Bush-Linked Company Handled Security for the WTC, Dulles and United
" 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.
by Margie Burns
Published on Tuesday, February 4, 2003 by the Prince George's Journal (Maryland)
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.
commondreams.org |
