Special Report
The Big Picture shows Bush in big mental trouble
By Jerry Mazza
Online Journal Contributing Writer
October 14, 2004—In the prestigious Republican insider newsletter, The
Big Picture, in an article after the first debate, "Why Kerry Won and
What Comes Next," publisher Richard Whalen wrote a devastating appraisal
of John Kerry's striking victory over George Bush. In weighing the
outcome, Whalen said Duhbya may now be unable to "get his head back in
the game."
The question is, was it really ever in it, rather than solely in the
"yes-man" fantasyland of Pennsylvania Avenue? Whalen adds, "As new
scholarly books and articles speculate, the President [sic], a
self-admitted, untreated alcoholic who talks to God may be mentally and
psychologically unable to organize his thoughts instantaneously and
speak precisely in debate as his unique 'hard job' demands . . ."
I'll say. The anti-depressants reportedly prescribed by the White House
physician and the aspartame overdosing via a stream of diet drinks don't
help, either. The latter, as mentioned in an earlier article,
metabolizes into ethyl alcohol in the liver, not exactly recommended for
a recovering alcoholic. Perhaps this substances plus the possible onset
of "presenile dementia," as noticed by Dr. Joseph M. Price of
Carsonville, Michigan, contribute to the slowing of Duhbyah's speech.
What's more, his body language—the sloping posture, restlessness at
the podium, the shifting eyes, grimacing lips—signaled an inner anger
and discomfort as Kerry reeled off fact after stinging fact, challenging
his sputtering lordship about the unpleasant war in Iraq, its rush-to
and mishandling-after, along with other administration fiascoes.
As Whalen writes in the Big Picture, "It has been reported that Bush
feels intense inner resentment at what he is being forced to do by the
demands of his job. Close White House aides have disclosed Bush's
short-fused, fiery temper under daily stress, especially from the news
media." This too was documented in an article of mine, "The Final Days
of Bush." Whalen validates what that article reported, that "He (Bush)
emerges from news conferences swearing under his breath."
What's more, in the same issue, publisher Whalen relays, from a
knowledgeable Texas source, that a New York Times investigative team has
been probing G.W. Bush's sale of his stake in the Texas Rangers baseball
team. They've obtained documents that may prove very damaging at this
late date in the campaign.
Meanwhile, while the Times fact-checks, let me give you a factual
thumbnail of what led up to the Rangers' purchase, and how it went from
1989 on for the young oilman, George W. Bush. My source is the amazing
biography, Fortunate Son, by J. H. Hatfield. First, a quote from it from
a more humble Duhbya . . .
"You know I could run for governor but I'm basically a media creation.
I've never done anything. I've worked for my dad. I worked in the oil
business. But that's not the kind of profile you have to have to get
elected to public office."
With a name like George W. Bush, how shortsighted was that? And how
strange that Hatfield's book, which amassed a full bag of young Bush's
frauds, failures, and effronteries, was destroyed by its original
publisher, St. Martin's Press, before release, and subsequently revived
by Soft Skull Press? This would seem like a triumph for the free press
if not for Hatfield's tragic "suicide" that followed as a result of Bush
harassment, false accusations of faulty reporting, and alleged threats
to kill Hatfield's wife and child.
As the late, brilliant Hatfield pointed out, 1989 was the year that
George W's Harken Energy Corporation . . ."Suffered losses of more than
$12 million against revenues of $1 billion. That same year, Bush
received $120,000 for consulting services to the company and stock
options worth $131,250. He also was on the company payroll as a director
and served on the exploration advisory board." [1]
As Hatfield reported, "Although Harken was a small oil company it paid
big dividends to its top brass. In 1989, other executives in the firm
drew six-figure salaries and five-figure bonuses. The following year,
Harken's board of directors lavishly awarded three more executives with
six figure 'incentives and performance' compensation packages, even
though the company lost $40 million and shareholder equity plunged to $3
million, down from more than $70 million in 1988. . . ."
"Harken's largest creditors were threatening to foreclose on the
struggling Texas company when suddenly, in January 1990, it acquired the
exclusive and potentially lucrative rights to drill for oil and gas in
Bahrain, a small Arab island emirate off the east coast of Saudi Arabia,
about 200 miles southeast of Kuwait. Energy analysts marveled at how
Harken, a relatively small, unknown company with operations primarily in
Texas and Louisiana and Oklahoma, was able to beat out the more
experienced conglomerate, Amoco, especially since Harken had never
drilled a single well overseas or offshore."
