The
ex-presidents' club The
Guardian
Oliver Burkeman and Julian Borger Wednesday October 31, 2001
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...
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 More...
Carlyle's
Way
Red
Herring
Dan Briodi Wednesday January 8, 2002
Like everyone else in
the United States, the group stood transfixed as the events of
September 11 unfolded. Present were former secretary of defense Frank
Carlucci, former secretary of state James Baker III, and
representatives of the bin Laden family. This was not some underground
presidential bunker or Central Intelligence Agency interrogation room.
It was the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, D.C., the plush setting for the
annual investor conference of one of the most powerful,
well-connected, and secretive companies in the world: the Carlyle
Group. And since September 11, this little-known company has become
unexpectedly important...
And as the Carlyle
investors watched the World Trade towers go down, the group's
prospects went up. In running what its own marketing literature
spookily calls "a vast, interlocking, global network of
businesses and investment professionals" that operates within the
so-called iron triangle of industry, government, and the military, the
Carlyle Group leaves itself open to any number of conflicts of
interest and stunning ironies. For example, it is hard to ignore the
fact that Osama bin Laden's family members, who renounced their son
ten years ago, stood to gain financially from the war being waged
against him until late October, when public criticism of the
relationship forced them to liquidate their holdings in the firm. Or
consider that U.S. president George W. Bush is in a position to make
budgetary decisions that could pad his father's bank account. But for
the Carlyle Group, walking that narrow line is the art of doing
business at the murky intersection of Washington politics, national
security, and private capital; mastering it has enabled the group to
amass $12 billion in funds under management.
