All in the Family …
President Bush named James A. Baker III, the <$NoAd$>former secretary of state, as his personal envoy to Iraq today to help the country grapple with its debt problem.
“Secretary Baker will report directly to me,” Mr. Bush said in a statement, “and will lead an effort to work with the world’s governments at the highest levels, with international organizations and with the Iraqis, in seeking the restructuring and reduction of Iraq’s official debt.”
New York Times, December 5th 2003
Saudi Arabia will withhold the $1 billion in loans and credits that it pledged last month for Iraq’s reconstruction until the security situation is stabilized and a sovereign government takes office, U.S. and Saudi officials said.
Los Angeles Times, December 1st 2003
Baker is one of the Saudi government’s chief supporters in the US. His law firm, Baker Botts, is now representing the Saudi government in the $ 1 trillion law suit filed against Saudi Arabia for its alleged role in the 9/11 attacks by the victims’ families. Baker also serves as senior counsel and partner in the Carlyle investment group, which is a financial adviser to the Saudi government.
Jerusalem Post, August 15th 2003
For more than three decades, Saudi Arabia has sought to influence American politicians, often through investment in American business. While they have occasionally sought out Democrats, they are far more comfortable with Republicans — and in particular, with Bush Republicans. At the moment, for example, the kingdom’s defense attorney in a lawsuit brought by families of 9/11 victims happens to be James Baker, that ultimate Bushie whose resume includes stints as Secretary of State and Treasury. (Mr. Baker’s last big court case was Bush v. Gore.)
New York Observer, August 11th 2003
A fine illustration of this Washington tradition took place at the capital’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Sept. 11, 2001. On that day, former secretary of state James Baker, former secretary of defense Frank Carlucci and a parade of other former government officials convened at those swank quarters to attend the annual investor conference of the Carlyle Group, a private investment company known for putting lucrative business deals together for the Saudi royal family (and also known for its roster of all-star advisers, including Baker and the elder George Bush). Among those gathered to schmooze with Washington’s power brokers was one Shafiq bin Laden, a Saudi captain of industry whose brother would slaughter thousands of Americans before the conferees broke for lunch. The meeting, notes Robert Baer, whose Sleeping With the Devil catalogs many others like it, “was the perfect metaphor for Washington’s strange affair with Saudi Arabia.”
Washington Post, July 27th 2003
I’m not a Saudi-basher. But it seems to me that there’s some difficulty with this appointment.
