:31:02
like telecommunications, health care,
:31:06
and particularly defense.
:31:08
Both George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush
:31:11
worked for the Carlyle Group,
:31:13
the same company that counted the bin Laden family
:31:15
among its investors.
:31:18
The Carlyle Group was holding
:31:19
its annual investor conference
:31:21
on the morning of September 11th
:31:23
in the Ritz Carlton hotel in Washington, DC.
:31:26
At that meeting were all of the Carlyle regulars:
:31:30
James Baker likely, John Major,
:31:33
definitely George H.W. Bush
:31:34
though he left the morning of September 11th.
:31:36
Shapfi (sp) bin Laden,
:31:38
who is Osama bin Laden's half brother, um,
:31:41
and was in town to look after his family's investments
:31:45
in the Carlyle Group --
:31:47
all of them together in one room
:31:48
watching as the um,
:31:51
the planes hit the towers.
:31:52
And then in fact the bin Laden family
:31:54
was invested in one of their defense funds which,
:31:58
ironically, meant as the United States
:32:01
started increasing its defense spending, um,
:32:03
the bin Laden family stood to gain
:32:05
from those investments through the Carlyle Group.
:32:13
Of all the weapons companies it owned,
:32:16
the Carlyle Group was in essence
:32:17
the 11th largest defense contractor
:32:19
in the United States.
:32:23
It owned United Defense,
:32:25
makers of the Bradley Armored Fighting Vehicle.
:32:29
September 11th guaranteed
:32:31
that United Defense was going to have
:32:33
a very good year.
:32:38
Just six weeks after 9/11,
:32:40
Carlyle filed to take United Defense public,
:32:43
and in December, made a one day profit
:32:46
of $237 million dollars.
:32:50
But sadly, with so much attention
:32:52
focused on the bin Laden family
:32:53
being important Carlyle investors,
:32:56
the bin Ladens eventually had to withdraw.
:32:59
Bush's dad though stayed on as senior advisor