Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, America's Invisible Government, and the Hidden History of the Last Fifty Years (95 page)

9
. Wilson had been deputy chief of mission in Iraq during the first Gulf War under Poppy Bushand had been sent to Niger under W. to investigate claims that Saddam had sought so-called yellowcake uranium.

10
. Robert Bryce, “Top-Secret Cronies,” Salon.com, November 17, 2005.

11
. By summer 2008, reports were emerging that some State Department officials had objected to the contract because it undermined the authority of the Iraqi government, while others in the administration appeared to have given Hunt the go-ahead. A
New York Times
article mentioned in passing that Hunt had notified fellow members of the PFIAB of its drilling plans, though the article does not explore why Hunt was on that board or what exactly the board’s role is in the intersection between business and intelligence. James Glanz and Richard A. Oppel Jr., “Panel Questions State Dept. Role in Iraq Oil Deal,”
New York Times
, July 3, 2008.

12
. Editorial, “That Troubled Terrorism List,”
New York Times
, August 24, 2008.

13
. After British police uncovered a possible transatlantic attack plot in August 2006 and sought to conduct further surveillance in hopes of bagging a larger network, the Bush administration demanded an immediate raid and high-profile arrests. Thus, W. was able to cite the operation in his weekly radio address, just three months before the midterm elections. He admonished Americans that “we must never make the mistake of thinking the danger of terrorism has passed” (office of the Press Secretary, President’s Radio Address, August 12, 2006,
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/08/20060812.html
). Aram Roston, Lisa Myers, and the NBC News Investigative Unit, “U.S., U.K. at Odds over Timing of Arrests,”
NBC Nightly News
, August 14, 2006.

14
. Karl Rove’s friend Ken Tomlinson, formerly of
Reader’s Digest
, was appointed to head the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), where he hired a crony to “investigate” programs, such as
Now with Bill Moyers
, that he thought reflected a liberal bias. Tomlinson was brought in to supervise broadcasting following a career spent almost entirely working his way to the helm at the politically conservative magazine
Reader’s Digest
, where among other things, he served in the propaganda post of “Vietnam correspondent.” Tomlinson resigned from the
Digest
in 1996 to work on the presidential campaign of Steve Forbes, whose philosophy centered on the inherent pride in inheriting wealth. His eventual rise to U.S. broadcasting czar was undoubtedly smoothed back in 1995 when PBS agreed to accept seventy-five million dollars in
Reader’s Digest
– developed programming, part of a desperate effort by the network to replace dwindling federal contributions. Tomlinson’s inquiry into the Moyers program included a $14,170 study that subjectively classified guests as “liberal” or “conservative” and gave segments labels like “anti-Bush,” “anti-DeLay,” and “anti-corporation.” Tom DeLay was at the time the highly partisan and outspoken House majority leader, dubbed “the Hammer” for his fierce approach to dealing with opponents. Meanwhile, Tomlinson raised five million dollars to air
The Journal
Editorial Report
, a program that showcased unfailingly pro-Bush, pro-DeLay, pro-corporation
Wall Street Journal
editorial board figures. (The show soon jumped to the more ideologically resonant Fox News Channel.) Tomlinson would later be forced to resign from the CPB. Like Michael Brown at FEMA, Tomlinson also had some problems over horses. Investigators say that while heading the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the outfit that oversees U.S. foreign broadcasting, including the Voice of America, Tomlinson ran a “horse racing operation.” He seems to have been using his office to oversee a stable of horses he named after Afghan leaders who fought the Taliban and the Russians.

15
. Drew Griffin and Kathleen Johnston, “Political Author’s Name Matches Name on Terrorist Watch List,” CNN.com,
http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/books/08/14/author.terror.list/index.html
.

16
. Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten,
One Party Country: The Republican Plan for Dominance in
the 21st Century
(Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2006), p. 102.

17
. William Hubbard, “The Overwhelmed FDA,”
Boston Globe
, June 3, 2007.

18
. Editorial, “The F.D.A. in Crisis: It Needs More Money and Talent,”
New York Times
, February 3, 2008.

19
. Editorial, “More Flimflam on Warming,”
New York Times
, March 29, 2008.

20
. Andrew C. Revkin, “Climate Expert Says NASA Tried to Silence Him,”
New York Times
, January 29, 2006.

21
. Office of the Press Secretary, “President Bush Visits Cleveland, Ohio,” White House press release, July 10, 2007,
www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/07/20070710-6.html
.

22
. Paul Krugman, “An Immoral Philosophy,”
New York Times
, July 30, 2007.

23
. Paul Krugman, “The Anxiety Election,”
New York Times
, March 7, 2008.

24
. “Welcome to the Hackocracy,”
New Republic
, October 17, 2005.

25
. Frank Rich, “Bring Back Warren Harding,”
New York Times
, September 26, 2005.

26
. Michelle Malkin, “Not Another Homeland Security Hack,” September 21, 2005.

27
. Charles Duhigg, “Report Rejects Medicare Boast of Paring Fraud,”
New York Times
, August 20, 2008.

28
. Silverado was finally shut down the day after Poppy’s election as president, which hints at backdoor political maneuvering to delay a major Bush scandal. At one press conference, Neil stood defiant, repeating over and over that there had been no conflict of interest, despite his loan of over a hundred million dollars to business partners who also invested in his oil ventures. “Even in the face of irrefutable evidence that everyone but he seemed to understand,” wrote financial reporter Steven Wilmsen, “he seemed to believe it was his birthright to profit at the nation’s expense.” Steven Wilmsen, “The Corruption of Neil Bush,”
Playboy
, June 1, 1991.

29
. Kevin Phillips,
American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune and the Politics of Deceit in the House of
Bush
(New York: Penguin, 2004), p. 130.

30
. “No Bush Left Behind,”
BusinessWeek
, October 16, 2006.

31
. Rupert Cornwell, “President’s Uncle Bucky Emerges as a Big Winner from Iraq War,”
Independent
, February 24, 2005. The Pentagon’s inspector general announced a review of $158 million worth of contracts to ESSI, for suspected “anomalies,” referring specifically to questionable “relationships and the sole source nature” of the deal. (Letter from Henry A. Wax-man to Donald Rumsfeld, April 5, 2006.) Meanwhile, Uncle Bucky claimed to have never used his family to help his company win contracts, stating, “I don’t make any calls to the 202 area code.” Bucky Bush served as Missouri state chairman for W.’s 2004 reelection campaign.

32
. Walter F. Roche Jr., “Company’s Work in Iraq Profited Bush’s Uncle,”
Los Angeles Times
, February 23, 2005. The company later faced inquiries into how it had acquired its government business. Bucky Bush sold his options in January 2005 for around $450,000, just as the shares hit a record $60.39 per share.

33
. Ladd was made a partner in the Monroe, Louisiana–based Pro Set Inc., which makes spray-on plastic coating, or polyurea. Up until a certain point, Pro Set was a pretty obscure operation. Its projects included working on the roof of the Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home and getting rid of the odor from the bathrooms of a minor league baseball team. Then, in late 2000, as the presidential general election approached and George Bush was locked in a close race with Al Gore, Pro Set began getting work from military contractors. Soon, naval research offices were reporting that in tests, hardened polyurea coating had been found to stop large-caliber bullets and protect a dummy driver when a Humvee gets bombed. After 9/11, Pro Set also began stressing the value of its product in reducing federal bomb-proofing requirements.

34
. “Trade-off for Speech Fee Pays Off for Bush,”
Los Angeles Times
, March 20, 1999.

35
. Leslie Wayne, “Elder Bush in Big G.O.P. Cast Toiling for Top Equity Firm,”
New York Times
, March 5, 2001.

36
. Dan Briody,
The Iron Triangle: Inside the Secret World of the Carlyle Group
(Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2003), p. 120.

37
. Naomi Klein,
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
(New York: Metropolitan, 2007), pp. 400–401.

38
. The administration wanted its attorneys to concentrate on voter fraud, an issue that can disenfranchise the poor, the elderly, and recent immigrants—all groups that tend to vote Democrat.

39
. Eric Lichtblau, “Mukasey Won’t Pursue Charges in Hiring Inquiry,”
New York Times
, August 12, 2008.

40
. Bill Minutaglio,
The President’s Counselor: The Rise to Power of Alberto Gonzales
(New York: HarperCollins, 2006), p. 105. Heavy criticism from both conservatives and liberals over an array of concerns forced Miers to withdraw her name from contention for a spot on the high court.

41
. Eric Lipton, “Worker Tells of Response by FEMA,”
New York Times
, October 21, 2005.

42
. Stickney had been had been an engineer in the Environmental Protection Agency and later headed New Hampshire’s Department of Transportation.

43
. Author interview with Trey Reid, September 8, 2005.

44
. Steve Kanstoroom, an independent fraud-detection and pattern-recognition expert with twenty-twoyears’ experience, found that FEMA was allowing insurance adjusters to use software that set artificially low settlement amounts for flood victims, and that the claims-assessment process was deeply compromised by involvement from insurance-industry figures.

45
. Author interview with Steve Kanstoroom, September 8, 2005.

46
. In 2002, when an ice storm hit Allbaugh’s native Kay County, Oklahoma, Joe Allbaugharranged a conference call with county officials, who ended up choosing the Florida-based environmental services firm AshBritt Inc. over other firms with much lower competing bids. Later, AshBritt hired Barbour Griffith—and was awarded a $568 million contract by the Army Corps of Engineers to help lead the Katrina cleanup effort. The months after the hurricane saw numerous articles in local media raising questions about AshBritt’s operations, its candor, and its spectacular growth during the Bush years—all through its lucrative subcontracts to other firms that do most of the actual cleanup work.

On August 15, 2005, with hurricane season getting under way, Joe and Diane’s Allbaugh Company registered as a lobbyist for Shaw Group, a Baton Rouge engineering and construction firm, which began advertising for workers to man its rebuilding projects before Katrina even struck. After the levees broke, Shaw, which had not been a FEMA contractor during the Clinton years, received two separate hundred-million-dollar federal cleanup contracts and saw its stock price shoot up 50 percent in a few weeks. (After Brown departed FEMA, the agency announced it would rebid some contracts that were given on a noncompetitive basis, including Shaw’s. Allbaugh continued to be well rewarded: according to federal lobbyist registrations, the Shaw group paid Allbaugh Company three hundred thousand dollars in the first six months of 2007 alone.)

47
. Barbour was elected governor of Mississippi in 2004, which put him in the limelight as he led Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts in his devastated state.