The Carlyle Group

The Carlyle Group
&
Halliburton

Former World Leaders and Washington Insiders Making Billions in the War on Terrorism

Meet the Carlyle Group

Bush	Carlucci	Baker	Darman	Ramos	Major

Former US President and Vice President Former Director of the CIA	Former Secretary of Defense and Deputy Director of the CIA More on Carlucci	Former Secretary of State and Sec. of Treasury	White House Budget Advisor Bush / Clinton Administrations	Former President of the Philippines	Former British Prime Minister
Carlyle Senior Advisor Retired 10/03 Shareholder	Carlyle Chairman Emeritus Retired 3/05	Carlyle Senior Counselor More on Baker	Carlyle Managing Director	Carlyle Asia Advisory Board Retired 2/04	Carlyle Europe Chairman

http://www.hereinreality.com/carlyle.html

The Iron Triangle: Inside the Secret World of the Carlyle Group (Hardcover)

RFID CHIPS and the Carlyle Group
http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2002/01/14/story3.html

Why Did Bush Lie us into Iraq?
http://www.oldamericancentury.org/bushco/bush_lied.htm

Investing in War
The Carlyle Group profits from government and conflict
http://www.publicintegrity.org/pns/report.aspx?aid=424
Meet The Carlyle Group
EXPOSED: The Carlyle Group
48 minute Real Player video ~ watch now
http://movies01.archive.org/opensource_movies/newsreal/indybay/uploads/carlyle_group.rm (67.1MB)
Audio version of the above movie
#1 http://www.apfn.net/audio/carlyle_groupA.MP3 (7.19MB)
#2 http://www.apfn.net/audio/carlyle_groupB.MP3 (6.43MB)
#3 http://www.apfn.net/audio/carlyle_groupC.MP3 (8.45MB)
#4 http://www.apfn.net/audio/carlyle_groupD.MP3   (9.60MB)

04/17/06 Randi Rhodes re: 911
http://www.apfn.net/audio/M001I060417203929-rhodes-911.MP3 (5.94MB) 25Min 57Sec

Democracy Now! Broadcast Exclusive: James Baker's Double Life in Iraq: The Carlyle Group Stands to Make Killing on Iraqi Debt
Listen/Watch: http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2004/oct/video/dnB20041013a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=13:06.00
In a major expose published last night on The Nation magazine's website, columnist Naomi Klein reveals that President Bush's special envoy on Iraq's debt, former Secretary of State James Baker, has been using his position to benefit his corporate clients and the Carlyle Group, the powerful merchant bank and defense contractor where Baker serves as a partner. [includes rush transcript]
According to confidential documents obtained by The Nation, Carlyle has sought to secure an extraordinary $1 billion investment from the Kuwaiti government, with Baker"s influence as debt envoy being used as a crucial lever. The secret deal involves a complex transaction to transfer ownership of as much as $57 billion in unpaid Iraqi debts. The debts, now owed to the government of Kuwait, would be assigned to a foundation created and controlled by a consortium in which the key players are the Carlyle Group and the Albright Group, which is headed by another former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright. There are also several other well-connected firms involved.
Under the deal, the government of Kuwait would also give the consortium $2 billion up front to invest in a private equity fund devised by the consortium, with half of it going to Carlyle. In a letter dated August 6, 2004, the consortium informed Kuwait's foreign ministry that the country"s unpaid debts from Iraq are "in imminent jeopardy." Another letter warns the Kuwaitis that world opinion is turning in favor of debt forgiveness. As evidence the consortium points out to Kuwait "President Bush's appointment...of former Secretary of State James Baker as his envoy to negotiate Iraqi debt relief." The consortium's proposal spells out the threat: Not only is Kuwait unlikely to see any of its $30 billion from Iraq in sovereign debt, but the $27 billion in war reparations that Iraq owes to Kuwait from Saddam Hussein"s 1990 invasion "may well be a casualty of this U.S. [debt relief] effort."
In the face of this threat, the consortium offers its services. If Kuwait agrees to transfer the debts to the consortium"s foundation, the consortium will use these personal connections to persuade world leaders that Iraq must "maximize" its debt payments to Kuwait, which would be able to collect the money after ten to fifteen years. And the more the consortium gets Iraq to pay during that period, the more Kuwait collects, with the consortium taking a 5 percent commission or more.
Naomi Klein, award-winning journalist and author of Fences and Windows: Dispatches From the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate and No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies.
Naomi Klein's article in The Nation: "James Baker's Double Life" http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/13/144220

The ex-presidents' club
Oliver Burkeman and Julian Borger
Wednesday October 31, 2001
The Guardian

It is hard to imagine an address closer to the heart of American power. The offices of the Carlyle Group are on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC, midway between the White House and the Capitol building, and within a stone's throw of the headquarters of the FBI and numerous government departments. The address reflects Carlyle's position at the very centre of the Washington establishment, but amid the frenetic politicking that has occupied the higher reaches of that world in recent weeks, few have paid it much attention. Elsewhere, few have even heard of it.
This is exactly the way Carlyle likes it. For 14 years now, with almost no publicity, the company has been signing up an impressive list of former politicians - including the first President Bush and his secretary of state, James Baker; John Major; one-time World Bank treasurer Afsaneh Masheyekhi and several south-east Asian powerbrokers - and using their contacts and influence to promote the group. Among the companies Carlyle owns are those which make equipment, vehicles and munitions for the US military, and its celebrity employees have long served an ingenious dual purpose, helping encourage investments from the very wealthy while also smoothing the path for Carlyle's defence firms.
But since the start of the "war on terrorism", the firm - unofficially valued at $3.5bn - has taken on an added significance. Carlyle has become the thread which indirectly links American military policy in Afghanistan to the personal financial fortunes of its celebrity employees, not least the current president's father. And, until earlier this month, Carlyle provided another curious link to the Afghan crisis: among the firm's multi-million-dollar investors were members of the family of Osama bin Laden.
The closest the Carlyle Group has previously come to public attention was last May, when a Seoul-based employee called Peter Chung was forced to resign from his £100,000-a-year job after sending an email to friends - subsequently forwarded to thousands of others - boasting of his plans to "fuck every hot chick in Korea over the next two years". The more business-oriented activities of Carlyle's staff have been conducted much more quietly: since it was founded in 1987 by David Rubenstein, a policy assistant in Jimmy Carter's administration, and two lawyer friends, the firm has been dispatching an array of former world leaders on a series of strategic networking trips.
Last year, George Bush Sr and John Major travelled to Riyadh to talk with senior Saudi businessmen. In September 2000, Carlyle hired speakers including Colin Powell and AOL Time Warner chair Steve Case to address an extravagant party at Washington's Monarch Hotel. Months later, Major joined James Baker for a function at the Lanesborough Hotel in London, to explain the Florida election controversy to the wealthy attendees.
We can assume that Carlyle pays well. Neither Major's office nor Carlyle will confirm the details of his salary as European chairman - an appointment announced shortly before he left the House of Commons after the election - but we know, for the purposes of comparison, that he is paid £105,000 for 28 days' work a year for an unrelated non-executive directorship. Bush gives speeches for the company and is paid with stakes in the firm's investments, believed to be worth at least $80,000 per appearance. The benefits have attracted political stars from around the world: former Philippines president Fidel Ramos is an adviser, as is former Thai premier Anand Panyarachun - as well as former Bundesbank president Karl Otto Pohl, and Arthur Levitt, former chairman of the SEC, the US stock market regulator.
Carlyle partners, who include Baker and the firm's chairman, Frank Carlucci - Ronald Reagan's defence secretary and a former deputy director of the CIA - own stakes that would be worth $180m each if each partner owned an equal slice. As in many areas of its work, though, Carlyle is not obliged to reveal the details, and chooses not to.
Among the defence firms which benefit from Carlyle's success is United Defense, a Virginia-based contractor which makes vertical missile launch systems currently on board US Navy ships in the Arabian sea, as well as a range of other weapons delivery systems and combat vehicles. Carlyle's other holdings span an improbable range, taking in the French newspaper Le Figaro and the company which bottles Dr Pepper.
"They are big, and they are quiet," says David Mulholland, business editor of Jane's Defence Weekly. "But they're not easy to get information out of, [but] United Defense are going to do well [in the current conflict]." United also owns Bofors, a Swedish munitions manufacturer.
Carlyle has said that it does not lobby the federal government, thus avoiding a conflict of interest when, for example, Carlucci met Rumsfeld in February when several important defence contracts were under consideration. But critics see that as a matter of definition.
"It should be a deep cause for concern that a closely held company like Carlyle can simultaneously have directors and advisers that are doing business and making money and also advising the president of the United States," says Peter Eisner, managing director of the Center for Public Integrity, a non-profit-making Washington think-tank. "The problem comes when private business and public policy blend together. What hat is former president Bush wearing when he tells Crown Prince Abdullah not to worry about US policy in the Middle East? What hat does he use when he deals with South Korea, and causes policy changes there? Or when James Baker helps argue the presidential election in the younger Bush's favour? It's a kitchen-cabinet situation, and the informality involved is precisely a mark of Carlyle's success."
The world of private equity is an inherently secretive one. Firms such as Carlyle make most of their money buying firms which are not publicly traded, overhauling them and selling them at a profit, so the process by which likely targets are evaluated is much more confidential than on the open market. "These firms certainly don't go out of their way to get into the headlines," says Steven Bell, chief economist at Deutsche Asset Management. "They'd rather make a splash in Institutional Pensions Week. The aim is to realise very high returns for your investors while exerting a high degree of control over the company. You don't want to get into the headlines when you force the management to fire a director."
The process has worked wonders at United, and this month the firm announced plans to go public, giving Carlyle the chance to cash in its investment.
But what sets Carlyle apart is the way it has exploited its political contacts. When Carlucci arrived there in 1989, he brought with him a phalanx of former subordinates from the CIA and the Pentagon, and an awareness of the scale of business a company like Carlyle could do in the corridors and steak-houses of Washington. In a decade and a half, the firm has been able to realise a 34% rate of return on its investments, and now claims to be the largest private equity firm in the world. Success brought more investors, including the international financier George Soros and, in 1995, the wealthy Saudi Binladin family, who insist they long ago severed all links with their notorious relative. The first president Bush is understood to have visited the Binladins in Saudi Arabia twice on the firm's behalf.
The Carlyle Group does not employ anyone at its Washington headquarters to deal with the press. Inquiries about the links with the Binladins (as most of the family choose to spell their name) are instead referred to someone outside the company, on condition he is referred to only as "a source familiar with the relationship". This source says: "I can confirm the fact that any Binladin Group investment in Carlyle has been terminated or is being terminated. It amounted to a $2m investment in the Carlyle II Fund, which was anyway a very small portion of a $1.3bn fund. In the scheme of the investments and in the scheme of the business of either party it was very small. We have to get this into perspective. But I think there was a sense that there were questions being raised and some controversy, and for such a small amount of money it was something that we wanted to put behind us. It was just a business decision."
But if the Binladins' connection to the Carlyle Group lasted no more than six years, the current President Bush's own links to the firm go far deeper. In 1990, he was appointed to the board of one of Carlyle's first purchases, an airline food business called Caterair, which they eventually sold at a loss. He left the board in 1992, later to become Governor of Texas. Shortly thereafter, he was responsible for appointing several members of the board which controlled the investment of Texas teachers' pension funds. A few years later, the board decided to invest $100m of public money in the Carlyle Group. The firm's magic touch was already bringing results. Today, it is proving as fruitful as ever.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0,1300,583869,00.html

Carlyle's way
Making a mint inside "the iron triangle" of defense, government, and industry.
By Dan Briody
January 8, 2002
Like everyone else in the United States, the group stood transfixed as the events of September 11 unfolded. Present were former secretary of defense Frank Carlucci, former secretary of state James Baker III, and representatives of the bin Laden family. This was not some underground presidential bunker or Central Intelligence Agency interrogation room. It was the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, D.C., the plush setting for the annual investor conference of one of the most powerful, well-connected, and secretive companies in the world: the Carlyle Group. And since September 11, this little-known company has become unexpectedly important.

That the Carlyle Group had its conference on America's darkest day was mere coincidence, but there is nothing accidental about the cast of characters that this private-equity powerhouse has assembled in the 14 years since its founding. Among those associated with Carlyle are former U.S. president George Bush Sr., former U.K. prime minister John Major, and former president of the Philippines Fidel Ramos. And Carlyle has counted George Soros, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Alsaud of Saudi Arabia, and Osama bin Laden's estranged family among its high-profile clientele. The group has been able to parlay its political clout into a lucrative buyout practice (in other words, purchasing struggling companies, turning them around, and selling them for huge profits)--everything from defense contractors to telecommunications and aerospace companies. It is a kind of ruthless investing made popular by the movie Wall Street, and any industry that relies heavily on government regulation is fair game for Carlyle's brand of access capitalism. Carlyle has established itself as the gatekeeper between private business interests and U.S. defense spending. And as the Carlyle investors watched the World Trade towers go down, the group's prospects went up.

In running what its own marketing literature spookily calls "a vast, interlocking, global network of businesses and investment professionals" that operates within the so-called iron triangle of industry, government, and the military, the Carlyle Group leaves itself open to any number of conflicts of interest and stunning ironies. For example, it is hard to ignore the fact that Osama bin Laden's family members, who renounced their son ten years ago, stood to gain financially from the war being waged against him until late October, when public criticism of the relationship forced them to liquidate their holdings in the firm. Or consider that U.S. president George W. Bush is in a position to make budgetary decisions that could pad his father's bank account. But for the Carlyle Group, walking that narrow line is the art of doing business at the murky intersection of Washington politics, national security, and private capital; mastering it has enabled the group to amass $12 billion in funds under management. But while successful in the traditional private-equity avenue of corporate buyouts, Carlyle has recently set its sites on venture capital with less success. The firm is finding that all the politicians in the world won't help it identify an emerging technology or a winning business model.

Surprisingly, Carlyle has avoided the fertile VC market in defense technology, which now, more than ever, comes from smaller companies hoping to cash in on what the defense establishment calls the revolution in military affairs, or RMA.  Thus far, Carlyle has passed up on these emerging technologies in favor of some truly awful Internet plays. And despite its unique qualifications for early-stage funding of defense companies, the firm seems to have no appetite for the sector.

Despite its VC troubles, however, the Carlyle Group's core business is set for some good times ahead. Though the group has raised eyebrows on Capitol Hill in the past, the firm's close ties with the current administration and its cozy relationship with several prominent Saudi government figures has the watchdogs howling. And it's those same connections that will keep Carlyle in the black for as long as the war against terrorism endures.

For the 11th-largest defense contractor in the United States, wartime is boom time. No one knows that better than the Carlyle Group, which less than a month after U.S. troops began bombing Afghanistan filed to take public its crown jewel of defense, United Defense, a company it has owned for nearly a decade. That this company is even able to go public is testament to the Carlyle Group's pull in Washington.

United Defense makes the controversial Crusader, a 42-ton, self-propelled howitzer that moves and operates much like a tank and can lob ten 155-mm shells per minute as far as 40 kilometers. The Crusader has been in the sights of Pentagon budget cutters since the Clinton administration, which argued that it was a relic of the cold war era--too heavy and slow for today's warfare. Even the Pentagon had recommended the program be discontinued. But remarkably, the $11 billion contract for the Crusader is still alive, thanks largely to the Carlyle Group.

"This is very much an example of a cold war-inspired weapon whose time has passed," notes Steve Grundman, a consultant at Charles River Associates, a defense and aerospace consultancy in Boston. "Its liabilities were uncovered during the Kosovo campaign, when the Army was unable to deploy it in time. It is exceedingly expensive, and it was a wake-up call to the Army that many of its forces are no longer relevant."

But the Carlyle Group was having none of that. While it is impossible to say what U.S. secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld was thinking when he made the decision to keep the Crusader program alive, people close to the situation claim to have a pretty good idea. Mr. Carlucci and Mr. Rumsfeld are good friends and former wrestling partners from their undergraduate days at Princeton University. And while Carlyle executives are quick to reject any accusations of them lobbying the current administration, others aren't so sure. "In this particular effort, I felt that they were like any other lobbying group, apart from the fact that they are not," said one Washington, D.C., lobbyist with intimate knowledge of the Crusader negotiations, noting the fine line between lobbying and having a drink with a old friend.

According to Greg McCarthy, a spokesperson for Representative J.C. Watts Jr. (R: Oklahoma), whose district is home to one of the Crusader's assembly plants, the Carlyle Group's influence was indeed felt at the Pentagon. "Carlyle's strength was within the DoD, because as a rule someone like Frank Carlucci is going to have access," says Mr. McCarthy. "But they have other staff types that work behind the scenes, in the dark, that know everything about the Army and Capitol Hill."

Perhaps even more disconcerting than Carlyle's ties to the Pentagon are its connections within the White House itself. Aside from signing up George Bush Sr. shortly after his presidential term ended, Carlyle gave George W. Bush a job on the board of Texas-based airline food caterer Caterair International back in 1991. Since Bush the younger took office this year, a number of events have raised eyebrows.

