On Tuesday, November 6, 2001, a British journalist and BBC commentator, Greg Palast, aired a startling interview that should have created uproars in the United States. Unfortunately, the lethargic American media paid scant attention to the BBC broadcast, resulting in few American citizens even knowing anything about it. Less than 60 days after the September 11 explosions that brought down the World Trade Center's twin towers in New York City, Palast reported that U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the FBI, were ordered to "back off" investigating the binLadens and members of the Saudi royal families, even though there was strong evidence linking them to the 9-11 disaster.
As part of the program, Palast declared: "[George W.] Bush made his first million twenty years ago with an oil company partly funded by Salem binLaden's chief U.S. representative. Young George also received fees as director of a subsidiary of Carlyle Corporation, a little-known private company which has, in just a few years of its founding, become one of America's biggest defence contractors. His father, [George H.W.] Bush Senior, is also a paid advisor. And what became embarrassing was the revelation that the binLadens held a stake in Carlyle, sold just after September 11."
The Carlyle Group, headquartered in Washington, D.C., on Pennsylvania Avenue, midway between the White House and the Capitol Building, had been founded shortly after George H.W. Bush left office as America's 41st President. Joining Bush in the new business venture were former Secretary of Defense Carlucci, former Secretary of State Baker, and former White House Budget Director Darman. Reportedly, a primary investment of over $2.5 million came from the binLaden family of Saudi Arabia. Immediately after the 9-11 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, prominent Saudi citizens in the United States were flown out of the country by private government jets. As Carlyle Group investors watched the drama unfold from their suite at the Ritz-Carlton where the annual investors' conference was being held, the Group's prospects went up as the Twin Towers went down, resulting in the Carlyle Group to amass more than $12 billion in funds under its management.
Such blatant disregard for ethical conduct, and such unsubtle conflicts of interest, seemed not to disturb the Bush family or the Saudi families involved in this scandalous business arrangement.
President George W. Bush and his handlers quickly manipulated the tragedy into an excuse to invade Iraq, although there was no credible evidence that Iraq had anything to do with 9-11. Bush had a personal vendetta against Saddam Hussein, whom he believed had humiliated his father during Desert Storm; Dick Cheney, whom many believed to be the rel power behind the Bush administration, wanted all of Iraq's oil so he and his friends at Exxon-Mobil, Halliburton, and other mega-corporations could get richer and richer and richer. Osama binLaden, suspected mastermind of the 9-11 terrorist attacks, was soon forgotten about. President Bush had vowed to capture binLaden, "dead or alive". Less than a year later, Bush reversed himself and publicly stated, "I don't know where (binLaden) is; I -I'll repeat what I said, 'I truly am not that concerned about him'." In fact, the only American force strategically and specifically formed to hunt down binLaden was unceremoniously dismantled in December, 2005 after spending millions of taxpayer money trying to track down this tall, handsome, brilliant nomadic leader of a gang of rag-tag terrorists hiding in Afghan and Pakistani caves. In the uproar over the 9-11 bombings, the Bush administration was initially able to raise public and Congressional support for the invasion of Iraq, even though it made no sense. As the war drudged on, and more lives were lost including thousands of American soldiers, the public and Congress began having second thoughts about the Bush war-mongering. A Republican-dominated House and Senate was not going to impeach or even censure George W. Bush. Apparently, his turncoat activities weren't worth spending millions of taxpayer dollars on such proceedings; Republicans, of course, didn't mind spending millions of dollars to impeach Bill Clinton for lying to Congress about enjoying oral sex with a White House intern. Clinton's actions were an embarrassment to the country; what Bush did put taxpayers trillions of dollars into debt for generations to come, tarnished America's reputation as a world leader and global peacekeeper, and started the U.S.A. on a slippery slope toward becoming a third-rate world super power.
George H.W. Bush was once the Director of the CIA. He held close ties to the Saudis, as well as comfortable connections within the Chinese communist government. In her revealing book entitled 'The Family", published in 2004, author Kitty Kelley
masterfully outlined the real truth behind the Bush family dynasty and evidenced the destructive nature of how one family could become so deeply entrenched in American progress. Neither one of them possessing any signs of superior intelligence, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush had become the only father-son team of U.S. Presidents since the Adams family in the early days of the new nation. Looking back, O.U.T.R.A.G.E. members were now beginning to demonstrate to American citizens how the two Bush Presidents had both conveniently arranged wars in Iraq for one sole reason: oil profits. As a complement to such a convenience, Bush allies in within the military-industrial complex also reaped billions in war profiteering. Financed by portions of those oil and war profits funneled into their campaign coffers, Bush I and Bush II were easily able to "win" elections, even if it meant recruiting the help of another Bush politico, Jeb, to help "steal" an election that rightfully should have gone to Al Gore, who won the popular vote.
It was the outrageous Bush actions that became the catalyst for the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. organization. Members of this revolutionary group recognized that the only way to save the body was to amputate the cancerous limb. In collusion with the most corrupt, evil, incompetent, cowardly, arrogant U.S. Congress in American history, the Bush administration had managed to icur the wrath of hundreds of thousands of honest, decent citizens. Citizens who had joined forces to secretly begin a second American revolutionary war. Now O.U.T.R.A.G.E. had successfully completed the first stage of its mission by killing off hundreds of thousands of greedy corporate executives, arrogant celebrities, corrupt politicians, and evil members of the elite groups who wielded so much power and influence over America. The Bush administration had overstepped its bounds, and no longer could U.S. residents stand by and do nothing. Collectively, they had killed off the cancer in virtually a matter of minutes on Thursday, January 17, 2008. The healing process would take much, much longer.
The work continued around the country and around the clock. O.U.T.R.A.G.E. members in the field toiled tirelessly. Homeless people across America searched desperately for food, clothing and shelter while others in areas unaffected by O.U.T.R.A.G.E. explosions or natural disasters continued with their lives as normally as they could. Rescue teams and hospital personnel continued with their duties. Volunteers from all over America's heartland were still streaming into the areas devastated by hurricanes and earthquakes. Clean-up crews were still removing wreckage and debris from sites that had been bombed two months ago. Everything was coming together, but not nearly as quickly as everything had fallen apart.
Saturday and Sunday were fairly uneventful days. Tomorrow was Monday, March 31, 2008. The last day of the third month of the new year; a year that would surely become one of profundity for the United States of America.