MAN WHO HELPED BAIL OUT GWB NOW KEY FINANCIAL ADVISOR TO HILLARY CLINTON

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

REAL NEWS PROJECT - The Real News Project reports exclusively today that
the engineer of George W. Bush's rescue from financial disaster-a man
who would propel Bush on the path to elective office-has quietly moved
into Hillary Clinton's inner circle of key financial backers. The
engineer is longtime GOP backer Alan Quasha. His mysterious Harken
Energy drew intense scrutiny from investigators and the media in the
early 90's and again during Bush's first term because of its dubious
financial practices and board members connected to the corrupt Bank of
Credit and Commerce International(BCCI). Along with a business partner,
Quasha has been forging new links with Clinton and her associates for
several years. Among other things, they have raised substantial sums for
her, and in 2005 they discreetly hired Clinton confidant and longtime
Democratic Party money man Terry McAuliffe, providing him with a
lucrative temporary perch until the Clinton campaign formally launched
with McAuliffe as its chairman.

"That Hillary Clinton's campaign is involved with this particular cast
of characters should give people pause," says John Moscow, a former
Manhattan prosecutor. In the late 1980s and early '90s, Moscow led the
investigation of the BCCI global financial empire - which included
Harken board members among its prominent shareholders. "Too many of the
same names from earlier troubling circumstances suggests a lack of
control over who she is dealing with," says Moscow, "or a policy of
dealing with anyone who can pay."

In the wake of revelations that Clinton accepted large sums of money
from convicted swindler Norman Hsu, her involvement with Quasha and his
associates is likely to raise new concerns over major sources of money
for her presidential bid.

The full article, published in conjunction with The Nation magazine, can
be found at, the website of The Real News Project, an independent source
for ground-breaking investigative reporting. The article's co-author,
Russ Baker, founder of the Real News Project, is at work on a book about
George W. Bush's rise to power and the forces behind it.
RUSS BAKER & ADAM FEDERMAN, REAL NEWS PROJECT  - Another strong link
between Quasha and Clinton is Quasha's business partner, Hassan Nemazee,
a top Hillary fundraiser who was trotted out to defend her during the
Hsu episode--in which the clothing manufacturer was unmasked as a
swindler who seemingly funneled illegal contributions through "donors"
of modest means. . .
"That Hillary Clinton's campaign is involved with this particular cast
of characters should give people pause," says John Moscow, a former
Manhattan prosecutor. In the late 1980s and early '90s he led the
investigation of the corrupt Bank of Credit and Commerce International
(BCCI) global financial empire--a bank whose prominent shareholders
included members of the Harken board. "Too many of the same names from
earlier troubling circumstances suggests a lack of control over who she
is dealing with," says Moscow, "or a policy of dealing with anyone who
can pay.". . . 
A student at Harvard's business school at the same time as Bush, Quasha
was a little-known New York lawyer when he took over the small
Abilene-based Harken Oil in 1983, using millions from offshore accounts
held in the name of family members. Quasha's now-deceased father,
Manila-based attorney William Quasha, was known for his close friendship
with Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his ties to US
intelligence; he was also a member of the "Eagles Club" of major GOP
contributors.
In 1986 Alan Quasha embraced a struggling George W. Bush, rescuing his
failing Spectrum 7 oil company, folding it into Harken Energy and
providing Bush with a directorship, more than $600,000 in stock and
options and a consulting contract initially valued at $80,000 a year
(which was raised in 1989 to $120,000). The financial setup allowed Bush
to devote most of his time to the presidential campaign of his father, a
former CIA director who as Vice President was the Reagan
Administration's overseer of a massive outsourcing of covert
intelligence operations, and who had his own warm relationship with
Marcos.
Harken's financials were famously complicated. Reporters from top
publications like the Wall Street Journal, Time and Fortune went at
Harken with zest, but they ultimately failed to unravel all its
labyrinthine activities. In 2003 Harken was described in the trade
publication Platts Energy Economist as "a toxic waste dump for bad
deals, with a strong odor of US intelligence spookery and chicanery
about it." Indeed, the company was kept afloat by an all-star cast of
financiers with ties to BCCI, Saudi intelligence, the South African
apartheid regime, Marcos and the Shah of Iran. The company perennially
lost money for ordinary investors while benefiting insiders like Bush,
Quasha and Nemazee. Indeed, Harken has lost money nearly every year
since Bush's days there, piling up cumulative losses in the hundreds of
millions.
Nevertheless, in 1990, when the Dallas Times Herald ranked Harken fifth
on its list of worst-performing local firms, the tiny oil refiner beat
out the giant exploration company Amoco for an offshore drilling
contract in Bahrain that was potentially worth billions. As George W.
Bush biographer Bill Minutaglio wrote, "Oil analysts were stunned that
bottom-feeding Harken. . . could hook such a meaty international
contract. . . not only hadn't Harken drilled overseas, it had never
drilled in water. Speculation immediately surged that it was because
Bahrain wanted to do business with the son of the U.S. president."
Bush appeared to benefit from insider trading when he sold two-thirds of
his stock in Harken at a peak price after the Bahrain deal--and just
before news emerged that the company had failed to find oil and its
share price plummeted. He also failed to report his sale of company
stock on time, leading many to believe that he had something to hide.
Immediately after a 1991 Wall Street Journal article detailing Bush's
involvement with Harken, the SEC launched an investigation, but
unsurprisingly, with George H.W. Bush in the White House, it came to
nothing. . . .
Thanks to his income from Harken, Bush was able to become managing
partner of the Texas Rangers--a glamorous and highly visible sinecure
that would eventually earn him nearly $15 million and make him a
credible front-runner for the Texas governorship. This rescue and
makeover of a ne'er-do-well son was a key step in W.'s path to political
power. . . 
The exact nature of McAuliffe's duties at Carret is unclear, and Quasha,
Carret and McAuliffe all declined to answer The Nation's questions on
this matter. But McAuliffe seems to have served, at least occasionally,
as a good will ambassador for Quasha's business operations. . .
The silence is deafening. Repeated requests for interviews on this topic
were ignored or rebuffed by the offices of Hillary Clinton's campaign,
Bill Clinton, Alan Quasha, Hassan Nemazee, Terry McAuliffe and Peter
O'Keefe. McAuliffe's spokeswoman, Tracy Sefl, who works for the
Clinton-connected communications firm the Glover Park Group but
represents McAuliffe informally, said that McAuliffe would not grant an
interview or respond to detailed e-mailed questions on these matters.
Sefl minimized McAuliffe's involvement with the company, claiming he was
only "an adviser to Carret--as he was to many other companies."
http://www.realnews.org

THE REVIEW'S MCAULIFFE
http://prorev.com/mcauliffe.htm

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||