-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [911TruthAction] Carlyle bought CSX World Terminals
in 2003 for $300 million
Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2006 09:11:59 -0500
From: Total Information
totalinfo@gmail.com
how does snow get 33 million from the DPW deal?
On 3/2/06, mojo_j_2000
wrote:
Carlyle bought CSX World Terminals in 2003 for $300 million and
just
two year's later flipped it to the company now known as Dubai
Ports
World for a near 400% profit at a cool $1.12 billion. Again nice
work, and a sweet price. Especially since John Snow had all but
ran
CSX into the ground. Since 1991 CSX's profits have shrunk
drastically with its stock underperforming its rivals' by more
than
65%.
CFIUS Chair John Snow was head of CSX for some 20 years
before "retiring" from his post to become Treasury Secretary.
Under
Snow's leadership, CSX paid no federal income taxes in three of
the
past four years. He also presided over the CSX sale to Baker's
Carlyle Group. In addition to the many extravagant perks of his
contract (including a $2.47 million lifetime yearly pension),
Snow
will score $33 million+ more due to a clause triggered upon the
transfer of CSX to D P World (or any other buyer for that
matter).
The crony circle closes even tighter with the nomination of DP
former Head of European and Latin American Operations, David
Sanborn, who has been handpicked by President Bush as his
nominee
for the Administrator of the Maritime Administration. Sanborn is
a
graduate of The United States Merchant Maritime Academy.
According
to DP World, he "previously held senior roles with shipping
lines
CMA-CGM (Americas), APL Ltd and Sea-Land and has been based,
besides
the US, in Brazil, Europe, Hong Kong and Dubai during his
career.
He has also served in the US Naval Reserve. Sanborn was hired by
DP
in 2005." That one year with Dubai Ports was all he needed to
broker
the Dubai Ports deal to purchase CSX. Sanborn left that post to
oversee our ports (subject to Congressional approval) three
weeks
before the D P World deal is approved by the secretive John
Snow-
chaired Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
I'm
sure Mr. Sanborn is a very capable executive but somehow his
past
year spent flitting around makes me more anxious rather than
more
comfortable.
Those are the facts as I see 'em. They have left me pondering
two
things:
1. Carlyle bought CSX World Terminals for $300 million in 2003
and
sold it to UAE/DP World just two years later for $1.12 billion.
By
all accounts, CSX is a financial mess. If I read it correctly
its
2003 net profit was down 42% to $246,000 which is not even half
the
salary of their #5 executive
(yahoo.com: CSX annual). Obviously, UAE/DP World massively
overpaid
for CSX. What exactly were they buying? Baker's and others'
influence on behalf of the proposed free" trade agreement with
Dubai? An eventual entree into the management of US ports?
And/or
something else?
2. Putting aside the various documented 9/11, bin Laden & other
UAE
terrorism connections and their I remain greatly concerned that
the
UAE Government-controlled Dubai Ports World would have any
influence
at all on managing our country's major ports. It has everything
to
do with the UAE as a unparalleled hub of criminal activity yet
nothing to do with its Arab ethnicity.
By all accounts UAE is a fine place to live or to visit or what
have
you. It sure looked snazzy when I saw it on PBS' Globetrekker
program. Bu it is also historically and currently the worldwide
money-laundering capital -- it wouldn't be a surprise if any or
all
of the "missing" $9 billion+ from Iraq passed through Dubai. It
has
the most lax financial regulations going. Hell, until 2004 at
the
strong urging of the US government, Dubai's stock exchange had
no
written instructions whatsoever concerning money laundering.
Additionally, Dubai is historically and currently not only a
major
worldwide transshipment portal for illegal drugs (mostly
heroin),
but also the sale of nuclear technologies (even prior to Bush
prezzy
debate fave Pakistan's "the A Q Khan"'s use of Dubai as a
conduit to
fulfill the nuke ambitions of Iran, North Korea and Libya), and
prostitution, too. The $20 billion+ 1991 Bank of Credit and
Commerce
International collapse and subsequent scandal managed to combine
money-laundering, drug smuggling, child & adult prostitution,
the
sale of nuclear technologies, terrorism, arms trafficking, the
Mujahideen, bribery, training of Medellin Cartel death squads,
etc.,
(Kerry/Brown BCCI Report. pt. 4) all with the active
participation
of the UAE's emir of Abu Dhabi and quite likely the CIA. BCCI
was
the world's worst ever financial scandal
James Baker's Double Life (a must-read if you haven't already):
"Carlyle has sought to secure an extraordinary $1 billion
investment
from the Kuwaiti government, with Baker's influence as debt
envoy
being used as a crucial lever. The secret deal involves a
complex
transaction to transfer ownership of as much as $57 billion in
unpaid Iraqi debts. The debts, now owed to the government of
Kuwait,
would be assigned to a foundation created and controlled by a
consortium in which the key players are the Carlyle Group, the
Albright Group (headed by another former Secretary of State,
Madeleine Albright) and several other well-connected firms.
