Carlyle Group - war profiteers - slam Brown on Afghanistan

[TonyGosling]

Sir John Major accuses Brown of conduct "profoundly unbecoming" of a Prime Minister
James Forsyth 7:13pm - The Spectator - Saturday, 6th March 2010

In a striking move, John Major will tonight accuse Gordon Brown of “using the Armed Forces as a Party Political prop.” This isn’t the first time that Major has been critical of Brown. He was one of the people who, rightly, criticised Brown’s trip to Iraq during the Tory conference in 2007 and just last month he wrote an article in the Mail on Sunday that accused Labour of mortgaging the country’s future to buy votes. But his remarks tonight are far more personal about Brown than his previous ones. For a former Prime Minister to accuse the sitting Prime Minister of conduct “profoundly unbecoming” of his office is about as stinging as it gets.
John Major, despite losing heavily in 1997, has standing to make these comments. Not only is he a former Prime Minister but there is also a, perhaps prelapsarian, view that the Major government did not spin or play politics with the nation’s affairs............
http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/5822428/sir-john-major-accuses- brown-of-conduct-profoundly-unbecoming-of-a-prime-minister.thtml

[TonyGosling]

Investing in war
The Carlyle Group profits from government and conflict
By M. Asif Ismail 12:00 am, November 18, 2004 Updated: 2:53 pm, September 16, 2011
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2004/11/18/6624/investing-war

A dozen companies in which Carlyle had a controlling interest netted more than $9.3 billion in contracts.

Overall, six private investment firms, including Carlyle, received nearly $14 billion in Pentagon deals between 1998 and 2003. (See related report, "The Sincerest Form of Flattery.")

From its founding in 1987, the Carlyle Group has pioneered investing in the defense and national security markets, and through its takeover of companies with billions of dollars in defense contracts became one of the U.S. military's top vendors, ranking among better known defense firms like Lockheed Martin, Boeing Co., Raytheon Co., Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics.

Unlike those firms, however, the Carlyle Group itself is not a manufacturer. It offers no services directly to the Pentagon, and has no defense contracts. Rather, it manages investments—some $18.4 billion from 600 individuals and entities in 55 countries, according to its Web site. The firm's business is making money for these investors, the vast majority of whose identities are not disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission or other government bodies.

Though Carlyle itself has won no contracts, the companies it has owned or controlled have done billions of dollars worth of business with the Pentagon. The Carlyle unit that brought in the largest share—$5.8 billion—was United Defense Inc., which manufactures combat vehicles, artillery, naval guns, missile launchers and precision munitions. United Defense also owns the country's largest non-nuclear ship repair, modernization, overhaul and conversion company, United States Marine Repair Inc. Its most famous product may well be the Bradley fighting vehicle. United Defense brought in more than 60 percent of Carlyle's defense business.

Carlyle took United Defense public in 2001; by April 2004 it had sold all its shares in the company.

Lear Siegler Services, a leading contractor in aircraft logistics support, maintenance, pilot training and ground support, received contracts worth more than $1 billion. Carlyle sold the company in August 2002.

Southwest Marine Inc. also received contracts worth more than $1 billion since 1998, and Norfolk Shipbuilding & Drydock received contracts worth $827 million. In 1998, Carlyle merged these two companies into United States Marine Repair.

Vought Aircraft Industries, a large subcontractor doing work for military cargo planes, bombers, and fighters, received contracts worth $85 million. Vought is among the few defense contractors that the Carlyle Group has not sold.

Among other private equity firms, New York-based Veritas Capital Management firm that employs many former high-ranking military officials received Pentagon contracts to the tune of more than $2.2 billion. Veritas is the 41st ranked defense contractor.

Companies under the ownership of Vectura Holding Co., another New York-based group, got deals to the tune of $1 billion, while companies controlled by Berkshire Hathaway, led by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, won contracts worth $688 million. Companies owned by Green Equity Investors II LP ($275 million) and Gores Technology Group ($153 million) also received substantial defense money.

[cogbias]

Some random junk. Was looking into something else and got sidetracked, again.

Here's a weird one, what is 9/11 in Latin? I found something else and thought i'd better code up the weirdness between government privatization and the industrial military complex.

So i thought yeah Latin.

10-1, 10+1. IXXI. Surely they wouldn't code it so simply?

Quick search took me to Kuwait,via an I.P address. http://www.s4curity.com

A hacking security firm in Kuwait, Google,
A chat site,
Anwar Al Qatani and Co. A retailer both in Kuwait and Iraq. Popular name Al Qatani.

Weirdly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Thornton_International

Google wanted to give me directions by car, even though i didn't ask.

Quite how all this links up i have no idea.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/carlyle-goes-on-trial-for-a-financial-cris is-meltdown-1468865131

http://www.thenational.ae/business/markets/kuwaiti-firm-targets-carlyl e-in-25m-claim

http://911blogger.com/news/2014-04-07/cia-kuwait-parallels-911-suspect

Apologies for the randomness.