Depressing News
I couldn't take it! It was just too much truth for one hour!
No, I didn't listen to the Rush Limbaugh show again today. I just got up from an afternoon rest with Amy Goodman's Democracy Now program on the radio keeping me company. If you ever really want to hear the flip side of conservative talk radio, this has got to be it!
Today, Amy featured Naomi Klein who has a current article in The Nation titled "James Baker's Double Life" posted yesterday, October 12.
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041101&c=1&s=klein
In it, Ms Klein informs her readers of the huge apparent conflict of interest involving President Bush's Special Presidential Envoy James Baker, former Secretary of State under the first President Bush. Baker was given the task by the current President Bush to negotiate debt reduction for Iraq, but according to this article, Baker also has a "relationship with merchant bank and defense contractor the Carlyle Group, where Baker is senior counselor and an equity partner with an estimated $180 million stake."
It seems that the Carlyle Group together with the Albright Group (yes, headed by former Clinton Secretary of State Madeline Albright) and others has made a secret offer to the nation of Kuwait to help Kuwait collect the $57 billion owed to them by Iraq. In exchange, Kuwait, if they accept this help, would pay this consortium $2 billion, half of which would go to the Carlyle Group. It appears that Kuwait is considering this offer while at the same time Baker is conducting now stalled negotiations for Iraqi debt reductions.
This is almost sick enough to make me want to puke. I mean, does the word "extortion" come to mind here? Is Baker in a position to hurt the financial interests of Kuwait if that government doesn't agree to pay this billion dollars to the Carlyle Group? Not that he would ever do a thing like that, mind you. He is, after all, a man of integrity like President Bush and his daddy, right? These are guys we can trust, right?
No, I didn't listen to the Rush Limbaugh show again today. I just got up from an afternoon rest with Amy Goodman's Democracy Now program on the radio keeping me company. If you ever really want to hear the flip side of conservative talk radio, this has got to be it!
Today, Amy featured Naomi Klein who has a current article in The Nation titled "James Baker's Double Life" posted yesterday, October 12.
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041101&c=1&s=klein
In it, Ms Klein informs her readers of the huge apparent conflict of interest involving President Bush's Special Presidential Envoy James Baker, former Secretary of State under the first President Bush. Baker was given the task by the current President Bush to negotiate debt reduction for Iraq, but according to this article, Baker also has a "relationship with merchant bank and defense contractor the Carlyle Group, where Baker is senior counselor and an equity partner with an estimated $180 million stake."
It seems that the Carlyle Group together with the Albright Group (yes, headed by former Clinton Secretary of State Madeline Albright) and others has made a secret offer to the nation of Kuwait to help Kuwait collect the $57 billion owed to them by Iraq. In exchange, Kuwait, if they accept this help, would pay this consortium $2 billion, half of which would go to the Carlyle Group. It appears that Kuwait is considering this offer while at the same time Baker is conducting now stalled negotiations for Iraqi debt reductions.
This is almost sick enough to make me want to puke. I mean, does the word "extortion" come to mind here? Is Baker in a position to hurt the financial interests of Kuwait if that government doesn't agree to pay this billion dollars to the Carlyle Group? Not that he would ever do a thing like that, mind you. He is, after all, a man of integrity like President Bush and his daddy, right? These are guys we can trust, right?
posted by Bill | 6:34 PM
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