This is another cut and paste job. Thanx to Reverend X for suggesting the site. It is a long post, but I think it is a good read. After all, it is only 50 years of one man's own personal history, and that of his family...and a bit about the nazi connection that his grandfather held.
SARASOTA HERALD-TRIBUNE: The president of the Florida Holocaust Museum said Saturday that George W. Bush's grandfather derived a portion of his personal fortune through his affiliation with a Nazi-controlled bank. John Loftus, a former prosecutor in the Justice Department's Nazi War Crimes Unit, said his research found that Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a principal in the Union Banking Corp. in Manhattan in the late 1930s and the 1940s. Leading Nazi industrialists secretly owned the bank at that time, Loftus said, and were moving money into it through a second bank in Holland even after the United States declared war on Germany. The bank was liquidated in 1951, Loftus said, and Bush's grandfather and great-grandfather received $1.5 million from the bank as part of that dissolution . . . Loftus pointed out that the Bush family would not be the only American political dynasty to have ties to the "wrong side of World War II." The Rockefellers had financial connections to Nazi Germany, he said. Loftus also reminded his audience that John F. Kennedy's father, an avowed isolationist and former ambassador to Great Britain, profited during the 1930s and '40s from Nazi stocks that he owned. "No one today blames the Democrats because Jack Kennedy's father bought Nazi stocks," Loftus said. Still, he said, it is important to understand these historical connections for what they tell us about politics today. The World War II experience points out how easy it was then -- and remains today -- to hide money in multinational funds. SARASOTA HERALD TRIBUNE
1950s
`WE WERE TERRIBLE TO ANIMALS,' recalled [Bush childhood pal Terry] Throckmorton, laughing. A dip behind the Bush borne turned into a small lake after a good rain, and thousands of frogs would come out. `Everybody would get BB guns and shoot them,' Throckmorton said. `Or we'd put firecrackers in the frogs and throw them and blow them up.'- Nicholas D. Kristof, Midland Life,
1953
George Bush and the Liedtke brothers form Zapata Petroleum. Zapata's subsidiary, Zapata Offshore, later becomes known for its close ties to the CIA.
1954
The Bush family buys out the Liedtke brothers.
1955
George Bush sets up a Mexican drilling operation, Permago, with a frontman to obscure his ownership. The frontman later is convicted of defrauding the Mexican government of $58 million.
1959
Manuel Noriega recruited as an agent by the US Defense Intelligence Agency.
1960s
Kitty Kelley writes that George H.W. Bush successflly comes to the rescue when son Jeb violates Andover's alcohol ban, but he's allowed to finish his degree after his father intervenes. Dad later gets an honorary transfer for son Marvin after he is found with drugs.
After his sister dies, young George writes a school paper in which he says "the lacerates ran down my cheeks." He also has a confederate flag hanging in his dorm room.
1960
Some investigators believe George Bush spent part of this year and the next in Miami on behalf of the CIA, organizing rightwing exiles for an invasion of Cuba. Is said to have worked with later Iran-Contra figure Felix Rodriguez.
1961
According to the Realist, CIA official Fletcher Prouty delivers three Navy ships to agents in Guatemala to be used in the Bay of Pigs invasion. Prouty claims he delivered the ships to a CIA agent named George Bush. Agent Bush named the ships the Barbara, Houston and Zapata.
Bay of Pigs invasion fails. Right-wingers blame Kennedy for failure to provide air cover. CIA loses 15 men, another 1100 are imprisoned.
George Bush invites Rep. TL. Ashley -- a fellow Skull & Boner -- down to Texas for a party in order to meet "an attractive girl." Bush writes that "she may be accompanied by an Austrian ski instructor but I think we can probably flush him at the local dance hall." Bush notes that he's had to unlist his phone because "Jane Morgan keeps calling me all the time." [From a letter in the Ashley archives uncovered by Spy magazine.]
Zapata annual report boasts that the company has paid no taxes since it was founded.
1963
John F. Kennedy is assassinated. Internal FBI memo reports that on November 22 "reputable businessman" George H. W. Bush reported hearsay that a certain Young Republican "has been talking of killing the president when he comes to Houston." The Young Republican was nowhere near Dallas on that date. When CIA director, Bush will request many of the Kennedy assasination files.
According to a 1988 story in The Nation, a memo from J. Edgar Hoover states that "Mr. George Bush of the CIA" had been briefed on November 23rd, 1963 about the reaction of anti-Castro Cuban exiles in Miami to the assassination of President Kennedy. George says it ain't him, admits he was in Texas but can't remember where.
1964
George Bush runs as a Goldwater Republican for Congress. Campaigns against the Civil Rights Act.
1966
Bush, runs as a moderate Republican, gets elected to Congress. Robert Mosbacher chairs Oil Men for Bush.
Apache leader Ned Anderson meets with the Skull & Bones lawyer and George Bush's brother Jonathan who attempt to return the skull Prescott Bush had looted in 1933. Anderson refuses the skull because he says it isn't Geronimo's.
1967
RICHARD GOODING, STAR WEEKLY, July 27, 1999 - Presidential candidate George W. Bush once led a Yale fraternity that barbarically branded its new members on their backsides with a red-hot metal rod as part of a sadistic hazing practice. "I got branded and I didn't like it one bit," Professor Bradford Lee of the elite Naval War College in Newport, R.I.-an ex-football player and onetime member of Bush's Delta Epsilon Kappa fraternity-told STAR in an exclusive interview. "It did burn," he says, recalling the terrifying experience. "I think I still have the mark on me."
