Those looking into the background of the Jun. 12 immigration sweep at the Fresh Del Monte plant in north Portland, Oregon, are turning up some interesting connections.  --  Who would have thought that it would be so easy to show that the profits from the work of the undocumented workers in north Portland who are now detained at the Northwest Detention Center on the Tacoma Tideflats appear to have been finding their way into the pockets of the Bush and bin Laden families?  --  What is ironic, UFPPC's Mark Jensen points out, is that "these hard-working individuals are represented as a threat to the national security of the United States, when the real threat is from the corrupting influence on American society of Saudi petrodollars."[1] ...

1.

HOW CLOSE ARE FRESH DEL MONTE'S LINKS TO BIN LADEN & BUSH FAMILIES?
By Mark Jensen

United for Peace of Pierce County (WA)
June 23, 2007

Port Townsend freelance photographer Al McCleese has posted a photoessay on demonstrations held on Sat., Jun. 16 at Tacoma's Northwest Detention Center in response to the incarceration there of scores of detainees seized in a Jun. 12 immigration sweep at the Fresh Del Monte plant in north Portland, Oregon.[2]

His shots are accompanied by commentaries based on some research into the background to this story -- and McCleese, monitoring the site's web traffic, has found that these are of interest to an intriguing array of law-enforcement organizations and powerful, well-connected corporations.

McCleese's first comment reads: "Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. Plug that name into a search engine . . ." So we did.

The first item that comes up is a summary of a December 2002 Dave Emory radio broadcast on WFMU entitled "Desert Flowers -- The Bushes of Arabia."[3] A link to the half-hour radio show can be found here.

What emerges from Emory's researches (based on sources like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal) is that Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh is a Chilean-based Palestinian with ties to Saudis who have intensely cultivated the Bush family. Marvin Bush, the youngest brother of President George W. Bush, was, from 1998 to 2005, a member of the Board of Directors of Fresh Del Monte.

Emory quotes a December 2002 story in the New York Times highlighting the "bizarre recent history" of Fresh Del Monte. The history of Fresh Del Monte reveals financial connections to Saudi financial interests, making it an illustration, Dave Emory points out, of the "profound role in the U.S. economy of re-invested Saudi petrodollars."

Emory points in this regard to the involvement of Khalid bin Mahfouz in Fresh Del Monte's affairs. Khalid bin Mahfouz is the billionaire heir to a family fortune based on the National Commercial Bank, which Craig Unger has called "the Saudi version of Citibank" (House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret Relationship between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties [Scribner, 2004], p. 23). Khalid bin Mahfouz is also a friend of Salem bin Laden (the older brother of Osama bin Laden) both of whom came to Houston in the 1970s and extensively cultivated American power élites, including the Bush family (ibid., pp. 20-24, 32-34, 101, 122).

Bin Mahfouz has a connection to Fresh Del Monte through his association with Carlos Cabal Peniche, the Mexican businessman who acquired Fresh Del Monte in 1992 but lost control of it when he was indicted for bank fraud. Fresh Del Monte was then seized by the Mexican government and was later sold to interests controlled by Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh.

What does all this have to do with the hapless workers swept up in the immigration raid on Jun. 12? Ironically, these hard-working individuals are represented as a threat to the national security of the United States, when the real threat is from the corrupting influence on American society of Saudi petrodollars.

Willamette law professor Keith Cunningham-Parmeter, an expert in employment and immigration law who was lead counsel in a victorious wage and hour class action lawsuit brought against Fresh Del Monte on behalf of food processing workers in Oregon that resulted in the largest settlement for agricultural workers ever in the state, believes that the immigration bust amounted to revenge on workers who had complained about safety violations: "This was a publicized settlement where immigration officials were aware that there was this group of workers who had complained about workplace violations and this is the first plant they go after in Oregon -- I think it's more than coincidence."

As for Fresh Del Monte, on Jun. 13 the company posted a statement on its web site saying that "Fresh Del Monte has been advised that it is not a current target of the investigation" in relation to the recent immigration sweep. "Fresh Del Monte retained American Staffing Resources to provide a contingent labor force at the Portland facility," the statment says. "Fresh Del Monte does not employ this labor force."

That may be true technically, but the president's youngest brother appears to be profiting from it.

—Mark Jensen is a member of United for Peace of Pierce County (WA) and of the faculty of Pacific Lutheran University.

***

2.

NORTHWEST DETENTION CENTER IN TACOMA
By Al McCleese

June 2007

http://ptmccleese.smugmug.com/gallery/3020337

The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raided the Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. in Portland, Oregon, last week. Approximately 167 people were detained. Of those 167 workers, 131 were bused to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington.

In researching a bit for this little essay, I found some things about Fresh Del Monte that surprised me. Perhaps it will surprise you as well . . . I'll return this gallery to its intended commentary at some point . . .

3.

[First part of a summary of "Desert Flowers -- The Bushes of Arabia," a 30-minute radio broadcast by Dave Emory]

DESERT FLOWERS -- THE BUSHES OF ARABIA
By Dave Emory

Spitfire
December 2002/January 2003

http://www.spitfirelist.com/f392.html

Highlighting the structural economic connections between the Bush family and the Saudi élite, this broadcast develops some of the business and para-political relationships that W’s relatives have with the milieu implicated in the attacks of 9/11. (For more about the 9/11 attacks and related events, see FTR#’s 325 and up. For more about the economic and political relationships between the Bush family and the Saudi élite -- including the Bin Laden family -- see, among other programs, FTR#’s 329, 334, 337, 346, 347, 356, 357, 368, 376, 390, 391.) As discussed in FTR#’s 366, 367, 372 and 391, these structural economic relationships enable and, to a certain extent, precipitate the conspiratorial processes of which the events of 9/11 are a part. (For a summary analysis of the For The Record broadcasts about 9/11 and related events, see FTR#391.)

