ILLUMINATI: The Carlyle Group

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The Carlyle Group

by Victor Thorn, Babel Magazine, Issue #77, 6 October 2002

A few weeks ago, James Baker publicly offered advice to the Bush Administration on how they should proceed with their war on Iraq. What he and every newscaster or commentator failed to mention was that Baker is now employed by the highly-influential Carlyle Group, which is the eleventh largest defense contractor in the United States. In essence, then, we have a man trying to influence public policy while privately employed by a company that has a vested interest in activating America's War Machine.

If you're not familiar with them, the Carlyle Group has become a powerhouse in affecting the direction in which our foreign policy takes, especially in regard to war. They accomplish this by hiring former government officials, then investing in private companies that are subject to government change (i.e. the military and telecommunications). Who, you may ask, do they employ to secure their government contracts? Well, check-out this list for starters:

Frank Carlucci	-	Department of Health, Education and Welfare - 1970's Deputy Director, CIA - 1978-81 Deputy Secretary of Defense - 1981-82 National Security Director - 1987-89
George Bush	-	CIA Director - 1976-77 Vice President of the United States - 1981-89 President of the United States - 1989-93
James Baker	-	Chief of Staff - 1981-85 Secretary of the Treasury - 1985-89 Secretary of State - 1989-93
Dick Darman	-	Former White House Budget Chief
William Kennard	-	Former Head, FCC
Arthur Levitt	-	Former Head, SEC
John Major	-	Former Prime Minister, Britain
Fidel Ramos	-	Former Philippine President
Afsaneh Beschloss	-	Treasurer & Chief Investment Officer of the World Bank
Anand Panyarachum	-	Former President, Thailand
Karl Otto Pohl	-	Former President, Bundesbank
Louis Vuitton	-	French Aerobus Company
Park Tae Joon	-	Former South Korean Prime Minister
Alwaleed Sin Talal bin Abdulaziz Alsaud	-	Saudi Arabian Prince
George Soros	-	New World Order/Bilderberg luminary & int'l financier
Fred Malek	-	George Bush Sr's campaign manager

There is also one other "family" that invested in the Carlyle Group, but I'll keep that as a surprise for next week's article. In the meantime, take a look at that list. It's like walking onto a baseball field and having the New York Yankees behind you. The best team money can buy! And I didn't even mention all of the players. Carlyle also employs the former chairman of BMW and Nestle, is interviewing former Clinton cabinet members (to insure that they have both sides of the aisle covered), plus once hired Colin Powell and AOL Time-Warner Chairman Steve Case to speak at a meeting at Washington D.C.'s Monarch House. Plus, if we look at James Baker again, we'll find that he's on the board of Azerbaijan International Oil Company, in which two U.S. oil companies hold 40% of the shares. Who are these two companies? The first is Amoco, who has on their payroll none other than Zbigniew Brzezinski (Trilateral Commission founder, National Security Advisor for the Carter Administration, Globalist supreme, and David Rockefeller's puppet on a string). The second is Pennzoil, who has on their payroll Brent Scowcroft, former National Security Advisor under George Bush, Sr.

But the man that really brought it all together is Frank Carlucci, who holds directorships on such companies as General Dynamics, Westinghouse, the Rand Corporation, and Ashland Oil, plus sits on the board of directors of twelve other companies. Carlucci was also the college classmate of someone very closely related to our current administration's War Machine - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld! What relevance does this association have you may wonder? I think it is of great importance, for in February, 2001, Carlucci and Vice President Dick Cheney met with Donald Rumsfeld when the Carlyle Group had several billion-dollar defense projects under consideration. (If you haven't guessed, the Carlyle Group fared quite well when all was said and done.) Do you still think these ties don't matter? Philip Agee, in his book "On the Run" details all of Carlucci's CIA connections, many of whom he hired (along with his Pentagon cronies) when he joined Carlyle in 1989. (And all of us know what influence the CIA has, don't we?)

A former Carlyle employee honed-in on these dynamics when he said, "The firm understands that having Bush and Major is like having movie stars around."

It's all about power and access, folks, as Oliver Burkeman and Julian Burger pointed out in "The Guardian" on October 31, 2001. "Carlyle has become the thread which indirectly links American military policy in Afghanistan to the personal financial fortunes of its celebrity employees, not the least the current President's father."

