George W. Bush's brother was on the board of directors of a company
providing electronic security for the World Trade Center, Dulles International
Airport and United Airlines, according to public records. The company was
backed by an investment firm, the Kuwait-American Corp., also linked for years
to the Bush family.
The security company, formerly named Securacom and now named Stratesec, is
in Sterling, Va.. Its CEO, Barry McDaniel, said the company had a ``completion
contract" to handle some of the security at the World Trade Center ``up to the
day the buildings fell down."
It also had a three-year contract to maintain electronic security systems
at Dulles Airport, according to a Dulles contracting official.
Securacom/Stratesec also handled some security for United Airlines in the
1990s, according to McDaniel, but it had been completed before his arriving on
the board in 1998.
McDaniel confirmed that the company has security contracts with the
Department of Defense, including the U.S. Army, but did not detail the nature
of the work, citing security concerns. It has an ongoing line with the General
Services Administration - meaning that its bids for contracts are
noncompetitive - and also did security work for the Los Alamos laboratory
before 1998.
Marvin P. Bush, the president's youngest brother, was a director at
Stratesec from 1993 to fiscal year 2000. But the White House has not publicly
disclosed Bush connections in any of its responses to 9/11, nor has it
mentioned that another Bush-linked business had done security work for the
facilities attacked.
Marvin Bush joined Securacom when it was capitalized by the
Kuwait-American Corporation, a private investment firm in D.C. that was the
security company's major investor, sometimes holding a controlling interest.
Marvin Bush has not responded to telephone calls and e-mails for comment.
KuwAm has been linked to the Bush family financially since the Gulf War.
One of its principals and a member of the Kuwaiti royal family, Mishal Yousef
Saud al Sabah, served on the board of Stratesec.
The managing director at KuwAm, Wirt D. Walker III, was also a principal
at Stratesec, and Walker, Marvin Bush and al Sabah are listed in SEC filings
as significant shareholders in both companies during that period.
Marvin Bush's last year on the board at Stratesec coincided with his first
year on the board of HCC Insurance, formerly Houston Casualty Co., one of the
insurance carriers for the WTC. He left the HCC board in November 2002.
But none of these connections has been looked at during the extensive
investigations since 9/11. McDaniel says principals and other personnel at
Stratesec have not been questioned or debriefed by the FBI or other
investigators. Walker declined to answer the same question regarding KuwAm,
referring to the public record.
Walker is also chairman and CEO of Aviation General, a Tulsa, Okla.-based
aviation company with two subsidiaries. SEC filings also show al Sabah as a
principal and shareholder in Aviation General, which was recently delisted by
the Nasdaq. Stratesec was delisted by the American Stock Exchange in October
2002.
The suite in which Marvin Bush was annually re-elected, according to
public records, is located in the Watergate in space leased to the Saudi
government. The company now holds shareholder meetings in space leased by the
Kuwaiti government there. The White House has not responded to various
requests for comment.
Speaking of the Watergate, Riggs National Bank, where Saudi Princess
Al-Faisal had her ``Saudi money trail" bank account, has as one of its
executives Jonathan Bush, an uncle of the president. The public has not
learned whether Riggs - which services 95 percent of Washington's foreign
embassies - will be turning over records relating to Saudi finance.
Meanwhile, Bush has nominated William H. Donaldson to head the Securities
and Exchange Commission. Donaldson, a longtime Bush family friend, was a Yale
classmate of Jonathan Bush.
On the very day of the tragic space shuttle crash, the government
appointed an independent investigative panel, and rightly so. Why didn't it do
the same on Sept. 12, 2001?
Margie Burns, a teacher and writer, lives in Cheverly, Maryland.
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