After the purchase of George W. Bush’s oil company Spectrum 7 by Harken Energy, Bush was offered a spot on the Harken board. “In January 1990, by which time the elder George Bush had become president, Harken came into another stroke of unexpected good luck. The beleaguered oil company had had no offshore drilling experience whatsoever and had never even drilled outside the borders of the United States. Nevertheless, tiny Harken stunned industry analysts by beating out giant Amoco to win exclusive offshore drilling rights in Bahrain–thanks to yet another BCCI [Bank of Credit and Commerce International] stockholder, the prime minister of Bahrain, Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa. …No one in the oil industry doubted that the Bahrain deal happened solely because Bush’s father was president. Moreover, George W. Bush was one of its greatest beneficiaries and profited handsomely from it.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Craig Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud, Page 122