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Oseltamivir was the first orally active neuraminidase inhibitor commercially developed. It is a prodrug, which is hydrolysed hepatically to the active metabolite, the free carboxylate of oseltamivir (GS4071). It was developed by US-based Gilead Sciences and is currently marketed by Hoffmann-La Roche (Roche) under the trade name Tamiflu. In Japan, it is marketed by Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., which is more than 50% owned by Roche. Oseltamivir is generally available by prescription only.
In January 1997, Donald Rumsfeld, a Board member since 1988, was appointed Chairman of the company.[2] He stood down from the Board in January 2001 when appointed Secretary of Defense at the start of George W. Bush's first term as President. Federal disclosure forms indicate that Rumsfeld owns between USD$5 million and USD$25 million in Gilead stock. The rise in Gilead's share prices from USD$35 to USD$57 per share will have added between USD$2.5 million to USD$15.5 million to Rumsfeld's net worth.[3]
In November 2005, George W. Bush urged Congress to pass $7.1 billion in emergency funding to prepare for the possible bird flu pandemic, of which one billion is solely dedicated to the purchase, and distribution of Tamiflu.
An advocate of free trade, she was the primary U.S. negotiator of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). On May 28, 1991, Rep. Esteban Torres (D-CA) complained to Hills in a letter that more Hispanics needed to be included in the NAFTA negotiations process.[5] In 2000, Mrs. Hills was awarded the The Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle (La Orden Mexicana del Aguila Azteca) which is the highest honor conveyed to non-citizens by the Mexican government.
In 2005, Carla Hills participated in [Independent Task Force on North America |The Task Force on the Future of North America] which produced a controversial report called, Building a North American Community sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations. The general sense was to strengthen trading relationships between the U.S., Canada and Mexico by making trade more efficient, planning for North American infrastructure, fast tracking borders and even some language integration
Nicholas G. Moore is currently a director at Wells Fargo & Company and retired chairman and chief executive officer of PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Bechtel Corporation (Bechtel Group) is the largest engineering company in the United States, ranking as the 7th-largest privately owned company in the U.S. With headquarters in San Francisco, Bechtel had 42,500 employees as of 2009 working on projects in nearly 50 countries with $39.0 billion in revenue.
Bechtel Corp., a private construction firm based in San Francisco, recently was awarded a State Department contract, potentially worth more than $600 million, to help rebuild Iraq's infrastructure after the recent U.S.-led war there.
According to an article in the May 5 issue of New Yorker magazine, several bin Laden family members -- part of a large, Saudi Arabian family that made a fortune in the construction business -- invested about $10 million in a private equity fund operated by former subsidiary of Bechtel before Sept. 11.
Fremont Group, a San Francisco-based private investment firm, once was a unit of Bechtel, and its board still includes Bechtel CEO Riley P. Bechtel and former U.S. Secretary of State and former Bechtel President George P. Shultz, along with several current Bechtel directors.
He was an advisor for George W. Bush's presidential campaign during the 2000 election, and senior member of the so-called "The Vulcans", a group of policy mentors for Bush which also included among its members Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz and Condoleezza Rice. One of his most senior advisors and confidants is former ambassador Charles Hill, who holds dual positions at the Hoover Institution and Yale University. Shultz has been called the father of the "Bush Doctrine", because of his advocacy of preventive war.[13] He generally defends the Bush administration's foreign policy.
The Rumsfeld history starts in 1976, when a military recruit in New Jersey died from a flu that experts speculated might be the "swine flu" virus of 1918 pandemic fame. As Sargent tells it, Rumsfeld, who was then and is again the nation's secretary of defense, made the imminent "swine flu" a political issue to add some spark to the campaign of President Ford, an interim leader without a cause. At Rumsfeld's urging, the administration would ensure that "every man, woman and child" was vaccinated. Huge amounts of vaccine were produced and distributed quickly.
A Carlyle executive said the bin Laden family committed $2 million through a London investment arm in Carlyle Partners II Fund, which raised $ 1.3 billion overall. The fund has purchased several aerospace companies among 29 deals. So far, the family received $1.3. million back in completed investments and should ultimately realize a 40% annualized rate of return, the Carlyle executive said.
But a foreign financier with ties to the bin Laden family says the family's overall investment with Carlyle is considerably larger. He called the $2 million merely an initial contribution. "It's like plowing a field," this person said. "You seed it once. You plow it, and then you reseed it again."
A U.S. inquiry into bin Laden family business dealings could brush against some big names associated with the U.S. government. Former President Bush said through his chief of staff, Jean Becker, that he recalled only one meeting with the bin Laden family, which took place in November 1998. Ms. Becker confirmed that there was a second meeting in January 2000, after being read the ex-president's subsequent thank-you note. "President Bush does not have a relationship with the bin Laden family," says Ms. Becker. "He's met them twice."
Frank Charles Carlucci III (born October 18, 1930) is a former government official in the United States, associated with the Republican Party. He was United States Secretary of Defense from 1987 until 1989.
During the early 1970s Rumsfeld became Mr. Carlucci's protégé as Mr. Carlucci showed him the ropes. Carlucci was Undersecretary of Health, Education and Welfare when Caspar Weinberger was secretary during the Nixon administration. Carlucci became Ambassador to Portugal, and served in this position from 1974 until 1977. He is still very fondly remembered in Portugal among the winners of the November 25 Coup d'Etat [1]. Carlucci was Deputy Director of the CIA from 1978-1981, under CIA Director Stansfield Turner. Carlucci was deputy defense secretary from 1981 until 1983 [2], national security advisor from 1986 until 1987, and defense secretary in 1987, following the resignation of Weinberger, his nomination by President Ronald Reagan and his confirmation in the Senate by a vote of 91 to 1. He was reportedly less hard-line in policies toward the Soviet Union than Weinberger.
On January 5, 2006, he participated in a meeting at the White House of former Secretaries of Defense and State to discuss United States foreign policy with Bush administration officials.
Wackenhut was also involved in illegal US operations in Central America in the 1980s. By exploiting the Cabazon Indian reservation as a sovereign nation, they intended to produce and export explosives to the Contras, evading Congressional law to the contrary
In the early 1980's, Dr. John Nichols, the Cabazon tribal administrator, obtained a department of Defense secret facility clearance for the reservation to conduct various research projects. Nichols then approached Wackenhut with an elaborate "joint venture" proposal to manufacture 120mm combustible cartridge cases, 9mm machine pistols, lasersighted assault weapons, sniper rifles and portable rocket systems on the Cabazon reservation and in Latin America. At one point, he even sought to develop biological weapons.
"NSC used drug trafficking profits to start FEMA without congressional approval...a 1981 NSC Directive written by Frank Carlucci [states]: `Normally a state of martial law will be proclaimed by the President. However in the absence of such action by the President, a senior military commander may impose martial law in an area of his command where there had been a complete breakdown in the exercise of government functions by local authorities.'"
"Colonel Carone said a literal interpretation of the 1981 NSC Directive was that a local yokel national guard commander could institute martial law, and the actions of FEMA, without local citizens ever knowing how FEMA came to be, or what FEMA was originally intended to be about, would automatically be triggered without any type of presidential order... Congress doesn't even have the purse strings on this one. It's all from the Black Operations Fund which Congress will never force the US Intelligence Community to admit even exists."