Who is "Lee"?
George Bush the Son Finds That Oil and Blood Do Mix
"Bush maintained that he had filed the missing disclosure form. But the commission investigated the transaction anyway. Bush’s lawyer, Robert W. Jordan, defended him by arguing that he had not known about the impending loss when he sold his stock and that he had thought he was selling into the anticipated good news that the Basses were underwriting the Bahrain project."
SIMPLY A GOOD POSSIBILITY IMHO.
Well, Did He or Didn't He?
James Doty, SEC general counsel during the 1991 SEC investigation into Bush's Harken stock deals, denied today that Bush had been warned in writing by the SEC not to claim he had been exonerated. It proved to be a short-lived denial.
In an interview this morning on NPR, Doty at first denied that the SEC's letter to Bush forbid him in writing to claim that by closing the investigation he had been exonerated.
The NPR announcer was prepared with a copy of the letter. He read the 1991 SEC letter to Doty, including the line he denied was in it.
Doty quickly explained that such statements are common language in all such letters. Unfortunately Doty's explanation may now cause Bush new problems.
"That statement is put in the letters to warn people that the SEC can reopen the investigation at any time if new information surfaces," Doty tried to explain. "and to let them know that that they are forbidden from using the letter to claim they had been exonerated."
If Doty's characterization is correct, it would appear that President Bush's contention that he was cleared of any wrongdoing violates SEC rules.
Another contradiction between Bush's explanation of events surfaced today. Bush has maintained that he fully cooperated with the 1991 SEC investigation. That contention has now been contradicted by a memo from the very SEC officials who conducted - or tried to conduct - that investigation.
Three months into the 1991 investigation, SEC rank and file investigators complained to their politically appointed bosses that Bush had provided little more than already public information to the SEC about his sale. The allegation was contained in a 1991 SEC memo released yesterday by the Center for Public Integrity.
The 1991 investigation was closed without taking action. James A. Doty was the SEC's general counsel at the time. Doty had served as Bush's private attorney when he acquired the Texas Rangers.
Doty now says that he took no part in the probe and that SEC investigators took no action because there was "no substantial change in Harken's stock price" after Bush's sale that would indicate he was dumping the stock on inside information.
But Harken's historical stock chart says otherwise. A month after he sold his stock on June 22, 1989, Harken reported large losses and, from the end of August 1989 through the rest of 1990, the stock lost 70 percent of its value.
"Who Is David Edwards?" - The Wall Street Journal
Mr. Edwards also played an important role in securing an offshore drilling contract in Bahrain for Harken Energy Corp., on whose board sat George W. Bush, presidential son and current governor of Texas.
If only as a matter of curiosity, David Edwards is a Friend of Bill worth a few moments of attention. The tales of the university donations and the Harken deal are particularly interesting.
...Mr. Edwards quickly turned to his Saudi contacts, including Mr. Bakhsh. Two executives associated with the investment firm say Mr. Edwards brought the low-profile Saudi to Stephens in 1987.
Reports in this newspaper and the BCCI book "False Profits," by Peter Truell and Larry Gurwin, say Mr. Bakhsh was a co-investor in Saudi Arabia with alleged BCCI front man Ghaith Pharaon. Khalid bin Mahfouz, another BCCI figure and head of the largest bank in Saudi Arabia, was Mr. Bakhsh's banker. University of Arkansas officials say Mr. Edwards sought to involve Mr. Bakhsh in a project to create a Middle East studies center at the school. In a letter to a university official, Mr. Edwards said he would bring the reclusive Saudi to Fayetteville to talk "about designing a simple mosque somewhere on campus."
...A few years earlier, Mr. Edwards provided important help to a company linked by family ties to then Vice President George Bush. In 198, Mr. Edwards and Mr. Bakhsh rode to the rescue of Harken Energy, a struggling Texas oil company that included George W. Bush on its board. Harken's web of Middle East connections was detailed in a 1991 Wall Street Journal report. Stephens officials, including Mr. Edwards, came up with an unusual arrangement to help cash-poor Harken: Union Bank of Switzerland would give the oil company a $25 million cash infusion in exchange for stock. UBS, the Journal noted, was not known as an investor in small U.S. companies and was a joint-venture partner with BCCI in a Geneva-based bank.
When UBS began to hit regulatory snags, it decided to unload its Harken stock. Stephens brought in a new buyer: Mr. Bakhsh. The Saudi tycoon ended up with a l7% stake in Harken, and his American representative, Chicago businessman Talat Othman, wound up with a seat on Harken's board. 
By August 1990, Mr. Othman was attending White House meetings with President Bush to discuss Middle East policy. Mr. Meyer, who serves as attorney for Mr. Othman as well as Mr. Bakhsh, says the Chicago businessman was invited to the meetings only because of his "longstanding involvement in Arab-American affairs. "
In April 1989, the government of Bahrain was looking for an oil company to explore its offshore holdings. According to a 1990 article in Forbes, the Bahrainis turned to Houston oil consultant Michael Ameen, a former head of governmental relations for Aramco. Mr. Ameen, the Journal noted in it's 1991 report is another "BCCI notation in the Harken story." As a top Aramco official, Mr. Ameen "had close-up dealings for years with the Saudi royal family and it's advisors," including Kamal Adliam, a BCCI principal and former head of Saudi intelligence. Mr. Ameen also reportedly is close to Mr. Bakhsh.
Mr. Ameen and Harken officials did not respond to interview requests. But according to Forbes the Bahrainis called Mr. Ameen, looking for a small company that would give them full attention. Mr. Ameen said he didn't know of any. By coincidence, Mr. Ameen's friend David Edwards called 10 minutes later on an unrelated matter. Mr. Ameen mentioned his problem. Mr. Edwards mentioned Harken.
Mr. Ameen negotiated the Bahrain deal, earning a $100,000 consulting fee. George W. Bush says he opposed it. "I thought it was a bad idea, " Gov. Bush said recently, because of Harken's lack of expertise in overseas and offshore drilling. Gov. Bush added that he "had no idea that BCCI figured into" Harken's financial dealings.
In June 1990, Mr. Bush sold some 60% of his Harken stake for about $850,000, earning a handsome profit. In November 1993, he resigned from Harken's board. Four months later, his successor was named: Michael Ameen. Harken has yet to discover any oil off Bahrain.
Mr. Bakhsh appears to have been pleased with Stephens's investment strategies. From February 1989 through October 1990, he purchased more than one million shares in the Stephen's controlled Worthen Bank paying more than $10 million for 9.6% of the stock, according to Securities and Exchange Commission disclosure statements. Mr. Bakhsh's attorney says he no longer is a Worthen shareholder.
Mr. Bakhsh has a wide range of U.S. investments, concentrated mainly in apparel, energy, real estate and financial services. In November, the Chicago Tribune reported that Mr. Bakhsh's First Commercial Financial Group, a commodities brokerage firm, was forced to shed its customer accounts after regulators raised concerns about capital shortfalls and customer complaints. Mr. Bakhsh owns First Commercial through Dearborn Financial Inc., an investment company run by Mr. Othman. Their attorney, Mr. Meyer, says that First Commercial was completing "the final phase of its long-term strategic restructuring plan" by transferring its customer accounts to other firms. Mr. Meyer says that Mr. Edwards was not involved in Dearborn and First Commercial.
[End of partial Transcript]