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UAE Gave $1 Million To Bush
Library
By Wendy Benjaminson
February 27,
2006
A sheik from the United
Arab Emirates contributed at least $1 million to the Bush Library
Foundation, which established the George Bush Presidential Library at
Texas A&M University in College Station.
The UAE owns Dubai Port Co., which is taking operations from
London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., which
operates six U.S. ports. A political uproar has ensued over the deal,
which the White House approved without congressional oversight.
The donations were made in the early 1990s for the library, which houses
the papers of former President George Bush, the current president's
father.
The list of donors names Sheik Zayed Bin Sultan al Nahyan and the people
of the United Arab Emirates as one donor in the $1 million or more
category.
The amount of the gift grants them recognition on the engraved donor
wall in the library entrance or on the paving bricks that line the
library's walkways, according to library documents.
Roman Popaduik, chairman of the Bush Library Foundation that collects
donations, said he could not discuss details of the gifts except to say
the amount category and whether it was before or after 1997.
The chief executive of the Dubai company, Ahmed bin Sulayem, did not
donate individually.
The hundreds of large donors include longtime Bush associates, including
Vice President Dick Cheney and other administration officials as well as
business titans — such as Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay — and big
Republican donors.
Other Arab donors include the state of Kuwait, the Bandar bin Sultan
family, the Sultanate of Oman, King Hassan II of Morocco and the amir of
Qatar. The former Korean prime minister and China also gave tens of
thousands of dollars to the library.
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