[North-NV-Greens] Fwd: George Bush's Uncle War Bucks: A True Story

[Paul Etxeberri]

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>Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 22:54:02 -0500 (EST)
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>Subject: George Bush's Uncle War Bucks: A True Story
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>Uncle War Bucks: President's Uncle Bucky
>emerges as a big winner from Iraq war
>
>By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
>UK Independent
>24 February 2005
>
>The Iraq war has produced many winners and many losers.
>And one small but significant winner is a certain
>William "Bucky" Bush, brother of one president and
>uncle to the current occupant of the White House.
>
>The good fortune of Uncle Bucky, as he is known within
>America's ruling family, has been to hold a seat on the
>board of Engineered Support Systems Incorporated
>(ESSI), a St Louis-based company that has flourished
>mightily as a military contractor to the Pentagon.
>
>Last month, ESSI shares hit a record $60.39 (£31.64)
>apiece more or less exactly the moment the presidential
>uncle chose to sell 8,438 options worth around
>$450,000, according to obligatory reports filed with
>the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and
>disclosed by the Los Angeles Times yesterday. William
>Bush denies that his presence on the board has had
>anything to do with the company's success in boosting
>expected revenues to an estimated $1bn in 2005, in good
>part reflecting no-bid contracts relating to the war.
>
>Noting that he joined it in 2000, before his nephew was
>elected, "Bucky" Bush says he has not lobbied anyone in
>Washington to send contracts ESSI's way. "I don't make
>any calls to the 202 [Washington, DC] area code," he
>told the LA Times.
>
>In fact Mr Bush, aged 66 and 14 years the junior of his
>brother, the first president George Bush, has long been
>a prominent member of the St Louis business community
>and was state chairman in Missouri for the 2004
>Bush/Cheney re-election campaign. "Having a Bush
>doesn't hurt," Dan Kreher, a senior ESSI executive,
>says.
>
>The company has supplied a variety of equipment to the
>US military effort in Iraq, including a $49m contract
>to refurbish military trailers and an $18m deal to
>provide communications services to the Coalition
>Provisional Authority, which ran post-Saddam Iraq until
>June last year. In 2003, ESSI was awarded contracts for
>equipment to help search for, and protect US soldiers
>from, Iraq's chemical and biological weapons, which
>turned out to have been a figment of the imagination of
>the Bush administration.
>
>But some of that government business is now under
>scrutiny. The Pentagon has announced that $158m worth
>of contracts won by ESSI in 2002, including work on a
>new air cargo loading device called Tunner, is being
>reviewed by its inspector general for suspected
>"anomalies". ESSI responds that the inquiry is a
>routine examination of work awarded on a sole-source
>basis. It would have "no effect" on the company, Gerald
>Potthoff, its president, told stock analysts this week.
>
>Mr Bush says he cashed in the options because they were
>about to expire, and not because he was unhappy with
>the company. He told the LA Times that he would have
>preferred the company was not involved in Iraq, "but
>unfortunately we live in a troubled world".
>
>The episode is another illustration of how the Iraq
>conflict, costing the US $5bn a month, is proving a
>bonanza for some. A prime example is Halliburton, the
>oil services group once chaired by Dick Cheney, the
>Vice-President, whose Iraq operations have been plagued
>by alleged contract overcharging and other issues.
>
>Some Democrats complain that the Bushes and their
>associates have been given a virtual free pass on
>business affairs unlike President Bill Clinton, who was
>hounded for years over his involvement in Whitewater, a
>modest Arkansas real estate venture, in which he and
>his wife Hillary actually lost money.
>
>24 February 2005 12:03
><
>http://www.independent.co.uk/clickad.jsp?ad=1762&dir=70
>
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-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand