...When he died in an airplane crash in 1968, Mohammed bin Laden left behind a business empire and more than 50 sons and daughters, the products of a number of marriages. One of 20 sons was Osama bin Laden.
The successors: Control of the family business passed first to Salem bin Laden, his eldest son, and when he died in 1988, to Bakr bin Laden.
The board: Bakr bin Laden and 11 relatives now make up the board of the business, which is called the Saudi Binladin Group. Its headquarters are in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Its reach: Now an international conglomerate, the family business has 50,000 employees worldwide and annual revenues estimated at $5-billion. Its enterprises include construction, engineering, telecommunications, book publishing and manufacturing that ranges from motor vehicle parts to crystal chandeliers. Its business partners include General Electric, Nortel, Snapple beverages, Motorola and CitiBank.
Ahh, General Electric
Military contracts 2003: $2.8 billion
Campaign contributions in 2004: $221,200 (defense related)
$1.9 million (total)
The world’s largest company by market share, General Electric’s revenues in 2003 totaled $134.2 billion. GE was run until 2001 by “Neutron” Jack Welch, who made it a matter of principle to lay off 10% of his workers per year.
General Electric makes household appliances, plastics, water treatment systems, lighting, medical equipment, and commercial financial services. It also makes aircraft engines and nuclear reactors, and keeps criticism at bay with its ownership of media giants NBC, CNBC, Telemundo, Bravo, and, in partnership with Microsoft, msnbc.com. GE’s recent partnership with Vivendi added Universal Studios, USA, Trio and Sci-fi cable channels to its $43 billion media empire.
General Electric is one of the world’s top three producers of jet engines, supplying Boeing, Lockheed Martin and other military aircraft makers for the powering of airplanes and helicopters.
The “war on terrorism” has seen GE’s military contracts rise substantially. But the company’s “defense” side has been doing well for a while. GE and other military contractors got a big boost under the Clinton administration from Presidential Directive 41 which stated that it was the job of US diplomats to promote arms sales abroad in order to safeguard American jobs; this directive tied the promotions of diplomats to how effectively they hocked US armaments.
GE has designed 91 nuclear power plants in 11 countries, yet its nuclear reactors around the world have a fatal flaw. In the event of a nuclear meltdown, there is a 90 percent chance that radiation from GE-designed reactors would be discharged directly into the atmosphere. While the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission is aware of the problem, it continues to license GE nuclear reactors.
Yes, the War on Terra's been good to GE- and their major shareholders and owners in the binLaden family- as well.
...For instance, it was reported in April 2003 that GE Energy Rentals Inc., a division of GE Power Systems, was supplying temporary electrical generators to the U.S. military in Iraq... The company refused to divulge the value of the contract.
In Afghanistan, GE was awarded a contract worth $5,927,870 from the U.S. Army Engineer District, Philadelphia, for "gas services." ...The fifth and most recent amendment to this contract ...reached a value of $6,801,493...
GE backed out nuclear reactor deals with North Korea- not because of any civic mindedness, but because it didn't care for the liability.
That doesn't stop them from trying to sell them to anyone else.
The GE take in the War on Terra is small potatoes, compared to Halliburton's take- but pretty good nonetheless for the family of the criminal we're all supposed to think is running from cave to cave in Afghanistan.
If you believe that.
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