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”

Hillary Clinton's Previous White House Experience: May 1993 to July 1993

When the Clintons first occupied the White House, 2008 Democratic Party presidential candidate Hillary Clinton spent her time in the following way between May 1, 1993 and July 30, 1993:

In the evening of May 7, 1993, Hillary and her husband attended both a reception in honor of Bill Clinton and a Marine Corps evening parade at the Marine Barrack. Two days later, on May 9, 1993, the Clintons then spent the afternoon touring an exhibit of French paintings at the National Gallery of Art.

On May 15, 1993, in the afternoon, Hillary and her husband next attended the U.S. Air Force Thunderbird aerial demonstration at Andrews Air Force Base in Camp Springs, Maryland. Afterwards, the Clintons traveled to New York City for the evening and, late that night, returned to Washington, D.C.

Two weeks later, on May 29, 1993, the Clintons again traveled to Camp David, Maryland for the weekend. Then, on May 31, 1993, Hillary and her husband returned to the White House from Camp David in the morning for a White House breakfast with representatives of veterans groups.

On June 9, 1993, the Clintons next attended their daughter Chelsea’s eighth grade graduation ceremony at the Sidwell Friends private school. Four days later, on June 13, 1993, Hillary and her husband then hosted an evening reception for members of the White House press corps. A few weeks later, on June 30, 1993, the Clintons and their daughter spent the evening attending a performance of “The Phantom Of The Opera” at the JFK Center for the Performing Arts.

The following evening, on July 1, 1993, Hillary and her husband had dinner with then-U.S. Senate Republican leader and 1996 Republican Party presidential candidate Robert Dole and Mrs. Robert Strauss. Then, on July 5, 1993, the Clintons traveled from San Francisco, California to Tokyo, Japan in the afternoon.

Three days later, on the evening of July 8, 1993, Hillary and her husband next attended a dinner at Japan’s Imperial Palace which was hosted by Japanese Emperor Akinito. Then, in the late morning of July 10, 1993, the Clintons traveled from Tokyo to Seoul, South Korea.

The following evening, on July 11, 1993, Hillary and her husband traveled to Honolulu, Hawaii from South Korea, crossed the international dateline going east, and thus arrived in Honolulu on the morning of July 11, 1993. After the Clintons participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the USS Arizona Memorial, they spent the evening attending a dinner for then-Hawaii Governor John Warhoo.

On July 21, 1993, Hillary’s husband, Bill Clinton, said the following after Deputy White House Counsel Vincent Foster Jr.’s mysterious death:

“Forty-two years ago…I lived with my grandparents in a modest little home around the corner from Vince Foster’s nice, big, white brick house. And our backyards touched.

“When I started my career in Arkansas politics, he was there to help me. When I decided to run for attorney general, he was the first lawyer in Little Rock I talked to about supporting me. When the Rose Law Firm hired Hillary after I moved to Little Rock, Vince Foster and Webb Hubbell became her closest friends.”

Then, on July 23, 1993, the Clintons traveled to Little Rock, Arkansas in the morning to attend the funeral services for their Deputy White House Counsel at St. Andrew’s Cathedral in the morning; and, in the afternoon, Hillary and her husband traveled to Hope, Arkansas where they attended a burial service for Vincent Foster at Memory Garden Cemetery. The following day, on July 24, 1993, the Clintons returned to Washington, D.C. from Little Rock.

The Clintons are now hoping to move back into the White House for another two terms in 2009—despite the 22nd amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting U.S. politicians from occupying the White House for more than two terms as U.S. President.

Next: He Walked Up The Hill lyrics

Hillary Clinton's Wal-Mart Connection Revisited

Although 2008 Democratic Party presidential candidate Hillary Clinton claims to be pro-labor and against the economic exploitation of U.S. working-class women, when her husband was the Governor of Arkansas during the 1980s and early 1990s, the former First Lady sat on the board of a corporation, Wal-Mart, that is notorious for exploiting its non-unionized women workers. As Liza Featherstone recalled in her 2004 book Selling Women Short:

“Her law firm represented Wal-Mart frequently, and she was a shareholder as well as the wife of the governor of Arkansas, where Wal-Mart is headquartered…In November 1986…Hillary Clinton became Wal-Mart’s first female board member, a position…for which she accepted $15,000 a year…Her hourly rate was about 156 times that of a female Wal-Mart worker…Senator Clinton would not comment on her work with Wal-Mart…

“Wal-Mart cannot be blamed on George W. Bush. The Arkansas-based company prospered under the state’s native son Bill Clinton when he was governor and president. Sam Walton and his wife, Helen, were close friends with the Clintons, and for several years, Hillary Clinton, whose corporate law firm represented Wal-Mart, served on the company’s board of directors. Bill Clinton’s `welfare reform’ has provided Wal-Mart with a ready workforce of women who have no choice but to accept the company’s poverty wages and discriminatory policies…”

Next: Hillary Clinton’s Previous White House Experience: May 1993 to July 1993