Now this is intriguing: Josh Marshall points out a few reports on one of W’s biggest investors in his old failed oil company, Arbusto: none other than Salem Bin Laden, Osama’s older brother. Quoth the India Times:

The [Daily Mail in the U.K.] said that Salem, who died in a plane crash in 1983, became Bush’s business partner through James Bath, a close friend of the future American president. Salem, says the paper, appointed Bath as his representative in Houston, Texas. It was Bath who invested 50,000 dollars in Bush’s company and also bought Houston Gulf Airport on behalf of Osama’s elder brother.

More details here. Certainly, there’s nothing untoward about this: Osama has upwards of 50 brothers and sisters, and you probably can’t swing a dead cat in the oil industry without hitting a bin Laden. (Sorry for that image.) Hell, he’s got dozens of family members in the U.S. alone — although they’re all skedaddling as quickly as their bank accounts allow. But still — quite an amazing coincidence, no?

25 September 2001

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