Molly Ivins also discusses Old Man Bush's trip to Kuwait in 1993 (see previous post), but from a different perspective. In Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America (2003), she describes the trip as part of the Bush dynasty's service to Enron:
After Poppy bush left the White House, he could no longer use the diplomatic corps as Enron capos, so he resorted to a more direct approach. In April 1993 the emire of Kuwait sent a Kuwait Airlines plane to pick up Bush and his entourage. The elder Bush wasn't quite three months into retirement. He was traveling to Kuwait to accept that nation's higest award for his role in liberating the Kuwaitis from Saddam Hussein. James Baker III [the Bush family fixer and former Secretary of State] and retired lieutenant general Thomas Kelly tagged along on an Enron sales junket that could earn them hundreds of thousands of dollars - and hundreds of millions for Enron.
The disgraceful account of Baker and Kelly turning a quick buck on the blood of American soldiers who died in the Gulf War was laid out by Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker. Baker III was cavalier in his reponse to Hersh's questions. His spokesperson said her boss was doing business on behalf of America. Kelly was more blunt. "This is a full-time job. I've worked my ass off learning all I could about it. ... The fact that I was in the [Gulf] War doesn't cut any slack at all." He added that he and Baker were "meticulous in not meeting with anybody until Bush left." ...
[Dubya's brothers] Neil and Marvin Bush also made the Kuwaiti trip with Poppy. Marvin was selling electric security fences. Neil came home with his parents but returned a few weeks later, hoping to persuade Kuwait's Ministry of Electricity to cut him in on any management fees Enron would earn running Kuwait's reconstructed power plants.
Crony capitalism, Bush Dynasty style. War and the oil bitness. Who cares if there were any "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq in 2003? The family bitness must go on, just like Daddy did it. Baker, at last report, was trying to renegotiate Iraq's foreign debt.
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