medicineman
New Member
And you wondered why he was made presidentTHE GREEN BUSHES
The Family's Profiteering Goes Unobserved
By Margie Burns | February 1, 2004 (page 1/3)
Editor's note: Margie Burns is a vigorous and scholarly writer who uses the Internet to advantage, as we first saw in her exposé of Vice President Dick Cheney's former employer Halliburton. Her article on the Texas-based oil company appeared in our September 15, 2003, issue. In her on-line research she finds a lot of revealing material, including corporate and government sites that most newsrooms don't seem to know exist.
Burns's subject in this issue is the scandalous nepotism being practiced within the Bush family. The Economist magazine says that "George Bush's Washington is a study in family influence." One of the few researchers of computerized government data, the Center for Public Integrity, an outstanding public-interest organization, now finds that Enron has been the president's top campaign finance patron over the course of his political career. It's former CEO, Ken Lay, is a close friend of George W. Bush.
A Texan, with a Ph.D. in English literature, Burns teaches at the University of Maryland's Baltimore campus, and is a busy freelance writer.
eil M. Bush, a younger brother of President George W. Bush, has a $60,000-a-year contract with New Bridge Strategies, a recently formed, Washington-based firm that helps generate contracts for companies seeking reconstruction business in Iraq. Although New Bridge Strategies is connected to the Bush White House in several ways, the younger Bush is an important contact point for the company.
The people who run Houston-based Crest Investment Corporation, where Neil Bush is a co-chairman with light duties for his $60,000-a-year pay, include at least one investor in Bush's educational software company called Ignite!-Learning.
Questions e-mailed to the two companies employing Neil Bush were not answered.
Ignite!-Learning will be among those companies vying for contracts dealing with Iraqi education. With Secret Service protection provided by us taxpayers, Neil Bush has already traveled to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, China and Japan to generate interest in his education products.
Neil Bush's unbecoming contracts, including even more lucrative arrangements with a Chinese-Taiwanese company, have come to light through court papers in his scandal-ridden divorce proceedings. Court documents reveal that Bush has a consultancy contract for $400,000 a year with the Chinese-Taiwanese computer chip manufacturer Grace Semiconductor.
That contract was generated while the Bush administration negotiated with China's government on sensitive trade, armament, and human rights issues. The Neil Bush deal, however, is only the most flamboyant recent instance of how Bush relatives and associates have profited from U.S. foreign policy.
AND THE WINNERS ARE—Easily the most profiteering First Family in American history, the Bushes have consistently benefited from George W. Bush's war on terrorism and from the invasion of Iraq, as revealed in regulatory filings, business reports and company press releases.
One well-connected winner is Engineered Support Systems, based in St. Louis, where William H.T. ("Bucky") Bush, an uncle of George W. Bush, joined the board of directors in March 2000. William H.T. Bush was one the Bush "Pioneers," the campaign contributors who raised more than $100,000 in the 2000 presidential election.
Engineered Support Systems has three segments: light military support equipment, heavy military support equipment, and electronics and automation systems. Long-term contracts are "substantially all" with the U.S. government, according to the company. Since 2000, following the presidential election and the 9-11 attacks, the company's federal contracts, revenues and its stock value have all gone up.
Defense Department databases list Engineered Support Systems as 54th among its top 100 contractors for fiscal year 2001, up from 62nd in 2000. The company received over $297.5 million in military contracts in 2001, including $120.5 million from the Army.
Net revenues for the first nine months of 2002, when the company acquired two new subsidiaries in Washington's northern Virginia suburbs, increased to $289.7 million. Net revenues for the full year increased to $408 million. In 2003, according to a preliminary report, the company was 93rd among top contractors, with $273.5 million in contracts. A company subsidiary, Radian, Inc., was 197th, with $109.2 million in contracts. Welcome to Washington Spectator Online
:
The Family's Profiteering Goes Unobserved
By Margie Burns | February 1, 2004 (page 1/3)
Editor's note: Margie Burns is a vigorous and scholarly writer who uses the Internet to advantage, as we first saw in her exposé of Vice President Dick Cheney's former employer Halliburton. Her article on the Texas-based oil company appeared in our September 15, 2003, issue. In her on-line research she finds a lot of revealing material, including corporate and government sites that most newsrooms don't seem to know exist.
Burns's subject in this issue is the scandalous nepotism being practiced within the Bush family. The Economist magazine says that "George Bush's Washington is a study in family influence." One of the few researchers of computerized government data, the Center for Public Integrity, an outstanding public-interest organization, now finds that Enron has been the president's top campaign finance patron over the course of his political career. It's former CEO, Ken Lay, is a close friend of George W. Bush.
A Texan, with a Ph.D. in English literature, Burns teaches at the University of Maryland's Baltimore campus, and is a busy freelance writer.
The people who run Houston-based Crest Investment Corporation, where Neil Bush is a co-chairman with light duties for his $60,000-a-year pay, include at least one investor in Bush's educational software company called Ignite!-Learning.
Questions e-mailed to the two companies employing Neil Bush were not answered.
Ignite!-Learning will be among those companies vying for contracts dealing with Iraqi education. With Secret Service protection provided by us taxpayers, Neil Bush has already traveled to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, China and Japan to generate interest in his education products.
Neil Bush's unbecoming contracts, including even more lucrative arrangements with a Chinese-Taiwanese company, have come to light through court papers in his scandal-ridden divorce proceedings. Court documents reveal that Bush has a consultancy contract for $400,000 a year with the Chinese-Taiwanese computer chip manufacturer Grace Semiconductor.
That contract was generated while the Bush administration negotiated with China's government on sensitive trade, armament, and human rights issues. The Neil Bush deal, however, is only the most flamboyant recent instance of how Bush relatives and associates have profited from U.S. foreign policy.
AND THE WINNERS ARE—Easily the most profiteering First Family in American history, the Bushes have consistently benefited from George W. Bush's war on terrorism and from the invasion of Iraq, as revealed in regulatory filings, business reports and company press releases.
One well-connected winner is Engineered Support Systems, based in St. Louis, where William H.T. ("Bucky") Bush, an uncle of George W. Bush, joined the board of directors in March 2000. William H.T. Bush was one the Bush "Pioneers," the campaign contributors who raised more than $100,000 in the 2000 presidential election.
Engineered Support Systems has three segments: light military support equipment, heavy military support equipment, and electronics and automation systems. Long-term contracts are "substantially all" with the U.S. government, according to the company. Since 2000, following the presidential election and the 9-11 attacks, the company's federal contracts, revenues and its stock value have all gone up.
Defense Department databases list Engineered Support Systems as 54th among its top 100 contractors for fiscal year 2001, up from 62nd in 2000. The company received over $297.5 million in military contracts in 2001, including $120.5 million from the Army.
Net revenues for the first nine months of 2002, when the company acquired two new subsidiaries in Washington's northern Virginia suburbs, increased to $289.7 million. Net revenues for the full year increased to $408 million. In 2003, according to a preliminary report, the company was 93rd among top contractors, with $273.5 million in contracts. A company subsidiary, Radian, Inc., was 197th, with $109.2 million in contracts. Welcome to Washington Spectator Online
:
