU FIRST CAME IN CONNECTION WITH JIM, WHAT DID YOU LEARN THROUGH BATH ABOUT THE EXTENT OF THE BUSH CONNECTIONS AND THE BUSH HISTORY WITH SAUDI ARABIA? Well Bath explained to me that he had been tapped by George Senior to set up a quasi-private aircraft firm that would basically engage in CIA-sponsored activities funded by the Saudi Royal Family. He explained that the Saudis had basically entered into a quid pro quo relationship with Bush and that Bush when he was CIA Director worked with the head of Saudi Intelligence and the CIA trained the Palace Guard to protect the Saudi Royal Family who was concerned about a fundamentalist revolution. And it was at that point I think that this thing got kicked into high gear and the Saudis agreed to provide surreptitious funding to the United States to fight it’s secret wars in Afghanistan and Nicaragua. Payback came when Bush as Vice President sent AWACS and F-15 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia and supported Saddam Hussein under the adage that ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’. We had the Iran-Iraq War at the time so that’s really how the relationship evolved. “That’s my understanding although I think in retrospect the Saudis realized that they had the power, the magic wand by virtue of their Petro-dollars and that they could use that to influence US foreign and domestic policy. “
SNIP...
WHEN YOU LOOK BACK OVER ALL OF THIS HOW MUCH HAS IT COST YOU IN FINANCIAL AND OTHER WAYS? Well it’s cost me virtually everything, financially. I lost my business, all my real estate holdings, all of my assets were conveyed to Bath in the lawsuits, my house was foreclosed on because the mortgage was held by the Bank that was laundering the Saudi money, all my property was sold at constables’ sale, my Navy retirement was forfeited, and we paid a terrible price. One irony was that during this litigation process, when I refused to cooperate in the cover-up, they began to offer me money and banking business - a package worth millions of dollars if I would only sign what they called a Settlement Agreement. But as I explained to my Lawyer, the Settlement Agreement was nothing but a ‘hush money’ agreement. It said basically that we could never have this conversation and that I could never disclose the Bush-Saudi relationship. I felt that to take that money and to sign that Agreement would have been to basically spit on the graves of all of my friends who died in Vietnam and were fighting to fulfill the Oath we took to protect the Constitution. So I’ve paid a heavy price but I really feel like some of us have a destiny. I certainly didn’t choose this destiny, but it was thrust upon me and I’m trying to do my best to get the truth out. And again there’s really no ill will toward Jim Bath or George Bush. It’s just a matter of getting the truth out on the table and letting the consequences be what they may. But I think the truth’s important.
CONTINUED...
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:JkjMbciHAlgJ:www.cbc.ca/fifth/conspiracytheories/white.pdf+jim-bath+bill-white+cbc&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 CONSPIRACY OR COINCIDENCE?
Is it a conspiracy or a coincidence? There is a long and tangled history between the Bush family and the elite of Saudi Arabia.
There are many business and connections between the Bush family and the elite of Saudi Arabia.
It begins in the 1970's in Houston, Texas, when George W. Bush was just starting out in his family's two businesses of politics and oil. The powerful - and very rich - Bin Laden family helped fund his first venture into oil.
The cozy friendship continued for decades. After a terrorist attack at a barracks in Saudi Arabia which killed 19 Americans, the bin Laden family received a multi-billion dollar contract to re-build. And incredibly, George Bush Sr. was in a business meeting at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Washington on the morning of September 11th with one of Osama Bin Laden's brothers.
Below is a timeline that details the relationship between the Bin Laden and Bush families that culminates in the tragic events of September 11th.
CONTINUED...
http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/conspiracytheories/saudi.html Bush's Former Oil Company
Linked To bin Laden Family
By Rick Wiles
American Freedom News.com
c. 2001 American Freedom News
10-3-1
EXCERPT...
According to a 1976 trust agreement, Salem bin Laden appointed James Bath as his business representative in Houston. Revelation about Bath's relationship with the bin Laden financial empire and the CIA was made public in 1992 by Bill White, a former real estate business partner with Bath. White informed federal investigators in 1992 that Bath told him that he had assisted the CIA in a liaison role since 1976 - the same year former President George Herbert Walker Bush served as director of the CIA.
