Kuwait Inc.'s Political System of "Sabahcracy" In 2005

Since the Bush I White House (whose national security affairs advisor, Brent Scowcroft, was a former board member of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation’s Santa Fe International subsidiary) used the U.S. high-technology war machine to bring the Al-Sabah dynasty back into power in Kuwait in 1991, the pace of political democratization within Kuwait has been slow. As late as March 8,, 2006, for instance, even the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor’s Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Kuwait for 2005 described the political situation in Kuwait under the Al-Sabah Dynasty’s rule in the following way:

“Kuwait is a constitutional, hereditary emirate ruled by the al-Sabah family, which governs in consultation with prominent families and the elected National Assembly. The 1962 constitution grants the emir executive and legislative authority and permits dissolution of the elected National Assembly by decree.

“Kuwait has a population of 2.9 million residents, approximately 970 thousand of whom are citizens. During the July 2003 parliamentary elections, the electorate consisted of approximately 143 thousand male citizens, and there were no political parties….The government and the opposition reportedly bought votes…

“Following the 2003 elections, the emir appointed a new prime minister whose authority the crown prince previously held. The prime minister appoints all officials in the executive branch…

“The constitution provides for some judicial independence; however, the emir appoints all judges, and the Ministry of Justice must approve the renewal of most judicial appointments.

“While civilian authorities generally maintained effective control of the security forces, there were some instances in which elements of the security forces acted independently of government authority.

“The government improved its human rights record by granting women the right to vote; however, serious problems remained. The following human rights problems were reported: no right to change the government; abuse of and alleged torture of detainees; official impunity; poor prison conditions in certain facilities; restricted civil liberties--freedoms of speech, press, assembly and association; limited freedom of religion and of movement; corruption; violence and discrimination against women, especially noncitizens; abuse of noncitizen domestic workers; unresolved legal status of bidoon Arabs; and restricted worker rights.

“On May 16 [2005], the National Assembly approved legislation to grant women the right to vote and seek elected office; however, women were not eligible to vote in the June 2 [2005] municipal council elections because the annual February voter registration period had passed.”

Next: Kuwait Inc.’s Special Influence in the U.S.A. Historically—Part 1

Kuwait Inc.'s Political System of "Sabahcracy" In 1990

The Al-Sabah family may be shy about revealing to people in the United States exactly how much stock it owns in each U.S. corporation. But the Al-Sabah family was not shy about monopolizing political power in Kuwait Inc. prior to the August 1990 occupation of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi troops.

Sheikh Jabir Al-Ahmad Al-Jabir Al-Sabah had been the Emir of Kuwait since 1977. Kuwait Emir Al-Sabah also was chairman of Kuwait’s Supreme Defense Council, Kuwait’s Supreme Petroleum Council, the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, and the Kuwait Foundation for Scientific Advancement in 1990. Kuwait Emir Al-Sabah also was Kuwait’s prime minister between 1965 and 1967, Kuwait’s crown prince between 1966 and 1978 and Kuwait’s minister of Finance and Industry and minister of Commerce between 1965 and 1983. But shortly after his country was invaded on August 2, 1990, Kuwait Emir Al-Sabah—the then-chairman of Kuwait’s Supreme Defense Council—had fled from his presidential palace by helicopter.

Sheikh Saadal Abdallahal Salim Al-Sabah had been both Kuwait’s crown prince and Kuwait’s prime minister since 1978. Kuwait Crown Prince and Kuwait Prim Minister Al-Sabah was the Kuwait metropolitan police deputy head between 1954 and 1959, the Kuwait Police and Public Security Department deputy president between 1959 and 1961, Kuwait’s minister of the Interior between 1961 and 1965 and Kuwait’s minister of the Interior and Defense between 1965 and 1978.

Another Al-Sabah family member, Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jabir Al-Sabah, had been Kuwait’s minister of Foreign Affairs since 1963 and Kuwait’s deputy prime minister since 1978.

Nouwaf al-Almad al-Jabir Al-Sabah was Kuwait’s minister of Defense in 1990. Jabir Mubarak al-Hamal Al-Sabah was Kuwait’s minister of Information in 1990. And Salim al-Sabah al-Salim Al-Sabah was Kuwait’s minister of the Interior in 1990.