Shortly after George W. Bush was sworn in as president, he broke off talks with North Korea regarding long-range ballistic missiles, claiming there was no way to ensure North Korea would comply with any guidelines that were developed. The news came as a shock to South Korean officials, who had spent years negotiating with the North, assisted by the Clinton administration. By June, Mr. Bush had reopened negotiations with North Korea, but only at the urging of his own father. According to reports, the former president sent his son a memo persuasively arguing the need to work with the North Korean government. It was the first time the nation had seen the influence of the father on the son in office.

But what has been overlooked was Carlyle's business interest in Korea. The senior Bush had spearheaded the group's successful entrance into the South Korean market, paving the way for buyouts of Korea's KorAm Bank and Mercury, a telecommunications equipment company. For the business to be successful, stability between North and South Korea is critical. And though there is no direct evidence linking the senior Bush's business dealings in Korea with the change in policy, it is the appearance of impropriety that excites the watchdogs. "We are clearly aware that former President Bush has weighed in on policy toward South Korea and we note that U.S. policy changed after those communications," says Peter Eisner, managing director at the Center for Public Integrity, a watchdog group in Washington, D.C., which has an active file on the Carlyle Group. "We know that former President Bush receives remuneration for his work with Carlyle and that he is capable of advising the current president, but how much further it goes, we don't know."

While the Center for Public Integrity looks for its smoking gun, others in Washington say hard evidence is unimportant. "Whether the decisions made by the former president are a real or apparent conflict of interest doesn't matter, because in the public's eye they're equally as damaging," says Larry Noble, executive director and general counsel of the Center for Responsive Politics. "Bush [Sr.] has to seriously consider the propriety of sitting on the board of a group that is impacted by his son's decisions."

And the controversy is expected only to increase as Carlyle's investments in Saudi Arabia are scrutinized during the war on terrorism. Mr. Eisner says that very little is known about Carlyle's involvements in Saudi Arabia, except that the firm has been making close to $50 million a year training the Saudi Arabian National Guard, troops that are sworn to protect the monarchy. Carlyle also advises the Saudi royal family on the Economic Offset Program, a system that is designed to encourage foreign businesses to open shop in Saudi Arabia and uses re-investment incentives to keep those businesses' proceeds in the country.

But the money flowing out of Saudi Arabia and into the Carlyle Group is of even more interest. Immediately after the September 11 attacks, reports surfaced of Carlyle's involvement with the Saudi Binladin Group, the $5 billion construction business run by Osama's half-brother Bakr. The bin Laden family invested $2 million in the Carlyle Partners II fund, which includes in its portfolio United Defense and other defense and aerospace companies. On October 26, the Carlyle Group severed its relationship with the bin Laden family in what officials termed a mutual decision. Mr. Bush Sr. and Mr. Major have been to Saudi Arabia on behalf of Carlyle as recently as last year, and according to reports, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is currently looking into the flow of money from the bin Laden family. Carlyle officials declined to answer any questions regarding their activities in Saudi Arabia.

But for all the questions, Carlyle has stayed clean in the eyes of the law. Lobbying laws in Washington, D.C., are ambiguous at best, requiring only that former politicians observe a one-year "cooling-off period" before they reënter the lobbying scene on behalf of industry. It is playing within this gray area that has given the Carlyle Group some of the best returns in the business.

After David Rubenstein, a former aide in the Carter administration, and William Conway Jr., former chief financial officer of MCI Communications, hooked up at New York's Carlyle hotel in 1987 to form the company, the Carlyle Group spent two lost years investing in a hodgepodge of companies. It wasn't until 1989, when the company brought in Mr. Carlucci, fresh off his two-year stint as U.S. secretary of defense, that Carlyle got serious in government. In 1991 the company made a name for itself by facilitating a $590 million purchase of Citicorp stock for Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. Shortly thereafter, Carlyle snatched up defense contractors Harsco, BDM International, and LTV, turning the companies around and selling them to the likes of TRW, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin.

The Carlyle Group has diversified its holdings since then, investing in everything from bottling companies to natural-food grocers. In the process, it has become one of the biggest, most successful private-equity firms in business, with annualized returns of 35 percent. (Judging by the early numbers from some of their funds, however, like many other private-equity funds, 2001 will be a considerably less profitable year for Carlyle.) "They are the new breed of private equity, acting more like a large mutual fund of private companies," says David Snow, editor of PrivateEquityCentral.net, a Web site that tracks private-equity firms. The numbers are impressive: Carlyle employs 240 people, as opposed to the 10 or 12 typical of most private-equity firms. It has ownership stakes in 164 companies, which collectively employ more than 70,000 people. George Soros invested $100 million in the group's funds; the California Public Employees' Retirement System is in for $305 million.

Carlyle has succeeded by raising money first, then finding the talent to manage it. For instance, it raised a fund for buying out telecom companies and hired William Kennard, the former U.S. Federal Communications Commission chairman, to run it. Accused early on of being nothing more than a bunch of Washington grip-and-grinners, Carlyle has proven its critics wrong. At a Salomon Smith Barney private-equity conference last March, a panel of professional investment managers were asked who the best fund managers are. Carlyle cofounder Mr. Conway was one of two managers chosen.

With its size and success, questions about the firm's ability to grow revenue has arisen. Carlyle has placed its bets for future growth on the VC markets, which it entered in 1996. But to date, it has found that venture capital is a game with far different rules than that of corporate buyouts. "They may be very established in private equity, but it seems to me that they don't really know the venture capital business," says one VC who has done deals with Carlyle. "In buyouts, you take over a company and fight the management, but in venture capital it's the opposite. You want to work with people."

Carlyle executives admit as much. As a result, the Carlyle Europe Venture Partners fund has been slow to commit its capital. So far, it has spent just more than 20 percent of its $660 million, and 3 of its original 17 investments have already folded. None has gone public or been acquired. As Jack Biddle, cofounder of Novak Biddle Venture Partners, dryly puts it, "I haven't been involved in a lot of venture deals where the participation of a president mattered that much. In venture capital, it's all about the technology."

For a firm that has made its money in highly regulated, politically charged industries, picking business-to-business plays is hardly second nature. While Carlyle has investments in highly regulated sectors like telecom and banking, it has avoided defense entirely, instead focusing on tech industries that have already gone flat. The firm's European fund alone boasts six B2B companies, two optical-networking companies, and Riot-E, a wireless media play. Jacques Garaïalde, managing director of the Europe fund concedes that expectations have been shifted. "Clearly, we can't make 100 times returns on B2B, but there are some situations in which we can make 3 times."

But the struggles in its VC business may be offset, at least temporarily, by the expected windfall from the war on terrorism. The federal government has already approved a $40 billion supplemental aid package to the current budget, $19 billion of which is headed straight to the Pentagon. Some of the additional government spending is likely to find its way into Carlyle's coffers.

The Bush administration isn't afraid to mix business and politics, and no other firm embodies that penchant better than the Carlyle Group. Walking that fine line is what Carlyle does best. We may not see Osama bin Laden's brothers at Carlyle's investor conferences any more, but business will go on as usual for the biggest old boys network around. As Mr. Snow puts it, "Carlyle will always have to defend itself and will never be able to convince certain people that they aren't capable of forging murky backroom deals. George Bush's father does profit when the Carlyle Group profits, but to make the leap that the president would base decisions on that is to say that the president is corrupt."

http://web.archive.org/web/20030607113821/http://redherring.com/vc/2002/0111/947.html

Exposed: The Carlyle Group
"The war in Iraq does not seem to be over al all, but in the meantime the rebuilding has already started. This has unleashed fiercecompetition for contracts, which are mainly awarded to American (ed: U.S.) companies.
What is remarkable about these companies, is that they have people on their payroll from American politics and the military. Is this a conflict of interest, or is this the new global way of doing business?
One of the companies that operates in this manner is the Carlyle Group."
On their payroll are people like : George Bush (Sr.), James Baker III and old premier John Major.
The Carlyle Group is a private investment bank which doesn't come to the publics attention very often but it is one of the biggest American (ed: USA) investors of the defense industry, telecom, property and financial services.
What is the Carlyle Group? Who are the people behind the name? And how much power does Carlyle have?
(You need RealPlayer installed)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3995.htm
http://edschultz.invisionzone.com/lofiversion/index.php/t11156.html

The Carlyle Group
Established in 1987, The Carlyle Group is a private global investment firm that originates, structures and acts as lead equity investor in management-led buyouts, strategic minority equity investments, equity private placements, consolidations and buildups, and growth capital financings.
Advisory Boards

Carlyle Europe
James A. Baker, III
Frank C. Carlucci
Etienne Davignon
Reto Domeniconi
Oscar Fanjul
Dr. Fritz Gerber
Sir Denys Henderson
Dr. Ing E.h. Eberhard von Kuenheim
Cees van Lede
The Rt. Honorable John Major, CH
Michael Rogowski
Peter Sjöstrand
Enrico Chicco Testa
http://web.archive.org/web/20050319032725/http://www.thecarlylegroup.com/eng/company/l3-company738.html
Firm Profile

The Carlyle Group is one of the world’s largest private equity firms, with more than $18.9 billion under management. With 26 funds across four investment disciplines (management-led buyouts, real estate, leveraged finance, and venture capital), Carlyle combines global vision with local insight, relying on a top-flight team of nearly 300 investment professionals operating out of offices in 14 countries to uncover superior opportunities in North America, Europe, and Asia.

