[Howlin]

A Carlyle executive said the bin Laden family committed $2 million through a London investment arm in 1995 in Carlyle Partners II Fund, which raised $1.3 billion overall. The fund has purchased several aerospace companies among 29 deals. So far, the family has received $1.3 million back in completed investments and should ultimately realize a 40% annualized rate of return, the Carlyle executive said.

Now, am I missing something here, or is the above statement from The Wall Street Journal QUITE DIFFERENT FROM WHAT LARRY SAID:

The Wall Street Journal report of yesterday that George H.W. Bush, the father of President Bush, works for the bin Laden family business in Saudi Arabia through the Carlyle Group, an international consulting firm.

[Askel5]

You don't happen to have the Rumsfeld/Carlyle excerpt do you? I think the ladies would love to rip it apart.

[a history buff]

If you follow a link I bumped tonight, you'll notice that GHWB advises the CG on offset deals. As anyone, and their grandmother knows, there is an extremely strong, and hardly unfounded sense that arms deals in the middle east involve side deals. Under the Shah there was a Mr. Ten Percent who took an epynomous cut.

Maggie Thatcher's playboy son, bereft of any relevant expertise, made something like $20 million brokering the Al-Yamamah deal, so we have a strong precedent of Western leaders using their office to enrich their family at the expense of others. IMO this is unacceptable. The Economist intimated that both Maggie and son might face jailtime; instead she hit the American lecture circuit. I liked Maggie's politics, I knew a friend she'd take a day to meet every year or so while on vacation, but that part positively stunk.