President Bush touched down in Saudi Arabia today, the last stop on his Middle East trip. The AP notes that despite Bush’s “close ties to the kingdom’s ruling family,” he is viewed with “deep unpopularity among ordinary Saudis.” A recent poll found that only 12 percent of Saudis view Bush positively — “lower than Iran’s president or even al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden.”
A blast from the past as a reminder...
Bush family ties to Saudi Arabia: The $1.4 billion figure (last updated October 4, 2004)
Excerpted from the full article on Bush family ties to Saudi Arabia
Fahrenheit 9/11 repeats the $1.4 billion figure that Craig Unger estimated in his book "House of Bush, House of Saud" (actually $1.477 billion) as going from Saudi Arabia to the Bush family, its friends and related businesses. This figure is based on some broad principles that are somewhat questionable. First, he took any money that Saudi Arabia paid or contracted to pay any company somehow affiliated with the Bush family or to Dick Cheney. Second, he took any money that Saudi citizens invested in a company somehow affiliated with the Bush family. Third, he took money that Saudi royalties gave to charities affiliated with the Bush family or to the Bush presidential libraries.
Some points worth noting about the figure:
• No money in the $1.4 billion figure went directly to the Bush family.
• The figure is mostly comprised of money ($1.1886 billion) that went to a company that the Carlyle Group stopped owning (BDM) before George H.W. Bush even became involved with Carlyle in 1999. Bush's Secretary of State Jim Baker was associated with Carlyle during the period in which Carlyle owned BDM, which helps support the overall figure somewhat.
• The $1.4 billion figure does count about $115 million that went from Saudi Arabia and its citizens to companies affiliated with the Bush family while the Bush family member was involved. That includes $80 million invested by Saudis in the Carlyle Group, though no Bush family member owns part of the Carlyle Group or benefits directly from such investment. That also includes $25 million invested by a Saudi citizen in the Harken Energy company in the 1980s when George W. Bush was a director.
• The $1.4 billion figure also counts $180 million that went from Saudi Arabia to Halliburton in 2000 when Dick Cheney was its chairman and CEO.
• The figure also contains $1.5 million in donations to charities affiliated with George H.W. Bush (including his high school, Phillips Academy, which I also attended), $1 million to George H.W. Bush's presidential library, and a $1 million gift to George W. Bush's eventual presidential library.
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