While open to opportunities wherever they can be found, Carlyle focuses on sectors in which it has demonstrated expertise: aerospace & defense, automotive & transportation, consumer & retail, energy & power, healthcare, industrial, real estate, technology & business services, and telecommunications & media.

In a world awash with information, insight is often in short supply. Carlyle’s edge is its ability to leverage the local insight of its investment professionals, collaborating across the firms’ investment disciplines from deal sourcing and due diligence through portfolio company development. The result: A broader view of potential investment opportunities and deeper level of expertise, creating value for Carlyle portfolio companies that translates into superior returns for Carlyle investors.
Carlyle’s team of investment professionals includes 127 MBAs, 27 JDs and 12 PhD/MDs from many of the world’s most prestigious universities.
Carlyle’s conservative investment philosophy and disciplined investment process has generated extraordinary returns for its investors. Since its founding in 1987, the firm has invested $12.4 billion in 355 transactions.
More than 600 investors from 55 countries entrust Carlyle with their capital and their reputations. As one means of aligning its own interests with those of its Limited Partner investors, Carlyle has committed more than $900 million of its own capital to its funds.
http://web.archive.org/web/20050303013846/www.thecarlylegroup.com/eng/company/l3-company732.html

Assets Under Management

http://web.archive.org/web/20050305092149/www.thecarlylegroup.com/eng/company/l3-company735.html

The ingredients of American Bloody Capitalism:
GREED, HYPOCRISY, WARS
Will the Carlyle Group salvage Lord Black's Hollinger?
http://www.ftlcomm.com:16080/ensign/desantisArticles/2003_800/desantis850/carlyleNhollinger.html

CARLYLE GROUP, HALLIBURTON GETTING RICH OFF IRAQ WAR

By Chuck Baldwin
Posted: March 27, 2003 - 8:45 pm PST
NewsWithViews.com
Since World War II, dozens of U.S. companies have made a "killing" from military conflict. President Dwight David Eisenhower was the first to refer to these companies as the "military industrial complex." The financial and political clout of these companies has risen and waned through the years, depending on who was in power and what the international climate was like.
Whatever one thinks of the morality or necessity of our war in Iraq, one thing is undeniable: certain well-placed companies are making millions of dollars off the war. Two companies with close ties to the Bush and Cheney families that are reaping huge profits are the Halliburton Company and the Carlyle Group.
The Carlyle Group is so proficient at raking in government contracts that it is often referred to as the "Ex-Presidents Club." Some of the West's biggest and most powerful political leaders are helping to guide Carlyle through the muddy waters of governmental red tape and are reaping huge benefits in the process.
Carlyle's movers and shakers include such heavyweights as Former Secretary of State James Baker, Ex-Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci, Former President George H.W. Bush, and Former British Prime Minister John Major. President G.W. Bush has also held board membership. What is even more fascinating is that the bin Laden family was an investor in Carlyle.
Carlyle also has direct links to the Saudi royal family and has been directly involved in training Saudi troops to protect oil fields. It also helped build Saudi Arabia's national guard from 26,000 to over 70,000 troops. The link between Carlyle and Saudi Arabia is so strong that some have called Carlyle a "front" organization for the Saudi royal family.
Since the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Carlyle Group has reaped millions of dollars from government contracts on things such as cleaning up anthrax-infected buildings, including the Hart Senate Office Building, making X-ray scanners, providing logistics support to the U.S. military, making metal-bond structures in fighter jets and missiles, and providing employee background checks for the government.
Another well-connected company that is greatly profiting from the Iraq War is Halliburton, a company formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney. A Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown and Root, just received a government contract to extinguish oil well fires in Iraq. According to Forbes Magazine, no other company was even allowed to bid on the contract. This contract alone is worth tens of millions of dollars.
Therefore, while our war in Iraq is costing billions of dollars to America's taxpayers and is also costing many American families the ultimate sacrifice of lost sons and daughters, certain well-connected companies are reaping huge profits and benefits. I sincerely hope and pray that these connections are merely circumstantial and not intentional.
© 2003 Chuck Baldwin - All Rights Reserved
http://www.newswithviews.com/baldwin/baldwin97.htm
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The Carlyle Group
by Victor Thorn, Babel Magazine, Issue #77, 6 October 2002

A few weeks ago, James Baker publicly offered advice to the Bush Administration on how they should proceed with their war on Iraq. What he and every newscaster or commentator failed to mention was that Baker is now employed by the highly-influential Carlyle Group, which is the eleventh largest defense contractor in the United States. In essence, then, we have a man trying to influence public policy while privately employed by a company that has a vested interest in activating America's War Machine.

If you're not familiar with them, the Carlyle Group has become a powerhouse in affecting the direction in which our foreign policy takes, especially in regard to war. They accomplish this by hiring former government officials, then investing in private companies that are subject to government change (i.e. the military and telecommunications). Who, you may ask, do they employ to secure their government contracts? Well, check-out this list for starters:

Frank Carlucci - Department of Health, Education and Welfare - 1970's
Deputy Director, CIA - 1978-81
Deputy Secretary of Defense - 1981-82
National Security Director - 1987-89

George Bush - CIA Director - 1976-77
Vice President of the United States - 1981-89
President of the United States - 1989-93

James Baker - Chief of Staff - 1981-85
Secretary of the Treasury - 1985-89
Secretary of State - 1989-93

Dick Darman - Former White House Budget Chief

William Kennard - Former Head, FCC

Arthur Levitt - Former Head, SEC

John Major - Former Prime Minister, Britain

Fidel Ramos - Former Philippine President

Afsaneh Beschloss - Treasurer & Chief Investment Officer of the World Bank

Anand Panyarachum - Former President, Thailand

Karl Otto Pohl - Former President, Bundesbank

Louis Vuitton - French Aerobus Company

Park Tae Joon - Former South Korean Prime Minister

Alwaleed Sin Talal
bin Abdulaziz Alsaud - Saudi Arabian Prince

George Soros - New World Order/Bilderberg luminary & int'l financier

Fred Malek - George Bush Sr's campaign manager

There is also one other "family" that invested in the Carlyle Group, but I'll keep that as a surprise for next week's article. In the meantime, take a look at that list. It's like walking onto a baseball field and having the New York Yankees behind you. The best team money can buy! And I didn't even mention all of the players. Carlyle also employs the former chairman of BMW and Nestle, is interviewing former Clinton cabinet members (to insure that they have both sides of the aisle covered), plus once hired Colin Powell and AOL Time-Warner Chairman Steve Case to speak at a meeting at Washington D.C.'s Monarch House. Plus, if we look at James Baker again, we'll find that he's on the board of Azerbaijan International Oil Company, in which two U.S. oil companies hold 40% of the shares. Who are these two companies? The first is Amoco, who has on their payroll none other than Zbigniew Brzezinski (Trilateral Commission founder, National Security Advisor for the Carter Administration, Globalist supreme, and David Rockefeller's puppet on a string). The second is Pennzoil, who has on their payroll Brent Scowcroft, former National Security Advisor under George Bush, Sr.

But the man that really brought it all together is Frank Carlucci, who holds directorships on such companies as General Dynamics, Westinghouse, the Rand Corporation, and Ashland Oil, plus sits on the board of directors of twelve other companies. Carlucci was also the college classmate of someone very closely related to our current administration's War Machine - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld! What relevance does this association have you may wonder? I think it is of great importance, for in February, 2001, Carlucci and Vice President Dick Cheney met with Donald Rumsfeld when the Carlyle Group had several billion-dollar defense projects under consideration. (If you haven't guessed, the Carlyle Group fared quite well when all was said and done.) Do you still think these ties don't matter? Philip Agee, in his book "On the Run" details all of Carlucci's CIA connections, many of whom he hired (along with his Pentagon cronies) when he joined Carlyle in 1989. (And all of us know what influence the CIA has, don't we?)

