THE EAGLE HOODED

The 9-11 Coverup

Part I

Sightings from The Catbird Seat

~ o ~

From the Harvard University website:

Joshua Gotbaum
Chief Executive Officer
The September 11^th Fund

BIOGRAPHY

Joshua Gotbaum became the first Chief Executive Officer of the September 11^th Fund in October 2001. He is responsible for developing the organization and staff of the Fund, as well as the grant programs by which it will distribute almost $500 million in contributions.

The September 11^th Fund was established by The New York Community Trust and United Way of New York City to meet both the immediate and long term needs of the victims, families and communities affected by the terrorist attacks.

Josh worked on counter-terrorism and domestic preparedness in the US government. He served in the US Office of Management and Budget from 1997-2001, first as Executive Associate Director and then adding the job of Controller. During this period, he was for several years responsible for managing the counter-terrorism budget. Prior to joining OMB, Mr. Gotbaum was Assistant Secretary of Treasury for Economic Policy, serving then-Secretary Robert Rubin and then-Deputy Secretary Laurence Summers. He served as assistant Secretary of Defense from 1994-1995.

Prior to joining the Department of Defense, Mr. Gotbaum was a partner and managing director of the New York investment bank of Lazard Freres & Co. He was affiliated with the firm, both in New York and London, from 1981-1994, providing advice in mergers and acquisition, corporate finance, bankruptcies and restructuring.

During 1977-1981, Josh held various positions in the Carter Administration, both in the White House and the US Department of Energy....

www.ksg.harvard.edu/terrorism/experts/bios/gotbaum_joshua.html

$ $ $

November 28, 2001

More on The United Way

By Bill O’Reilly, Fox News

Hi, I’m Bill O’Reilly....

I hope you saw last night’s Factor as something very extraordinary happened. That’s the subject of this evening’s “Talking Points” memo. As you may know, we have been investigating the United Way September 1 Fund, which controls more than $300 million that you donated to help the 9/11 families.

The Fund’s CEO, Joshua Gotbaum, appeared on The Factor and dropped a bombshell. There are now two September 11 Funds. One to help the families and another to help organizations that the United Way likes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O’REILLY: How many September 11 Funds do you have? How many?

JOSHUA GOTBAUM, SEPTEMBER 11 FUND CEO: There are two.

O’REILLY: There are two. All right, it’s the first I’m hearing about this. There’s the September 11 Telethon Fund. Is that right?

GOTBAUM: Right, that’s right.

O’REILLY: And then, there’s the September 11 what fund?

GOTBAUM: There is the general September 11 Fund.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O’REILLY: But on the United Way website, we could only find one September 11 Fund mentioned until late this afternoon, when magically, mention of a second fund popped up.

Now the importance of the story is not that the United Way is screwing up. It is. But that it’s allowed to continue to operate without an oversight. Why are your charitable donations not worth the time and interest of the authorities? There’s obviously chaos and possibly fraud in all of this.

With Congress set to take off Christmas, it looks like the 160 charities involved with the terror attack will continue to operate without challenge. This is truly a scandal. And outside of us, very few in the media give a damn.

The New York Islanders hockey team, for example, recently collected $170,000 from their own players, their salary, they donated today’s salary in order to help the 9/11 families. But the Islanders have to sit on the money because they don’t know where to send it.

Now I put them in touch with some grassroots charities I trust, but the State of New York should be doing this, not some media guy. It is a cliche, but actions speak louder than words. All those politicians and celebrities you saw on TV sympathizing with the attack victims certainly were very convincing. When it gets down to the hard part, when it gets down to actually helping people, most of those people simply have not stepped up. And that is a depressing disgrace.

Once again, Talking Points is asking Governor Pataki of New York and members of Congress to begin overseeing this charity business. An Points continues to encourage celebrities to use their clout to pressure the charities to get organized.

If the powerful people in America really want to help all of those affected by the terror attack, they could. But at this point, most of the powerful sit on the sidelines.

