Published 10 April 06

International Desk

By Abigail R. Esman
World Defense Review columnist

USArabia
Part II – The Islamization of America

In one of his most oft-quoted speeches, delivered shortly after the attacks of 9/11, President Bush declared, "Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make: Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime." (George Bush, Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People, United States Capitol, Washington, DC – press release from the Press Secretary to the President, September 20, 2001).

His position could not have been more clear.

So why, then, offer American ports, military equipment, security systems, and access to water treatment facilities to countries known to have ties to the Taliban, and to have financial connections in with the 9/11 hijackers? Why court an investor whose friendship with America's most-wanted "Most Wanted" is well-documented, even in the Pentagon? Once, ironically enough, when I was writing about an Islamic extremist group, a journalist colleague advised me, "follow the money." It is an old and useful rule. And so seeking an explanation for the Dubai Ports and Dubai Holdings/Doncasters deals, as well as for other puzzling recent investments and activities, I have tried to do just that.

Let me say from the outset that the information here is, as they say, "for illustration purposes only." Any conclusions to be drawn from it are your own. Also, there are no straight lines. What there is, is a complex web, highlighted by few odd mysteries and some disturbingly unanswered questions.

To begin, a political update for those who may have missed it, and which I learned about too late to include in Part I of this report: In a February 25, 2006 article by Niles Lathem, "Qaeda Claim: We 'Infiltrated' UAE Government" the New York Post disclosed the contents of a June, 2002 message from Al Qaeda to the government of the UAE that stated, "You are well aware that we have infiltrated your security, censorship, and monetary agencies, along with other agencies that should not be mentioned." (Apparently the UAE isn't all that good at security after all.)

Surprising as this may seem, it really shouldn't be. Members of the UAE ruling family are known to have socialized frequently with bin Laden before the Al Qaeda leader went into hiding (and for all anyone knows, even since): A military document submitted to the 9/11 Commission describes a February, 1999 hunting trip members of the UAE Royal Family took with Osama bin Laden. According to the document, "the CIA received reports that bin Ladin regularly went from his adjacent camp to the larger camp where he visited with the emirates." In fact, having pinpointed the Al Qaeda leader at the camp, the US chose nonetheless to refrain from attacking him for fear that, in the words of former CIA Director George Tenet as cited in the 9/11 Commission Report document, "you might have wiped out half the royal family of the UAE in the process."

But Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, now ruler of Dubai, is not only known for having joined Osama bin Laden on hunting trips. Media reports such as a recent article by Joe Conason in Salon.com, "Business As Usual" (February 24, 2006), have also confirmed the Sheikh's friendly ties to Neil Bush, the President's younger brother, in whose educational project, Ignite!, he has invested an unknown (but presumably sizable) sum. According to the Salon.com story, "In October, 2001, only a month after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, Neil Bush showed up in Dubai ... to meet with [then-] Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum. While peddling the products of Ignite!, his educational software company, Bush was feted as the guest of honor at a gala dinner for a charitable foundation, also hosted by the crown prince."

Whether this was a personal investment or not is unclear from the Salon report, but in general, the Sheikh's financial dealings are handled by the Dubai Investment Group, a part of Dubai Holdings, the company set to purchase Doncasters – the company, you may remember supplies parts for American military equipment.

Then there is Saudi Arabia, and the investment and largess of its Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, which includes the $20 million gifts to Harvard and Georgetown Universities for the creation of Islamic Studies centers *; $500,000 to the George H.W. Bush Scholarship fund at the Phillips Academy in Massachusetts; and – according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) – $27 million to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers Prince Alwaleed, named one of the world's five richest men by Forbes, further holds some $800 million in Citigroup according to a September 25, 1995 article in BusinessWeek.

Additionally, reports The Nation in an April 2002 article by Tim Shorrock, "Crony Capitalism Goes Global", the Carlyle Group – a corporation whose advisors include former President George H.W. Bush and various Boeing executives – until recently, included a company by the name of CSX World Terminals, which it sold to Dubai Ports World in 2005. (Is it relevant that the Prince himself owns a Boeing or two? Probably not.)

