Posted on 02/27/2006 4:26:48 PM PST by Brian_Baldwin
Dubai investment group buys midtown landmark
Friday, November 11, 2005
By Aleksandrs Rozens
Associated Press
NEW YORK - A Dubai-based investment firm Thursday said it has purchased 230 Park Avenue, a 34-story office high-rise in midtown Manhattan. The property, commonly known as the Helmsley Building, sits above Grand Central Terminal's underground commuter train and subway complex.
The buyer, Istithmar PJSC, purchased the building for $705 million. The seller was 230 Park Avenue Investors LLC, of which Robert Bass of Fort Worth Texas is a lead investor.
Current tenants include ING Baring, Tokio Marine and the Bank of Argentina. The building may get a new name that makes reference to the building's new owners. Istithmar's purchase was financed by Credit Suisse First Boston. The Dubai investment company paid less than 20 percent of the purchase price as a down payment.
This is Istithmar's first investment in the U.S. commercial-property market. The firm recently purchased a site in London's Trafalgar Square and has looked at properties in Paris.
Mark the name, Sheik Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and we now have New York City’s Grand Central Station subject to Arab terrorist infiltration with the recent purchase of the Helmsmen Building by a Dubai-based investment firm owned by the Emirate’s royal family. The lead investor is Robert Bass - a close Bush family friend out of Fort Worth Texas. Bass joined Istithmar PJSC executive chairman and buyer Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem in consummating the November 10 purchase of the midtown Manhattan office building. This building sits above Grand Central’s terminal and the underground commuter train-subway complex hub.
Microsoft has sent many engineers over to Dubai, as well as analysts from Harvard Law School, and they are quickly learning that the United States has very few friends over there - and that’s the fact and can be confirmed by anyone in the know in IT (Information Technology). The Terrorism Research Center reports in 2004:
“Osama bin Laden's operatives still use this freewheeling city as a logistical hub three years after more than half the Sept. 11 hijackers flew directly from Dubai to the United States in the final preparatory stages for the attack. The recent arrest of an alleged top al-Qaida combat coach is the latest sign that suspected members of the terrorist organization are among those who take advantage of travel rules that allow easy entry. Citizens of neighboring Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia can come to Dubai without visas, which other nationalities can get at the country's ports of entry. Once here, it's easy to blend in to what has become a cosmopolitan crowd.”
We know from the SOUTH ASIA INTELLIGENCE REVIEW in 2003:
"How easy it was for Al-Qaida's bankers to have five hundred thousand dollars wired from a bank in Dubai for anonymous use in automatic teller machines in Florida and Maine.” - Lord Robertson, Secretary General, NATO, April 17, 2002.
Today (New Delhi, February 27) the CBI (the intelligence agency of India, Central Bureau of Investigation ) is today sending to Abu Dhabi seeking deportation of terrorist and criminal don Dawood Ibrahim and his two other associates for their roles in the 1993 Mumbai (Bombay) bombings in India and criminal nexus with gutkha manufacturers, the Home Minsitry of India would allow the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) to send fresh Letters Rogatory (LR) to Abu Dhabi requesting for deportation of the three involved, the LR sent to Dubai (United Arab Emirates).
No, there are too many ways that the new media can get to the facts, facts that Bush wouldn’t bother to even look at until he first heard of the port deal four days before it was to go forward. The problem with the Bush Administration - a problem this Administration itself admitted in relation to Katrina - is managing information. This guy was running around with a sombrero on his head hob-knobbing with Vicente Fox in the months and weeks before 911, all the while many conservatives yelling that Osama bin Laden hit the Trade Center buildings once but didn’t finish the job and will be back for more. But no, Bush couldn’t manage information then, and he can’t now. This is the failure his Administration and his Presidency. We are all suppose to be Hush-Limbaugh and hush up and not say anything and make jokes. Well, Hush Limbaugh isn't funny. Glenn Beck - now that's a talk show host who is funny. Beck is funny. Hush plays golf and, what was he doing the days, weeks, months before 911? Dropping pills? No. Hush isn't funny.
Well, if they wanted to infiltrate Grand Central Station, they didn't need to buy a nearby building. They could just walk in like everyone else.
Guaranteed, that's the only building that's safe from terrorists. Unless, they can get an insurance policy against such acts...
I'll have one of what you're having. Make mine a double so I can catch up.
Pass the crack(pot) pipe?
Grist for insomniacs.
Let them buy all the hotels they want. They can bid on General Motors, too.
Geez...if one BS argument doesn't work try another.
You must be his mother.
Call Rush, ask him to explain it to you.
Nice property.
Reads like a sleeper disruptor.
I did...the one where he tries to claim that the President and Limbaugh are hurting troop morale. This kind of BS is hurting troop morale.
Maybe another Baldwin brother?
Thanks for your sanity. I couldn't agree more.
That site looks about as kooky than LewCrockwell.
"I wish people would open their eyes. I can't believe I'm seeing Conservative people defend all this. I just don't get it. What is wrong with everybody.
Amen to that!
I'm not going to make a comment, but I agree with your post.
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