And that’s the memo....

www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,39608,00.html

November 8, 2001

Victims Fund Gave $171K to Group
Defending Terror Detainees

NLPC Demands that September 11 Fund Get Money Back

WASHINGTON, DC - National Legal and Policy Center today blasted the United Way of New York and its September 11 Fund for making a grant of $171,000 to the Legal Aid Society, a group [of lawyers] that is apparently providing legal assistance to eight individuals detained as a result of the investigation into the September 11 terrorist attacks.

In a letter faxed to Joshua Gotbaum, executive director of the United Way of New York, NLPC demanded that the United Way immediately seek to recover the funds, seek an accounting of resources expended on behalf of the detainees, and require that future grants only go to groups whose agendas are “not inconsistent with the interests of actual or potential terror victims.”

The letter read, in part, “Americans generously donated to the September 11 Fund to help the victims of the terrorist attacks. They did not contribute to help the terrorists, their supporters or people arrested or detained because they violated immigration laws.”...

NLPC President Peter Flaherty said, “With all the questions about the fund raising on behalf of victims, this has to be the most shocking development yet.”

www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/566874/posts

- For more on 9-11 profiteering, GO TO: Allied World Assurance; The Eagle Hooded; Marsh & McLennan’s Putnam Investments.

$ $ $

November, 1995

Program Manager Interviews

JOSHUA GOTBAUM

ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR ECONOMIC SECURITY

Which Defense Firms Will Survive – Meet the
Man Who Helps the Pentagon Decide

A large white banner is first thing you notice upon entering the reception area of Joshua Gotbaum’s third-floor Pentagon office. In foot-high red letters, it reads: “Please Mr. Gotbaum, Save Natick [Mass.] Labs” - referring to the Base Realignment and Closure [BRAC] recommendation to close Natick).

Secretary Gotbaum, a former Wall Street investment banker, achieved the status of Washington insider in 1 short year. He is respected both by the Pentagon brass and defense industry officials. He influences key decisions ranging from BRAC to which defense industries will survive...

www.dau.mil/pubs/pm/pmpdf95/gotbaum.pdf

For more, GO TO > > > The Bribes & Boondoggles of Boeing; Hawaiian Airlines: Flying with the Bankruptcy Buzzards; Nests in The Pentagon

From The Great Divide, by John Sperling, others:

Energy: The Economics of Corporate Welfare

The Political Power of Extraction Industries

In the decade 1991-2001, Metro America paid $1.6 trillion more in taxes that Retro America, and Retro America received $0.8 trillion more in federal payments than it paid in federal taxes. ...

Much of this $0.8 trillion goes to Retro America in the form of the lion’s share of subsidies and tax breaks to the energy industry – oil, gas, and coal.

The primary reason these noneconomic subsidies continue to flow decade after decade is the political power of the extraction industries, a power that has been wielded in both Republican and Democratic administrations but has been greatly magnified under the Bush administration. During the Clinton administration, the extraction industries had limited influence: We have been able to identify only two cabinet, subcabinet, and White House staff members with extraction industry connections.

In contrast, we have identified 53 members of the Bush administration with close ties to the extraction industries....

Clinton’s two extraction industry appointees were Thomas F. (Mack) McLarty III - a childhood friend whom the president apppointed as his Chief of staff – and Joshua Gotbaum, whom he appointed to the subcabinet post of Executive Associate Director and Controller of the Office of Management and Budget.

Prior to joining the White House, McLarty was the chairman and chief executive officer of Arkla Inc., a natural gas company.

Mr. Gotbaum was a partner in Lazard Freres and Co., specializing in energy-related products....

President Bush and the Bush family have strong ties to the oil industry going back to John D. Rockefeller and the early days of the industry. George W. Bush’s great-grandfather, Samuel Bush, was an associate of John D. Rockefeller and ran Buckeye Steel Castings in the early 20^th century. The daughter of George Herbert Walker, the financier and associate of the Harrimans, married Samuel’s son, Prescott Bush, investment banker, U.S. senator, and father of George Herbert Walker Bush (Bush senior).