"'This is an incredible deal, unbelievable for this small company,'
Charles Strain, a Houston-based energy analyst, told Forbes magazine.
Under the terms of the agreement, Harken was award the exclusive right
to explore for, develop, produce, transport and market oil and gas
through most of Bahrain's offshore territories."
In a case of shameless cronyism, it seems W. and Harken had help in
securing this enchilada, which this and other Bush adventures are now
excerpted from Hatfield's book for brevity. In 1987, Junior visited
Little Rock, Arkansas, to see Jackson Stephens of Stephens, Inc., the
biggest investment banking and brokerage firm beyond New York. Stephens
was a major contributor to Reagan/Bush's 1980 and '84 elections. In
1988, he donated at least $100,000 to the Bush presidential campaign. He
made the "Team 100" GOP donations group. So when Junior came looking for
a brokered $25 million stock offering, Stephens, Inc, went into action.
It brought in the Union Bank of Switzerland's (UBS) London office, along
with Sheik Abdullah Bakhsh, Saudi financier and real estate tycoon, and
the redoubtable Bank of Credit and Commerce International, known to the
Justice Department as the "Bank of Crooks and Criminals International."
Notably, it numbered among its clients the bin Laden family, who kept
their own representative in Texas, a Houston businessman named James R.
Bath. Bath's friendship with Junior. coincidentally went back to the
Texas Air National Guard days. He was also an investor in an earlier
oil-exploratory company called Arbusto that his old friend Bush had
founded and that went busto.
UBS, as Hatfield pointed out, had also aided BCCI bypass
money-laundering laws in Panama, flying cash out in private jets. BCCI
was also into Ferdinand Marcos' non-legal transport of 325 tons of gold
from the Philippines. Quite a group. Nevertheless, none of these shady
associations or dealings gave Junior a second thought. And somehow,
after Behrain terminated exploration negotiations with Amoco, the
emirate's energy minister, Yousuf Shirawi, asked an old friend and
Houston oil consultant, Michael Ameen, an American born son of Arab
immigrants, to recommend a small independent oil exploration company.
Ameen, who'd also spent 22 years with Aramco, 13 as Mobil's Middle East
operations head, recommended Harken. Jeez, what a coincidence. Ameen
also had close dealings for years with the royal family of Saudi Arabia
and its advisors, one of them Kamal Adliam, a BCCI principal, and a
former head of Saudi intelligence. Another coincidence: Ameen was also
known to be a close friend of Sheik Bakhsh. Also, the fact that the son
of the United States' vice president was on the board of Harken may have
had a tiny bit of influence in their decision. Plus Ameen, who
introduced Harken to Bahrain, happened to get a hundred grand finder's
fee from Harken.
What's more, Junior put together a partnership with Fort Worth's Bass
Enterprises Production Company, owned by the billionaire Bass family
that had given more than $200,000 to the GOP in the late 1980s. They
provided $25 million for seismic data and drilling of the first three
wells in Bahrain in exchange for 50 percent of Harken's profits. The
former owner of Harken Energy commented that Junior "gave them (Harken)
credibility. He's worth $120,000 a year to them just for that." The
Saudi tycoon Abdullah Bakhsh was given a 10 percent stake in Harken for
his help with the stock offering in '87. He also placed his
representative, Palestinian-born Chicago businessman Talat Othman, on
Harken's board. What's more, upon the signing of the Harken-Bahrain
contract, Othman was put on a list of 15 Arabs who met with President
George H. W. Bush, White House Chief of Staff John Sununu and National
Security Adviser Brent Snowcroft on three occasions in 1990 to discuss
Middle East policy. One was two days after Iraq invaded Kuwait. Othman's
invitations to the White House meetings were based on his "longstanding
involvement in Arab-American affairs," certainly not his representing
the interests of Sheik Bahksh, Harken investor.
Despite this auspicious beginning, four months later, Harken owed more
than $150 million to banks and creditors. Just about all of its value
was in Bahrain assets. And the first well wasn't up for drilling till
1991. Perhaps that's why on June 22, 1990, Junior suddenly dumped 60
percent of his 212,140 Harken shares, making a profit of $848,560.
That's more than two-and-half-times their original value. He did this a
week before a quarter ending in a $23.3 million loss to the company,
reported only a few days after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. The stock that
Bush dumped at $4.12 a share fell to $2.37 a share. Yet Junior, good old
boy that he was, board member, on the audit committee, and so on,
claimed he had no insider knowledge. But in fact it was an insider stock
sale, which disclosure form he didn't file till eight months later. He
claimed not that the dog ate his homework but that the SEC lost the
paperwork. He told the press, "I'm very comfortable looking you in the
eyes on this," calling his stock sale "entirely legal and proper."
However, in what smacks of an SEC whitewash, the investigation of the
son of the president netted no penalty, except a finger wag that there
could be one in the future. Bush admitted he'd sold the Harken shares to
pay off $500,000 in loans from the United Bank in Midland, which leads
us to our central peccadillo.
Junior & the Texas Rangers
Finding new cronies to play ball with, Bush used the United Bank loans
to fund his stake in the Texas Rangers baseball team partnership,
another 1989 event, which netted among other things a new stadium, whose
overall cost was $190 million, mostly at taxpayers' expense. The Rangers
share would only be $30 million, coming from a $1 surcharge on every
ticket sold for the following 12 years.
Also, the Rangers organization would run the stadium and keep the
incoming revenue. Bush and partners would pay $5 million in annual rent
and maintenance to the city of Arlington, up to $60 million. Then the
Rangers could take title to the ballpark complex. This deal sparked
intense denunciations that the Rangers' owners would be getting the
stadium for a song, which was true.
In addition, in 1990 Arlington Mayor Richard Greene offered to increase
the local sales tax by a half-cent to provide a $135 million for a
baseball-only stadium. Added to that was a scam to devalue the property
of the ballpark site owned by TV manufacturing tycoon Curtis Mathes,
whose negotiated asking price of $2,835,000 ($5.31 per square foot) was
countered with just $817,220. Even though the Matheses refused to sell,
the Arlington Sports Facility Development Authority (ASFDA) invoked the
power of eminent domain to seize the land, and turn the condemned
property over to the Rangers for development. The Bush team played
hardball and then some. Ultimately, a jury found ASFDA's offer woefully
wanting and awarded the Matheses $7.2 million, including interest
accrued.
The bottom line is that when Texas billionaire Tom Hicks, owner of the
Dallas Stars, purchased the Texas Rangers and their stadium for $250
million, Bush received $15 million, a profit nearly 25 times his initial
1989 investment of $606,000. Nor did Bush place the $15 million in a
blind trust with the rest of his assets, as the law required the
governor to do. He claimed, as Hatfield reported, it would "have
required a vote of the baseball owners;" and further, "We just didn't
think it was necessary to get that vote." Actually the reason is it
would have forced him to lose control of the team.
What's more, the Hicks' purchase can easily be seen as another form of
major influence peddling with the Bushman. A direct contribution of that
size to Bush's campaign account would have raised a lot of eyes. A
buyout was another ballgame altogether.
Even though both Harken and the Bush Stadium/Rangers deal established
Junior as a law-breaker and wheeler-dealer in international and local
venues, somehow they set the stage for his becoming governor, not a
jailbird. Patting himself on the back, as Hatfield reported, Bush told
the press . . .
"Here is visible evidence that I can think big thoughts, dream big
dreams and get something done. Politically it means I was able to dream
a dream . . . and build something that will last. And when all those
people in Austin say, 'He ain't never done anything,' well, this is it."
The guy has a way with words, doesn't he? What was "it"? Scamming his
way with $606,000 in illegal insider trading funds into a circle of
wheeler-dealer millionaires to buy a team? Then fleecing public funds
and private real estate to build a ballpark. Then selling his share of
the pie for 25 times the original investment? Is that "it" an American
dream or nightmare, worthy of a long run around the bases or a jailyard?
Only Georgie boy can play with empty language like that and get so much
juice out of it. But maybe his past moral ailments are catching up with
him, and that's what's worrying Junior and the Republicans—as much or
more than his present, failing, mental health.
Reference:
1. J. H. Hatfield, Fortunate Son, p. 97, Chapter 5, "Wins and Losses,"
also pp. 97-119, third Soft Skull Press Edition, Brooklyn, NY, 2002.
Preface by Greg Palast, with a new Introduction by Mark Crispin Miller.
Jerry Mazza is a freelance writer living in New York. Email him at
gvmaz@verizon.net.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and do not
necessarily reflect those of Online Journal.
Email editor@onlinejournal.com
Copyright © 1998-2004 Online Journal™. All rights reserved.
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