A former Carlyle employee honed-in on these dynamics when he said, "The firm understands that having Bush and Major is like having movie stars around."

It's all about power and access, folks, as Oliver Burkeman and Julian Burger pointed out in "The Guardian" on October 31, 2001. "Carlyle has become the thread which indirectly links American military policy in Afghanistan to the personal financial fortunes of its celebrity employees, not the least the current President's father."

Is the picture becoming clearer? Now we're getting to the bottom of America's War Machine. The Carlyle Group is set to make huge amounts of money from our upcoming military conflicts and weapons expenditures. In other words, when I talk about the War Machine, these folks are at the crux of it. They're the war profiteers that keep its wheels greased!

Dan K. Thomasson, former editor of the Scripps Howard News Service, summed it up best in March, 2001. "Nothing in recent history seems to approach the success this group has had in the wholesale conversion of former high government rank to gigantic profits."

Peter Eisner, Managing Director of the Center for Public Integrity, adds, "It should be a deep cause for concern that a closely held company like Carlyle can simultaneously have directors and advisors that are doing business and making money and also advising the President of the United States."

The Washington Business Journal simply says, "The Carlyle Group seems to play be a different set of rules."

But who is the Carlyle Group? Well, their office is located only a few blocks from the White House, and it was founded by three men:

David Rubinstein - aide in the Carter Administration

Bill Conway - Chief Financial Officer at MCI

Dan D'Aniello - financial executive at Marriott

They named their group "Carlyle" after a New York hotel favored by one of their first investors, the Mellon family. They now have an ownership stake in 164 different companies, have 535 investors, operate in 55 different countries, and have $13.5 billion in capital. International financier George Soros invested $100 million in them, while the California Public Employees Retirement System dumped $305 million into their laps. They also recently purchased the KorAm Bank, thus accelerating their entry into the highly lucrative Asian markets.

But how did they become so successful so quickly? I'll let the Carlyle Group's company brochure answer that question: "We invest in niche opportunities created in industries heavily affected by changes in government policies." Stated differently, the Carlyle Group buys what it knows best - companies regulated by the government. In fact, 2/3 of their business is either in the defense or telecommunications industries ... those affected by changes in government spending or policy!

And how do they affect these policies? It all revolves around ACCESS! That's the key. Basically, they operate within what is called the "Iron Triangle" - industry, government, and the military. A spokesman for Oklahoma Representative J. C. Watts understood this connection when he said, "Carlyle's strength was within the Department of Defense because they have staff types that work behind the scenes, in the dark, that know everything about the Army and Capitol Hill."

Charles Lewis, ex-Director at the Center for Public Integrity, adds credence to this argument. "Carlyle is as deeply wired into the current administration as they can possibly be."

On May 5, 2001, the New York Times described the Carlyle Group as such: "It owns so many companies that it is now in effect one of the nation's biggest defense contractors and a force in global communications. Its blue-chip investors include major banks and insurance companies, billion dollar pension funds and wealthy investors." Hmm, they have a firm, controlling grip on both the War Machine and the media ... convenient, don't you think?

After reading how deeply established they are as "Insiders," do you think that the Carlyle Group has America's best interests at heart, or their own which entails capitalizing on war? An excellent example can be found in the recent $470 million contract that "United Defense," a Carlyle subsidiary, received. And what did they get it for? To develop the CRUSADER, which is such a faulty, antiquated, horrendous product that it was described by Eric Miller of "The Project on Government Oversight" as follows. "The Crusader has been the GAO's (Government Accounting Office) poster child for bad weapons development." The Crusader Project was so maligned that the government was set to drop it completely. But lo and behold, what happened? War was on the horizon, Carlyle pulled a few strings, and welluh - a $470 million contract is thrown Carlyle's way for the Crusader. Funny how things happen, huh?

If that's not bad enough, the Carlyle Group is also the financial advisor to a certain government. Who? Saudi Arabia. In fact, they make nearly $50 million/year training the Saudi Arabian National Guard --- troops that are sworn to protect the Saudi royal family! Now, if all hell breaks loose in the Middle East, and considering that Saudi Arabia has said that it won't support our efforts against Iraq, who do you think the Saudi soldiers will kill? Their own kind - Arabs - or the invading "white American devils?"

If you ask me, we've entered very treacherous waters, all for the sake of making money off of warfare. Regardless of what they say, these men in the Carlyle Group epitomize a very nefarious form of evil via their actions.

Your one-stop shop for Halliburton, Bechtel, Carlyle Group, and related evil overlords http://www.geocities.com/francis_uy/halliburton.html

Halliburton

Dick Cheney, CEO until 2000 election

Arthur Andersen, former Accountant

Carlyle Group

George H.W. Bush Sr, Senior Advisor

Frank Carlucci, Chairman

James Baker, Senior Counselor
“I fixed the election in Florida for George Bush.”
- - James Baker, 2003 Dec 01-ish

Arthur Levitt, Senior Advisor

Richard Darman, Partner

Bechtel

Donald Rumsfeld, former lobbyist
"Judge whether good enough hit S.H. at same time. Not only UBL. Go massive. Sweep it all up. Things related and not."
- - Donald Rumsfeld, 2001 Sep 11 memo

George Schultz, former President

Caspar Weinberger, former General Counsel and Vice President

William Casey, former consultant

Politicians affiliated with Carlyle

Alice Albright, daughter of ex-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright

James Baker III, former United States Secretary of State under George H. W. Bush, Staff member under Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, Carlyle Senior Counselor

George H. W. Bush, former U.S. President, Senior Advisor to the Carlyle Asia Advisory Board from April 1998 to October 2003.

George W. Bush, current U.S. President. Was appointed in 1990 to the Board of Directors of one of Carlyle's first acquisitions, an airline food business called Caterair, which Carlyle eventually sold at a loss. Bush left the board in 1992 to later become Governor of Texas, where he was responsible for appointing several members of the board which controlled the investment of Texas teachers' pension funds. A few years later, the board decided to invest $100m of public money in the Carlyle Group.

Frank C. Carlucci, former United States Secretary of Defense from 1987 to 1989, chairman emeritus and currently strategic business advisor. Also, former Princeton roommate and wrestling partner of present US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld.

Richard Darman, former Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget under George H. W. Bush, Senior Advisor and Managing Director of The Carlyle Group

William Kennard, Chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under President Bill Clinton, Carlyle's Managing Director in the Telecommunications & Media Group

Arthur Levitt, Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under President Bill Clinton, Carlyle Senior Advisor

John Major, former British Prime Minister, Chairman, Carlyle Europe until May 2004, and other posts to the present

Frank McKenna, former Canadian ambassador to the United States and former member of Carlyle's Canadian advisory board

Mack McLarty, White House Chief of Staff under President Bill Clinton, President of Kissinger McLarty Associates, Carlyle Senior Advisor

Anand Panyarachun, former premier of Thailand

Colin Powell, former United States Secretary of State

Fidel Ramos, former president of the Philippines, Carlyle Asia Advisor Board Member until the board was disbanded in February 2004

John W. Snow, United States Secretary of the Treasury, chairman Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS), former CEO of CSX railroad

Park Tae Joon, former prime minister of South Korea

Robert Zoellick, former United States Trade Representative and current Deputy Secretary of State

The Saudi Arabian relatives of Osama bin Laden (not Osama bin Laden himself) were also minor investors in Carlyle until October 2001 when the family sold its $2.02 million investment back to the firm in light of the public controversy surrounding the bin Laden family after September 11.

