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The Navy Saturday..released the names of the 16 civilian guests [on board the ill-fated U.S. sub that sunk a Japanese fishing vessel last week]:

Helen Cullen (Houston, Texas)QUINTANA PETROLEUM, HOUSTON, TX. Mike Mitchell (Irving, Texas)MANAGING DIR., ENCAP ENERGY ADVISORS, DALLAS, TX. Jay Brehmer (Overland Park, Kan.) AQUILA Carol Brehmer (Overland Park, Kan.) AQUILA John M. Hall (Sealy, Texas) AQUILA Leigh Anne Schell Hall (Sealy, Texas) AQUILA Anthony Schnur (The Woodlands, Texas) AQUILA Susan Schunur (The Woodlands, Texas) AQUILA Tood Thoman (Houston, Texas) FOSSIL BAY Deanda Thoman (Houston, Texas) FOSSIL BAY Ken Wyatt (Golden, Colorado) AQUILA Catherine Graham Wyatt (Golden, Colorado) AQUILA Jack Clary (Stow, Mass.) SPORTSWRITER Pat Clary (Stow, Mass.) SPORTSWRITER Mickey Nolan (Honolulu)GOLF PROMOTER Susan Nolan (Honolulu)GOLF PROMOTER "Hall pulled the ballast-control levers that started the submarine's ill-fated ascent towards the surface. He currently works for a wholesale energy company called Aquila, which is based in Kansas City, Mo. Jay Brehmer and Anthony Schur, both of whom were travelling with their wives, are also employed by Aquila. Brehmer, additionally, serves the board of directors of Contango Oil and Gas Company in Houston, Texas. Ken Wyatt works for Aquila Energy Capital Corporation. Todd Thoman used to work with Hall as an executive for a Dallas-based oil and gas company, Fossil Bay Resources. Thoman and Hall left the company in January. Jack Clary is a respected sportswriter who has authored dozens of books on sports figures such as Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods. One of his books looked at athletic standouts at the U.S. Naval Academy. Mickey Nolan was the volunteer chairman of the last two USS Missouri golf tournaments. All 16 guests were major contributors to the USS Missouri Restoration Fund, according to KITV4 News reporter Keoki Kerr. Their visit to the Greeneville was arranged by retired U.S. Pacific Forces commander Adm. Richard Macke." --KITV4, Hawaii, 2/17/01

Note: Since ex-President Bush is the honorary chairman of the Restoration Fund, we suspect that the Texas oil people are also "major contributors" to the Bush campaign. This would explain last week's nervousness in the White House, reported by the NY Daily News. --Politex, 2/18/01

It turns out that the man named John Hall who was one of the 16 civilians on the U.S. sub that sunk the Japanese fishing vessel last week is neither the Bank One director nor the ex-chairman of the Texas Natural Resource and Conservation Commission, but a Texas oilman. Calvin Woodward of the AP has identified him as director of Fossil Bay Resources Ltd, the company that fellow sub passenger Todd Thoman was connected with at the time of a '99 Houston Chronicle story. It reported that both Hall and Thoman were present at a Houston Polo Club benefit. Woodward reports that Thoman is no longer with Fossil Bay Resources. A biography of Hall at the Fossil Bay Resources web site notes that prior to the '90's he was involved in real estate development and construction, but since then he has been a principal/negotiator in a number of transactions between various national energy companies. Today's Washington Post, however, provides contradictory information. While Hall and Thoman were reported as being in Hawaii in connection with activities benefitting the Missouri Memorial Fund, "the two men had worked in the Houston office of Fossil Bay Resources Ltd., a Canadian venture. The Houston office was recently closed, and Hall and Thoman no longer work for the company, according to officials at the firm's Dallas headquarters." Regardless, the final question in our previous story remains: What is the relationship, if any, between the Thoman-Hall appearance on the "Today" show and the apparent need for the White House to orchestrate the media's response to the disaster? --Politex, 2/16/01

Yesterday the New York Daily News reported that the Bush White House was sweating bullets over the rumor that one of the civilians aboard the U.S. killer sub was "a GOP fat cat with connections to Pesident Bush." While we don't know who that "GOP fat cat" is, we do know from an AP report that the civilian behind the controls that brought the sub up to the surface, thereby sinking a Japanese fishing vessel, is named John Hall, and there are two men by that name in Texas with ties to Bush, at least one of whom might have "fat cat" ties to Bush. Here's how we learned that.

Yesterday morning John Hall and Todd Thoman appeared on NBC's "Today" show and described their experience on board the Navy sub when it hit the Japanese vessel, Ehime Maur. Neither man was identified further, but a Lexus-Nexus search by a Bush Watcher uncovered a 10/11/00 Houston Chronicle story in which Thoman and Hall were present at a Houston Polo Club benefit. Thoman was identified as being "of Fossil Bay Resources," a Dallas oil company. Hall was not identified, but his name has come up as attending a similar social event in Houston and the Houston Chronicle identified a John Hall in '99 as the 67 year-old chairman of the board of Bank One as well as a Bank One director. In 1999 Bank One was a giant with assets of $260 billion, and its executive members were donors to the Bush campaign. The other John Hall with ties to Bush was described by the Chronicle in 2000 as "the Austin-based former chairman of the Texas Natural Resource and Conservation Commission. Members of the TNRCC are appointed by the Governor, and during the Bush administration the various environmental groups in the state felt that the Commission was too much under the thumbs of the heavy corporate polluters in Texas.

While the John Hall in the sub may be neither the Bank One John Hall nor the TNRCC John Hall, the Bank One director comes closest to the image of a "GOP fat cat." On the "Today" show he came across as a robust, composed man in his 60's, wearing a tailored business suit. But one way or the other, so what? It's not illegal for campaign donors to get rides on U.S. subs. As one news network pointed out yesterday, taking well-placed civilians for rides on U.S. subs has been going on for some time, now. There was even a similar accident under similar circumstances ten years ago, which would place it during the previous Bush administration. Perhaps that's what has made the present Bush White House so up tight about the accident, to the exrtent that Cheney has been assigned to damage control. But like so many previous attempts at political damage control over the years, the cure might cause more damage than the sickness.

First, Navy spokesmen said they couldn't give out the names of the 16 civilians on board the sub because of their ongoing investigation as well as civilian privacy issues. Then the civilian group was identified as containing heavy donors to the battleship Missouri memorial fund, which does not preclude anyone from being a heavy donor to the Bush campaign as well. In fact, according to today's Washington Post, former president Bush is the honorary chairman of the Missouri fund, so one would assume there would be an overlap between the two donor lists. According to the AP, the civilian tour had been arranged by Richard Macke, a former commander of U.S. military forces in the Pacific who "was forced to step down over a controversy with Japan, [and] is now Pacific Region president for Wheat International Communications Corp., of Vienna Va." Having learned all of that, we find it curious that the only two civilians who decided to expose themselves to the media in order to assure listeners that their participation in the activities aboard the sub was benign turn out to have names that stir up further questions. Here's an obvious one: What is the relationship, if any, to the Thoman-Hall statements on TV and the apparent need for the White House to orchestrate the media's response to the disaster? --Politex, 2/16/01