Dept. of Connections May 5, 2003 Issue
The Contractors
By Jane Mayer
Back when Americans were still debating whether there was just cause for a preëmptive strike against Iraq, few arguments were scrutinized more closely than the Bush Administration’s contention that there were covert links between Al Qaeda and Iraq. At the C.I.A., analysts pored over aerial satellite photographs. At the Treasury Department, experts sifted through financial records. At the National Security Agency, Arab-speaking linguists eavesdropped on phone conversations. But, even after Secretary of State Colin Powell put his credibility on the line, in a damning, dot-connecting speech before the United Nations last February, questions persisted about the solidity of the alleged links between Saddam and Osama.
Now there is a new and demonstrable connection, but it is not the kind that the Bush Administration had in mind. In fact, it is more likely to fuel the speculations of conspiracy theorists than it is to put their fears to rest. It turns out that a money trail runs—albeit rather circuitously—from the lucrative business of rebuilding Iraq to the fortune behind Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden’s estranged family, a sprawling, extraordinarily wealthy Saudi Arabian dynasty, is a substantial investor in a private equity firm founded by the Bechtel Group of San Francisco. Bechtel is also the global construction and engineering company to which the U.S. government recently awarded the first major multimillion-dollar contract to reconstruct war-ravaged Iraq. In a closed competitive bidding process, the United States Agency for International Development chose Bechtel to rebuild the major elements of Iraq’s infrastructure, including its roads, railroads, airports, hospitals, and schools, and its water and electrical systems. In the first phase of the contract, the U.S. government will pay Bechtel nearly thirty-five million dollars, but experts say that the cost is likely to reach six hundred and eighty million during the next year and a half.
When the contract was awarded, two weeks ago, the Administration did not mention that the bin Laden family has an ongoing relationship with Bechtel. The bin Ladens have a ten-million-dollar stake in the Fremont Group, a San Francisco-based company formerly called Bechtel Investments, which was until 1986 a subsidiary of Bechtel. The Fremont Group’s Web site, which makes no mention of the bin Ladens, notes that “though now independent, Fremont enjoys a close relationship with Bechtel.” A spokeswoman for the company confirmed that Fremont’s “majority ownership is the Bechtel family.” And a list of the corporate board of directors shows substantial overlap. Five of Fremont’s eight directors are also directors of Bechtel. One Fremont director, Riley Bechtel, is the chairman and chief executive officer of the Bechtel Group, and is a member of the Bush Administration: he was appointed this year to serve on the President’s Export Council. In addition, George Shultz, the Secretary of State in the Reagan Administration, serves as a director both of Fremont and of the Bechtel Group, where he once was president and still is listed as senior counsellor.
Rick Kopf, the general counsel of the Fremont Group, which manages some eleven billion dollars in assets, confirms that the bin Laden family invested about ten million dollars in one of Fremont’s private funds before September 11, 2001. He noted that the bin Laden family has not enlarged its stake since then, but he declined to provide additional details about its association with the firm. He also chose not to discuss the origin or the nature of the relationship between the bin Laden and Bechtel families, both of which made fortunes in huge construction projects in the Arab world. The Fremont Group evidently does not go in for connecting the dots. As Kopf said, “Ownership is private and is not disclosed.”
The burial of Nathaniel greenan son of Attorney James greenan who represented Contra Costa County, in the matter of Contra Costa County versus Chevron where are the County dumps Millions. Nate was in Vinny's Bar in Concord in March of 2012 just days before I was arrested and jailed where Chief Wenzel formerly of Danville was commander of the jail The Mormon news is the people standing in this picture of Mormon, the chief of Danville is Mormon the Mormons controlled DEA Mark Peterson convicted o perjury, the connection between Michael Peterson and his Russian connections likely lead to Pavolo Lazerenko defended by Daniel Horowitz, who wants to send it attorney William McCann in connection to the 500 La Gonda way legal dispute with developer Sid Correy. This dispute brings in Bill Tauscher, Ellen Tauscher friends of Hillary Clinton, Blackhawk Network's, Safeway CEO Steve Burd who knows attorney Rick Kopf from when they work totogether add Southern Pacific which makes Steve burd privy to Bennett versus Southern Pacific where my witness was murdered. Anything out of Safeway's mouth from this point forward is a lie and that extends to Fremont Group in San Francisco desperately pedaling backwards to overturn the past.
This is my karaoke friend her name is Sarah Hoda she was burned alive in the Ghost Ship fire or died of smoke inhalation what a coincidence that my beautiful friend who would stop and listen to me play music in the streets of Walnut Creek Harrison of fire across the street from the transaction control by CB Richard Ellis. They are filing murder charges on the wrong people and I intend to raise that at an Oakland city council meeting in the near future. I'm in arson victim and I can sniff out scams because I also know about Real Estate Investment Trust, shopping centers, tenant improvement work, and unfortunately for the money make people I also know them. After well-over one hundred police reports where police officers known for me have been arrested indicted and convicted from everything from abusive Authority Under color of Law and murder it's time for me to speak out. I found a great way to stay alive after appearing on CNN, ABC, NBC and PBS, after and during poison and bacteria, assault and battery and arson why not speak up we actually through the people that were trying to kill me off my tail to their lawyer's office seeking a way to stay out of jail. for those reading this veteran public office, DEA investigators, police officers in multiple cities and Country Costa and surrounding counties this is your wake-up call, keep yourself from being dragged into the conspiracy and getting f*****, smart up fess up and tell me who tried to kill me in 2004, who put the bacteria or poison in my food, and where did the iodine-131 come from.
Former location of main frame designs cabinets and fixtures a vendor to Chevron, Safeway, Fresh Choice, Wendy's and Contra Costa County College District The matter of Bennett vs Southern Pacific created a situation where operatives coming from Southern Pacific Police Department, Southern Pacific, and the assets of Southern Pacific pipeline partners that part indelibly linked Enron Corporation which leads to the sale of Enron assets to Kinder Morgan, we're in 2004 in Walnut Creek California a pipeline exploded killing five.