1. Discussion begins with a complex and highly questionable business deal that may damage the reputation of Marvin Bush, the President’s younger brother. “Early in 1996, a Mexican investment group with ties to the government received several preliminary bids, some worth more than $250 million, to acquire the equity of Fresh Del Monte Produce, the global grower of bananas, pineapples, and other fruit and vegetables. But just as the investors -- who had taken control after their original chairman had become a fugitive -- were about to close a deal, the group’s board abruptly sold Del Monte to a little-known company run by Palestinians for a much lower price. The terms were so unfavorable, a number of minority investors thought at the time, that they tried, unsuccessfully, to block the sale.” (“Lawsuit Says Del Monte Sale Was Rigged” by Anthony De Palma and Diana B. Henriques; New York Times; 12/19/2002; p. C1.)

2. In addition to Khalid Bin Mahfouz (a member of a powerful Saudi family, business associate of the Bush family and defendant in a lawsuit filed by survivors of the 9/11 attacks) the story involves a Chilean-based Palestinian, Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh and his Palestinian company the IAT group. (As will be seen later, Bin Mahfouz is not implicated in the alleged wrongdoing.) “A lawsuit filed in a Miami court yesterday by seven private and corporate minority investors includes allegations that may shed light on why Del Monte was sold for so much less than it seemed to be worth. The suit accuses Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh and his Palestinian company, a powerful Mexican politician who was chairman of the investment group and an important member of the country’s ruling party, to rig the sale in their favor. The lawsuit is based in part on the affidavit of an executive who worked closely with Mr. Bours and who has evidence of a curious payment of $321,000 that ended up in Mr. Bours’s bank account after the sale was completed. The suit contends that the amount represents just a portion of a payoff that Mr. Bours received to help the Abu-Ghazalehs buy Del Monte at bargain rates . . .” (Idem.)

3. Incorporated in the Cayman Islands, Fresh Del Monte Produce has Marvin Bush on its board of directors, although he has not been mentioned in the lawsuit. “Still, the allegations of bribery and fraud may cause trouble for Fresh Del Monte Produce, which is incorporated in the Cayman Islands and listed on the New York Stock Exchange. . . . And while there is no evidence against him, it could also prove awkward for Marvin P. Bush, a younger brother of the president, who has been on Del Monte’s board since 1998. Marvin Bush is not mentioned in the suit, and he had no connection to the company at the time of the 1996 sale. He did not return several phone calls seeking comment.” (Ibid.; p. C6.)

4. The questionable deal involved an associate of former Mexican president Carlos Salinas de Gortari, himself an associate of a corrupt Latino business milieu intimately involved in George W’s political and business operations in Texas. (For more about “Los Amigos de Bush,” see FTR#281.) “Most of all, the suit opens a new chapter in the bizarre recent history of Del Monte, dating to even before its acquisition in 1992 by Carlos Cabal Peniche, the fugitive chairman. At that time, associates say, Mr. Cabal turned to a spiritual advisor to come up with a unique bid that invoked the Mayan spirits of his home state Tabasco, in southern Mexico. . . . The purchase fit right into the plans of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, who was busy trying to modernize Mexico’s old economy and reform its agricultural sector. Buying Del Monte was seen as a way to give Mexican produce instant global recognition. The government provided special financing to a group of 150 Mexican investors led by Mr. Cabal, a shrimp exporter who had already purchased two Mexican banks with government support . . .” (Idem.)

5. Next, the discussion highlights the 1989 purchase of the Del Monte division by the company of another Middle Eastern financier, as well as Mr. Cabal’s indictment for bank fraud. “The fresh produce division was purchased in 1989 by Polly Peck International, a conglomerate run by Asil Nadir, a financier. But allegations of fraud and financial irregularities caused Polly Peck to collapse, and Del Monte produce was put up for sale again in 1992. But in 1994, Mr. Cabal, bleeding cash, was charged with bank fraud. When he fled Mexico, the government seized the company.” (Idem.)

6. After discussing other bids for the company, the program spotlights the role of the Abu-Ghazaleh family and their IAT firm in the Del Monte imbroglio. “But the lawsuit claims that their bids became moot as soon as the IAT Group entered the picture. IAT, the third-largest fruit exporter in Chile, was controlled by the Abu-Ghazaleh family, Palestinians from Jerusalem with business interests in the Middle East. Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh, the current chairman of Fresh Del Monte Produce, had planted the family’s flag in Chile in the 1980’s, taking advantage of Chile’s seasonal counterbalance to North America.” (Idem.)

7. Although not implicated in wrongdoing in this case, the aforementioned Khalid bin Mahfouz was heavily involved with Mr. Cabal’s business ventures. (For more about bin Mahfouz, see, among other programs, FTR#’s 329, 330, 342, 343, 376, 381, 387.) “Del Monte also faces a threatened suit by Eastbrook Caribe, an offshore investment company owned by Sheik Khalid bin Mahfouz, a Saudi banker who financed many of Mr. Cabal’s acquisitions in the late 1980s . . .” (Idem.)

8. The profound role in the U.S. economy of re-invested Saudi petrodollars is underscored by the Bush family’s efforts on behalf of the Alireza family . . .