·Popular past posts ·

Neilsie and the Russian fugitive. Jefferson Morley in WaPo:

It sounds like the pitch for a Hollywood comedy.

The younger brother of the president of the United States, seeking to establish himself independently of his more successful sibling, visits a small country in the company of a ne'er do well business partner. Their arrival sends law enforcement, government officials and local reporters into a tizzy, but the First Sibling emerges unfazed and news of his trip goes unnoticed back at home.

But this is no script.

In September, Neil Bush, brother of President George W. Bush, visited Latvia with Boris Berezovsky, a fugitive Russian tycoon who made millions in the violent scramble for control of Russian government assets after the fall of communism. Their mission, according to the Baltic Times, was educational -- promoting teaching software created by Bush's Texas-based firm, Ignite Learning.

The visit to the former Soviet republic earned lots of media attention in Eastern Europe and provoked an international incident. "Much controversy surrounded the meeting, since Berezovsky is wanted for arrest in Russia, and the scandalous Russian businessman, who now lives in London, met with a relative of the U.S. president," said the Baltic Times in its report.

Chalabi, Abramoff, Cunningham, Safavian... the list of known criminals with whom the Bush administration associates (or is related to) just keeps metastasizing.

We'll say one thing about the criminal side of Neil Bush: there's more to him than just venereal disease, adultery, and Asian hookers.

{ 10:40 AM }

.