[Imc-newsroom] Fwd: carlyle buying Media

[Michael Walcher]

 this is the info i talked about today, 
Dorothy mame in the iMC and discussed the fact that the Carlyle group has been buying Media Companies.
  Dorothy Martirano <esofea at ix.netcom.com> wrote: Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2002 10:11:41 +0000
From: Dorothy Martirano 
Reply-to: esofea at ix.netcom.com
Organization: SalMar Foundation
To: solaraycer at yahoo.com
Subject: carlyle


Here's the info I have on Carlyle. I know there's more, but it's a good
start.
The website is Carlyles own posting. This is very long, but also very
illuminating. During 2001, many new
directors have joined the board, and many of them are former heads of
government offices. They're buying real estate, communications
companies, and media all over the world.

I've also included 2 articles:

1) Guardian Article from Oct. '01
2) Luckily, I had saved the one from the Sacramento Business
Journal...it was print edition only, which explains why I couldn't
find it on the net.

I wish someone would connect all the dots and publish an article. If
these bastards are able to do what I think they're trying to do,
we won't have a prayer of getting any meaningful news from anywhere.
Dorothy
p.s. enjoyed the discussion yesterday
I bet Molly Ivins has written about these thieves too...maybe in one of
her books
************************************

http://www.thecarlylegroup.com/news.htm#07


Featured Article
The ex-presidents' club
Oliver Burkeman and Julian Borger
Wednesday October 31, 2001
The Guardian Discuss this article by clicking here

It is hard to imagine an address closer to the heart of American power.
The offices of the Carlyle Group
are on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC, midway between the White
House and the Capitol
building, and within a stone's throw of the headquarters of the FBI and
numerous government
departments. The address reflects Carlyle's position at the very center
of the Washington establishment,
but amid the frenetic politicking that has occupied the higher reaches
of that world in recent weeks, few
have paid it much attention. Elsewhere, few have even heard of it.

This is exactly the way Carlyle likes it. For 14 years now, with almost
no publicity, the company has
been signing up an impressive list of former politicians - including the
first President Bush and his
secretary of state, James Baker; John Major; one-time World Bank
treasurer Afsaneh Masheyekhi and
several south-east Asian powerbrokers - and using their contacts and
influence to promote the group.
Among the companies Carlyle owns are those which make equipment,
vehicles and munitions for the US
military, and its celebrity employees have long served an ingenious dual
purpose, helping encourage
investments from the very wealthy while also smoothing the path for
Carlyle's defense firms.

But since the start of the "war on terrorism", the firm - unofficially
valued at $13.5bn - has taken on
an added significance. Carlyle has become the thread which indirectly
links American military policy in
Afghanistan to the personal financial fortunes of its celebrity
employees, not least the current
president's father. And, until earlier this month, Carlyle provided
another curious link to the Afghan
crisis: among the firm's multi-million-dollar investors were members of
the family of Osama bin
Laden.

The closest the Carlyle Group has previously come to public attention
was last May, when a Seoul-based
employee called Peter Chung was forced to resign from his
£100,000-a-year job after sending an email to
friends - subsequently forwarded to thousands of others - boasting of
his plans to "fuck every hot chick in
Korea over the next two years". The more business-oriented activities of
Carlyle's staff have been conducted
much more quietly: since it was founded in 1987 by David Rubenstein, a
policy assistant in Jimmy Carter's
administration, and two lawyer friends, the firm has been dispatching an
array of former world leaders on a
series of strategic networking trips.

Last year, George Bush Sr and John Major traveled to Riyadh to talk with
senior Saudi businessmen. In
September 2000, Carlyle hired speakers including Colin Powell and AOL
Time Warner chair Steve Case to
address an extravagant party at Washington's Monarch Hotel. Months
later, Major joined James Baker for a
function at the Lanesborough Hotel in London, to explain the Florida
election controversy to the wealthy
attendees.

We can assume that Carlyle pays well. Neither Major's office nor Carlyle
will confirm the details of his salary
as European chairman - an appointment announced shortly before he left
the House of Commons after the
election - but we know, for the purposes of comparison, that he is paid
£105,000 for 28 days' work a year for
an unrelated non-executive directorship. Bush gives speeches for the
company and is paid with stakes in
the firm's investments, believed to be worth at least $80,000 per
appearance. The benefits have attracted
political stars from around the world: former Philippines president
Fidel Ramos is an adviser, as is former
Thai premier Anand Panyarachun - as well as former Bundesbank president
Karl Otto Pohl, and Arthur
Levitt, former chairman of the SEC, the US stock market regulator.




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