Prince George's Journal (Maryland) - Published on Tuesday, February 4, 2003

[Guest guest]

S

Fri, 23 Sep 2005 04:51:09 -0700 (PDT)

Subject:

 

 

 

I know this is old, but I never knew this before,

this only helps to connect the dots!!!!!!

 

 

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0204-06.htm

 

Published on Tuesday, February 4, 2003 by the Prince

George's Journal (Maryland):

http://www.jrnl.com/cfdocs/new/pg/

 

Bush-Linked Company Handled Security for the WTC,

Dulles and United

by Margie Burns

 

 

<b>George W. Bush's brother was on the board of

directors of a company providing electronic security

for the World Trade Center, Dulles International

Airport and United Airlines, according to public

records. The company was backed by an investment firm,

the Kuwait-American Corp., also linked for years to

the Bush family.</b>

 

The security company, formerly named Securacom and now

named Stratesec, is in Sterling, Va.. Its CEO, Barry

McDaniel, said the company had a ``completion

contract " to handle some of the security at the World

Trade Center ``up to the day the buildings fell down. "

 

It also had a three-year contract to maintain

electronic security systems at Dulles Airport,

according to a Dulles contracting official.

Securacom/Stratesec also handled some security for

United Airlines in the 1990s, according to McDaniel,

but it had been completed before his arriving on the

board in 1998.

 

McDaniel confirmed that the company has security

contracts with the Department of Defense, including

the U.S. Army, but did not detail the nature of the

work, citing security concerns. It has an ongoing line

with the General Services Administration - meaning

that its bids for contracts are noncompetitive - and

also did security work for the Los Alamos laboratory

before 1998.

 

Marvin P. Bush, the president's youngest brother, was

a director at Stratesec from 1993 to fiscal year 2000.

But the White House has not publicly disclosed Bush

connections in any of its responses to 9/11, nor has

it mentioned that another Bush-linked business had

done security work for the facilities attacked.

 

Marvin Bush joined Securacom when it was capitalized

by the Kuwait-American Corporation, a private

investment firm in D.C. that was the security

company's major investor, sometimes holding a

controlling interest. Marvin Bush has not responded to

telephone calls and e-mails for comment.

 

KuwAm has been linked to the Bush family financially

since the Gulf War. One of its principals and a member

of the Kuwaiti royal family, Mishal Yousef Saud al

Sabah, served on the board of Stratesec.

 

The managing director at KuwAm, Wirt D. Walker III,

was also a principal at Stratesec, and Walker, Marvin

Bush and al Sabah are listed in SEC filings as

significant shareholders in both companies during that

period.

 

Marvin Bush's last year on the board at Stratesec

coincided with his first year on the board of HCC

Insurance, formerly Houston Casualty Co., one of the

insurance carriers for the WTC. He left the HCC board

in November 2002.

 

But none of these connections has been looked at

during the extensive investigations since 9/11.

McDaniel says principals and other personnel at

Stratesec have not been questioned or debriefed by the

FBI or other investigators. Walker declined to answer

the same question regarding KuwAm, referring to the

public record.

 

Walker is also chairman and CEO of Aviation General, a

Tulsa, Okla.-based aviation company with two

subsidiaries. SEC filings also show al Sabah as a

principal and shareholder in Aviation General, which

was recently delisted by the Nasdaq. Stratesec was

delisted by the American Stock Exchange in October

2002.

 

The suite in which Marvin Bush was annually

re-elected, according to public records, is located in

the Watergate in space leased to the Saudi government.

The company now holds shareholder meetings in space

leased by the Kuwaiti government there. The White

House has not responded to various requests for

comment.

 

Speaking of the Watergate, Riggs National Bank, where

Saudi Princess Al-Faisal had her ``Saudi money trail "

bank account, has as one of its executives Jonathan

Bush, an uncle of the president. The public has not

learned whether Riggs - which services 95 percent of

Washington's foreign embassies - will be turning over

records relating to Saudi finance.

 

Meanwhile, Bush has nominated William H. Donaldson to

head the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Donaldson, a longtime Bush family friend, was a Yale

classmate of Jonathan Bush.

 

On the very day of the tragic space shuttle crash, the

government appointed an independent investigative

panel, and rightly so. Why didn't it do the same on

Sept. 12, 2001?

 

Margie Burns, a teacher and writer, lives in Cheverly, Maryland.