President Bush Junior and his closest advisers have heavy ties to oil. Bush’s own oil venture was unsuccessful, but because of his family ties, he sat on the board of directors of Harken Oil, which saved him from bankruptcy by buying his company...

www.retrovsmetro.org/downloads/chpfull/Ch5_full.pdf

~ ~ ~

For more, GO TO > > > Aloha, Harken Energy; Birds on the Power Lines; The Boyd Group; The Carlyle Group: Birds that Drink from Cesspools; Dirty Money, Dirty Politics & Bishop Estate; The Indonesian Connection; The Donkey Nests; The Indonesian Connection; Nests in the Pentagon; The Myth and The Methane; Nests Along Wall Street; The Strange Saga of BCCI

December 18, 2002

FBI Let Suspect Go

Five Terror Suspects Arrested;
Two Still at Large

By Brian Ross

-- Seven people have been criminally charged with financing terrorism, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced today. Five of the suspects are under arrest but two others, a married couple, are still at large -- which an active FBI agent says represents a significant failure by the agency.

Authorities indicted Mousa Abu Marzook, a top Hamas political leader who was deported from the United States in 1997, and his wife. The two are accused of conspiring to violate U.S. laws that prohibit financial dealings with terrorists. The vice president of a Texas-based computer company called InfoCom Corp. and four of his brothers are under arrest on the same charges.

"Today's charges against a senior leader of Hamas are the latest in an aggressive campaign to identify, disrupt and destroy the sources of funding that make terrorism possible," Ashcroft said.

What the attorney general DID NOT MENTION was that Marzook was in U.S. custody in 1997 and under criminal investigation then for much the same crimes cited today.

But according to Robert Wright, one of the FBI agents on the case at the time, FBI headquarters ordered a halt to the criminal investigation of Marzook in 1998, preferring instead to gather intelligence reports on his movements.

"They wanted to shut down the criminal investigation," Wright told ABCNEWS.

"They wanted to kill it."

Wright, still an active agent, made his comments in an interview scheduled for broadcast this week on PrimeTime Thursday.

Called off Criminal Case

"The supervisor who was there from headquarters was right straight across from me and started yelling at me: 'You will not open criminal investigations. I forbid any of you. You will not open criminal investigations against any of these intelligence subjects,'" Wright told ABCNEWS.

The federal prosecutor at the time, Mark Flessner, says he was building a case against Marzook and others when the FBI pulled the plug -- essentially letting Marzook go free.

"I think there were very serious mistakes made," said Flessner. "And I think, it perhaps cost, it cost people their lives ultimately."

The FBI says the decision to kill the case four years ago was appropriate at the time.

Marzook was detained in July 1995 by the INS at the request of Israel, claiming that he was wanted for orchestrating a series of attacks and bombings there. He was deported to Jordan in 1997 when Israel declined to pursue his extradition.

He is now believed to be in Damascus, Syria.

Copyright © 2002 ABC News Internet Ventures.

* * * * *

November 26, 2002

Dirty Dozen?

The FBI May Have Dragged Its Feet on
Investigating the Saudi Money Trail

-- Although the CIA had a secret list of 12 prominent Saudi businessmen accused of continuing to funnel millions to Osama bin Laden, ABCNEWS has learned that the FBI may have dragged its feet in following the Saudi money trail.

The list of the 12 names has been in the hands of the Saudi government for the last nine months, ABCNEWS has learned.

One of the men on the list is Yassin al-Kadi, a Saudi multimillionaire involved in banking, chemicals, diamonds and real estate.

But ABCNEWS has now learned that the FBI shut down the investigation on al-Kadi two years ago.

The closure of the investigation came even after allegations that the Saudi businessman may have helped finance the 1998 attacks on two U.S. embassies in east Africa.

American law enforcement agents said the FBI had begun to build a substantial case against al-Kadi when orders came from Washington to drop it.

An FBI affidavit, obtained by ABCNEWS, contains details of the aborted investigation of al-Kadi, including his ownership of a suspicious chemical plant in suburban Chicago and allegations that a Muslim FBI agent may have thwarted the investigation two years before the Sept. 11, 2001.

