Carlyle Group, Saudi Arabia, and War

September 7, 2013 in Montana

by lizard

In October of 2001, the Carlyle Group decided to nix their relationship with the Bin Laden Group, because to continue that relationship would be bad PR for an entity that stood to profit handsomely off of the perpetual war 9/11 ushered in.

For a little history, this piece by Jeffrey St. Clair from 2004 is worth reading.

On September 9th, Hillary Clinton will be getting a cool $200,000 bucks to speak to Carlyle Group investors. Those who profit from human carnage probably want some assurances that a Clinton presidency wouldn’t disrupt those profits.

Part of those gargantuan profits comes from the security state. At the beginning of Obama’s presidency, Carlyle invested in Booz Allen. That investment really paid off:

In 2008, the Carlyle Group made a large $910 million investment to buy a majority stake in Booz Allen’s government consulting business. The deal saw Booz Allen’s big government advisory unit, which produced most of the firm’s revenue, split off from its corporate consulting group, on the eve of the financial crisis.

But Washington-based Carlyle, which has a long and successful history doing deals involving government contractors, has really made the Booz Allen deal work. It has been an amazing transaction for Carlyle. The private equity firm has made $2 billion in realized and unrealized profits on the Booz Allen Hamilton deal so far. Its $910 million investment is now worth $3 billion.

Last year, it was reported by Market Watch that Carlyle was hunting for investments in Saudi Arabia and Turkey:

Private equity giant Carlyle Group L.P. is on the hunt for more investments in Turkey and Saudi Arabia, betting that economic growth in those countries will remain shielded from euro zone debt problems and political turmoil in the wider Middle East, one of the firm’s top regional executives said.

Interesting bet.

This is all background to the current focus of the perpetual war machine on Syria. I linked to an article in the comments thread of another post, but it needs repeating because We Need to Talk About Prince Bandar. I highly recommend reading it, because it provides an interesting perspective. Is Prince Bandar pushing the Obama administration into war?

Good question, but I doubt we’ll get anything that resembles answers before the bombs start dropping.