Under
the deal, the government of Kuwait would also give the
consortium $2
billion up front to invest in a private equity fund devised by
the
consortium, with half of it going to Carlyle. ...The
consortium's
proposal spells out the threat: Not only is Kuwait unlikely to
see
any of its $30 billion from Iraq in sovereign debt, but the $27
billion in war reparations that Iraq owes to Kuwait from Saddam
Hussein's 1990 invasion 'may well be a casualty of this U.S.
[debt
relief] effort.'"
Brandishing a mighty "lever" indeed in Baker as envoy, this deal
is
structured so that Baker & co. get $1 billion up front
regardless of
the outcome. Nice work if you can get it. It's worth noting also
that while the Europeans have been extremely generous in this
debt
forgiveness process (up to .90 on the dollar), there is precious
little info on how much, if any, Iraq debt the U.S. has
forgiven. It
is crystal clear that the Bush administration does not hold the
US
or their Arab economic allies to the same standards that they do
the
rest of the world including our #1 military ally, Great Britain.
===============================================
Sink the Dubai Ports Deal!
by R. Cort Kirkwood
March 20, 2006
http://www.thenewamerican.com/artman/publish/article_3462.shtml
[SNIP]
The Ports Deal
For Bush, the scandal began when the British company that
manages at least six major American ports, Peninsular and
Oriental Steam Navigation, was sold to Dubai Ports World for
$6.8 billion. Dubai is one of the United Arab Emirates (UAE),
which owns DPW, which in turn will manage shipping in New York,
New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans, and Miami.
Among the operations DPW will manage, the New York Times
reported, are “the cruise-ship terminal on the West Side of
Manhattan”; the New York City Passenger Ship Terminal; and “one
of the biggest cargo terminals in New York Harbor,” the Port
Newark Container Terminal. It is “the third-largest cargo
terminal on the Port Authority’s property.” Before selling it,
the British company owned 50 percent of the container terminal,
the Times reported; a Danish company owned the other half, which
means UAE, through DPW, now controls half of that operation.
Prior to the latest acquisition, DPW purchased port facilities
in the Dominican Republic and Europe from CSX, an acquisition
that conferred control of 29 ports across the planet. The latest
purchase also gives DPW control of two other ports that haven’t
made much news: ports in Beaumont and Corpus Christi, Texas.
Those ports, observed former Reagan official Frank Gaffney, who
runs the neo-conservative Center for Security Policy, move heavy
armor and helicopters for the U.S. Army. Representative Ted Poe
(R-Texas) is rightly concerned about the UAE’s controlling
American military shipments: “They would have access to every
manifest regarding shipping, all cargo going out, what’s on it,
where it’s going and all incoming shipping coming back to the
port.”
Unsurprisingly, the government secretly sanctioned the deal.
“The Dubai purchase was approved by the Committee on Foreign
Investment in the United States,” the Times reported, “which
does not usually disclose information about its deliberations.”
And just to ice the deal for the high and mighty elites, “in
mid-January, President Bush nominated a senior executive of
Dubai Ports World, David Sanborn, to run the Department of
Transportation’s Maritime Administration. Mr. Sanborn had been
running the company’s operations in Europe and Latin America.”
One marvels that Bush appointed an executive of DPW to a marquee
position in his administration, yet knew nothing of the deal
that the executive’s employer was consummating to establish
financial control of major American ports. Also, Bush’s Treasury
Secretary, John W. Snow, was formerly the chief executive
officer of CSX, which sold its container handling division to
DPW in 2004.
But GOP connections to DPW aren’t the only reason the ports deal
is suspect. Clan Bush is tightly plugged in to the UAE through
several outlets, not least of which is the Carlyle Group, the
planetary investment company long known for its relationship to
both presidents Bush and former Secretary of State James Baker.
Both presidents have worked for the group, and it recently
hauled in a cash infusion of $100 million from the state-owned
Dubai Investment Corporation.
And if that isn’t enough, presidential brother Neil Bush, the
Gulf News reported, has earned plenty of frequent flyer miles
jetting to Dubai. On October 14, 2001, just after the attacks of
9/11, Bush landed in Dubai to meet with several high UAE
officials, not least of whom was Sheik Mohammed ibn Rashid al
Maktum, whose importance will be clarified in due course. In
January 2002, Neil Bush resurfaced in Dubai to broker the
products of his educational software company, Ignite!.
Again, despite these personal and political links to the UAE,
Bush knew nothing of the ports deal.
Aside from all this, the Times reported, the deal never received
the 45-day review required by U.S. law “when the acquiring
company is controlled by or acting on behalf of a foreign
government.” Bush officials, apparently, did not believe the
company’s owner, a foreign government, warranted that review.
The Committee on Foreign Investment was created specifically to
review such transactions, but in any event, the Times reported,
American officials conducted “a comprehensive evaluation of the
management structure at Dubai Ports World, its operations
abroad, and its security plans.”
In his defense, Bush stated that “the people responsible in our
government have reviewed this transaction” — a Clintonian
circumlocution even the Republican toadies on Capitol Hill did
not accept. Thus, they sallied forth to support legislation,
which Bush promised to veto, to postpone the sale.
[SNIP]
FULL REPORT:
http://www.thenewamerican.com/artman/publish/article_3462.shtml
