Dallas Attorney Named Ambassador To Saudi ArabiaHe represented Bush in SEC case over sale of Harken Energy stock
The Dallas Morning News
By G. Robert Hillman
Article Source
July 21, 2001
WASHINGTON – President Bush has chosen as ambassador to Saudi Arabia a Dallas attorney who represented him against insider trading allegations arising from his sale of stock in Harken Energy Co. 11 years ago.
Robert Jordan, a founding partner of the Dallas law office of Baker Botts, represented Mr. Bush during a Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry into the allegations involving Mr. Bush's lucrative sale of stock in Harken, where he had been a director.
The SEC found no merit in the charges. Critics have noted that Mr. Bush's father was president during the investigation and a longtime supporter, Richard Breeden, was the commission's chairman.
Mr. Bush has said he needed to sell his 212,000 shares of Harken stock for nearly $850,000, which later plummeted in value, in order to finance his purchase of an interest in the Texas Rangers baseball club.
He invested about $600,000 in the team and earned nearly $15 million when it was sold in 1998.
If confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Jordan would represent the United States in the capital of one of its key allies in the Middle East.
"He understands the important relationship that exists between the United States and Saudi Arabia, and I am confident he will be an outstanding ambassador," Mr. Bush said in announcing his selection.
In a brief telephone interview Friday, Mr. Jordan said he was honored by the appointment, but could not discuss it in any detail until he is confirmed.
In the Senate, Allison Dobson, a spokeswoman for Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., whose foreign relations subcommittee will screen Mr. Jordan's nomination, said a staff review had just begun and any hearing was weeks off.
At the White House, deputy press secretary Scott McClellan said Mr. Bush has confidence in Mr. Jordan and foresaw no problems with his Senate confirmation.
"The president believes Mr. Jordan will do an outstanding job representing the United States," Mr. McClellan said.
Early in the new Bush administration, there have been reports of strained relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia over the continued violence between Israel and the Palestinians.
Just last week, it was reported that former President George Bush had called Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah to reassure him that his son was determined to "do the right thing" in the region.
Mr. Jordan, 55, is a director of the State Bar of Texas and a past president of the Dallas Bar Association.
He is a Navy veteran and a graduate of Duke University. He also has a master's degree in government and international relations from the University of Maryland and a law degree from the University of Oklahoma.
A corporate lawyer familiar with the courtroom, Mr. Jordan has handled a wide range of domestic and international cases. His Houston-based firm, Baker Botts, deals heavily with energy and technology issues and has a branch office in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.
James Baker, who was secretary of state in the administration of Mr. Bush's father and treasury secretary under President Ronald Reagan, also is a partner in the firm.
Although the White House has announced Mr. Jordan's selection, his nomination has not been formally submitted to the Senate. Mr. Jordan said he is still working on the voluminous personal and financial disclosures that are required for such appointments.
Bush advisers cashed in on Saudi gravy train
Our Friends the Saudis - Two Saudi princes had been paying, on behalf of the kingdom, what amounts to protection money to Osama bin Laden since 1995
Princely payments: Saudi royalty, it is claimed, make out like bandits on U.S. deals
U.S. ties to Saudi elite may be hurting war on terrorism
Former CIA director: Saudis partially to blame for 9/11
Saudis financed terror ship
SAUDIS TELL U.S. FORCES TO GET OUT
A FAVOR FROM THE SAUDIS
U.S. Withdrawal From Saudi Arabia Is Not on the Cards: U.S. Official.
Saudi denounces US agenda behind bombing campaign
Saudi Money Aiding Terrorist bin Laden
USA Today
By Jack Kelley
October 28, 1999
WASHINGTON - More than a year after the U.S. Embassy bombings in East Africa, prominent businessmen in Saudi Arabia continue to transfer tens of millions of dollars to bank accounts linked to indicted terrorist Osama bin Laden, senior U.S. intelligence officials told USA TODAY.
The money transfers, which began more than five years ago, have been used to finance several terrorist acts by bin Laden, including the attempted assassination in 1995 of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia, the officials said.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is expected to raise the issue with Prince Sultan, the Saudi defense minister, during his visit to Washington next week. Saudi Arabia, the main U.S. ally in the Persian Gulf, has pledged to fight terrorism.
According to a Saudi government audit acquired by U.S. intelligence, five of Saudi Arabia's top businessmen ordered the National Commercial Bank (NCB), the kingdom's largest, to transfer personal funds, along with $3 million diverted from a Saudi pension fund, to New York and London banks.
The money was deposited into the accounts of Islamic charities, including Islamic Relief and Blessed Relief, that serve as fronts for bin Laden.
The businessmen, who are worth more than $5 billion, are paying bin Laden "protection money" to stave off attacks on their businesses in Saudi Arabia, intelligence officials said. Bin Laden, whose family runs the largest Saudi construction firm, has called for the overthrow of the Saudi government.
The money transfers were discovered in April after the royal family ordered an audit of NCB and its founder and former chairman, Khalid bin Mahfouz, U.S. officials say. Mahfouz is now under "house arrest" at a military hospital in the Saudi city of Taif, intelligence officials said.
His successor, Mohammad Hussein Al-Amoudi, also heads the Capitol Trust Bank in New York and London, which U.S. and British officials are investigating for allegedly transferring money to bin Laden. Amoudi's Washington lawyer, Vernon Jordan, could not be reached for comment.
Mahfouz's son, Abdul Rahman Mahfouz, is on the board of Blessed Relief in Sudan. Suspects in the Mubarak attack are linked to the charity.
Bin Laden faces U.S. criminal charges for allegedly masterminding the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people. Bin Laden, who is in Afghanistan, denies the charges.
Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan declined to comment on the reports.
The White House Connection: Saudi `Agents' Close Bush Friends
Boston Herald.com
By Maggie Mulvihill, Jonathan Wells and Jack Meyers
Source Article
Tuesday, December 11, 2001
A powerful Washington, D.C., law firm with unusually close ties to the White House has earned hefty fees representing controversial Saudi billionaires as well as a Texas-based Islamic charity fingered last week as a terrorist front.
The influential law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld has represented three wealthy Saudi businessmen - Khalid bin Mahfouz, Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi and Salah Idris - who have been scrutinized by U.S. authorities for possible involvement in financing Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network.
In addition, Akin, Gump currently represents the largest Islamic charity in the United States, Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development in Richmond, Texas.
Holy Land's assets were frozen by the Treasury Department last week as government investigators probe its ties to Hamas, the militant Palestinian group blamed for suicide attacks against Israelis.
Partners at Akin, Gump include one of President Bush's closest Texas friends, James C. Langdon, and George R. Salem, a Bush fund-raiser who chaired his 2000 campaign's outreach to Arab-Americans.
Another longtime partner is Barnett A. ``Sandy'' Kress, the former Dallas School Board president who Bush appointed in January to work for the White House as an ``unpaid consultant'' on education reform.
In September, a federal grand jury issued subpoenas for Holy Land records around the same time terrorist investigators froze the assets of a North Texas Internet firm hired by Holy Land.
Holy Land shared office space with that firm, InfoCom Corp., which was raided by police on Sept. 5, just days before the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.
Holy Land has denied any link to Hamas.
According to Akin, Gump, the firm represents Holy Land in a federal lawsuit filed against the charity and another suspected Hamas entity by the parents of a man allegedly murdered by Hamas operatives in the Middle East.
In a statement issued Friday, Akin, Gump said it decided last week to decline a request to represent Holy Land in its defense of terrorism-related charges made by the U.S. Treasury Department.
Akin, Gump, which maintains an affiliate office in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, is also a registered foreign agent for the kingdom. It was paid $77,328 in lobbying fees by the Saudis during the first six months of 2000, public records show.
In addition to the royal family, the firm's Saudi clients have included bin Mahfouz, who hired Akin, Gump when he was indicted in the BCCI banking scandal in the early 1990s. In 1999, the Saudi's placed bin Mahfouz under house arrest after reportedly discovering that the bank he controlled, National Commercial Bank in Saudi Aabia, funneled millions to charities believed to be serving as bin Laden fronts.
A bin Mahfouz business partner, Al-Amoudi, was also represented by Akin, Gump. When it was reported in 1999 that U.S. authorities were also investigating Al-Amoudi's Capitol Trust Bank, Akin, Gump released a statement on behalf of their client denying any connections to terrorism. One year earlier, the firm had co-sponsored an investment conference in Ethiopia with Al-Amoudi.
Akin, Gump partner and Bush fund-raiser Salem led the legal team that defended Idris, a banking protege of bin Mahfouz and the owner of El-Shifa, the Sudanese pharmaceutical plant destroyed by U.S. cruise missiles in August 1998.
The plant was targeted days after terrorists - allegedly on the orders of bin Laden - bombed two U.S. embassies in Africa. The U.S. Treasury Department also froze $24 million of Idris' assets, but Akin, Gump filed a lawsuit and the government later chose to release the money rather than go to court. Idris, who insists he has no connection whatsoever to bin Laden or terrorism, is now pursuing a second lawsuit with different attorneys seeking $50 million in damages from the United States.
Charles Lewis, executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington, D.C.-based non-partisan political watchdog group, said Akin, Gump's willingness to represent Saudi power-brokers probed for links to terrorism presents a unique ethical concern since partners at the firm are so close to the president.
The concern is more acute now, Lewis said, because Bush has faced stiff resistance from the kingdom in his repeated requests to freeze suspected terrorist bank accounts.
``The conduct of the Saudis is just unacceptable by international standards, especially if they are supposed to be one of our closest allies,'' Lewis said.
Speaking of Akin, Gump partner Kress' office in the White House, Lewis added: ``That's not appropriate and frankly it's potentially troublesome because there is a real possibility of a conflict of interest. Basically you have a partner for Akin, Gump . . . inside the hen house.''
But another longtime Washington political observer, Vincent Cannistraro, the former chief of counter-intelligence at the Central Intelligence Agency, said the political influence a firm like Akin, Gump has is precisely why clients like the Saudis hire them.
``These are cozy political relationships . . . If you have a problem in Washington, there are only a few firms to go to and Akin, Gump is one of them,'' Cannistraro said.
Cannistraro pointed out that Idris hired Akin, Gump during the Clinton presidency, when Clinton confidante Vernon Jordan was a partner at the firm. ``He hired them because Vernon Jordan had influence . . . that's a normal political exercise where you are buying influence,'' he said.
Akin, Gump is not the only politically wired Washington business cashing in on the Saudi connection.
Burson-Marsteller, a major D.C. public relations firm, registered with the U.S. government as a foreign agent for the Saudi embassy within weeks of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
One of Burson-Marsteller's first public relations efforts for the Saudis was to run a large advertisement in the New York Times reading: ``We Stand with You, America.''
The Washington chairman for Burson-Marsteller, which also maintains an office in Saudi Arabia, is Craig Veith, who ran communications for the Republican Party in the 1996 elections.
Other GOP heavyweights who have held top positions at the PR giant include Sheila Tate, the campaign press secretary for the elder George Bush; Leslie Goodman, deputy director of communications for the 1992 Bush-Quayle campaign; Craig L. Fuller, chairman of the 1992 Republican National Convention and elder Bush's vice presidential chief-of-staff.
Bush's Terrorist Buddy
Bush's terrorist buddy
Bush's terrorist buddy, Part 2
Senator Says Bin Laden Had Accounts in Bank Shut Down in Worldwide Fraud Scandal - BCCI
ASSOCIATED PRESS
September 26, 2001
WASHINGTON --Investigators have learned that Osama bin Laden was among those with accounts in a bank shut down in 1991 in one of the world’s biggest banking scandals, Sen. John Kerry said Wednesday. The Bank of Credit and Commerce International was closed after bank regulators around the globe linked it to fraud, theft, secret weapons deals, terrorist financing and drug-money laundering. Investigators didn’t know it at the time, but it turns out bin Laden had accounts at BCCI, said Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat who led an investigation into the Third World bank. The BCCI-bin Laden tie was first reported by MSNBC.com's Christopher Byron Tuesday.
WE HAVE LEARNED SINCE from law enforcement and intelligence that when we shut it down, we dealt him a very serious economic blow because of the size of those accounts and his dependency on that flow,” Kerry said.
Saudi Arabian multimillionaire bin Laden and his al-Qaida network are the prime suspects in the Sept. 11 hijackings of four U.S. commercial jetliners and attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
U.S. officials are trying to trace the money behind bin Laden’s network, leading to a renewed push by Kerry and other lawmakers for tougher money laundering laws.
Kerry commented on BCCI’s link to bin Laden at a Senate Banking Committee hearing on money laundering legislation.
Arab terrorist Abu Nidal and Colombian cocaine cartels also were among the bank's 1.3 million customers. Depositors lost millions of dollars when authorities seized BCCI's assets. Arab terrorist Abu Nidal and Colombian cocaine cartels also were among the bank’s 1.3 million customers. Depositors lost millions of dollars when authorities seized BCCI’s assets.
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