According to the Wall Street Journal today, in an affidavit dated March 21, 2000, an FBI agent from the organization's Chicago counterterrorism squad alleged that Gamal Abdel-Hafiz, a Muslim FBI agent, refused to cooperate with an FBI probe into BMI Inc., a now-defunct Secaucus, N.J., company currently under U.S. investigation in the probe of al-Kadi.

But in an internal complaint, Abdel-Hafiz claimed his reputation had been tarnished and his career undermined by agents who questioned his loyalty to the United States, said the report.

And in an interview with ABCNEWS' John Miller last year, al-Kadi denied sending any money to bin Laden or to his shadowy al Qaeda network. "To hear such an accusation had been put on myself, this is a complete mistake," he said. "A big one."

U.S. officials say the CIA is now tracking huge sums of money that the businessmen on the list have allegedly been moving into accounts in Europe, Africa and Asia.

According to U.S. officials, al-Kadi and all the other businessmen on the secret list have close personal and business connections with the Saudi royal family.

From the Princess' Bank Account

The latest news comes amid allegations that the Saudi royal family may have indirectly funneled money to two of the Sept. 11 hijackers.

In a report published in Newsweek, the magazine alleged that money from an account in the name of Princess Haifa al-Faisal -- wife of Saudi Ambassador to the Uniteed States Prince Bandar bin Sultan, and daughter of the late King Faisal -- reached the hijackers.

Officials said that princess sent checks for tens of thousands of dollars to the wife of a man named Osama Basnan.

According to the report, Basnan's wife endorsed some checks over to Omar al-Bayoumi, who Newsweek reports may have given money to Khalid Almidhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, two of the hijackers that crashed into the Pentagon....

Saudi Man Denies Handing Cash
to 9/11 Hijackers

And in an interview published in the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper from his home in the Saudi port city of Jeddah today, Basnan denied funding the two Sept. 11 hijackers and said he had been cleared by U.S. investigators.

"My wife did not give the money to Omar Bayoumi or anyone else and our debts are bigger than what we received from Princess Haifa," he said.

"When I wanted to cover costs of medical treatment, I wrote a letter to Prince Bandar and he agreed, and my wife spoke to the princess' office which agreed to grant her monthly assistance via check more than once," he said.

Basnan was arrested in the United States for visa fraud last August but was ordered deported to Saudi Arabia.

Political Storm

The allegations created a political storm over the weekend, with Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., promising to "look under every rock" to pursue the allegations "because we believe there's a lot of information there."

Speaking on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America on Monday, Shelby also hinted that U.S.-Saudi relations were especially strained due to the new allegations. "We have, at best, not a great relationship with the Saudis," he said. "It's transactional and we should keep that in mind."

The Bush administration is also under fire from U.S. lawmakers, who charge it's often too willing to look the other way when it comes to the Saudis. "When the president says they're either with us or against us, I think by and large the Saudis are against us and they've been against us for the last 15 years," said Ken Adelman, a member of the Defense Policy Board, which provides the Defense Department guidance on major matters of defense policy.

Bush officials said they will wait until the ongoing FBI investigation is over before responding to any of the criticism.

ABCNEWS' Brian Ross contributed to this report. Copyright © 2002 ABC News Internet Ventures.

* * * * *

November 27, 2002

Bush Names Kissinger to Lead 9/11 Probe

By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush named former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on Wednesday to lead an independent investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks and said the probe "must uncover every detail and learn every lesson" of the terrorist strikes.

"We are under no restrictions, and we will accept no restrictions," Kissinger told reporters at the White House.

Kissinger, 79, will lead an investigative commission created under a bill Bush signed authorizing intelligence activities in the 2003 budget year.

"This commission will help me and future presidents to understand the methods of America's enemies and the nature of the threats we face," Bush said at a White House ceremony with lawmakers, survivors and victims' families.

"This investigation should carefully examine all the evidence and follow all the facts wherever they lead," said Bush, who was initially cool toward creating an independent commission.

"We must uncover every detail and learn every lesson of September the 11th."

Kissinger spoke briefly to family members before talking with reporters after the ceremony. "To the families concerned, there's nothing that can be done about the losses they've suffered, but everything must be done to avoid that such a tragedy can occur again."

