Things

Who or what is the Carlyle Group and why should we care? Well as for the second question of why we should care, I will leave that up to you when you draw your own conclusions after reading this article. Now lets look at the Carlyle Group.

In 1987, David Rubenstein, policy assistant to Jimmy Carter along with two of his lawyer friends, founded the Carlyle Group. The firm sends former world leaders on networking trips all over the world. The value of the company today is unofficially estimated at 13.5 BILLION U.S. dollars. The Carlyle Group is the eleventh largest defense contractor in the US At the beginning of the war on terrorism the company was worth 3.5 BILLION US dollars. Let us see who the group is and some of the other famous members of the company.

Unless otherwise noted all photos are from U.S. Government

George Bush Sr.
Former US President
Company position: Senior Advisor

Frank Carlucci
Former Secretary of Defense
Company position: CEO/Chairman

James Baker
Former Secretary of State
Former Secretary of the Treasury
Company Position: Counsel

NO PICTURE AVAILABLE

Richard Darman
Former White House Budget Advisor
Company position: Managing Director

Fidel V. Ramos
Former Phillipines President
Company Position: Asia Advisory Board Member

John Major
Former British Prime Minister
Company Position: Europe Chairman
Source: UN Photo

Up until last October the bin Laden family were investors in this company, but public criticism of the relationship forced them to liquidate their holdings. The location of the offices for the Carlyle Group are at 1 Pennsylvania Avenue, right between the White House and the Capitol Building. This location is also near many other government buildings. Carlyle owns companies which make munitions, along with vehicles and different equipment for the US military. The more munitions that are produced, the richer the group gets. There are many other famous former politicians involved with Carlyle, such as Anand Panyarachun, former Thai premier, Arthur Levitt, former chairman of the SEC and Karl Otto Pohl, former president of the Bundesbank to mention a few.

Now you can draw your own conclusions.