So here are our two players: Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid, two extraordinarily wealthy men with purported ties to the Bush family and investments – financial, social, and political – in Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, and the families of suicide bombers.

Strange bedfellows, you might say.

And here is how the rest of their investments shape up: Numbered among Prince Alwaleed's holdings, as cited in the Honolulu Advertiser, and others, are Amazon.com, Walt Disney, AT&T, Ford Motor Company, Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, and New York's Plaza Hotel (which he sold to Israeli investors Elad Properties for $675 million in 2004; he is now reportedly negotiating to repurchase several of the units there). However, most of the Saudi prince's financial dealings are shrouded in secrecy.

For the Sheikh, meetings and negotiations beyond Neil Bush's Ignite! (which The Washington Post has reported was funded in part by "businessmen from Taiwan, Japan, Kuwait, the British Virgin Islands and the United Arab Emirates [italics mine]") and Doncasters (whose partnership with General Electric is crucial – and I'll come back to that, as well) include, according to Dubai Holdings' own websites and Forbes magazine, the Carlyle Group; General Electric; Daimler-Chrysler, New York's Essex House Hotel – just to name a few.

In addition, in October, 2005, according to listings in The Real Deal, the real estate industry newsletter of record, Sheikh Rashid spent a cool $705 million for the Helmsley Building, AKA 230 Park Avenue, the building above New York's Grand Central Station.

What emerges is a portfolio of holdings in (mostly American) hotels; U.S. and European tourist attractions; residential real estate with some media, banking, and retail thrown in, all alongside the what seems to be financial and political support for suicide bombers and the Taliban (warmly recognized by the UAE as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan until U.S. pressure forced them to cut ties in September, 2001). And if all goes well for Dubai, suppliers of US military equipment – Doncasters and its alliances with Boeing, Daimler and GE – will soon be added to the mix.

Let me say this again. The man who sent $27 million in support of suicide bombers – terrorists – ("if you support the terrorists, you are as guilty as the terrorists") also now funds Islamic Studies programs at Harvard – one of the greatest institutions of higher learning in the world – and at a somewhat lesser institution (not, say, Cornell or Princeton or Yale) that just happens to be located in Washington, D.C. And Osama bin Laden's favored hunting companion, described by House Democrats as a defender and economic supporter of Hamas (according to The Raw Story), owns, among other things, the building above one of the busiest and most vulnerable commuter rail stations and landmarks in America.

FAMILY TIES

So back to the original question: Why? Why would the Bush administration overlook these connections? Part of the answer has been suggested above, as well as by others such as Dave Gibson who noted in The American Daily: "Recently, the Bush administration named David Sanborn the new administrator of the Transportation Department's Maritime Administration. Until a few weeks ago, Sanborn was Dubai Ports World's director of operations for Europe and Latin America. The government panel, which approved the Dubai deal, known as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, is chaired by Treasury Secretary John Snow. Before accepting the cabinet post, Snow was chairman of CSX Railroad. Shortly after Snow joined the Bush White House," Gibson adds, CSX – by now owned by Carlyle "sold their international ports contracts to Dubai Ports World for over $1 billion. Of course, Snow and Sanborn both claim to have no prior knowledge of either deal."

Other explanations are a bit more complicated, including, according to Joe Conason's Salon.com story, a $100 million investment into the Carlyle Group from Dubai Investment, AKA Dubai Holdings – that company which, again, represents Sheikh Rashid, the man who wants to buy Doncasters and, as noted above, invests already in GE (which partners with Doncasters), supported Neil Bush's Ignite! and, yes, hangs out with Osama bin Laden. General Electric, for its part, maintains ties not only with the Sheikh but with Carlyle and the Bush family and the Administration: Bush courted former CEO Jack Welch for a cabinet position in his first term, according to the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), which states that the President "sent members of his administration to lobby the European Union in support of GE's proposed merger with Honeywell, which the EU ultimately rejected." (See The Center for Public Integrity.) But Doncasters works with GE and with Honeywell, and Sheikh Rashid is already a major player at GE. The deal could, in other words, further work in favor of the company the CPI claims spent $31 million lobbying the US Congress in 2001 and 2002.

