“DC, We’ve Got a Problem.”

Meet the 3rd most powerful, influential and secretive public (NASDAQ: CG) equity firm in the world: The Carlyle Group (Corporate film). Carlyle has around a 2012 revenue of US$ 2.961 billion, $170 billion in assets under management across 113 funds, 67 fund of fund vehicles, has more than 1,400 employees including 650 investment professionals, with offices in 33 countries globally and 1,500 limited partners in 75 countries.Carlyle’s products are Management buyouts, Real estate, Leveraged finance, Venture capital and growth capital. Carlyle’s portfolio companies employ more than 650,000 people worldwide. Carlyle is also noted for its association with influential political figures like The Bush family, John Major (Former PM UK), the Saudi Royal family, Osama Bin Laden’s family (Fahrenheit 911 – VIDEO) and Donald Rumsfeld’s inner circle. The company operates within the so-called iron-triangle of industry, government and the military. Dutch VPRO Backlight Television filmmaker Shuchen Tan did an amazing investigative job and shows us everything from The Carlyle Group’s inception as a private equity firm to it’s precent status as one of the largest defence contractors in the world. An interesting side note to all this is that for example American computer specialist Edward Snowden didn’t actually work for the NSA, but for a NSA contractor very similar to The Carlyle Group namely an American management consulting firm by the name of Booz Allen Hamilton (Revenue 2012 – $5.8 billion). Which is basically the World’s Most Profitable Spy Organisation! (Businessweek) (NBC). Do you want to know more? To start of with I highly recommend visiting the following website: sipri.org. SIPRI is an independent international institute dedicated to research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament. Have a look a the 2012 The SIPRI Top 100 arms-producing and military services companies in the world (excluding China) here and understand that World military expenditure in 2012 is estimated to have been $1756 billion: (SIPRI) (Tax Dollars At War). Recommend reading both of Dan Briody’s books: The Iron Triangle: Inside the Secret World of the Carlyle Group, The Halliburton Agenda: The Politics of Oil and Money. (DemocracyNow), Tim Weiner’s Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA (Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum) and Enemies: A History of the FBI (CSPAN), John Perkin’s Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (INTERVIEW), Michael Levi’s, The Power Surge: Energy, Opportunity, and the Battle for America’s Future,Daniel Yergin’s The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power, Zbigniew Brzezinski’s the Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives and Al Jazeera English – Special TV series – called The Secret of the Seven Sisters. Paul Jay’s Interviewing Brzezinski on the war on Afghanistan and the American strategy for Eurasia and the world: PART 1 PART 2. American political philosopher Sheldon Wolin’s theory called inverted totalitarianism (TheNation). Bill Moyer’s interviewing Sheldon Wolin about the state of democracy in the US: PART1 PART2. Noam Chomsky’s The Ideology of the Polyarchy here, Naomi Wolf’s The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot here, BBC The Secret War On Terror (FULL FILM), John Pilger’s War By Other Means (Full Film), The War You Don’t See (Full Film), The War On Democracy (FULL FILM), John Pilger in conversation with Julian Assange (Full Interview), Sergio: One Man’s Fight to Save the World (FULL FILM), The New Rulers of the World (Full Film), The Truth Game (Full Film), The Spies Who Fooled the World (Full Film), Errol Morris’s The Fog of War, (FULL FILM), Ross Ashcroft’s Four Horsemen (FULL FILM), Robert Greenwald’s “Koch Brothers Exposed” (Full Film) and Alex Gibney’s Oscar winningTaxi To The Dark Side (Full Film), Casino Jack and the United States of Money (Full Film), the Trial of Henry Kissinger (Full Film), No End In Sight (Full Film), and Park Avenue: money, power and the American dream (Full Film).