Kissinger is one of the best known diplomats of the 20th century, but also a controversial figure.

He was secretary of state to Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 with North Vietnam's Le Duc Tho for cease-fire negotiations during the Vietnam war. Kissinger also made a determined peacemaking effort in the Middle East and made repeated trips to the region. But he has also been called a war criminal by his harshest critics, for the role he played in Vietnam and other hot spots, working at times with corrupt governments in pursuit of U.S. interests.

The commission has a broad mandate, building on the limited joint inquiry conducted by the House and Senate intelligence committees. The independent panel will have 18 months to examine issues such as aviation security and border problems, along with intelligence.

Bush called on members to report back more quickly than 18 months, saying the nation needed to know quickly how it can avoid terror attacks in the future.

However, Bush did not set as a primary goal for Kissinger to uncover mistakes or lapses of the government that could have prevented the Sept. 11 attacks.

Instead, he said the panel should try to help the administration learn the tactics and motives of the enemy....

Like the Homeland Security Department, the independent commission was an idea to which Bush's support came late.

The White House held that only Congress should investigate, arguing that an independent probe could distract administration officials from anti-terrorism efforts and produce leaks that could compromise intelligence operations.

The change of heart came in September, as family members of Sept. 11 victims applied pressure and congressional hearings began to uncover intelligence and law enforcement failures.

The White House had concerns about the leadership and subpoena powers of the panel. Bush insisted only a bipartisan group should be able to compel testimony and documents, fearing that one-party subpoenas would lead to ineffective finger-pointing and allow the panel to be used merely to score political points.

The 10-member commission will be evenly divided between Republican and Democratic appointees.

White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Bush does not envision testifying before the panel.

But Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., a leading advocate of the commission, said it is likely Bush will be asked to address the panel...

For more on Henry Kissinger, GO TO > > > The Kissinger of Death

* * * * *

< < < FLASHBACK < < <

November 12, 2001

Briefing on Sept. 11th Terrorist Attacks

A Strange Intersection of
Bushes, bin Ladens

By Tom Brazaitis, The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Movie producers would reject the script as too implausible even for Hollywood.

Here's the bizarre plot twist:

The father of the president of the United States stands to profit from the war his son is waging against terrorists, and so does the family of the leading terrorist.

Until recently, the Texas-based Bush political dynasty that produced two presidents and the Saudi Arabian-based bin Laden family that spawned the FBI's most wanted terrorist reaped dividends from the same source.

Details of the case of strange business bedfellows have dribbled out over the last several months, raising at least the perception of conflicts of interest. But the Bush family and the White House maintain there is no impropriety.

Critics do not contend that President George W. Bush is waging war for his family's financial benefit. But they say the fact that the family stands to gain from any military action puts the family in a compromising position, even if the circumstances are purely coincidental.

Former President Bush is a senior adviser to the Carlyle Group, a private equity company that buys failing defense and telecommunications enterprises and sells them for a profit. Carlyle's investors have collected returns averaging 34 percent over the last decade.

With assets of more than $12 billion, Carlyle is the 11th-largest defense contractor in the United States. It owns companies making tanks, aircraft wings and other military hardware.

Bush reportedly gets $80,000 to $100,000 for each of a half-dozen or more speeches he delivers for the Carlyle Group each year, and takes payment in Carlyle stock.

How much the former president's stake is worth can't be determined because Carlyle's business dealings are private. An aide to the former president answered "no comment" to questions about his Carlyle compensation.

Until recently, the family of Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes against the United States, held at least $2 million in Carlyle stock.

The family, which has publicly disavowed its black sheep, Osama, agreed to sell its Carlyle holdings last month to quash negative publicity. Details of this and the other relationships had been in reported publications including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Former President Bush has no such qualms about his relationship with Carlyle.

The former president's close ties with the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia and with leaders in Korea and other Asian nations reportedly helped Carlyle attract wealthy investors.

But Jean Becker, the former president's chief of staff in Houston, said Bush does not lobby for Carlyle with either the American or foreign governments.

