AN IMPORTANT TENET of journalism is that you should always ask, “Who benefits?”
In the case of a war,
the answers to this question become
of paramount importance. Suppose, for example,
that profits from
military contracting were to go in the pockets
of a former U.S.
President whose son (and a presumed future
heir) is now
President? Suppose further that such profits
escalate in times of
conflict. Wouldn’t this be of concern to the
public? Wouldn’t you
expect the media to be all over such an important
ethical (not to
mention moral, and maybe legal) angle?
Though described by
the Industry Standard as “the world’s
largest private equity firm,” with over $12
billion under
management, chances are readers haven’t ever
heard of The
Carlyle Group. Isn’t that a little odd, considering
it is run by a
veritable who's who of former Republican political
leaders. Former
Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci is Carlyle’s
chairman and
managing director (who, by the way, was college
roommate of the
current Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld).
And that partners in
this mammoth venture include former U.S. Secretary
of State
James A. Baker III, George Soros, Fred Malek
(George H.W. Bush’s
campaign manager, forced to resign when it
was revealed he was
Nixon’s “Jew counter”), and—presumably—George
H.W. Bush?
We say “presumably”
because the privately-held Carlyle
doesn’t have to reveal information about its
partners or
investments to the SEC or to anyone else.
Our former President is
reported to be active in seeking investments
for the Carlyle Group
from the Asian market, and word is he’s paid
between $80,000 to
$100,000 per presentation.
All told, Carlyle has
about 420 partners all over the globe,
from Saudi princes to the former president
of the Philippines. Its
investments run heavily in the defense sector;
they make money
from military conflicts and weapons spending.
But who in
Baltimore knows about it?
A search of the Baltimore
Sun’s website reveals no mentions
whatsoever of The Carlyle Group, though it’s
been around since
1988 and has been involved in numerous buy-outs
and buy-ins,
sometimes with SEC-regulated companies that
have to report
these things. Contrast this news blackout
with the Washington
Post’s 378 mentions, and the New York Times’
332 hits. Even the
Philadelphia Inquirer weighed in with 15 mentions.
Not only have some
newspapers and magazines brought The
Carlyle Group out of the shadows it prefers,
but this enterprise
has attracted the attention of The Center
for Public Integrity and
Judicial Watch, both of which have concerns
about the ethical
propriety of having high-placed former government
officials—trained at taxpayer expense, too—out
there reaping over
20% to 40% a year by working their connections.
You have to
wonder if these former public servants are
just simply greedy, or
if they’re telling themselves they’re true
patriots by doing
behind-the-scenes cloak-and-dagger stuff.
This is a big story.
We were wondering if, in the wake of
current events, we were the only newspaper
that was asking that
question, “Who benefits?” And then we found
that the Wall
Street Journal was asking the right questions,
too, and we were
vastly relieved not to be left hanging out
to dry. On Sept. 27, the
WSJ published a “Special Report: Aftermath
of Terror” with the
headline “Bin Laden Family Could Profit From
a Jump In Defense
Spending Due to Ties to U.S. Bank.” The “bank”
is actually The
Carlyle Group (and by the way, we peons can’t
invest in it, and it
sure isn’t taking deposits from the general
public). The lead
sentence reads: “If the U.S. boosts defense
spending in its quest
to stop Osama bin Laden’s alleged terrorist
activities, there may
be one unexpected beneficiary: Mr. bin Laden’s
family.” And,
though the WSJ curiously did not mention this,
another
beneficiary may be George H.W. Bush’s family.