So, President Bush met with Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia Sunday at Bush’s Crawford, Texas, ranch. The two reportedly talked about the escalating price of oil and gasoline in the U.S., about the war on terrorism, and about democracy.
We understand all that and about Bush’s follow-up statement that gasoline prices reflect demand. But there are a couple of things we don’t understand.
First, why did the prince meet at his hotel with Vice President Dick Cheney before meeting with Bush?
Second, why is the White House refusing to provide any information about the meeting?
Do we sound suspicious? So be it.
Maybe it’s because we’re mindful of Cheney’s past and ongoing ties with Halliburtion. That megacorporation has a checkered recent past when it comes to doing work on the taxpayers’ tab, including supplying fuel in Iraq.
We’re mindful, too, of what good buddies Bush was with Enron CEO Kenneth “Kenny Boy” Lay, as the president liked to call Lay while raking in campaign money.
But that was before Enron energy traders were found to have screwed the people of several West Coast states out of billions; before Enron executives cooked the corporation’s books; before Lay bailed out on employees, retirees and investors, protecting his fortune while others lost everything. Lay tried to peddle the story he’d been duped by underlings and sought to downplay the whole debacle as a little misunderstanding that got out of hand. Suddenly, it seemed, Bush could barely recall who Lay was and where he’d seen him before.
One of the first things Cheney did on becoming vice president was to hold a secret meeting with some of the most powerful special interests in the oil/energy industry. Was Lay an attendee? Cheney refused then and has refused since to divulge the purpose of the meeting, what was discussed and precisely who attended.
Bush could tell Cheney to make that information public but hasn’t done so.
Why?
What’s wrong with this picture? On Sunday, Cheney was face to face with the potentate in charge of one of the world’s biggest exporters of oil — before the vice president’s supposed boss got to talk to the guy.
Again, there’s a refusal to make known what Cheney and the prince discussed and why.
We see a pattern here and don’t like it one bit.