As for the appearance of a conflict, Becker said, "President Bush just feels strongly that this was a relationship that he had before his son became president, and because of the way in which he conducts himself in this relationship there is no conflict of interest. He feels very comfortable with it."

Becker confirmed that the former president had met twice with the bin Laden family on visits to Saudi Arabia in November 1998 and January 2000.

Those visits, she said, were "irrelevant to the fact that he was there for Carlyle."

President George W. Bush himself has been a beneficiary of Carlyle's largesse. In 1990, before the younger Bush ran for governor of Texas, Carlyle put him on the board of directors of its subsidiary Caterair, an airline catering company.

The younger Bush also had a tenuous connection to the bin Laden family. In 1979, James Bath, a close friend, gave Bush $50,000 for a 5 percent stake in Arbusto Energy, Bush's first business. Bath was the U.S. business representative for Salem bin Laden, one of Osama's brothers, who headed the family's business enterprises. It has been speculated that Bath invested the bin Ladens' money, but the White House recently denied this, saying Bath invested his own money.

As governor, Bush appointed the board that managed the Texas teachers pension fund. Last November, the board voted to invest $100 million in Carlyle. The University of Texas has invested $15.6 million in funds managed by the Carlyle Group.

Tucker Eskew, a White House spokesman, said, "There is absolutely no conflict of interest in the view of the White House or any credible source that we're aware of."

Not everyone shares that view.

Judicial Watch, a self-described public-interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government abuse and corruption, has called on the former president to cut his ties to the Carlyle Group.

Judicial Watch's criticism of the Bushes is noteworthy because the group was one of the chief antagonists of the Clinton administration.

Tom Fitton, president of the watchdog group, said, "It's an obvious conflict of interest. It's a unique situation where you have the president's father, an ex-president, out there negotiating and dealing with foreign governments and advising foreign entities. It just leads to confusion. Does he speak for the Carlyle Group or for the government of the United States? Obviously, the Carlyle Group benefits from that confusion. Otherwise, they wouldn't have hired him."

Fitton said the bin Laden family's withdrawal from the Carlyle Group is a good thing, but doesn't absolve the former president.

Another Carlyle principal with ties to both Bushes is James A. Baker, the secretary of state in the first Bush administration, and the point man for George W. Bush during his legal fight with Al Gore last year over Florida's presidential votes. Baker holds the title of senior counselor for Carlyle.

Carlyle's president is Frank Carlucci, who was defense secretary in the Reagan administration. Carlucci was a college roommate of the current defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld.

Carlucci is open about his discussions with Rumsfeld on Pentagon politics, but he told the New York Times, "I've made it clear I don't lobby the defense industry. I will give our Carlyle bankers' advice on what they might do and who they should talk to. But I do not pick up the phone and say, 'You should fund X, Y or Z.' "

The Washington-based Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group, has been investigating Carlyle's connections with former government officials. But information on Carlyle and its subsidiaries is hard to find because private companies are not compelled to reveal their inner workings, and Carlyle does not volunteer information, said Peter Eisner, the group's managing director...

The revolving-door between government and business has been spinning merrily for many years.

Henry Kissinger, who was secretary of state and national security adviser for Presidents Nixon and Ford, started a consulting firm that has made him a multimillionaire since he left government service.

William Cohen, a former Republican senator from Maine who was President Clinton's defense secretary, is a consultant to corporations. Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger; his former chief of staff, Mack McClarty; his ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke; and the former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, William Kennard, also are cashing in on their years of government service. Kennard has signed on with Carlyle.

What makes the Bushes' situation unique, Eisner said, is the father-son connection, coupled with the ongoing war on terrorism.

"The revolving door makes it possible for current government officials, including the president of the United States, to profit from decisions that take place now, especially when his father, the former president, advises a company which has major defense contracts," said Eisner.

© 2001, The Cleveland Plain Dealer

A strange intersection of Bushes, bin Ladens

* * * * *

November 29, 2002

THE 'ARAB GATSBY' AND HIS WASHINGTON PALS

By Maureen Dowd, The New York Times

WASHINGTON - Prince Bandar is known as the Arab Gatsby.

