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- a citizen's eye on political corruption ampaignwatch.org
- a citizen's eye on political corruption
SEE: Trust or Hustle: The Bush Record Download "Trust or Hustle"
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George Bush and Ahmad Chalai: a congenial pair The content of this web site in 2000 focused on the links of George W. Bush, two brothers, and other family members to defaulted S&L loans and other questionable financial dealings. Our warnings have been amply confirmed by Bush's economic record - turning the record $236 budget surplus into a record $422 billion deficit.
It is noteworthy that during Bush's January 2004 State of the Union address, sitting in a place of honor behind Laura Bush was Ahmad Chalabi.1 George W. Bush, Richard Cheney and others who promoted the war in Iraq had provided Chalabi's interests with over $100 million and positioned him for top leadership in Iraq. This was despite the fact that Chalabi was on the lam from Jordan for a spectacular case of financial fraud. On April 9, 1992, a military tribunal in Jordan concluded that Chalabi was guilty of thirty-one charges, including embezzlement, theft, forgery, currency speculation and making false statements. The Jordanian docket shows that Chalabi was sentenced to serve twenty-two years of hard labor, and to pay back two hundred and thirty million dollars in embezzled funds.2
Chalabi fell out of favor of the Bush administration last Spring when it was found that he spied for Iran, was involved in counterfeiting, and had arranged false leads about weapons of mass destruction. Around the same time, his nephew, Salem Chalabi, the lead prosecutor of Saddam Hussein, was arrested for murder.
Why did Bush give Chalabi a seat of honor behind Laura Bush and promote him as the US's most favored Iraqi when Chalabi was on the lam for fraud from Jordan? Was it that Bush, whose largest campaign contributor in his run for Texas governor was Enron, and whose own family was involved in similar financial scams, felt comfortable with someone of that background?
Between no-bid contracts to Halliburton and looting by the Chalabi's—audits have recently found billions of US and international funds missing in Iraq—it's not surprising that a year after the US invasion, pitifully little reconstruction has been accomplished, and the Iraqis have come to hate their US occupiers.
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