Five Degrees of Osama

In December, President Bush named Thomas Kean, the former Republican governor of New Jersey, chairman of an independent commission examining the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But FORTUNE has learned that Kean appears to have a bizarre link to the very terror network he's investigating--al Qaeda.

Here's how the dots connect: Kean is a director of petroleum giant Amerada Hess, which in 1998 formed a joint venture--known as Delta Hess--with Delta Oil, a Saudi Arabian company, to develop oil fields in Azerbaijan. One of Delta's backers is Khalid bin Mahfouz, a shadowy Saudi patriarch married to one of Osama bin Laden's sisters. Mahfouz, who is suspected of funding charities linked to al Qaeda, is even named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by families of Sept. 11 victims. True, Hess is hardly the only company to cross paths with Mahfouz: He has shown up in dealings with, among others, ultra-secretive investment firm Carlyle Group and BCCI, the lender toppled by fraud in 1992.

Kean, who was unavailable for comment, may not have been aware of the Mahfouz connection. But Hess spokesman Carl Tursi did reveal another interesting coincidence: Three weeks before Kean's appointment, Hess severed its ties with Delta.

I guess Bush should have found some big important leader who never had dealings with an oil company. Nice fantasy world you live in.

In addition, I interrupted nothing. I was asked where I'd been. And I never once said I vomited, though some of my shipmates did. Learn to read.

Besides, in addition to being a double-posting (Search feature too complicated for you?), your thread was moronic. It needed interrupting. When nobody took it seriously, you decided to lash out in your pathetic way, claiming that everybody but you has gotten over 911. It was a sad little cheap shot that was in no way relevant to your lame little post. It was just an indicator that you had no intellectual underpinnings to support your idiotic premise.

Sorry you had to get so emotional in your frustration, but such are the limitations of stunted intelligence.

I guess Bush should have found some big important leader who never had dealings with an oil company.

Actually, this decision was par for the course; Osama's older brother was an investor in W's first company (Arbusto), while Bush Sr. works for a company (Carlyle Group) that until recently retained the Bin Ladens as clients.

Call me naive, but it seems to me that that it would have been possible - even desirable - to find someone for the 9.11 commision who didn't have that kind of baggage.

I never once said I vomited.

Congratulations.

It was just an indicator that you had no intellectual underpinnings to support your idiotic premise.

My "premise" (see post #1) was that it's a "small world"; I based this comment on the article itself, which was featured in the Feb. 3 issue of Fortune, an American financial magazine.

And yeah, it must be pretty darn small, if the only guy they could find was yet another Saudi-connected oil dude with questionable associates.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.