Reply #9: Great memory you have, seemslikeadream!

[Octafish]

Harken, Bush and BCCI

The first of many G.W. Bush business ventures eventually bailed out or liquidated before bankruptcy was his oil company Arbusto Energy. In 1977, Bush received a $50,000 investment from James R. Bath, a Houston businessman who "made his fortune by investing money for Mahfouz and another BCCI-connected Saudi, Sheikh bin Laden" according to Time correspondents Jonathan Beaty and S.C. Gwynne. Of special note is that Sheikh bin Laden is widely believed to be the brother of Osama bin Laden, terrorist bomber of two U.S. embassies in 1998.

Bath, who had no funds of his own, is believed to have acted as the American representative for Saudi Arabian sheikhs who, as Hatfield describes it, used "their enormous financial resources to influence U.S. policy." As son of the recent director of the CIA, G.W. Bush and his oil startup were a perfect opportunity to buy influence. Ironically, it was with money allegedly tied to the family of Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden.

SOURCE (GOOGLE Cache)...

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Harken, Bush and BCCI

by Thomas Petzinger Jr., Peter Truell and Jill Abramson
The Wall Street Journal, December 6, 1991

Two years ago, Talat Othman didn't have the president's ear. But since August 1990, the Palestinian-born Chicago investor has attended three White House meetings with President Bush to discuss Middle East policy.

Mr. Othman's political access coincides with the remarkable ascendance of a little Texas oil company on whose board he serves alongside George W. Bush, the president's oldest son. That company, Harken Energy Corp. -- though it had never drilled a single well overseas or in water -- recently won the rights to drill potentially lucrative offshore wildcat wells in a contract bestowed by the government of Bahrain.

When the Harken deal was announced in January 1990, it attracted only perfunctory notice. More recently, a number of publications have written about the case, raising questions about whether Bahrain might have chosen Harken in part because a presidential son sat on its board.

Now, George W. Bush is emerging as a principal adviser to his father. He was a lead player in the campaign to oust White House Chief of Staff John Sununu, and was cited by his father yesterday as among those who will play "key roles in the reelection effort." Thus, the issues surrounding the Harken deal take on fresh importance. The White House says there is nothing questionable in this story of petroleum, politics and the presidential son. "There is no conflict of interest, or even the appearance of conflict, in these business arrangements," says spokesman Marlin Fitzwater. The matters had been reviewed and disclosed, he said, adding, "They are legitimate business undertakings."

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