George w. Bush - James R. Bath - Bin Laden

"Arbusto Energy (sometimes referred to as Arbusto Oil)[1] was a petroleum and energy company formed in Midland, Texas, in 1977, for former US President George W. Bush by a group of investors which included Dorothy Bush, Lewis Lehrman, William Henry Draper III, Bill Gammell, and James R. Bath. The company's chief financial officer was K. Michael Conaway, now a United States Congressman from Texas." [Wikipedia]

"Bath got his start in real estate in 1973 by forming a partnership with Lloyd Bentsen's son, Lan, in Bath Bentsen Interests. In 1978, Bath became a Director of the Main Bank, based in Houston, Texas. His fellow investors were John Connally; Saudi financier Ghaith Pharaon; and Mahfouz. Also at this time, he founded JB&A Aviation, a corporate aviation brokerage firm, along with fellow businessmen Johnson Taylor and Jerry Smith." [Wikipedia]

"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.

When Salem bin Laden died in 1988, powerful Saudi Arabian banker and BCCI principal Khalid bin Mahfouz inherited his interests in Houston. Bath ran a business for bin Mahfouz in Houston and joined a partnership with bin Mahfouz and Gaith Pharaon, BCCI's frontman in Houston's Main Bank." [inthesetimes]

Moralidad de la política exterior europea

Cuando todos los medios se alegran del regreso de Roque Pascual y Albert Vilalta, surgen fundamentados reparos sobre la moralidad del acuerdo establecido con los secuestradores para conseguir su regreso.

No estoy hablando del dinero que los secuestradores se embolsarán, que también plantea serias dudas. El rescate pagado estaría alrededor de los 3,8 millones de euros, según la mayoría de fuentes [CNBC] aunque algunas fuentes aumentan esta cantidad hasta los 7 millones de euros. [IOL]


"La facción de Al Qaeda del Magreb Islámico aseguró anoche, en un comunicado en audio remitido a EL PAÍS , que la liberación de los cooperantes fue posible después de haberse cumplido algunas de sus peticiones y lo presentaron como "una lección" para los servicios secretos franceses, en referencia al intento fallido de liberación por comandos franceses del cooperante galo Michel Germaneau, de 78 años. Germaneau fue asesinado a finales de julio , pocos días después de la acción armada." [El País]

"La liberación parece estar vinculado a la repatriación de Mauritania a Malí a principios de este mes de un militante condenado por el secuestro de los dos españoles, junto con un tercero que fue liberado en marzo, un analista de seguridad europea, dijo.

"Hubo un intercambio, aunque no está claro si hubo también un rescate pagado," dijo el analista en condición de anonimato.

Las autoridades de Mauritania y Malí se han negado a comentar sobre si la extradición de Omar Sid-Ahmed Ould Hamma, alias Omar Sahraoui, a su país de origen estaba vinculado a los esfuerzos para liberar a los rehenes.

Malí liberó a cuatro prisioneros islamistas a principios de este año en un canje de rehenes aparentemente por el francés Pierre Camatte, liberado por AQIM en febrero. Malí fue criticado por este hecho por los vecinos regionales, Argelia, Mauritania y Níger." [Al Arabiya]

Parece pues que Omar Sahraoui habría sido repatriado a Mali para poder utilizar su libertad como carta en la negociación. De ser así, sería tanto como haber liberado a los presos etarras cuando Miguel Ángel Blanco fue secuestrado.

Al Qaeda's presence in Bosnia before the war

In March 2002, authorities in Bosnia, Sarajevo, will raid the offices of the Benevolence International Foundation (BIF) due to suspected funding of al-Qaeda. The raid will uncover a handwritten list containing the name of twenty wealthy donors sympathetic to al-Qaeda. The list, referred to as “The Golden Chain,” contains both the names of the donors and the names of the recipients (but does not mention amounts given). Seven of the payments are made to Osama bin Laden. [United Press International, 2/11/2003] Most accounts will be vague on what year the Golden Chain document was written; some say 1988. [Wall Street Journal, 3/18/2003] But counterterrorism “tsar” Richard Clarke will say it dates from 1989. [US Congress, 10/22/2003] Al-Qaeda is formed in late 1988. The Wall Street Journal will later note, “The list doesn’t show any continuing support for al-Qaeda after the organization began targeting Americans, but a number of the Saudis on it have been under scrutiny by US officials as to whether they have supported terrorism in recent years.” [Wall Street Journal, 3/18/2003] The donors named include:

