Bush Is No Good Trade

According to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission records, on four separate occasions Gov. George W. Bush disregarded federal statutes by failing to file insider stock trade reports on a timely basis, back-dating one trade by some four months. Moreover, one key trade just a few weeks before Iraq invaded Kuwait -- but reported some eight months late after the Gulf War was over -- netted Bush close to $1 million in profit as he sold stock in Harken Energy, an oil company doing business in the Middle East wherein some of his father's largest contributors also maintained substantial positions.

The SEC under President Bush carried out an incomplete investigation of the younger Bush's pre-Gulf War trade in 1991 after key presidential advisor George Jr. claimed that he filed a report, but that the SEC had most likely lost it. (No one has really asked whether the governor bothered to use registered mail to verify receipt of the documents.)

According to an Oct. 28, 1991, Time Magazine report, SEC spokesman John Heine said, "as far as I know, nobody ever found the 'lost' filing." And, strangely, Bush refused comment to Time regarding either the incident or his involvement with Harken.

The governor also did not reveal the blatant conflicts of interest involved, since the chairman of the SEC was Richard Breedon, former lawyer with Houston firm Baker and Botts and deputy counsel to Bush's father when he was vice president. Breedon received his SEC appointment after the elder Bush became president.

The SEC investigation of George W. was led by general counsel James R. Doty who, according to a UPI report, mysteriously neglected to interview any of the Harken directors. Moreover, Doty had previously served as George W. Bush's personal lawyer in the deal involving his Texas Rangers purchase. So, in the end, the younger Bush was cleared of insider trade wrongdoing by his personal attorney and by his father's vice-presidential counsel, a virtual impossibility for the average U.S. citizen.

That the mainstream media has refused to question Bush regarding what voters might consider a mockery of the criminal investigative process is a story in and of itself -- especially considering it concerns how a possible future president might enforce U.S. laws if he had also broken those statutes.

Consider that Americans who currently hold stocks or mutual funds would never -- by virtually no stretch of the imagination -- be able to obtain access to corporate insider information that could turn a million dollars profit. But reporters following Bush have not broached the subject during the campaign.

Most reports involving Bush's insider oil stock trades refer only to his highly controversial June 22, 1990, million dollar trade made six weeks before Gulf War hostilities broke out in Kuwait -- a trade which was reported eight months later. However, SEC documents between 1986 and 1993 show that Bush acquired 212,152 shares of Harken stock on Nov. 1, 1986, at the time he merged his Spectrum 7 company with Harken. But the future governor did not report the transaction until April 7, 1987 -- more than five months later.

When Bush filed late on April 7,1987, SEC filings show he had purchased another 80,000 shares on March 10, 1987. But strangely, two weeks later, an April 22 filing noted that the 80,000-share purchase was backdated to Dec. 10, 1986. When questioned by the media, Bush's attorney said it was the same 80,000 shares but he could not explain the discrepancy regarding the purchase dates or why Bush even reported the trade two times.

Another SEC filing, this from June 6, 1989, showed that Bush purchased another 25,000 shares of Harken but again waited more than four months to report the transaction.

The Houston Post, recognizing Bush's late SEC filings, noted that he "took eight months to notify the government of his sale of stock in a company on whose board he served" and "also missed the filing deadline for reporting other insider trades involving Harken Energy."

Documents obtained by the Post showed "additional instances in which Bush ... ran afoul of the SEC rule requiring notification." And George W. described himself as a "small, insignificant" Harken stockholder; but news reports examining SEC documents identified Bush as the third largest non-institutional investor.

In October 1991, Time Magazine questioned why the tiny country of Bahrain would stake so much of its financial future on Harken Energy, which it labeled an "obscure, money-losing company with no refineries and no experience in offshore oil exploration." But the magazine also noted that oil-insiders speculated that Bahrain's rulers saw the arrangement as a way to gain influence with the Bush administration.

Mysteriously, primary reporters have also ignored what could point to a nexus regarding foreign policy and personal financial interests. Interestingly, the Village Voice in January 1991 reported that in 1990 the Bush administration signed an agreement with Bahrain that chose the small country as the permanent principal allied base in the Middle East, although it was some 200 miles away from the hostilities in Iraq and Kuwait.

The military-base deal came after Harken announced its Jan. 30, 1990, joint oil-drilling venture with Bahrain. So President Bush's key contributors and his son George W. were carrying on personal financial business with Bahrain at the same time decisions were being made regarding the possibility of a war in the Gulf.

And neither the president nor his adviser, George Jr., let the press know that Bahrain had been permitted to infuse $7.7 million in foreign cash to hire U.S. public relations firm Hill & Knowlton to lobby Congress and the American people; a stunning variety of opinion-forming devices and techniques were employed to inflame U.S. patriotic passions of war while personal financial interests were on the line.

On May 21, 1990, less than ten weeks before Saddam Hussein's troops invaded Kuwait to initiate the Middle East hostilities -- but just four weeks before Bush unloaded the bulk of his Harken stock -- a renegotiated corporate loan agreement featured an unusually high interest rate of 12 percent, less credit for acquisitions, a $750,000 debt fee and even requirements by some of Harken's major stockholders to guarantee $22.5 million in debt, according to Associated Press.

Did Bush know of impending losses when he sold his stock on June 22, 1990, since Federal securities law prohibits corporate insiders from trading "on the basis of" material information that is not publicly known? Bush denied the charge in spite of his positions on the Harken Energy board of directors, audit committee and stock restructuring panel. He added that he had no idea Harken was going to get an audit report full of red ink until weeks after he had made his stock sale.

But U.S. News & World Report said, "there is substantial evidence to suggest that Bush knew Harken was in dire straits. ... Harken's SEC filings make it clear that the company's directors knew radical steps were necessary." The magazine added that "one informed source says Harken's creditors had threatened to foreclose on the company if substantial debt payments were not made." Shortly thereafter, Bush cashed out of Harken.

The April 4, 1991,Wall Street Journal added that "Mr. Bush didn't return their phone calls seeking comment, and the Bush White House said 'it doesn't comment on the activities of the president's children.'"

According to the Washington Post, Harken's audit committee, of which Bush was a member, met with Mikel Faulkner and

auditors from Arthur Andersen & Co.

, Harken's accountants, on June 11, 1990 -- just 11 days before Bush sold his stock on June 22. When asked for a copy of the June 11 minutes or permission to inspect them, the company declined to make the records available.

Bush's insider transaction yielding a profit of $848,560 -- some 250 percent profit on the stock's original value -- came a week prior to the end of a quarter in which the company lost $23 million. The quarterly report was released just a few days after Iraq invaded Kuwait and the Harken stock plummeted. However, as reported in a 1992 Mother Jones report, Bush attended a meeting regarding a revised stock offering in May 1990 working with Smith Barney's financial consultants concerning corporate restructuring.

In an Oct. 11, 1994, UPI report, Bush also claimed that he was not aware of Harken's poor financial condition when he sold the stock, but UPI said that the Dallas Morning News reported on the same day that a corporate official who served with Bush on the audit committee at Harken felt otherwise; Stuart Watson told the Dallas paper that he and Bush were constantly made aware of the company's finances. "You bet we were," said Watson. "We were both trying to keep that company on the straight and narrow."

On March 16, 1992, U.S. News echoed Watson's statement, reporting that "according to documents on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, his position on the Harken (restructuring) committee gave Bush detailed knowledge of the company's deteriorating financial condition."

Chuck McDonald, spokesman for Texas Gov. Ann Richards' campaign, said that SEC chief counsel in the Bush investigation -- James Doty, George W.'s former attorney -- never talked to George W., Watson or other Harken officials in its 1991 probe. He said, "Was this a real investigation, or was it a whitewash of an insider stock sale by the son of the sitting president?" UPI, which reported McDonald's statement, went on to note that "while Bush claims the SEC investigation absolved him of illegal insider trading, he has refused to release the investigation files."

Harken founder, Phil Kendrick, noted that the company's "annual reports and press releases get me totally befuddled. There's been so much promotion, manipulation and inside deal making." And even Harken chief executive Mikel Faulkner, an accountant, offered advice for those trying to decipher the financial statements: "Good luck. They're a mess."

Press accounts note that Bush requested a letter from the SEC, issued in October 1993, The letter, signed by SEC Associate Director Bruce A. Hiler, said that "the investigation has been terminated as to the conduct of Mr. Bush and that, at this time, no enforcement is contemplated with respect to him." But the letter also stated that "it must in no way be construed as indicating that the party has been exonerated or that no action may ultimately result."

On Oct. 18, 1993, the Bush administration SEC said it would not bring a case against George W. Bush.

Gov. Bush speaks about his outstanding business record on the campaign stump; however, in 1989, U.S. News & World Report said, "Harken Energy lost over $12 million against revenues of $1 billion." Harken President Mikel Faulkner said that in addition to Bush's position as a director at $2,000 per meeting, stock options worth $131,250, 5 percent loans and 40 percent discounts on stock purchases, he was also a consultant to Harken for "investor relations and equity placement" at a salary of $80,000 per year from 1986 until 1989, when his salary jumped to $120,000.

The board was equally generous to Bush in 1990 as "the company lost another $40 million and shareholder equity plunged to $3 million -- down from more than $70 million in 1988." Faulkner declined to say what services George W. has performed as a consultant.

In March 1992, U.S. News said that "Despite repeated requests for interviews, George W. declined to discuss Harken or the reason for his stock sale, saying through an assistant that he 'does not want to read about himself.'" But some might ask whether American voters have a right to know whether a possible president would strictly enforce federal statutes or appoint lenient attorneys with suspect ethical standards leading to fixed politically sensitive investigations.

Moreover, should Bush -- a director of the corporation -- be accountable when huge losses are reported over a period of time, especially as a presidential candidate purporting to have an outstanding entrepreneurial business record at every presidential campaign stop? The answers have real implications regarding presidential character, morality and personal ethics.

Author and commentator Kevin Phillips offered a perceptive look at the Texas governor in the February 2000 issue of Harpers magazine when he said, "We can fairly ask whether George W. Bush is anything more than another scion who has made a decent governor during a period of prosperity and easy growth, and whether the United States can afford nominees who are to presidential politics what legacies are to college fraternities."

Standing afoul of some law?

Interesting.

These men are incestuously laying up treasures for themselves for the "Last Days" as predicted by the Bible since they know of and are participating in the Anti Christ world government program for the world.

He's not pounding the Bible. He's observing that -- as prophesied therein -- we seem to be at the Last Days.

"Incestuously" ... what better term for our National Security council, the clique of Public Servants -- some serving both sides -- who resume battle stations each time Tweedledum and Tweedledee trade places. And in the off-season? Jetting about from board meeting to board meeting of the transnationals, defense contractors, bio-technologies ... energy companies ... who make them millionaires.

Indeed they have lain up treasures for themselves and their Own. Have you noticed the trouble they have with portfolio or Bonus conflicts in the millions when returning to public service?

And -- ignoring for a moment the bloody, hateful, purposed Triangulation of the People of the *Book* by which only Maoists, as buffered by a bunch of Hindus, will be left immune -- indeed we are getting to the truly diabolical aspects of the World Government. Why? Because the greedy In Crowd we've got can't hold a candle to the more serious -- and quite deadly -- militant atheist materialists.

Surely they should know that now after the clenched fist to the face that was WTC and the Pentagon blasts. But it doesn't appear to stop their continued enrichment and appeasement of the West's mortal enemies. Meanwhile they fix our faces for the long march round the world in our War on Terror as we consent to "war-time" Security measures for the citizenry.

The communists wanted Collective Security for a reason.

If you've yet to notice -- at Waco, in Serbia, Miami, misting Muslims in Afghanistan -- our profile is increasingly that of those from whom we saved the world more than once last century.

Unfortunately, those incestuous sorts couldn't resist a post-war fire sale and availed themselves, from the Inner Ring out, of Evil Men and their evil acts. Nazis write our Public School biology texts, Japanese bio-weapons doctors make millions in Blood money and, before the dust of the Wall has settled, we're in joint operations with the Evil Empire's KGB turned "Security Services".

This can't end well though it's possible the Culture of Death that's settled over what's left of Christendom in the West will make the Last Days seem an eternity ... or at least a single "Day" of Genesis.

(If you've ever argued with someone who "pounds the Bible", you know the Book's a little wiggy about exact times ... No man knows for sure.)

* By Book, I mean the Bible you assert OKC is pounding. I'm sure you've noticed that geo-politics is turning these days on God's word to Jews, Christians and Muslims. Our own President even quotes the Bible on TV ... as an authority, not just making an allusion ... when announcing important State decisions. You don't accuse him of running afoul of any laws, do you?

I fail to see how one Christian's allusion to similarities with the Last Days prophesied therein could possibly be "pounding the Bible".

Click me:

President Bush welcomes the Amir of Bahrain to the White House.

"Who Is David Edwards?"
"The "Edwards Affair, " as it became known, lasted until 1983, entangling the SEC, Congress, and regulatory officials of six European countries. It concluded with the senior Paris trader cleared of the kickback charges and Citibank paying minor fines and back taxes in several countries. Following a long investigation, in 1982 the SEC declined to take steps against Citibank."

Saudi money aiding bin Laden

BIN LADEN LINK TO U.S. BANKS
"Osama bin Laden's bank in Sudan was doing business until just this week with a major U.S. bank - American Express Bank - whose headquarters were wrecked in the World Trade Center, The Post has learned.

Citibank, one of the country's largest banks, acknowledged that it, too, held an account for Al Shamal Islamic Bank until recently, and there's still a balance in the account."

U.S. government investigations since 9-11 have avoided looking at key Middle Eastern banks in Bahrain and Kuwait already linked to terrorist activities. In fact, two banks located in Bahrain and Kuwait – The Faysal Islamic Bank and the Kuwait Finance House – which had been listed in European reports as having terrorist ties were glaringly omitted from George W Bush’s financial crackdown after September 11th. Both banks have correspondent relationships with Deutschebank.

Bin Laden-linked bank not on U.S. terror list

Rich Saudis said to back bank linked to bin Laden

Saudi elite linked to bin Laden financial empire

Saudi Businessman is Financial Connection for Sept. 11 Hijackers and Bin Laden's CFO

Financial manager to bin Laden killed - Ali Mahmud

Terrorism's bagmen

WALL STREET JOURNAL: BUSH SR. IN BUSINESS WITH BIN LADEN FAMILY CONGLOMERATE THROUGH CARLYLE GROUP

Carlyle's Way

US PRESIDENT'S FATHER WAS IN BUSINESS WITH BIN LADEN'S FAMILY

Former President Bush called Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah to assure him of his son's good intentions toward the Middle East

Bush advisers cashed in on Saudi gravy train

The White House connection: Saudi `agents' close Bush friends

U.S. ties to Saudi elite may be hurting war on terrorism

Profits of Doom

The S.E.C. Says: "Insider trading is illegal when a person trades a security while in possession of material nonpublic information in violation of a duty to withhold the information or refrain from trading."

Insider Trading and George W. Bush
A U S T I N, July 1-- The Securities and Exchange Commission defines insider trading as "Corporate officers, directors, and employees who traded the corporation's securities after learning of significant, confidential corporate developments". Bush sold $848,560 worth of Harken Energy stock on June 22, 1990, just one week before the company posted spectacular losses and the stock plunged sharply. When the losses were reported to the public on August 20, 1990, the stock plummeted.

According to documents from a two year investigation by the SEC, Bush served on the board of directors of Harken Energy Corporation and his position on a special Harken committee gave him detailed knowledge of the company's deteriorating financial condition. The SEC received word of Bush's trade ten months late.

The SEC states, "Because insider trading undermines investor confidence in the fairness and integrity of the securities markets, the Commission has treated the detection and prosecution of insider trading violations as one of its enforcement priorities".

Bush supporters point out that the stock's value went back up, eventually, and if Bush had held the stock, it would have made him more money. But, knowing when to sell is the golden goose of stock trading and using inside information is insider trading. The SEC investigated but decided not to punish Bush. After all, his dad was President and all five SEC Commissioners are appointed by the President. Furthermore, the SEC's general counsel had actually represented George W. in the Texas Rangers negotiation. Any doubts?

The Color of Money

The president’s eldest son and his ties to a troubled Texas firm

US News and World Report
By Stephen J. Hedges
March 16, 1992

George W. Bush shares more than a name with his father. The president’s eldest son has followed closely in his father’s footsteps, trading Yale for Texas, working his way up from the dust and dry oil wells of West Texas to carve out his own piece of the Lone Start dream. Today he runs the Texas Rangers baseball team, sits on the boards of several companies and is rising start in the state’s Republican Party. As George Bush the president glides to victory in the Texas primary this week, George Bush the son will be a center stage with his father. Some say he the president’s most influential advisors. It was George W. Bush, after all, who was called upon to tell John Sununu that powerful Republicans wanted him to resign as the White House chief of staff. Sununu was gone soon afterward.

In one important respect, however, George W. Bush has less in common with his father than with his younger brother Neil, who sat on the board of Denver’s now infamous Silverado Savings & Loan. When the thrift failed in 1988, with $1 billion in losses, Neil Bush said he didn’t understand Silverado’s complex deals. George W. Bush has also benefited from some questionable but less well-known business associations. A U.S. News examination of one of his principal investments, in the Dallas-based Harken Energy Corp., found that:

Bush sold $828,560 worth of Harken stock just one week before the company stock posted unusually poor quarterly earnings and Harken stock plunged sharply. Shares lost more than 60% of their value over 6 months. When Bush sold his shares, he was a member of a company committee studying the effect of Harken’s restructuring, a move to appease anxious creditors. According to documents on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, his position on the Harken committee gave Bush detailed knowledge of the company’s deteriorating financial condition. The SEC received word of Bush’s trade eight month’s late. Bush has said he filed the notice but that is was lost.

Despite Harken’s small size and poor performance in recent years, it continues to provide Bush and its other directors and executives with unusually generous pay and perquisites. In 1989, for instance, Harken suffered losses of more than $12 million against revenues of $1 billion. That same year Bush received $120,000 as a company consultant ans stock options worth $131,250; other Harken executives also drew six-figure salaries and five figure bonuses. The next year, Harken’s board was equally generous, even though the company lost $40 million and shareholder equity plunged to $3 million - down from more than $70 million in 1988.

Harken has been characterized by a pattern of financial deal making so burdened with debt and tangled stock swaps that its largest creditors threatened to shut the company down and oil-industry analysts have all but given up on tracking it. "It’s a lot of jiggery-pokery," says analyst Barry Sahgal. "I want to be an analyst, not a speculator."

Despite repeated requests for interviews, Bush declined to discuss Harken or the reason for his stock sale, saying through an assistant that he "does not wish to read about himself." Harken executives say the company’s practices are proper.

Harken Energy today is a very different company from the gutsy start-up outfits that President Bush and his father once ran. In 1983, Harken was purchased by a group of investors led by Alan Quasha, an aggressive young lawyer from New York. Quasha and his colleagues transformed Harken overnight, playing the oil game like high-stakes poker. They spent money, they made money - and most recently, they have lost money. The company’s annual reports now speak little of oil and gas production but volumes about share offerings and renegotiated debt.

George W. Bush arrived in the Texas oil fields in the mid-1970s. Within a few years, he had founded his own exploration company. His partner, Mike Conaway, says they "made some money and lost some money." But by 1983, the oil market was in trouble, and so was Bush Exploration. Relief came from two Cincinati investors who had their own small oil frim, Spectrum 7. William DeWitt was the son of the former owners of the Cincinnati Reds baseball team. Mercer Reynolds was his business partner. A DeWitt family relative and old oil hand, Paul Rea, ran Spectrum 7. Rea met Bush when he first arrived in Texas. The two became friends.

Enter Quahsa. The son of an affluent American lawyer in the Phillipines, Alan Quasha brought Harken some impressive financial backers. They included money manager George Soros, who would come to hold a 30.4 percent stake; Harvard Management Co., who would control another 30.4 percent share, and Abduliah Taha Bakhsh, a Saudi investor with 21.4 percent. Harken bought Spectrum out in 1986, trading stock for Spectrum assets. Bush received $600,000 in Harken shares, but his stake would actually be worth much more.

Harken is a small oil company, but it pays big league benefits. Estimates based on company documents show that Quasha and Harken President Mikel Faulkner each received compensation worth more than $400,000 a year between 1986 and 1990, including stock options. In addition, Faulkner has borrowed $1.1 million from Harken, using stock as collateral. Quasha has borrowed $631,270 from the company, and Harken has paid his law firm $1.3 million in fees since 1988. At least three other Harken executives had six-figure compensation when Harken posted its $40 million loss. Faulkner says the compensation is based on "incentives and performance." He does not consider Harken’s pay excessive.

In addition to his $600,000 stake in Harken, George W. Bush has profited handsomely. As a consultant to the company for "investor relations and equity placement," Bush was paid $80,000 a year until 1989, when his salary jumped to $120,000. With the company suffering, Bush received only $50,000 last year and $42,000 this year. He also receives $2,000 for each board committee meeting and in 1989 was granted, with other directors, options for 25,000 shares of Harken stock. Faulkner declines to say what services Bush has performed as a consultant.

Sweet Deals

As is the case with many executive compensation packages, the key to Harken’s is the stock options. But very few companies offer terms as sweet. For starters, Harken offers select executives, including Bush, eight year loans at 5% interest. The loans may be used by the company brass to exercise options to purchase Harken shares. Bush has borrowed $180,375. At Harken, loans are sometimes forgiven. The board forgave $72,000 in non-interest-bearing loans to employees in 1989, and $269,000 in 1990.

The deal gets sweater still. Harken allows select executives and directors like Bush, who exercise their options, to purchase stock at a 40 percent discount; most U.S. companies allow executives to purchase their companies stock at current market value. Harken says it is because the stock is not registered and therefore cannot be traded. But in March 1990, Harken registered 1.8 million option shares. "Unusual," says Paula Todd of Towers Perrin, a compensation consulting firm, when asked about Harken compensation. "This definitely is not a cookie-cutter plan." Graef Crystal, a vocal critic of excessive executive pay, has harsher words: "This is a tremendous package for a little tiny company. Their stock has been growing at 4.9% per year when the market is growing at 15 percent. That is rotten performance."

Given Harken’s troubles, it might appear that owning its stock isn’t much of a bargain. However, Harken’s liberal option program makes it profitable. On June 22, 1990, for instance, Bush sold $848,560 worth of stock, which was trading at $4 a share. Even with a $180,375 loan to pay back, Bush realized $668,185 on the sale. He still owns 105,012 Harken shares.

Harken has launched several deals involving its largest shareholders. The most complex was a major reorganization through the sale of two subsidiaries, E-Z Serve, a chain of gas stations, and Tejas Power, a natural-gas supplier.

First, companies tied to Alan Quasha and Harvard Management lent Harken $46 million. Harken used $15 million of that money to retire E-Z Serve debt. It spent $28 million more on capital improvements at E-Z Serve and Tejas stock. Harken kept the remaining $3 million. The company then gave its shareholders rights to buy E-Z Serve and Tejas stock. An agreement stipulated that any stock not purchased by the shareholders could be bought at a discount of at least 3 percent by two companies affiliated with Quasha and Harvard. But Quasha and Harvard controlled 55.6 percent of Harken stock. By not exercising the rights to buy it immediately, they effectively gave themselves the built-in discount. Harvard Management declines to discuss the deal.

There is substantial evidence to suggest that Bush knew Harken was in dire straits in the weeks before he sold the $848,560 of Harken stock. For one, Harken’s board has appointed Bush and another director, E. Stuart Watson, as a "fairness committee" to determine whether the restructuring would adversely affect ordinary shareholders. The committee, which first met in May 1990, worked closely with financial advisors form Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co., which had concluded by that time that only drastic action could save Harken. Even before then, however, Harken’s SEC filings make it clear that the company’s directors knew radical steps were necessary. One informed source says Harken’s creditors had threatened to foreclose on the company if substantial debt payments were not made. Harken’s treasurer, Dale Brooks strenuously denies any suggestion that creditors were poised to seize the company.

Today, Harken is letting it all ride on one all-or-nothing bet. Two years ago, it won the rights to look for oil and gas off the coast of Bahrain, a coup that shocked the industry. The first of the wells came up dry last month, giving analysts new reason to wonder if Harken itself isn’t a dry hole.

For George W. Bush, however, Harken remains a good deal. He is still a director and consultant and has Harken shares worth about $400,000. A Bahrain gusher will mean all the more profit. If luck isn’t with him, he has still done well with Harken.

It may be, though, that Harken has benefited most from Bush’s board service. That’s the view of some Texas oil people and analysts, including founder Phil Kendrick, the oil man who founded Harken and sold out to Quasha a decade ago. "It’s obvious why they kept George Bush." Kendrick says, "Just the fact that he’s there gives them credibility. He’s worth $120,000 a year to them just for that."

U.S. News and World Report

Don't Weaken Arafat, Saudi Warns Bush

Bush Apologises For Press Reports Criticising Saudi Arabia

Saudi official admits 15 of 19 hijackers Saudi

Bush Willing to Consider Returning Saudi Detainees

Iraq suspected of sponsoring terrorist attacks

People here love this guy? What for? They could have gotten all of this from Ted Kennedy! This is insanity. The socialist psychotic totalitarian government education establishment has been popping out socialist mindless souls for so long, that common sense, the Constitution, right and wrong, and what really is best for the America that I loved, must seem like a foreign substance to them. Americans never before have been herded so easily, yet, they think they are clever, intelligent, out in front of the crowd, and more amusing than that, they think they're winning. Winning what? It simply displays how Americans, including the ones here at Free Republic, are bringing the country to its collapse with their socialist/communist love affair. It's an American people problem, not simply a politician problem. The political whores are a dime a dozen. Americans have decided on tyranny, slavery and the fall of the Republic.

A Year in the Life of George W. Bush:

AMNESTY FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS

Bush Administration Wants to Extend Immigration "Amnesty"

GEORGE W. BUSH and FRIENDS in "AMNESTY"
and "OPEN BORDERS" PURSUIT

AMNESTY by BUSH - The Truth about Section 245(i)

Communist Party USA - Proposed Resolution against Racism and for Immigrant Rights
A] Open unlimited immigration into the USA

B] Compulsory bi-lingual education for all adults and their families of whatever country or cultural background. Federal prohibition of " English Only "

C] Extension of all existing labor and workplace protection laws, and the right to redress under them for all immigrant workers, documented or not.

D] Support for the AFL-CIO policy on amnesty, and a call for a major AFL-CIO drive in all minority communities, and that consciously strategies to avoid any attempts to "whipsaw" one community against another.

In Mexico, Daschle, Gephardt give strongest support yet to more open borders, immigration reform

"President of the United States Wants To Grant Amnesty Up To 4 Million Illegal Aliens"

George W. Bush: No Amnesty for Immigrants - "There's going to be no amnesty"
"Read My Lips""

George W. Bush Doesn't Need No Stinking Polls
How George W. Bush Uses Polls

Jorge W. Bush Was Just Kidding - Bush Administration Wants to Extend Immigration "Amnesty"

TYRANNY OF CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM

LIAR - President Bush Outlines Campaign Reform Principles

Statement By George W. Bush: "I will sign (CFR) into law."

Immigration Amnesty Passes House

Campaign Finance Reform Passes Senate

60-40 Senate Votes to Stomp out Freedom of Speech

ABC News’s This Week - January 23, 2000

GEORGE WILL: In which case, would you veto the McCain-Feingold bill, or the Shays-Meehan bill?

GEORGE BUSH: That’s an interesting question. I — I — "yes I would."

"A Betrayal" - Bush on campaign-finance reform legislation

Republicans Cave on Campaign Finance

BIG GOVERNMENT and BIG TAXING BUSH

BUSH SPENDING BILL LARGEST EVER

GEORGE BUSH'S BIG GOVERNMENT ADVENTURE

GEORGE W. BUSH'S GOVERNMENT EDUCATION NIGHTMARE

HELP IS ON THE WAY

COMPASSIONATE TOTALITARIANISM FOR THE CHILDREN

(((((((READ MY LIPS)))))))

SHOW JORGE W. BUSH THE DOOR IN 2004

"Hillary should have taken lessons from him with er measly $100,000 stock deals."

Bush Lawyers Defending Hillary

The Dixie Mafia
"In light of the Henrickson allegations, and the fact that two investigations into Tyson's alleged drug activities were shut down by the upper echelons of the Arkansas State Police, any commerce that ties Don Tyson to Bill and Hillary Clinton demands close scrutiny. This includes the brokerage account in Hillary Clinton's name that turned $1000 into $99,537 between October 1978 and July 1979. This speculative venture was the initiative of James Blair, the general counsel of Tyson Foods.

Having done a fair amount of trading myself on exotic markets, often with high leverage, the ratios in themselves do not surprise me. These sorts of profits can be made. But they are not made in the way that Hillary Clinton made them. The trades began three weeks before the 1978 elections, when Bill Clinton was riding high in the polls and seemed set to win his first term as Governor of Arkansas. It was shortly after the Clintons had signed up with Jim McDougal in a sweetheart land deal called Whitewater. Perhaps this was coincidence, but I doubt it.

The first transaction was a bet that rising cattle prices were due for a snap correction, a temporary fall in a buoyant market. That is exactly what happened. By the end of the day, October 11, 1978, cattle prices had fallen one and a half cents a pound. Mrs. Clinton netted an instant profit of $5,300. Within a couple of weeks she felt confident enough to start making large cash withdrawals from her account: $5,000 on October23; another $15,000 for Christmas. The money was rolling in.

When New York Times reporter Jeff Gerth first broke the story in 1994, Hillary Clinton claimed that she had conducted the transactions herself after studying the market pages of the Wall Street Journal. This caused a good deal of mirth on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. "Buying iceskates one day, and entering the Olympics a day later," wrote Mark Powers, editor of The Journal of Futures Markets. The White House subsequently retreated step by step until it was acknowledged that Hillary Clinton's broker had exercised complete discretion in handling the day-to-day trades.

His name was Robert "Red" Bone, a former truck driver and personal bodyguard for Don Tyson. Bone rose to become vice president of Tyson Foods, where he was in charge of the egg division. It was a position he used for lucrative insider trading--both for himself and for the Tyson operation--until regulators suspended him for a year in 1977 for allegedly trying to corner the eggshells futures market. He was later sanctioned by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for "repeated and serious violations of record keeping functions." When he regained his broker's license he joined the commodity brokerage firm REFCO, which had privileged information about daily movements in cattle prices. Indeed, REFCO chairman Thomas Dittmer had such vast cattle holdings himself that he could flood the market and cause snap changes in futures prices.

In his book Bloodsport, James Stewart offers a detailed account of Bone's modus operandi at REFCO's offices in Springdale. It describes how Bone gleaned his inside tips each day on the hotline to REFCO's headquarters in Chicago. Stewart implies that although Bone was engaging in shady practices, Hillary Clinton's transactions were clean. But in the lightly regulated commodities markets of the late 1970s it was easy to "cherry pick" trades at the end of the day, allocating gains to one account and losses to another. This loophole was well-known in financial circles. It was part of market folklore that the most effective way to carry out the illicit transfer of money from one party to another was through a "straddle." By placing one bet that the market would go up, and an off-setting bet that it would go down, the profitable trade could be allocated to the beneficiary, while the "donor" swallowed the loss. It was absolutely foolproof. "During the late 1970s and early 1980s, straddles were used for all kinds of illegal activities, ranging from tax evasion to money laundering and bribes," wrote David L. Brandon, former chief of the commodities section of the IRS, in an article in The Wall Street Journal.

To make it look plausible, the beneficiary would have to have a few losing trades mixed in with the gains, but in reality there was no risk at all. An investigation by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in 1978 suspected that REFCO was doing precisely this. One of REFCO's Springdale brokers in fact admitted under oath that the office had been manipulating the futures contracts by "allocating them to customer's after the market closed."

Stewart reports that Hillary found the experience nerve-racking and decided to retire from the market after a fresh windfall of $40,000 in July 1979, which brought her total profits to almost $100,000. But three months later, she was plunging back into the commodities market, this time with a broker at Stephens Inc., in Little Rock. When CBS New's 60 Minutes asked Don Tyson if Hillary Clinton's cattle trades were a "payoff" from him, he vehemently denied it."

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