James R. Bath

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

James Reynolds Bath was a former director of Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), and part owner of Arbusto Energy with George W. Bush, with whom Bath served as a member of the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War. Like Bush, Bath was suspended from flying status in 1972 for failing to accomplish his annual medical examination.

Bath got his start in real estate in 1973 by forming a partnership with Lloyd Bentsen's son, Lan, in Bath Bentsen Interests.

It has been reported that, in 1976, George H. W. Bush recruited Bath into the CIA ^{[citation needed]}, a claim that Bath denied in 1991 in an article published in Time magazine.

In 1976 Bath purchased the Houston Gulf Airport on behalf of Salem bin Laden, a Saudi sheik (and Osama bin Laden's older half-brother.) That year, Bath became the bin Laden family's representative in North America^[1]. In 1990, a Saudi banker named Khalid bin Mahfouz procured a loan of $1.4 million for Bath, allowing him to buy a stake in the airport. When Salem bin Laden died in 1988, his interest in the airfield passed to Mahfouz.

In 1978, Bath became a Director of the Main Bank, based in Houston, Texas. His fellow investors were John Connally; Saudi financier Ghaith Pharaon; and Mahfouz. Also at this time, he founded JB&A Aviation, a corporate aviation brokerage firm, along with fellow businessmen Johnson Taylor and Jerry Smith.

In 1980, Bath was named company president of Cotopax Investments, registered in the Cayman Islands. The name was changed to Skyway Aircraft Leasing Ltd. The company board then resigned en masse, leaving Bath as a sole director. The company acted as a supplier of large passenger and air cargo jets. At one point, it leased a $10 million Gulfstream II jet to the Abu Dhabi National Oil Corporation, which was controlled by Sheikh Zayed, the late first president of the United Arab Emirates. Bath's partners in Skyway and his other companies are unknown.

Bath founded Southwest Airport Services to manage the Houston Gulf Airport, and to provide military fueling services at Ellington Field. He also served as president of the Skyway Aircraft Leasing company.

Bath's discharge from the National Guard and his relationships to the bin Laden family, the Bush family, and Arbusto were among the issues explored in Michael Moore's 2004 documentary film Fahrenheit 9/11, as well as his book Dude, Where's My Country? (released the same year.) Artist Mark Lombardi illustrated associations between Bath, the Bush family, the bin Laden family, and BCCI in drawings put on display in 2000 and now available in a book.^[2]