- The “Bin Laden brothers.” Their first names are not mentioned. They give money to Osama bin Laden. UPI will later point out that “the discovery of this document in Sarajevo calls into question whether al-Qaeda has received support from one of Osama’s scores of wealthy brothers.”

- Adel Batterjee, a wealthy Saudi businessman who is also the founder of both BIF and its predecessor, Lajnatt Al-Birr Al-Islamiah. He appears to be mentioned as a recipient three times. [United Press International, 2/11/2003] The US will declare him as a terrorist financier in 2004 (see December 21, 2004).

- Wael Hamza Julaidan, a Saudi millionaire and one of the founders of al-Qaeda. He is listed as a recipient. The US will declare him a terrorist financier in 2002 (see September 6, 2002).

- Saleh Kamel, a Saudi billionaire, and the majority shareholder of the Saudi conglomerate Dallah Albaraka. In 2003, Forbes will call him one of the richest people in the world. The list has him giving money to Batterjee.

- Sulaiman Abdul Aziz al-Rajhi, another Saudi billionaire. The SAAR network, which is named after him, will be raided by the FBI in 2002 (see March 20, 2002). [Emerson, 2006, pp. 400]

- Khalid bin Mahfouz, another Saudi billionaire. A lawyer for bin Mahfouz will later say bin Mahfouz did contribute a small amount to fund the mujaheddin in the late 1980s, but only at the behest of the US and Saudi Arabia. [Wall Street Journal, 3/18/2003]

Source: History Commons

Afghanistan. Country in the shadows

Afghanistan's recent history has been covered with neverending tragedy and suffering. But the series of war that has led to the present situation didn't begun with the soviet invasion of the country, but with Mohammed Daoud Khan's coud d'etat in 1973.

In 1979 the Soviet Union decides to invade Afghanistan, with support of the the Parcham, one of the factions of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan.

In the following years, the soviets faced the opposition of the mujahideens (supported by the USA) and others groups (such as the Northern Alliance).

In 1989 the soviets left Afghanistan. President Burhanuddin Rabbani faced then another threat: the talibans, backed by the mujahideens, establishing in 1996 the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, and controling the 95% of the country.

During the talibane seven-year-rule Afghanistan went back to the middle ages in almost all aspects of life and freedom, unde the sharia (islamic law) inforced by them.

But there are two stories that I find really interesting from this period. The first is how many teachers risked their lives to teach girls, which was totally forbidden by talibans. People who defied the official prohibition of teaching girls, and took part in secret schools to continue their education. One example, Mohammed Halim, disembowelled and murdered for teaching girls [*] or Suraya Pakzad [*]. In fact, it seems that a whole secret conspiracy survied to provide this girls of education [*].

The other story is the life and death of Ahmad Shah Massoud (or Masud), aka the Lion of Panjshir. Engineering student in the Kabul University, he became leader of the resistance against the soviet invasion. After the withdrawal of the soviet army, Massoud became the Defense Minister in 1992 under the government of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani. When the talibans arrived to Kabul, he came back to the north as the leader of the Northern Alliance. He was supported by his former enemy, Russia, and by China and India, while the talibans had the approval of the USA.

But just two days before September 11th, 2001, Massoud was to give an interview, but the two supposed journalists, Dahmane Abd el-Sattar and Bouraoui el-Ouaer, where suicide terrorists from Al Qaeda. They carried a bomb that killed Massoud.

Many speculations have been made why Al Qaeda killed Massoud; one is that they wanted to kill the head of the opposition to the taliban regime before the ofensive that they expected after the coming September 11th bombing. But this seems highly hipothetical. It is more likely, like it has been proposed too, that this killing was in gratitude to the protection given by the talibans to Osama Bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders.