Posted on 10/19/2001 7:16:34 AM PDT by truthandlife
It is a matter of public record that the bin Laden family has vociferously disavowed their wayward 17th child. And who could blame them?
No mere wanton wastrel, the world’s most wanted man has brought great shame upon this wealthy family. Even worse than shame, though, Osama’s actions have endangered the clan’s coffers.
So it is not surprising that the bin Ladens have cut ties to "the evildoer," as George Dubya likes to refer to him.
Or did they?
A web domain registered to the Saudi Binladin Group (the megabucks corporation uses the alternate spelling of the family name) raises questions about what role, if any, the family has played in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The domain was registered on Sept. 11, 2000, with a preset expiration date of Sept. 11, 2001, according to a technician with VeriSign, an Internet domain registry service formerly known as Network Solutions.
Coincidence?
Or was this website set up to start the countdown on the most devastating attack in U.S. history?
Like a lot of information that has been pouring in to me since shortly before 9 a.m. Sept. 11, the tidbit about www.saudi-binladin-group.com was amazingly tantalizing.
Unlike a lot of the tidbits, however, this morsel, delivered last week by an anonymous source I will refer to as Deep Spore, has a paper trail attached to it.
The paper trail began with a web search of the Binladin Group that revealed the aforementioned website. A check of that site showed that it no longer existed. A quick "whois" check on VeriSign’s website — which lists who set up a particular site and when — showed that, unlike Binladin-related sites that were taken down right after the attacks on New York and Washington, saudi-binladin-group.com expired on the day of the attacks.
This was no accident, according to a VeriSign technician in Mountainview, Calif.
"This was timed so it would expire on that date," says the technician, who identified herself only by her first name, Antonette, and by her employee number, 001. Antonette also verified that the information listed in the whois search was accurate and not tampered with by an outside party. Antonette added that VeriSign had already been contacted by law enforcement about other attack-related domain names the company had registered.
"I had a call from the L.A. police," she said. "He was also asking about a domain name that expired on Sept. 11. I can’t remember the name of it, but it had something to do with the WTC."
The Binladin website was created by a company called Arq Limited, a U.K. web design firm. The administrative, technical and billing contact listed on the whois search is a man named Philip Lumsden.
After several calls to the U.K., I learned that Arq Limited went out of business, replaced by a company called Active 8 Solutions, which shares the same Bath, England, mailing address and a telephone number that is only one digit off from Arq Limited’s old number.
I learned one more interesting thing.
"Mr. Lumsden left a week ago," said a man who answered the phone at Active 8 Solutions. "I am not aware of why he left."
The man, who would not give his name, added that he had "no clue" about the saudi-binladin-group.com website.
A half-dozen odd calls Tuesday, October 15, to the Saudi Binladin Group’s headquarters in Jedda, Saudi Arabia, turned up little other than assurances that if I called back in 20 minutes or a half-hour, then somebody would be able to give me some information about the website.
Each time I called, I explained that I wanted to ask somebody at the company why the website expired on Sept. 11, 2001, a rather significant date in world history. Each time I was told to call back until, finally, I spoke with someone who could answer my questions.
But not for long.
"You can check with VeriSign," said a man who did not identify himself. "VeriSign has all the details."
The man then asked me to hold on because he had to take another call. Then I was disconnected. I called back, only to be disconnected again. When I called back a third time, another man answering the phone asked if I could send an e-mail listing my questions.
"It is already after 6 p.m. here," said the man. "Nobody is in anymore."
The next day, I called again and again was told to call back later. By deadline, neither of the two emails I sent seeking comment were answered.
If the attackers did use this website, the FBI, which is tracking down thousands and thousands of leads, may be interested.
"I am not aware of [the website], and I do not know whether the FBI is aware of it, but I can’t speak for the entire FBI," said Joe Valiquette, spokesman for the FBI’s New York office. "Generally speaking, we would be interested in something like that."
(*not being facetious*)
I'm sure that more ubiquitous terms could be used to gather more cached content.
But I found this very interesting, although some will also say "circumstantial".
Binladin International Group Core Business (cached):
Includes Airports & Aviation facilities
Ports & Harbours - Highways & Bridges Tunnels & Dams
Mosques, Buildings, Villas & Housing Compounds - Hospitals
& Healthcare Centres - Schools & Universities - Factories
Industrial & Power Projects
Treatment Plants Collection & Distribution Systems
Mining - Petrochemical - etc...
OMG....
Please tell me you are being sarcastic.
George W.'s closest friend -- James Bath is the principal investor for the Bin Ladin Group's interests. (Bath and W. flew together in the same guard unit). It was the Bin Ladin's who were the primary investors in W's oil exploration company in Texas. When it went south, the Bin Ladin group bought W's worthless shares for an enormous amount of money -- enough for W to start up Harkin Energy (which obtained contracts in Bahrain).