Rising from a murky past in a racist society, born in a Bedouin tent as the son of an African palace servant impregnated by a Saudi prince, to a glamorous present as dean of the Washington diplomatic corps.

Tossing glittery parties with celebrity entertainment at his sumptuous mansions in Aspen and England's Wychwood, a royal hunting ground once used by Norman and Plantagenet kings.

Smoking cigars and bragging about his fighter-jock exploits - flying upside down 50 feet above the ground - at parties at his McLean, Va. estate overlooking the Potomac, "where there was more chilled vodka in little shot glasses than I've ever see," as one guest recalled.

Flying off in his private Airbus to hunt birds in Spain with his friends former President George H.W. Bush and Norman Schwarzkopf, entertaining the current President Bush's sister, Doro, at his Virginia farm, and palling around on the D.C. social circuit with Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, George Tenet, Brent Scowcroft and Bob Woodward.

Spinning a smoky web of intrigue with his cigars and CIA operations, helping finance the contras.

So if Bandar bin Sultan is Gatsby, his wife, Princess Haifa, must be like the careless Daisy, her voice full of money that could have ended up supporting two of the Saudi hijackers. And those 15 Saudi hijackers would be "the foul dust that floated in the wake" of the Arab Gatsby's dreams.

His new dream is that Saudi Arabia will help America get rid of Saddam, and then the anger over Saudi involvement in 9/11 will fade and the cozy, oily alliance between the countries can get back on track.

All the millions the Saudis have spent since 9/11 on a charm offensive could not save them from Newsweek's Michael Isikoff and Evan Thomas, who drew fresh tracks between charitable checks Haifa wrote and two hijackers.

The princess says she feels as if a bomb has been dropped on her head - an unfortunate metaphor given the fact that Saudi terrorists funded by Saudi charities turned planes carrying innocent Americans into bombs.

She is rarely seen around Washington, abiding by Saudi customs sheltering women. But she entertains at her many homes, and powerful friends - including Barbara Bush and Alma Powell - called on Monday night to buck her up.

The case inflamed public suspicion that the Saudi government is more involved than it admits, and that the Bushies are less zealous about getting to the bottom of the Saudi role than they should be.

Some senators charge that the FBI has pulled its punches, and that the royal family, as Richard Shelby puts it, has "got a lot of answering to do."

Gen. Tommy Franks has already spent a fortune setting up a new base in Qatar because the Saudis are still dithering about letting us use our old bases in their country.

Noncommittal on the future, and uncooperative on the past, the Saudis have been stingy about helping the FBI with 9/11. The administration has helped the Saudis be evasive, with Dick Cheney stonewalling congressional investigators.

It would probably be far easier for America to reduce its dependence on Saudi oil than for the House of Saud and the House of Bush to untangle their decades-long symbiosis.

Bandar, the representative of an oil kingdom, is so close to the Bushes, an oil dynasty, that they nicknamed him Bandar Bush. He contributed over $1 million to the Bush presidential library. The former president is affiliated with the Carlyle Group, which does extensive business with the Saudis.

It was terribly inconvenient for all the friends of the bin Sultans when the trail of checks led to the Saudi Embassy. Many influential people in Washington were averting their eyes from the embarrassment. The prince and his panicky wife were defending themselves to The New York Times' Patrick Tyler while Bandar anxiously flipped among seven television screens in their pool house to catch the latest news.

The Bush crowd was praying it wasn't a last-days-of-disco scene similar to the one when the shah of Iran was overthrown by Islamic fundamentalists, and the jet-setting Iranian diplomats had to pour all the liquor down the drain at their embassy.

Will the Arab Gatsby end like the original - "borne back ceaselessly into the past"?

* * * * *

May 31, 2002

Kissinger to advise
Hicks Muse on Europe

By Dane Hamilton

NEW YORK, May 31 (Reuters) - Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was named European adviser to Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst, the latest Washington power broker to join a major U.S. private equity firm, the firm said.

Kissinger, considered the most influential foreign policy adviser to Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, is joining the European strategy board of Hicks Muse, a $10 billion fund based in Dallas, Hicks Muse announced.