Another Al-Sabah family member, Sheikh Ali Al-Khalifa Al-Sabah, had been Kuwait’s minister of Oil since 1978 and Kuwait’s minister of Finance since 1983. Kuwait minister of Oil Al-Sabah had also been the chairman of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation [KPC], the world’s 12th-largest oil company in 1990, since 1980. In the 1960s, minister of oil Al-Sabah was a student at the University of California at Berkeley before graduating from San Francisco State College in 1968. And his close friends had nicknamed him “Ali Cash.”

Nasir Muhammad al-Ahmad Al-Sabah was Kuwait’s minister of Social Affairs and Labor in 1990. And Sheikh Saud Nasir Al-Sabah had been Kuwait’s ambassador to the United States, Kuwait’s ambassador to Canada and Kuwait’s ambassador to Venezuela, simultaneously, since 1981. Kuwait ambassador to the United States Al-Sabah was previously Kuwait’s ambassador to Great Britain, Kuwait’s ambassador to Norway, Kuwait’s ambassador to Sweden and Kuwait’s ambassador to Denmark, simultaneously, between 1975 and 1980.

The Al-Sabah family government of Kuwait Inc. and its Kuwaiti National Assembly had never been too eager to encourage residents of Kuwait to participate in Kuwaiti political life or to even vote, historically. According to the 1989 Political Handbook of the World:

“Political parties are not permitted in Kuwait…Only literate, adult, native-born males whose families have resided in Kuwait since 1920 are allowed to vote, an increasingly vocal call for some women for suffrage being rebuffed by the Assembly in July 1985.”

As a result, only 85,000 out of 825,000 Kuwaitis were allowed to vote before August 1990.

The 1989 Political Handbook of the World also reported that:

“Constitutional guarantees of freedom of the press were suspended by Emir Sabah on August 29, 1976…In conjunction with the dissolution of the Assembly in July 1986 the government imposed new press restrictions, subjecting periodicals to prior censorship and announcing it would suspend any newspapers or magazines printing material `against the national interest.’ The government also continued its drive to Kuwaitize the news media, with an estimated 40 journalists from other Arab countries being deported to open jobs for nationals. The Kuwait Broadcasting Services and Television of Kuwait, both controlled by the government.”

(Downtown 1/23/91)

Next: Kuwait Inc.’s Political System of “Sabahcracy” In 2005

Kuwait Inc.'s Foreign Investments Historically

In a March 7, 1988 article, titled “Kuwait’s Money Machine Comes Out Buying,” Business Week observed that “since gaining full independence from Britain in 1961, Kuwait has built up a huge blue-chip portfolio” of foreign stocks and bonds and that this foreign investment portfolio “may now be worth upwards of $200 billion.” (Collectively, the richest 400 people in the United States were also worth around $200 billion in 1988, according to Louis Rukeyser’s Business Almanac).

Twenty-five percent of Kuwait Inc.’s $200 billion in foreign investments was privately-owned by Kuwaiti businessmen in 1988. Seventy-five percent of Kuwait Inc.’s foreign investment assets were owned in 1988 by the government of Kuwait Inc., which is controlled by the Al-Sabah royal family. But, according to the Aug. 6, 1990 issue of Business Week, “no outsider can know for sure where the Al-Sabahs’ assets end and the government’s begin.”

(Downtown 1/23/91)

Next: Kuwait Inc.’s Political System Of “Sabahcracy” In 1990

Kuwait Inc.'s Historic Special Influence

“Buying quietly through Citibank, Morgan Guaranty Trust, and Chase Manhattan, the Kuwaitis have taken big positions—sometimes just under the 5 percent level requiring disclosure of ownership—in the top 70 industrials on the New York Stock Exchange. So obsessed with secrecy are the Kuwaitis that in the early 1980s they pulled much of their money out of Citibank when details of their holdings appeared in the press…They have concealed ownership of some New York skyscrapers because of possible backlash from Jewish tenants.” (Business Week magazine 3/7/88)

In the early 1980s, Brent Scowcroft ( http://www.scowcroft.com/html/staff/scowcroft.html ) was hired by the government of Kuwait Incorporated’s Kuwait Petroleum Corporation [KPC] to sit alongside Ali Jabar Al Ali Al-Sabah on the board of directors of KPC’s U.S. subsidiary at that time, Santa Fe International. Scowcroft sat on Kuwait Inc.’s Santa Fe International corporate board in 1984, 1985 and 1986, according to Poor’s & Standard’s Register of Corporations. Yet in 1991, the former director of Kuwait Inc.’s major U.S. subsidiary at that time--Brent Scowcroft--was allowed to sit in a White House office as President Bush I’s National Security Affairs advisor.

Like the historically less camera-shy Israeli government, the government of Kuwait Inc. seems to have had a special influence on U.S. politics historically. In the name of “liberating” the homeland of Kuwait Inc., for instance, the Pentagon’s war machine launched a 1991 military offensive against Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi war machine to start Gulf War I at that time.

(Downtown 1/23/91)

Next: Kuwait Inc.’s Foreign Investments Historically

Columbia University Professor Dinkins' Historic Wall Street Connection

Columbia University Professor David Dinkins failed to fight against the special interests of Wall Street’s investment bankers when he was the Mayor of New York City during the early 1990s. One reason may have been because he accepted campaign contributions in 1989 from the same Wall Street investment banking firms who were selected by his administration in 1990 to make big bucks by selling City government bonds. As Shadow Government by Donald Axelrod observed:

“Excluding the federal government, New York City issues more bonds than any public authority or state and local government in the United States. In July 1990 the city selected five underwriters from a field of 53 companies to sell $6 billion in bonds: Bear, Stearns; Goldman Sachs; First Boston; Shearson Lehman Hutton; and Merrill Lynch. To no one’s surprise, the New York Times revealed that all five had contributed $233,000 to the campaigns of Mayor David N. Dinkins and Comptroller Elizabeth Holtzman."

Under Columbia University Professor Dinkins’ administration, the official unemployment rate in New York City was 9.5 percent in August 1993.

(Downtown 9/29/93)

Next: Kuwait Inc.’s Historic Special Influence

1,429 Pages In FBI's "James Baldwin File"

Although the FBI has never been famous for its special interest in African-American literature, it apparently showed a great interest in the prominent U.S. novelist James Baldwin, prior to his death in 1987. As Natalie Robins noted in her book, Alien Ink: The FBI’s War On Freedom Of Expression:

“The first mention of novelist, playwright, and essayist James Baldwin anywhere in the FBI files occurs in 1951—in Richard Wright’s file…Baldwin’s 1,429-page file remained `dead’ until 1960. The FBI employed a great many confidential informants to shadow Baldwin, people who attended rallies and meetings with him, and reported what he said and did, as well as neighbors who were willing to keep a surveillance on him, or monitor his mail for any change of address. The FBI also telephoned him under various pretexts to ascertain his whereabouts, and photographed him…By 1964, the bureau stepped up its harassment of James Baldwin, targeting him in a COINTELPRO operation…He was to be one of 8 recipients of an anonymous letter…”

(Downtown 3/31/93)

Next: Columbia University Professor Dinkins’ Historic Wall Street Connection

`He Walked Up The Hill' (for Martin Luther King)

He walked up the hill and he knew it was willed
That the white racists, they would slay
All the good men who crossed their way
And what else is there left to say?
“Look! The Black Prince of Peace now lays.”

And all go and pray, though they kill people everyday
Their soldiers kill ‘cross the seas
Their cops shoot up the cities
Their managers steal our bread
Their teachers, they ruin our heads.

“Be Non-Violent!” they scream, for they fear what we all will dream
Now that Moses is dead
Shot in the back of the head
“Love them” is what he said
Yet look how they treated him.

The hearts now are red as they rise up from their beds
To say to the Man with hate:
“We’re sorry but it’s now too late
We want to control our fate
The Panther will kill your snake.”


To listen to the He Walked Up The Hill eulogistic protest folk song, click on the following music site link:
http://www.last.fm/music/Bob+A.+Feldman/More+Biographical+Folk+Songs/He+Walked+Up+the+Hill+%28for+Martin+Luther+King%29

The He Walked Up The Hill eulogistic protest folk song was written during the summer of 1968, in an apartment near Amsterdam Avenue and W. 106th Street, a few months after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968.

Next: 1,429 Pages In FBI’s “James Baldwin File”