[edit]

Businesspersons affiliated with Carlyle

Paul Desmarais, Chairman of the Power Corporation of Canada

Arthur Levitt, former chairman of the SEC

Karl Otto Pöhl, former president of the Bundesbank

George Soros, international investor and liberal political activist

Luis Téllez Kuenzler, Mexican economist, former Secretary of Energy under Zedillo administration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlyle_Group

What Did Eisenhower Mean When He Warned of a Military Industrial Complex? Take a Look at the Carlyle Group An interview with Dan Briody
http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/03/06/23_briody.html

Halliburton is not the only company making huge profits from the invasion of Iraq. The Carlyle Group is one of the US government's biggest contractors and one of the largest defense contractors in the world. War = profit for them. There is also a big connection between Chevron-Texaco and the Bush administration. Chevron-Texaco is the # 1 US importer of Iraqi oil and they stand to make billions once that Iraqi oil starts flowing at full capacity. http://www.askquestions.org/details.php?id=26

Take a Look at the Carlyle Group
An interview with Dan Briody
(Author of "The Iron Triangle: Inside the Secret World of the Carlyle Group")
Buzzflash, June 23, 2003

They are at the epicenter of the military-industrial-complex-Bush-Cheney-crony-capitalism administration. The Carlyle Group is the model example of the nearly seamless connection between the Bush administration, self-enrichment and companies who receive big government defense contracts.
The roster of Carlyle "consultants" reads like a whoís who guide to government officials of the 1980s, starting with former president George Bush, former secretary of state James Baker, and former defense secretary Frank Carlucci.
The most chilling aspect of Briody's book is that the political connections and lobbying activities he unmasks are not illegal.
It is a testament to the brain dead mainstream media that the relationship between the Carlyle group and the Bush-Cheney cartel is not a national scandal.
Brady is an award winning journalist who has written for Forbes, Wired, Red Herring and the Industry Standard.
______________
BuzzFlash: If we were looking at the Carlyle Group -- aside from its controversial nature and the political world of who runs it and the consultants affiliated with it -- what business model does it represent?
Dan Briody: Itís whatís known as a private equity firm. And thatís a very vague term to describe a whole umbrella of different types of companies. What Carlyle specializes in is buyouts, which means that they operate very similar to a mutual fund. Only instead of buying and selling stock, they buy and sell private companies. And they also do venture capital and real estate. So theyíre in a variety of different kind of financial transactions-based businesses. But their bread and butter is buyouts. And within that area, they focus heavily on government-regulated industries ñ anything that depends very heavily on policymaking and legislation coming out of Washington, D.C. As such, they hire a number of ex-politicians to help them in that regard.
BuzzFlash: In terms of companies that they buy out, most notably in terms of their political-business crossover, theyíre probably most known for their relationship to the defense industry, even though thatís not by any means exclusively what they do.
Dan Briody: They got their start in the defense buyout business. They struggled for the first couple of years before they hired Frank Carlucci, who was the outgoing Secretary of Defense from the Reagan administration. And Carlucci brought them in the direction of defense buyouts in the late ë80s, early ë90s, in between the Cold War and the Gulf War, when defense properties were undervalued. And the company struck gold a couple times in that business and was able to build a very healthy buyout practice on the back of these defense LBOs, or leveraged buyouts.
>From there, they have diversified over the ensuing 10-12 years, into everything from healthcare to telecommunications, to aerospace and others. But defense is still the cornerstone of their practice. And when people think of the Carlyle Group, the first thing they think of is defense.
BuzzFlash: On the cover jacket of your book, it says that the book will provide witness to how the Carlyle Group profited from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and continues to profit from the ongoing war on terrorism. What evidence do you provide for that?
Dan Briody: There are a number of transactions that the company profited from directly following the Sept. 11 attacks. The most important one was the fact that they were able to take United Defense, their crown jewel of defense holdings public shortly after the attacks. In fact, in the prospectus that they circulated, before that IPO, they cited the Sept. 11 attacks as one of the reasons why they were able to sell public stock in this company at this time. So that was all on the back of the defense build-up following Sept. 11.
There are also a number of other holdings of theirs -- like at that time, they owned a company called the IT Group, which is a company that cleans up hazardous materials and won a very lucrative contract to clean up the Hart Senate Building in Washington, D.C., which had been tainted by anthrax.
They also own a company called U.S. Investigative Services, USIS, which is a company that does background checks and provides varying levels of security clearance for different government employees, airline employees ñ things like that. Obviously their contracts went through the roof after Sept. 11.
In addition to that, they own companies that do all kinds of security, different aerospace companies. So whenever thereís a big defense buildup, those companies profit. So there are a number of ways that theyíve profited very handsomely from Sept. 11.
BuzzFlash: I recall that reading in the British papers that Tony Blair was considering privatizing a portion of the intelligence apparatus in Britain, and that the Carlyle Group was going to be subcontracted to do some of that.
Dan Briody: He did, in fact. The new company is called Qinetiq. Itís spelled Q-I-N-E-T-I-Q. Itís the research arm of the ministry of defense in the U.K., which is essentially equivalent to DARPA [the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency] here in the U.S. And the Carlyle Group was part of that transaction, so they own part of Qinetiq. It was a very controversial transaction in the U.K., obviously. I mean, if you could try to imagine a foreign company coming in and buying DARPA from the United States. Itís unimaginable. And particularly a company thatís so stockpiled with very powerful former politicians.
BuzzFlash: So Tony Blair essentially condoned the privatization of a large section of the British defense intelligence apparatus to the Carlyle Group. It would be comparable for us to subcontract that to a foreign company.
Dan Briody: Yes, which I don't think would ever happen.
BuzzFlash: You mentioned in another interview that we heard - I believe it was on NPR, Terry Gross ñ that your book doesnít detail illegal activity of the Carlyle Group. And whether that exists or not, you donít know. But it details the legal activity, which is, to you, probably the more worrisome issue ñ that all of this is legal. By that, do you mean the seamless relationship between the private military sector and the governmental military sector?
Dan Briody: Thatís exactly what I mean. The book opens up with a mention of Dwight Eisenhowerís farewell speech, in which he warned the country against the formation of this military-industrial complex. And I think that that is exactly what weíre seeing today. Weíre seeing a very tight-knit group of companies and private military contractors that are virtually indistinguishable from various administrations and the political infrastructure of Washington, D.C. ñ so much so that itís not clear whose interests weíre acting on when we go to war.
BuzzFlash: And now we see the extension in the case of Britain, to the British defense intelligence industry.
Dan Briody: Right. And weíre also seeing Carlyle expand into Italy. They just bought part of Fiatís aerospace division, which was a state-controlled Italian military agency. And they are also in the running to buy out DaimlerChryslerís aerospace division in Germany. So weíre seeing a real broadening of the military activity around the Carlyle Group, so much so thatís becoming more than just a domestic concern here ñ itís becoming an international concern.
BuzzFlash: Now Carlyle is ñ correct me if Iím wrong ñ a holding company. Is it publicly traded?
Dan Briody: It is not publicly traded.
BuzzFlash: So itís a limited partnership?
Dan Briody: Yes. Itís a limited partnership. And as such, itís under no obligation to release any of its financial data. So itís very difficult for the average citizen to find out what the holdings of this company are and where the conflicts of interest might be. You may have noticed that they "opened up" their website recently because they were receiving a lot of criticism for being secretive and closed up. But theyíre still controlling what information theyíre putting on that website, so itís not like weíre getting a look under the hood, so to speak, of this company. And theyíll never go public. They would never do that.
BuzzFlash: Now probably the most controversial relationship is the relationship of former President Bush to the company. As you point out, so many of the members of the cast of characters in the Carlyle Group have been associated with past administrations, particularly Reagan and Bushís. Former President Bush has probably the highest profile relationship. What is his relationship to the Carlyle Group, and what has he been used for?
Dan Briody: George Bush Sr. is a senior advisor to the company -- again, an ambiguous term -- but essentially his role is to travel abroad and meet with foreign business leaders and foreign heads of state, give speeches on behalf of the Carlyle Group, and pack the house full of wealthy investors who will contribute to Carlyleís buyout fund. And also he has had his hand in a number of deals for Carlyle. He has worked closely with business leaders in South Korea and in Saudi Arabia. Heís very close with the bin Laden family. Heís close with the royal family in Saudi Arabia. So heís been very, very involved and a very effective business partner for the Carlyle Group for a number of years now.
BuzzFlash: Is there cause to be concerned? Some people who cover Carlyle also mention that one shouldnít solely focus on him, because he sort of jumps in and out. Itís more the day-to-day people who cross back and forth between their relationships with government officials and the private industry - the military-industrial complex, if you will, as Eisenhower called it. But former President Bush is the most visible symbol. Do you have any speculation on how that might impact foreign policy, since heís the father of the current president?
Dan Briody: There have been numerous reports that have been widely circulated, and not disputed, by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, of how the father of the president is advising his son on foreign policy. Certainly in the first year, he was very active in advising his son on policy toward Korea and toward Saudi Arabia. And in both cases, he stepped in and placed phone calls himself to the leaders of those nations to try to smooth things over for his son, who was struggling a little bit in the early going, in dealing with some of those more sensitive areas. So I think that the impact of the father on the son in foreign policy has been very significant and very inappropriate, given the investments of George Bush Sr.ís company in both regions ñ in both the Korean peninsula and in Saudi Arabia.
BuzzFlash: On pages 144 to 146, you discuss a little bit of the relationship between Carlyle and the bin Laden family. Can you just mention that in passing, and what that relationship was and perhaps is now?
Dan Briody: The Carlyle Group started working in Saudi Arabia in the early ë90s through a Saudi prince, who is one of the biggest foreign investors here in the United States. And through that relationship, they started expanding their business in Saudi Arabia very significantly. One of the most important investors that they found in the kingdom was the bin Laden family, which, of course, owns the Saudi Binladin Group. It's about a $5 billion construction company -- extremely wealthy family, extremely successful company, and who officially disavowed Osama bin Laden back in the early ë90s.
So they had been doing business with the bin Laden family for, give or take, five or six years, when Sept. 11 happened. And suddenly, Osama bin Laden became public enemy number one. He was on the cover of all the newspapers. And it came to light that this company that was employing George Bush Sr. counted the bin Laden family among their investors. And they had to divest themselves from that relationship because of the criticism.
BuzzFlash: And although you donít mention it, there are those, including author Greg Palast, who have claimed that the Bush administration ferreted out members of the bin Laden family on special planes after Sept. 11. But again, thatís not a part of whatís in your book, but weíre just pointing that out.
Letís look at United Defense as one example of the relationship between the private industry, the defense industry, and, in this case, itís a publicly held company owned by the privately held Carlyle Group. Is that correct?
Dan Briody: Thatís right. And they own 50% of it.
BuzzFlash: And what is United Defense? Maybe you can give us as a case study of the interrelationship between a company that has an umbilical cord to the U.S. government, about how a company like that is never a loser.
Dan Briody: United Defense is a classic military contractor. They make guns and gun systems, large Howitzer-type, mobile Howitzers. They make the Bradley fighting vehicles and the Paladin gun systems that weíve seen a lot of on TV, especially during the Iraqi war. They are one of the largest defense contractors to the Army in the nation. And the Carlyle Group has owned this company since 1997.
When they bought the company, there was a gun program that was the future of United Defense. It was a gun called the Crusader. It was essentially a next-generation Paladin gun system ñ a very large, mobile Howitzer. It looks like tank, but itís essentially an enormous gun. And the Crusader was heavily criticized by a national defense panel that was put together to assess the military requirements going forward. It was called too heavy, too slow ñ a Cold War relic. And it was on the chopping block for years after that. But the Carlyle Group was able to mount a very successful campaign by using strategically placed lobbyists, by extending their personal relationships with folks in the Pentagon and in Washington, and by waging essentially a public relations campaign for the gun, and they kept it alive through successive rounds of defense budget cuts ñ miraculously.
No one could believe that this gun had survived as long as it did. And then finally after Sept. 11, when all ships were sort of, you know, rising on the tide of defense spending, they were able to take United Defense public, make hundreds of millions of dollars off of that IPO, only to then finally have the Crusader program cancelled in a very public fashion by Donald Rumsfeld in an announcement. But of course, behind the scenes, what the public didnít see was that United Defense was awarded a brand-new contract for a brand-new gun that very same day that the Crusader program was cancelled. In fact, the press release that United Defense put out about it had the announcement of the new contract in it as well.
BuzzFlash: So they were essentially held harmless.
Dan Briody: Yes, exactly.
BuzzFlash: Perhaps this is more of a comment, but we found it not-so-curious that after the controversial visit of Bush to the U.S.S. Abraham in the flight suit, that he returned to California from 30 miles offshore and gave a speech at, of all places, the United Defense plant. Do you have any thoughts there about the fact the President of the United States is speaking at a plant that is 50% owned by a company that his father is a consultant with?
Dan Briody: I think itís brazen, and I think itís shameless. And I think that that will go down as a hallmark of this administration. We have seen an absolute affinity for mixing business and politics, and throw in a war and youíve got the Bush administration. And that scene of him giving that speech at United Defenseís plant in Santa Clara summed up perfectly what this administration is all about.
BuzzFlash: So all the interconnections were right there -- he was boosting the war effort, talking about keeping the country secure, which meant, in this case, he was praising the employees of United Defense, who, in essence, are employees, in part, of the Carlyle Group, with which his father is affiliated.
Dan Briody: He was doing it all. He was pitching a tax cut for the very wealthy while doing an advertisement for his fatherís company, and professing the war to be over, and kicking off his reelection campaign, all in one fell swoop. It was an amazing achievement.
BuzzFlash: And yet for all these connections, I did not see any of them in the press. I only made them because of your book, and knowing about the Carlyle Group, and just going back and confirming that United Defense was, in essence, a company that the Carlyle Group had ownership of.
Dan Briody: It was missed by most of the mainstream media, and that was very disappointing. But The Nation picked up on it, thank God.
BuzzFlash: Going in another direction, you detail how the firm, when it was opened in 1987, picked the name, "the Carlyle Group."
Dan Briody: Well, the co-founders, David Rubenstein and Stephen Norris, were, at the time, meeting frequently at this hotel on the Upper East Side of New York called the Carlyle Hotel. And the Carlyle was very, very, very opulent and itís a very swanky establishment. Itís a beautiful hotel. And these guys were looking for a name that gave them a sense of legitimacy and credibility in the industry. They wanted something that was a little blue-blood, or, as Steve Norris put it, gave them a silk-stocking air. And so they thought that the Carlyle Group was the right way to go. And certainly it does have that blue-blood, old money kind of feel to it, even though itís only 15 years old.
BuzzFlash: Your book about the Carlyle Group, subtitled Inside the Secret World of Carlyle Group, is called The Iron Triangle. Why did you choose that title?
Dan Briody: Well, "the iron triangle" is the euphemism that is employed in a number of different areas. But among the areas that itís employed is this confluence of business and politics that Eisenhower was talking about when he referred to the military-industrial complex. This is a combination of power and influence that is very dangerous and can result in foreign policy decisions that are based solely on monetary concerns of very few people. And thatís what I think weíve found here today.
BuzzFlash: Recently we've read that the Carlyle Group is starting to dabble into media acquisition. Is that right? And if so, should we be worried about that?
Dan Briody: Yes, they have picked up a couple media companies. They, for a while now, have owned a very popular publication called Le Figaro in France, and they have been expanding their media acquisitions. And I definitely think this is something that we should be concerned about. I mean, anytime you see a company that has this much political clout -- and obviously has a political agenda -- picking up media properties, youíve got to be concerned, especially with the action that the FCC has taken so far this year. Weíre looking at the potential for having a real controlling influence in the media. And I personally would not like to see Carlyle Group controlling the information that I receive on a daily basis.
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Corporations/Carlyle_Group.html