Is the picture becoming clearer? Now we're getting to the bottom of America's War Machine. The Carlyle Group is set to make huge amounts of money from our upcoming military conflicts and weapons expenditures. In other words, when I talk about the War Machine, these folks are at the crux of it. They're the war profiteers that keep its wheels greased!

Dan K. Thomasson, former editor of the Scripps Howard News Service, summed it up best in March, 2001. "Nothing in recent history seems to approach the success this group has had in the wholesale conversion of former high government rank to gigantic profits."

Peter Eisner, Managing Director of the Center for Public Integrity, adds, "It should be a deep cause for concern that a closely held company like Carlyle can simultaneously have directors and advisors that are doing business and making money and also advising the President of the United States."

The Washington Business Journal simply says, "The Carlyle Group seems to play be a different set of rules."

But who is the Carlyle Group? Well, their office is located only a few blocks from the White House, and it was founded by three men:

· David Rubinstein - aide in the Carter Administration

· Bill Conway - Chief Financial Officer at MCI

· Dan D'Aniello - financial executive at Marriott

They named their group "Carlyle" after a New York hotel favored by one of their first investors, the Mellon family. They now have an ownership stake in 164 different companies, have 535 investors, operate in 55 different countries, and have $13.5 billion in capital. International financier George Soros invested $100 million in them, while the California Public Employees Retirement System dumped $305 million into their laps. They also recently purchased the KorAm Bank, thus accelerating their entry into the highly lucrative Asian markets.

But how did they become so successful so quickly? I'll let the Carlyle Group's company brochure answer that question: "We invest in niche opportunities created in industries heavily affected by changes in government policies." Stated differently, the Carlyle Group buys what it knows best - companies regulated by the government. In fact, 2/3 of their business is either in the defense or telecommunications industries ... those affected by changes in government spending or policy!

And how do they affect these policies? It all revolves around ACCESS! That's the key. Basically, they operate within what is called the "Iron Triangle" - industry, government, and the military. A spokesman for Oklahoma Representative J. C. Watts understood this connection when he said, "Carlyle's strength was within the Department of Defense because they have staff types that work behind the scenes, in the dark, that know everything about the Army and Capitol Hill."

Charles Lewis, ex-Director at the Center for Public Integrity, adds credence to this argument. "Carlyle is as deeply wired into the current administration as they can possibly be."

On May 5, 2001, the New York Times described the Carlyle Group as such: "It owns so many companies that it is now in effect one of the nation's biggest defense contractors and a force in global communications. Its blue-chip investors include major banks and insurance companies, billion dollar pension funds and wealthy investors." Hmm, they have a firm, controlling grip on both the War Machine and the media ... convenient, don't you think?

After reading how deeply established they are as "Insiders," do you think that the Carlyle Group has America's best interests at heart, or their own which entails capitalizing on war? An excellent example can be found in the recent $470 million contract that "United Defense," a Carlyle subsidiary, received. And what did they get it for? To develop the CRUSADER, which is such a faulty, antiquated, horrendous product that it was described by Eric Miller of "The Project on Government Oversight" as follows. "The Crusader has been the GAO's (Government Accounting Office) poster child for bad weapons development." The Crusader Project was so maligned that the government was set to drop it completely. But lo and behold, what happened? War was on the horizon, Carlyle pulled a few strings, and welluh - a $470 million contract is thrown Carlyle's way for the Crusader. Funny how things happen, huh?

If that's not bad enough, the Carlyle Group is also the financial advisor to a certain government. Who? Saudi Arabia. In fact, they make nearly $50 million/year training the Saudi Arabian National Guard --- troops that are sworn to protect the Saudi royal family! Now, if all hell breaks loose in the Middle East, and considering that Saudi Arabia has said that it won't support our efforts against Iraq, who do you think the Saudi soldiers will kill? Their own kind - Arabs - or the invading "white American devils?"

If you ask me, we've entered very treacherous waters, all for the sake of making money off of warfare. Regardless of what they say, these men in the Carlyle Group epitomize a very nefarious form of evil via their actions.


Copyright © 2002 Babel Magazine
Reprinted for Fair Use Only.

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