As for the Helmsley Building, that particular transaction, according to The Real Deal, was handled by the Bass brothers, Lee and Robert, whose family gifts to Bush's gubernatorial races are listed by Texans for Public Justice in a June 21, 2999 statement as having exceeded $200,000. Lee Bass, who partners with his brother in managing the family's Texas-based oil business, is also listed by the TPJ as a proud member of the Bush Pioneers, individuals who raised at least $100,000 for the Bush Presidential campaigns.

Then there's Prince Alwaleed, whose investments are, quite frankly, alarming. Like his UAE investment rival, the prince appears to have befriended Neil Bush (the moment was captured in a photograph and an announcement on the prince's web portal. And when the Prince made his first major stock purchase of shares in Citicorp, it was the Carlyle Group – not exactly known as a financial advisor – who guided him. But as The Economist notes in "The Mystery of the World's Second-Richest Businessman", most of Alwaleed's investments have fallen flat: His hotel purchases are not expected to produce earnings other than capital gains, and the prince does not appear to be interested in selling. (And in the case of the Plaza, he's been busy trying to buy back what he already sold, the New York Daily News said last fall.

Planet Hollywood, of course, was a bust. And even his Citicorp purchase, The Economist reports, proved problematic: The Feds failed to approve his original bid for a 14.9 percent stake in the company after pursuing a 14-month investigation, required for any investor seeking to acquire a share of more than ten-percent in a US bank. (Ultimately, Alwaleed scaled back his plans, purchasing a mere – and easier – ten-percent stake.) And yet the Fed would not explain why the young prince failed to win approval.

Well, that was in 1991. Maybe it's time now to open that Federal Reserve report. Because here's the other thing The Economist found in 1999: The prince's numbers don't add up.

"The prince estimates that his investment income was $500 million last year," The Economist reported. "So his remaining assets, worth only $1.5 billion, just over a tenth of the total, earned $277 million, over half of his income." "Moreover," the report continues, "roughly $550 million worth of [his] private Saudi assets" produce no income at all. What does that mean? According to The Economist, "The inescapable conclusion is that the estimates the prince has given to The Economist and several other publications is wrong. Either the prince has a valuable and unrevealed source of income, or his income is much less than $500 million."

"With us or with the terrorists." A lot of people laughed at the President when he made that remark.

Maybe it wasn't so funny after all.

* The New York Times Magazine "The Way We Live Now: Questions for A Saudi Prince" (Deborah Solomon, January 1, 2006). See also the announcement from the International Institute of Islamic Thought.

to Part I

NOTE: This opinion piece is not owned by World Defense Review, and WDR accepts no responsibility whatsoever for the accuracy or innacuracy of the content of this or any other story published on this website. Copyright and all rights for this story (and all other stories by Abigail R. Esman) are held by Abigail R. Esman.

— Abigail R. Esman is an award-winning author-journalist who divides her time between New York and The Netherlands. In addition to her column in World Defense Review, her work has appeared in Foreign Policy, Salon.com, Esquire, Vogue, Glamour, Town & Country, The Christian Science Monitor, The New Republic and many others. She is currently working on a book about Muslim extremism and democracy in the West.

Abigail R. Esman can be reached at esman@worlddefensereview.com.

Visit Esman on the web at abigailesman.com.

© 2006 Abigail R. Esman

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NOTE: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author, and do not represent the opinions of World Defense Review and its affiliates. WDR accepts no responsibility whatsoever for the accuracy or inaccuracy of the content of this or any other story published on this website. Copyright and all rights for this story (and all other stories by the author) are held by the author.

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