During a bitter legal fight between White and Bath, the real estate partner disclosed that Bath managed a portfolio worth millions of dollars for Sheik Khalid bin Mahfouz and other wealthy Saudis. Among the investments made by Bath with Mahfouz's money was the Houston Gulf Airport.
A powerful banker in Saudi Arabia, Mahfouz was one of the largest stockholders in the Bank of Credit and Commerce International. BCCI was a corrupt global banking empire operating in 73 nations and was a major financial and political force in Washington, Paris, Geneva, London, and Hong Kong. Despite the appearance of a normal banking operation, BCCI was actually an international crime syndicate providing "banking services" to the Medellin drug cartel, Pamama dictator Manuel Noriega, Saddam Hussein, terrorist mastermind Abu Nidal, and Khun Sa, the heroin kingpin in Asia's Golden Triangle.
The BCCI scandal implicated some of the biggest political names in Washington - both Democrats and Republicans - during the first Bush White House. The bank was accused of laundering money for drug cartels, smuggling weapons to terrorists, and using Middle Eastern oil money to influence American politicians.
CONTINUED...
Banking scandal figure seeks claim to airport contract
By JERRY URBAN
Staff
A key figure in the world's largest banking scandal is participating in an attempt to take control of a major city of Houston aviation contractor, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court here.
National Commercial Bank-Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (NCB), which is controlled by the family of Sheik Khalid Bin Mahfouz, has claimed rights to 90 percent of the outstanding shares of Southwest Airport Services, according to documents accompanying the lawsuit filed by Sandra C. Bath , president of Southwest Airport Services.
SNIP...
Bath filed the lawsuit against the bank and her former husband, James R . Bath , a local entrepreneur.
SNIP...
James Bath is the guarantor on the defaulted loan. He pledged 900 of the 1,000 outstanding shares of Southwest Airport Services to the bank as collateral to secure the loan, according to court documents. Bath held the shares for himself and on behalf of his former wife as community property, the lawsuit says.
CONTINUED...
http://sugarinthegourd.com/bath/bath02.html Bush Said Friend's Arbusto Investment Was His Own, Not Saudi Money
Friend "Declined To Comment For The Record"
by Jerry Urban
The Houston Chronicle
June 4, 1992
"Federal authorities are investigating the activities of a Houston businessman -- a past investor in companies controlled by a son of President Bush -- who has been accused of illegally representing Saudi interests in the United States.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network -- known as FinCEN -- and the FBI are reviewing accusations that entrepreneur James R. Bath guided money to Houston from Saudi investors who wanted to influence U.S. policy under the Reagan and Bush administrations, sources close to the investigations say. FinCEN, a division of the U.S. Department of Treasury, investigates money laundering. Special agents and analysts from various law enforcement agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Customs Service, are assigned to work with the FinCEN staff.
SNIP...
Such representation by Bath would require that he be registered as a foreign agent with the U.S. Department of Justice. In general, people required by law to be registered are those who represent a foreign entity seeking to influence governmental action or policy. An Annapolis graduate and former Navy fighter pilot, White, 46, claims that Bath and the judicial system, under the veil of national security, have blackballed him professionally and financially because he has refused to keep quiet about what he regards as a conspiracy to secretly funnel Saudi dollars to the United States. White became entangled in a series of lawsuits and countersuits with Bath, who for some six years has prevailed in the courts. White says the legal action has financially devasted him and Venturcorp Inc., the real estate development company in which he and Bath were partners.
"In sworn depositions, Bath said he represented four prominent Saudis as a trustee and that he would use his name on their investments. In return, he said, he would receive a 5 percent interest in their deals. Tax documents and personal financial records show that Bath personally had a 5 percent interest in Arbusto '79 Ltd., and Arbusto '80 Ltd., limited partnerships controlled by George W. Bush, President Bush's eldest son. Arbusto means bush in Spanish. Bath invested $50,000 in the limited partnerships, according to the documents. There is no available evidence to show whether the money came from Saudi interests.
CONTINUED...
http://billstclair.com/911timeline/1990s/houstonchronicle060492.html http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/conspiracytheories/white.pdf BILL WHITE Interview by: Bob McKeown
LET’S GO BACK TO THE BEGINNING. WHEN DID YOU FIRST MEET JAMES BATH? I met him when I graduated from Business School in nineteen seventy-eight. I came down to Houston for an interview.
AND WHAT KIND OF PERSON WAS HE? I was actually recruited from Harvard Business School by Lan Bentsen, Senator Bentsen’s son. When he found that I was a Navy Fighter Pilot, he said that there was an Air Force Fighter Pilot in Houston that I should meet – a pilot who the Bentsen family and the Bush families were already in business with. And he said that this fellow James R. Bath needed someone to run a series of real estate companies that would be grub staked by not only the political families, but also by some foreign Nationals - the Saudis. And so I came down for an interview and met Jim Bath.
SO, THE INTRODUCTION WAS MADE BECAUSE YOU HAD THE COMMON GROUND OF HAVING HAD BOTH BEEN PILOTS? Exactly. We’re both fighter pilots.
AND AT THE TIME BATH WAS IN BUSINESS IN HOUSTON DOING WHAT? He was in Business primarily operating an Aircraft Brokerage Company called JB&A which stands for Jim Bath and Associates. He also ran a company in the same building called Bin Laden&Associates which Jim explained was a procurement company for the Saudis.
NOW AT THAT POINT, HAD YOU EVER HEARD THE NAME BIN LADEN? No, I had not.
AND AS YOU INVESTIGATED AND FOUND OUT WHO THESE PEOPLE WERE, WHAT DID YOU LEARN? Well, I learned that there was a relationship between the Saudi Royals and the politicians here in the United States. Bath was helping to protect the Saudi Royal Family by hosting some of the Saudi Nationals who were at our Air Force bases being trained as pilots. We had a Prince (Sultan) training at NASA who was the first foreign National to fly on the US Space Shuttle. We had other foreign Nationals here too. Jim was functioning as an intermediary between the Bushes and the Saudi Royal Family.
HOW HAD JIM BATH BEEN ANNOINTED TO BE THIS INTERMEDIARY BETWEEN THE SAUDIS ON ONE HAND AND FAMILIES LIKE THE BUSHES ON THE OTHER? Well, Jim explained that in the early seventies George Bush Junior, our current President, came on boardthe Texas Air National Guard where Bath was stationed along with some other Politicians’ children. This is during the Vietnam War era when Bush and Bath became drinking buddies and good friends. And then in 1976, when Dubya’s Father became CIA Director, the CIA was trying to privatize it’s air affiliate subsidiaries. Jim was actually
1
recommended to the CIA Director, George Senior, by Dubya - that’s when the relationship was established.
AT THE POINT THAT YOU FIRST MET JIM BATH, HE WAS NOT ONLY CONNECTED TO THE SAUDIS, TO THE BIN LADENS BUT ALSO TO THE BUSHES? That’s correct.
“He spent probably ninety-five percent of his time, I’d call it hand-holding the Arabs. He bought a bank for them. He bought an airport for them.”
SO IN A SENSE, AT THE POINT WHEN YOU FIRST MET HIM WAS BATH THIS LINK BETWEEN THE BUSHES ON ONE SIDE AND THE BIN LADEN’S AND SAUDIS? Right. That link had already been established and Jim was actually in an operational mode. He spent probably ninety-five percent of his time, I’d call it hand-holding the Arabs. He bought a bank for them. He bought an airport for them. He started an airline for them among other ventures in Houston, Texas and was the nominee or the front man for their ownership of these various entities. He would spend most of his time dealing with their interests while I concentrated on running our real estate development company.
WHAT WAS THE EXTENT OF THE INTEREST OF THE SAUDIS IN AND AROUND HOUSTON? WHY DID THEY COME TO TEXAS AT THIS TIME? Well they had a large presence here because of their oil interests (Aramco & Saudia are headquartered in Houston). And they had banking interests by virtue of Bush Senior’s association with First International Bank which subsequently became InterFirst. And there was also John Connolly, who was a former Democrat who turned Republican and worked in the Nixon Administration with Bush, he ran First City NationalBank. We also had James Baker and his Baker&Bott’s Law Firm, so you basically had a confluence of political and business interests that were friendly to the Saudi Royal Family here in Houston.