Follow The Money... revisited

There’s a famous scene in ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN, the 1976 film about Watergate, that goes like this:

Bob Woodward: The story is dry. All we've got are pieces. We can't seem to figure out what the puzzle is supposed to look like. John Mitchell resigns as the head of CREEP, and says that he wants to spend more time with his family. I mean, it sounds like bullshit, we don't exactly believe that...
Deep Throat: No, heh, but it's touching. Forget the myths the media's created about the White House. The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.
Bob Woodward: Hunt's come in from the cold. Supposedly he's got a laywer with $25,000 in a brown paper bag.
Deep Throat: Follow the money.
Bob Woodward: What do you mean? Where?
Deep Throat: Oh, I can't tell you that.
Bob Woodward: But you could tell me that.
Deep Throat: No, I have to do this my way. You tell me what you know, and I'll confirm. I'll keep you in the right direction if I can, but that's all. Just... follow the money.

I couldn’t sleep tonight, woke up at 3am, started re-reading “UNHOLY WAR” by John Cooley (1999), and that lead me to do some research….

Cooley metions UNOCAL’s attempts to negotiate with the Taliban during the late 90’s to build an oil pipeline from Turkmenistan THROUGH Afghanistan. You see:

Afghanistan has only limited oil or gas reserves. But it straddles the most direct route for exporting oil and natural gas out of Turkmenistan, where the gas reserves alone are estimated at over 100 trillion cubic feet, or the fourth largest proven natural gas reserves in the world. [Source: Peter Dale Scott]

Talks collapsed in 1998 and, according to Unocal, have never resumed.

But check out Unocal’s stock price movements during the last 24 months. Coincidence?

And guess who is taking over UNOCAL?

SAN RAMON, Calif., June 10, 2005 - The Federal Trade Commission has notified Chevron Corporation and Unocal Corporation that Chevron's plans to acquire Unocal have been accepted by the commission, pending public comment. [Source: UNOCAL]

Wow. Guess who used to be Chevron’s star director?

A picture of the oil tanker before Chevron quietly renamed it the "Altair Voyager" and before President George Bush appointed Ms. Rice as National Security Advisor.

Condoleezza Rice was a Chevron Director from 1991 until January 15, 2001 when she was transferred by President George Bush Jr. to National Security Adviser. Previously she was Senior Director, Soviet Affairs, National Security Council, and Special Assistant to President George Bush Sr. from 1989 to 1991.

Smart lady that Condi Rice. She’s so smart, she KNEW Iraq was lying when it told the UN that it had no WMD. Oh… whoops.

Speaking of the Bush Administration, let’s also remember that Vice-President Dick Cheney resigned as CEO of Halliburton on July 25, 2000. What do Halliburton do?

The Energy Services Group provides technical products and services for oil and gas exploration and production. The KBR group is a major construction company of mainly refineries, oilfields & pipelines, and chemical plants. [Source: Wikipedia]

How has business been for them since 3/03?

Halliburton has billed the government more than $10.5 billion to date under a contract to provide aid for the military in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. [source: Raw Story]

Hey, maybe the share market in the US is just doing so well that every company is performing well. How do Halliburton and Unocal’s share performance since March 2003 compare with, say, the Dow Jones or the S&P?

Hmmm…

Who else is doing well from the “war”?

Here’s a little company called Engineered Support Systems Inc.

Engineered Support Systems designs, manufactures, and supplies integrated military electronics, support equipment, and technical and logistics services for all branches of America’s armed forces and certain foreign militaries, homeland security forces and selected government and intelligence agencies. 

Doing very well out of contracts from the Pentagon. Shares at an all-time high. The Chairman of the company?

William H.T. Bush
Chairman
Bush O'Donnell & Co.

William H.T. Bush, is chairman of the St. Louis-based investment firm, Bush O'Donnell & Co., which he founded in 1986. Previously, he was president and CEO of Boatmen's National Bank of St. Louis and began his career with the Hartford National Bank and Trust Co. in Connecticut. Bush has been a Director of the Company since 2000 and serves as a director of Mississippi Valley Bancshares, Inc., Maritz, Inc., RightChoice Managed Care, Inc., DT Industries, Inc. and The Lord Abbett family of Mutual Funds.

William "Bucky" Bush, brother of one president and uncle to the current White House occupant.

So, my friends, where does that leave us? It’s 4.40am here. The above is an hour’s worth of googling. Want to know why your sons and daughters are fighting in the Middle East? Want to know why suicide bombers are coming to a mall near you?

Go follow the money.

Comments

[Cary Miller]

Great Post, Cameron...you are turning into quite the investigator ; )

Also, don't forget that Haliburton is now under investigation for over-charging the Federal Government millions for it's work in Iraq. Work they got via a no-bid contract.

Cheney is so transparent as to be funny, only it's so, so NOT funny.

Have you ever seen the film Cover-Up? it's an excellent documentary about George Bush Sr's extraordinary money-making skills selling arms during the Vietnam War, and a frightening eye-opener...you should check it out if you can find it.

[Cameron Reilly]

Thanks Cary. No, I haven't seen the film, but I'll try to find a copy. I did read "Fortunate Son", a terrific expose book about the Bush cabal, written in the late 90s and updated in 2000, by James Hatfield before he was found dead in a Texas hotel room in an apparent "suicide"....

[Daniel Bowen]

Very interesting stuff. But, uhh, that tanker picture is not real. Look closer - it's been (quite badly actually) Photoshopped.

Do a quick search on Google images and you'll find a picture of the real one.

[Cameron Reilly]

hehe yeah I thought it looked that way too Daniel! Which is why I went checking to verify the story from a good source.
And my picture is SO MUCH FUNKIER than the real one. :-)

[tahpot]

Excellent and well researched post Cameron - this is the sort of thing that should be in the mainstream media.