Carlyle Group

From SourceWatch

According to the company web site, The Carlyle Group, headquartered in Washington D.C., was established in 1987 as a "private global investment firm that originates, structures and acts as lead equity investor in management-led buyouts, strategic minority equity investments, equity private placements, consolidations and buildups, and growth capital financings."[1] ( http://www.thecarlylegroup.com/ )

Carlyle states that its "mission is to become the premier global private equity firm and to generate extraordinary returns while maintaining our good name and the good name of our partners. Toward that end, we have established a family of funds in the Carlyle name and a network of offices around the world. We maintain the highest standards of ethical conduct and employ a conservative, proven and disciplined approach to investing."[2] ( http://www.thecarlylegroup.com/ )

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, former 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.

Source: "Carlyle Empire" by Eric Leser, Le Monde, April 29, 2004 ( http://www.culturechange.org/CarlyleEmpire.html ).

Also see: "The Big Guys Work For the Carlyle Group" by Melanie Warner, Fortune Magazine, March 02, 2002 ( http://www.independent-media.tv/item.cfm?fmedia_id=88&fcategory_desc=The%20Bush%20Crime%20Family ).

Hoover's Online describes the Carlyle Group as a military-industrial complex. The Carlyle Group, Hoover's continues,

takes part in management-led buyouts (MBOs), acquires minority stakes, and provides other investment capital for companies. It is particularly hawkish on the aerospace and defense industries, putting to good use the experience of its chairman emeritus Frank Carlucci, a former Secretary of Defense. Firms in this arena make up a significant share of the portfolio at Carlyle, one of the world's largest private equity firms. The company has also engineered MBOs and other capital deals for firms in such industries as consumer products, energy, health care, information technology, real estate, beverages, and telecommunications. Carlyle's directorship reads like George Walker Bush's inaugural ball invite list. Reagan Secretary of the Treasury James Baker serves as a senior counselor, and Richard G. Darman, former director of the Office of Management and Budget under George Herbert Walker Bush, is a managing director. Former President George Bush has served with Carlyle and Colin L. Powell, before becoming Secretary of State, made an appearance on behalf of the firm.[3] ( http://www.hoovers.com/premium/profile/6/0,2147,42166,00.html )

The company has more than $13 billion in assets under management and has invested in such names as: United Defense Industries, of Crusader artillery and Bradley Fighting Vehicle fame; Dr Pepper/Seven Up Bottling Group (http://www.hoovers.com/co/capsule/3/0,2163,40853,00.html ); and MedPointe Inc. ( http://www.hoovers.com/co/capsule/1/0,2163,10301,00.html ).[4] ( http://www.hoovers.com/premium/profile/6/0,2147,42166,00.html ) Carlyle owns about 90% of Voight Aircraft Industries, Inc. ( http://www.hoovers.com/co/capsule/7/0,2163,103867,00.html ).

Although the majority of the firm's money is in North America, it is also pushing more intensely overseas, launching funds aimed at Asia, Europe, Latin America, and Russia. The firm (along with Apax Partners ( http://www.hoovers.com/co/capsule/8/0,2163,40358,00.html ) and UK-based Cinven ( http://www.cinven.com/en/home/index1.htm )) bought a 28% share of France-based health care and business publisher Vivendi Universal Publishing ( http://www.vivendiuniversal.com/vu2/en/who_we_are/who_we_are.cfm ). One of the company's larger moves overseas is the purchase of the transportation business of The Daiei ( http://www.daiei.co.jp/ ), Japan's #2 retailer in which the company has a 90 percent stake, worth $28 million.[5] ( http://www.hoovers.com/premium/profile/6/0,2147,42166,00.html)

Its moves overseas haven't all been as easy as picking up the phone or as lucrative, however. Carlyle, along with investment firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe ( http://www.welshcarson.com/ ), are planning to buy the yellow pages business of the financially strapped Qwest Communications ( http://www.qwest.com/ ) while navigating the lawsuit filed by Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach LLP ( http://www.milberg.com/mil-cgi-bin/mil?templ=home.html ). The firm also returned portions of its European venture capital group funds to investors after the values of its investments lessened and the availability of target acquisitions decreased.[6] ( http://www.hoovers.com/premium/profile/6/0,2147,42166,00.html)

Carlyle is keeping an eye on the transportation and healthcare industries as possible candidates for deal making, but the maturing buy-out market creates fewer prize deals and more competitors.[7] ( http://www.hoovers.com/premium/profile/6/0,2147,42166,00.html )

California Public Employees' Retirement System (http://www.calpers.ca.gov/), or CalPERS, owns more than 5% of Carlyle.[8] ( http://www.hoovers.com/premium/profile/6/0,2147,42166,00.html )

          More: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Carlyle_Group

The Carlyle Group Invests $20 million into Claris Lifesciences
Our News Bureau - Mumbai
Global private equity firm, The Carlyle Group, has made a $20 million investment in Claris Lifesciences Limited (Claris), a leading Indian pharmaceutical company that manufactures and markets life saving products for treating critical illness
http://www.expresspharmaonline.com/20060415/market09.shtml

MIDEAST TERROR WAR ADDS URGENCY TO CARLYLE GROUP CONTROVERSY

Former President Bush Works for International Investment Firm With Ties To Saudi Arabia

Company Had Bin Laden Family Connections

(Washington, DC) Judicial Watch, the public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today pointed out that the recent spate of terror attacks on Israel has lent new urgency to the need for former President Bush to resign from the Carlyle Group, an international investment firm with close ties to the government of Saudi Arabia.

The former president, the father of President Bush, worked for the bin Laden family business in Saudi Arabia through the Carlyle Group, meeting with them at least twice. The terrorist leader Osama bin Laden had supposedly been “disowned” by his family, which runs a multi-billion dollar business in Saudi Arabia and was a major investor in the senior Bush’s firm. Other reports have stated his Saudi family have not truly cut off Osama bin Laden.

In the wake of Judicial Watch and other criticism of its ties to the bin Laden family business, the Carlyle Group reportedly no longer does business with the bin Laden conglomerate. Yet the Group, among other conflicts of interest, reportedly has a major business relationship with the Saudi Arabian government, which many have criticized for its lack of cooperation in America’s war on terrorism and its financial and other support for terrorist attacks on Israel and U.S. interests.

“It stands to reason, as noted in the David Sanger piece in The New York Times today, that President Bush consults with his father on issues of the day. In a normal situation, this would be appropriate, but with President Bush’s father being effectively an agent of the Saudi Arabian government, it raises, in the least, a conflict of interest problem. Questions can be raised, for instance, if the ‘kid gloves’ treatment of Saudi Arabia by the Bush Administration has anything to do with his father’s financial ties to the Saudi regime. Former President Bush would be doing his son and his country a favor by immediately resigning from the Carlyle Group,” stated Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman.
http://blogs.it/0100206/stories/2004/03/06/ilMisteroDiNassiriya.html

UAE, Carlyle Group, Bushes & Terrorism: Strange Mix
by J. Grant Swank, Jr.
Feb 28, 2006

Washington's "name" people and world leaders reap billions on the "war on terrorism." Could this likewise involve the present UAE – US 21 ports sneak?
And could US President George W. Bush reap his own billions from the "war?"

Note: The quiet, no-noise Carlyle Group, a worldwide private equity investment company founded in 1987 with more than $30 billion of capital, is alleged to have connections to the Middle East.

Both father and son George Bush belong and belonged to it. Other well-known personages such as Colin Powell, James Baker, John Major, and George Soros also gather yield from the Group.

The Group specializes in Aerospace, Defense, Automotive, Consumer, Industrial, Energy, Power, Real Estate, Technology, Business Services, Telecommunication, Transportation and Media. Its involvement focuses on interests related to political activity, some calling it political arbitrage.

So how do political personal riches equate to membership in the Group? How do the 800 members benefit from its billions, that sum equating to $37.5 million apiece? After all, Group's offices are positioned on Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and Capitol Building, not far from the FBI Building.

Some of the Group's contractors relate to the US military, for example, an artillery project, aerospace and defense industries.

Craig Unger's book, "House of Bush, House of Saud," informs that Saudi Arabia inserted 1.4 billion to companies tied to father and son George Bush. Ninety percent of that money was contracted to BDM, defense contractor, such firm owned by the Group.

"Among the companies Carlyle owns are those which make equipment, vehicles and munitions for the US military, and its celebrity employees have long served an ingenious dual purpose, helping encourage investments from the very wealthy while also smoothing the path for Carlyle's defense firms," state Oliver Burkeman and Julian Borger of The Guardian.

"Since the start of the ‘war on terrorism,' the firm has taken on an added significance. Carlyle has become the thread which indirectly links American military policy in Afghanistan to the personal financial fortunes of its celebrity employees, not least the current president's father.

"Until earlier this month, Carlyle provided another curious link to the Afghan crisis: among the firm's multi-million-dollar investors were members of Osama bin Laden family. The bin Laden tie to the Group was more than six years."

Question: How do the current President and former President Bush make policy in Muslim affairs, such as UAE and US ports, while being members of the Group? Private business and public policy, mix and match, can be extremely complex on multitudinous levels, including financial and ethical, not to mention national safety.
As Muslims ripped into the Twin Towers, Carlyle's annual investor meeting was taking place in DC's Ritz-Carlton. Included were representatives of the bin Laden family. While the towers tumbled down, the Group's investments went up, according to Dan Briody, author of "The Iron Triangle," as published in Red Herring Business Magazine.

The bin Laden clan actually made money in the war targeted against their son, the latter disowned by the family ten years ago. Finally, the family got out of the Group when criticism mounted against them.

At the same time, President Bush was "in a position to make budgetary decisions that could pad his father's bank account. But for the Carlyle Group, walking that narrow line is the art of doing business at the murky intersection of Washington politics, national security, and privat

Frank Carlucci	-	Department of Health, Education and Welfare - 1970's Deputy Director, CIA - 1978-81 Deputy Secretary of Defense - 1981-82 National Security Director - 1987-89
George Bush	-	CIA Director - 1976-77 Vice President of the United States - 1981-89 President of the United States - 1989-93
James Baker	-	Chief of Staff - 1981-85 Secretary of the Treasury - 1985-89 Secretary of State - 1989-93
Dick Darman	-	Former White House Budget Chief
William Kennard	-	Former Head, FCC
Arthur Levitt	-	Former Head, SEC
John Major	-	Former Prime Minister, Britain
Fidel Ramos	-	Former Philippine President
Afsaneh Beschloss	-	Treasurer & Chief Investment Officer of the World Bank
Anand Panyarachum	-	Former President, Thailand
Karl Otto Pohl	-	Former President, Bundesbank
Louis Vuitton	-	French Aerobus Company
Park Tae Joon	-	Former South Korean Prime Minister
Alwaleed Sin Talal bin Abdulaziz Alsaud	-	Saudi Arabian Prince
George Soros	-	New World Order/Bilderberg luminary & int'l financier
Fred Malek	-	George Bush Sr's campaign manager