To be blunt, the Bush's have served as the conduit through which the Bin Ladin's have funneled money. This is old news. It has been conveniently dumped down the memory hole, however.
Turning to how Bush and Bin Ladin benefit, don’t accuse me of making statements without support. The support is out there. However, if anyone posts something anti-Bush which is backed up, the poster disappears. It’s happened to me twice already. Most of the posters who were great researchers have disappeared from FreeRepublic.
So, how does the Bush family AND the Bin Ladin family benefit?
Read:
(From the Baltimore Chronicle -- October 1,2001)
Though described by the Industry Standard as “the world’s largest private equity firm,” with over $12 billion under management, chances are readers haven’t ever heard of The Carlyle Group. Isn’t that a little odd, considering it is run by a veritable who's who of former Republican political leaders. Former Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci is Carlyle’s chairman and managing director (who, by the way, was college roommate of the current Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld). And that partners in this mammoth venture include former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III, George Soros, Fred Malek (George H.W. Bush’s campaign manager, forced to resign when it was revealed he was Nixon’s “Jew counter”), and—presumably—George H.W. Bush?
We say “presumably” because the privately-held Carlyle doesn’t have to reveal information about its partners or investments to the SEC or to anyone else. Our former President is reported to be active in seeking investments for the Carlyle Group from the Asian market, and word is he’s paid between $80,000 to $100,000 per presentation.
All told, Carlyle has about 420 partners all over the globe, from Saudi princes to the former president of the Philippines. Its investments run heavily in the defense sector; they make money from military conflicts and weapons spending. But who in Baltimore knows about it?
A search of the Baltimore Sun’s website reveals no mentions whatsoever of The Carlyle Group, though it’s been around since 1988 and has been involved in numerous buy-outs and buy-ins, sometimes with SEC-regulated companies that have to report these things. Contrast this news blackout with the Washington Post’s 378 mentions, and the New York Times’ 332 hits. Even the Philadelphia Inquirer weighed in with 15 mentions.
Not only have some newspapers and magazines brought The Carlyle Group out of the shadows it prefers, but this enterprise has attracted the attention of The Center for Public Integrity and Judicial Watch, both of which have concerns about the ethical propriety of having high-placed former government officials—trained at taxpayer expense, too—out there reaping over 20% to 40% a year by working their connections. You have to wonder if these former public servants are just simply greedy, or if they’re telling themselves they’re true patriots by doing behind-the-scenes cloak-and-dagger stuff.
This is a big story. We were wondering if, in the wake of current events, we were the only newspaper that was asking that question, “Who benefits?” And then we found that the Wall Street Journal was asking the right questions, too, and we were vastly relieved not to be left hanging out to dry.On Sept. 27, the WSJ published a “Special Report: Aftermath of Terror” with the headline “Bin Laden Family Could Profit From a Jump In Defense Spending Due to Ties to U.S. Bank.” The “bank” is actually The Carlyle Group (and by the way, we peons can’t invest in it, and it sure isn’t taking deposits from the general public). The lead sentence reads: “If the U.S. boosts defense spending in its quest to stop Osama bin Laden’s alleged terrorist activities, there may be one unexpected beneficiary: Mr. bin Laden’s family.” And, though the WSJ curiously did not mention this, another beneficiary may be George H.W. Bush’s family.
----------
PhiKapMom, do you honestly believe the Bush family lives off the meager presidential salary?
Do you have ANY IDEA how wealthy the Bush dynasty is?
In light of the fact that all the Bush's have, for the most part, only been employed as "public servants", where do you think the wealth came from?
The information on this press release came from European Intelligence Wire 10/02/2001 06:12 am. Some source!
At least JW can't be accused of investigation. All they have to do is subscribe to Hoover's on-line to get the information. I guess you will accuse Boeing next or Lockheed Martin or any number of American companies that do business in Saudi Arabia of being in business with the bin laden family which they probably are since the bin laden family does a lot of construction work. But that wouldn't be the style of JW and its followers who would rather paint the Bush Family in a negative light. For you to slander President Bush and his entire family because one of them may be an investor in The Carlyle Group is ludicrous. It is a highly rated Investment Firm with many investors according to Hoover's.
What is this -- class envy or jealously by calling the Bush Family a dynasty and inferring he would sell out the Country for money! Wrong family -- check the clintons!
And for your insinuation that I thought the President lived on his retirement salary from the Federal Government was ludicrous. What kind of moron do you think I am?
Why don't you tell us? Give us some support for it too, if you can.
While you're at it, explain the very modest homes Dubya lived in when he grew up in Midland, Texas. Explain to me why Dubya lived in a garage apartment after he got out of the Texas Guard, and had to share costs with a couple of roommates to meet expenses.
Be sure and cover the documented amounts that GHWB had to put into blind trust when he began serving the government, focusing especially on the part regarding the trust being worth far less after he left the Presidency.
I wait to be informed.
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.