Fwd: The Big Picture shows Bush in big mental trouble

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Special Report

The Big Picture shows Bush in big mental trouble

By Jerry Mazza

Online Journal Contributing Writer

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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.

The views expressed herein are the writers' own and do not

necessarily reflect those of Online Journal.

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