[This is a transcript from Palast's book. With the exception of the Note I added about French translations, it is the entirely his work. Any spelling mistakes are my own, but bolding, italics and brackets are all Palast's too.


There is also an image of a document with an explanation underneath, which I will scan for you in a minute. Hope its of use, but it all appears rather confused to me. I always thought this was the weakest section of this book, because he doesn't seem to know what he wants to say other than to paint the Bushes in a bad light somehow.]




From The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Greg Palast, Pluto Press, London (2002 UK Edition), pp.143-45

Did Bush Spike the investigations of Bin Laden?

During the days of innocence just before September 11, 2001 our unelected president's favors for his monied buddies appeared as vaudeville of venality, but not life-threatening. Then, after September and into the new year, darker tales began to seep out of the pus-holes of America's intelligence agencies.

After September 11th, the BBC's and Guardian's investigation teams, in coordination with the National Security News Service of Washington, set out to find out why the CIA, FBI and other well-funded spooks could neither prevent nor know about the most deadly attack on America since Pearl Harbor. From inside the agencies we heard that government chiefs stopped key investigations into allegations of the funding of Al Quaida and other terrorist organizations by top Saudi royals and some members of the Bin Laden family, not just Osama. Crucially, one top placed operative told me that, even under Bill Clinton, investigations that implicated Saudis were subject to "constraints". But after the elections, under Bush's control, the agencies were ordered to "back off" from any inquiries into the Saudi royals of the Bin Laden family, except for the supposed lone black sheep, Osama.

As a result, one agent told me, "There were particular investigations that were effectively killed." We learned that the Bush administration's ruling killed the secret hunt for the funding, possibly from Saudi Arabia, for Pakistan's successful manufacture of an "Islamic" atom bomb. Without realizing the black humor of his comment, the insider added that the restrictions on the investigations ended on September 11.

And there was a lot to investigate - or in the case of the CIA and FBI under Bush, a lot to deliberately ignore. One international arms dealer (I'm sorry, but in this business sinners are better sources than saints) described a meeting of Saudi billionaires at the Hotel Monceau in Paris in May 1996 to decide who would pay, and how much, to Osama bin Laden's operations. (Our information is that this was not an act of support for Osama but protection money to keep the mad bomber away from Saudi Arabia.) At a lower level, FBI agents let slip a document showing that, on September 11, 1996, the FBI closed an investigation on Bin Laden family members - not Osama - and their links to "alleged terrorist" organizations. FBI agents were livid that these investigations were shut down for five years - until September 11, when they were, for sad and obvious reasons, reactivated.

Was the FBI's case closed because there were no grounds to watch these groups and the Bin Ladens? At the time the FBI agents were directed to look away, one organization, the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) was accused of connections to terror in India and the Philippines. Maybe they are completely innocent (the FBI targets lots of innocents, too many in fact), but the question was, why was the FBI blocked - then unblocked on September 11? When we asked, the answer came back from several sources: "Arbusto" and "Carlyle". A young George W. Bush made his first million as principal of Arbusto Oil, Texas. The nearly worthless venture ended up a gold mine for the little Bush ("Arbusto" means "shrub" in Spanish), with financing and contracts from Saudi-linked businessmen and Gulf Arabs.

Carlyle is a holding and investment bank which, through its ownership of United Technologies and other arms makers, has become one of America's to defense contractors. It also has the distinction of having both Bush pére and fils as paid retainers [Note: see below]. In 1999, the elder Bush traveled to Saudi Arabia as Carlyle representative.

James Baker, Bush the First's pro-Saudi secretary of state, works for Carlyle; its chairman is Frank Carlucci, Bush Sr's former defense secretary. The Bin Laden held a stake in the secretive private company until just after the September 11 attack. It would be absurd to say that the Presidents Bush spiked investigations of terrorist funding by the Saudis in return for packets of money. The system is not so crude. But it is quite natural to conclude that these smiling billionaires, where associates made your family wealthy, are unlikely to have funded mass murder of Americans, despite the evidence.


Note: pére and fils are French for "father" and "son" respectively