Bush Family Ties to the UAE

February 27, 2006

S

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 00:13:34 -0800 (PST)

Bush Family Ties to the U.A.E.

Lou Dobbs took a look at the family ties between the two.

Video-WMP

Video-QT

(Transcripts)

DOBBS: President Bush's family and members of the Bush administration

have long-standing business connections with the United Arab Emirates,

and those connections are raising new concerns and questions tonight

in some quarters about why the president is defying his very own party

leadership and his party in defending the Dubai port deal.

CHRISTINE ROMANS: The oil-rich United Arab Emirates is a major

investor in The Carlyle Group, the private equity investment firm

where President Bush's father once served as senior adviser and is a

who's who of former high-level government officials. Just last year,

Dubai International Capital, a government-backed buyout firm, invested

in an $8 billion Carlyle fund.

Another family connection, the president's brother, Neil Bush, has

reportedly received funding for his educational software company from

the UAE investors. A call to his company was not returned.

Then there is the cabinet connection. Treasury Secretary John Snow was

chairman of railroad company CSX/. After he left the company for the

White House, CSX sold its international port operations to Dubai Ports

World for more than a billion dollars.

In Connecticut today, Snow told reporters he had no knowledge of that

CSX sale. " I learned of this transaction probably the same way members

of the Senate did, by reading about it in the newspapers. "

Another administration connection, President Bush chose a Dubai Ports

World executive to head the U.S. Maritime Administration. David

Sanborn, the former director of Dubai Ports' European and Latin

American operations, he was tapped just last month to lead the agency

that oversees U.S. port operations.

Recommended Posts