Manufacturing missiles and a lightly armored coffin called Bradley troop carrier vehicle, United Defence is one of the Pentagon's main suppliers. Its main shareholder is Carlyle.
Manages some $18 billion dollars in weapons, biotech, space, security, nanotch and telecommunications contracts, the company’s speciality is picking up failed weapons makers for pennies on the dollar – just before those companies receive huge contracts from the White House.

It’s not hard to see their secret. After serving as America’s first war president since Vietnam, George Bush senior served as a consultant to Carlyle for ten years – before bailing out in October 2003 as questions mounted on Capitol Hill. As the French note, “It was the first time in US history that a former president worked for a Pentagon supplier.”

The group found Bush Jr. a job as administrator for Caterair, a Texas company specialized in aerial catering in February 1990, while his father occupied the White House. When GW left Caterair in 1994 to become Governor of Texas, the company – like every enterprise ever run by the younger Bush, was in a flat financial spin.

"It's not possible to get closer to the administration than Carlyle is," Charles Lewis, Director of the Center for Public Integrity, a non-partisan organization in Washington told the French press. "George Bush senior earned money from private interests that worked for the government of which his son was president. You could even say that the president could one day profit financially, through his father's investments, from the political decisions he himself took."

According to Le Monde, “The collection of influential characters who now work, have worked, or have invested in the Carlyle group would make the most convinced conspiracy theorists incredulous. They include among others, John Major, former British Prime Minister; Fidel Ramos, former Philippines President; Park Tae Joon, former South Korean Prime Minister; Saudi Prince Al-Walid; Colin Powell, the present Secretary of State; James Baker III, former Secretary of State; Caspar Weinberger, former Defense Secretary; Richard Darman, former White House Budget Director; the billionaire George Soros, and even some bin Laden family members.”

Le Monde adds, you can add “the daughter of Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State; Arthur Lewitt, former SEC head; William Kennard, former head of the FCC, to this list. Finally, add in the Europeans: Karl Otto Poehl, former Bundesbank president; the now-deceased Henri Martre, who was president of Aerospatiale; and Etienne Davignon, former president of the Belgian Generale Holding Company.”

Holdings close to 200 companies, Carlyle provides returns on its investments that have exceeded 30 % for a decade.

Created in 1987, Carlyle languished until January 1989 when Frank Carlucci took over. Former Assistant Director of the CIA, National Security Advisor, then Ronald Reagan's Defense Secretary, Carlucci’s contacts in Washington were lucratively legion. He and Donald Rumsfeld's were roommates at Princeton. Later, their paths crossed in several administrations.

According to Le Monde, “Six days after officially quitting the Pentagon, January 6, 1989, Frank Carlucci became Carlyle's Director General. He brought trusted lieutenants from the CIA, the State Department, and the Defense Department with him. Nicknamed ’Mr. Clean’, Frank Carlucci has a sulfurous reputation” for alleged arms trafficking and questionable conduct – including the assassination of Patrice Lumumba while serving as number two at the American embassy in the Belgian Congo in 1961.

“For a while,” Le Monde adds, “he directed Wackenhut, a security company with a hateful reputation, implicated in one of the biggest espionage scandals ever, the hijacking of Promise software” - and the murder of its inventor.

Carlucci also cleaned up after the Iran-Contra affair caused President Reagan to stammer a nonsensical denial on national TV. When became National Security Advisor, Carlucci chose a young general named Colin Powell to be his assistant?

Frank Carlucci's brought capital to Carlyle. In October 1990, the group took over “Star Wars” supplier BDM International, along with its profitable links to the CIA. Two years later, Congress blocked their attempted take over of LTV's aerospace division. Renamed Vought Aircraft, the manufacture of B1 and B2 bombers worth more than their weight in gold became a Carlyle holding.

Companies specializing in radar imagery and cruise missile electronic relief maps followed these Carlyle acquisitions – along with firms providing nuclear, chemical, and biological decontamination, Carlyle also bought Vinnell, one of the first companies to supply the American army and its allies with “private contractors”. Vinnell's mercenaries fought in Desert Storm alongside the Saudi forces they’d trained. They now protect King Fahd. [Le Monde April29/04]

In May 2003, bloody Al Qaeda-linked attacks in Riyadh targeted the Vinnell Corporation. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/14/1052885294304.html

BUSH’S CONNECTION TO THE SAUDIS AND DIRTY MONEY
Just days before Iraqi forces massing on Kuwait’s border invaded that emirate – in part to stop slant-drilling into its oil fields by the Harken Energy Corp, George Bush Sr. dumped his Harken shares. The company’s stock crashed with the sound of gunfire. But Bush walked away with more than $800,000. [All Fall Down]

It seems that after Harken Energy had lost some $263 million over five years, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) got involved in funding a lucrative Harken project in Bahrain - despite the fact that the Texas company lacked the resources and expertise to explore off the coast of Bahrain.