A Star investigation has revealed that he was president of Delta Epsilon Kappa when the hazing scandal broke in the campus newspaper in the late '60s-leading to the fraternity being fined and the branding practice halted. Amazingly, Bush, now the governor of Texas, defended the illegal torture of the young fraternity pledges at the time as a harmless prank-insisting that it was comparable to "only a cigarette burn" which left "no scarring mark physically or mentally." But others said the branding resulted in a second-degree burn that left a half-inch scab in the shape of the Greek letter Delta.
Lee-who still bears the mark 32 years later-is not sure who actually wielded the brand because the pledges were not allowed to look at their tormentors. "But I do know that George Bush was very active in all the fraternity activities then."
Lee, who was a guard on the Yale football team, recalled that the branding came after "a long initiation that went on into the early morning hours." He says the idea was to wear you out so much that you allowed your bare flesh to be singed. "I was already tired from football practice earlier that day. I was so groggy I wasn't exactly sensitive to what they were up to. I wasn't very happy about it."
. . . Bill Katz, now a community college teacher in northern New Jersey, told Star that the branding was done with "a wire coat hanger twisted into a triangle and heated up" in the fireplace. "They touched you just above the buttocks, in the small of the back," he says.
. . . And Boston lawyer Franklin Levy said that to increase the fear of the moment, the older fraternity men first brandished an actual glowing hot branding iron-to make them think that was what awaited them. "When they burned me," Levy remembers, "I jumped a mile."
Before the brandings, pledges had to endure hours of being kicked and a vicious round of tannings with wooden paddles-another practice that Yale has ruled taboo. "On that night," according to an account in the Yale Daily News in 1967, 'each pledge was forced to sit with his head between his legs, motionless, for two to five hours.
"If he coughed, raised his hand or talked, he was kicked by an older brother." After all the beatings, recalled one fraternity member, the branding was almost a relief.
In the wake of the Yale Daily News' expose of the fraternity's hazing, Bush, whose father was also a DKE at Yale, admitted the branding to the New York Times in November 1967. But Bush - whose college nickname was "Lip" for his Texas wisecracks - also ripped into Yale for being too "Haughty" to "allow this type of pledging to go on."
1968
George W. Bush joins Skull & Bones at Yale
1970s
A professor at the Harvard Business School shows his students the film, "Grapes of Wrath." Studen George W wants to know, "Why are you going to show us that Commie movie?" His review of the movie: "Look. People are poor because they are lazy."
1970
Bush loses Senate race to Lloyd Bentsen, despite $112,000 in contributions from a White House slush fund. Jim Baker is campaign chair. Bush later claims to have reported correctly all but $6000 in cash --which he denies he got. A 1992 story in the New York Times says the $6000 was listed in records of Nixon's "townhouse operation" which was designed in part to make GOP congressional candidates vulnerable to blackmail.
1971
Bush is named UN Ambassador by Nixon.
Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs finds enough evidence of Noriega's involvement in drug dealing to indict him, but US Attorney's office in Miami considers grabbing Noriega in Panama for trial here to be impractical. State Department also urges BNDD to back off.
1972
Bill Liedtke gathers $700,000 in anonymous contributions for the Nixon campaign, delivering the money in cash, checks and securities to the Committee to Re-Elect the President (the infamous CREEP) one day before such contributions become illegal. Bill says he did it as a favor to George.
1973
Bush is named GOP national chair. Brings into the party the Heritage Groups Council, an organization with a number of Nazi sympathizers.
Bush, according to Lowell Weicker, inquires as to whether records of the "townhouse operation" should be burned.
Robert Mosbacher wins an offshore drilling concession from Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Watergate tapes indicate concern by Nixon and aide HR Haldeman that the investigation into Watergate might expose the "Bay of Pigs thing." Nixon also speaks of the "Texans" and the "Cubans." and mentions "Mosbacher."
In another tape, Nixon decides following his re-election to get signed resignations from his whole government so he can centralize his power. Says Nixon to John Erlichman: "Eliminate everyone, except George Bush. Bush will do anything for our cause."
1974
Bush is named special envoy to China.
1975
DEA report notes Noreiga's involvement in drug trade.
George W. Bush graduates from Harvard Business School
1976
Jerry Ford names George Bush CIA director, his fourth political patronage job in a little over five years. Bush later claims this is the first time he ever worked for the CIA. At his confirmation hearings, Bush says, "I think we should tread very carefully on governments that are constitutionally elected."
Bush holds first known meeting with Noriega. Noriega starts receiving $110,000 a year from the CIA.
Noriega found to be working for Cubans as well, but keeps his CIA gig.
Bush sets up Team B within the CIA, a group of neo-conservative outsiders and generals who proceed to double the agency's estimate of Soviet military spending.
Senate committee headed by Frank Church proposes revealing size of the country's black budget -- intelligence spending that, in contradiction to the Constitution, is kept secret even from the Hill. According to journalist Tim Weiner, Bush argues that the revelation would be a disaster and would compromise the agency beyond repair. By a one vote margin the matter is referred to the Senate. It never reaches the floor.
Chilean dissident Orlando Letelier is assassinated by Chilean secret police agents. CIA fails to inform FBI of pending plot and of assassins' arrival in US. CIA claims the hit was the work of left-wingers in search of a martyr.
Bush writes internal CIA memo asking to see cable on Jack Ruby visiting Santos Trafficante in jail. In 1992, Bush will deny any interest in the JFK assassination while CIA head.
Bush claims nuclear war is winnable.
1977
Philippine dictator Marcos buys back Robert Mosbacher's oil concession. Mosbacher claims he was swindled. Philippine officials say they never saw any expenditures by Mosbacher on the project.
1978
Bush, Mosbacher and Jim Baker become partners in an oil deal.
From a Washington Post article by Bob Woodward and Walter Pincus: "According to those involved in Bush's first political action committee, there were several occasions in 1978-79, when Bush was living in Houston and traveling the country in his first run for the presidency, that he set aside periods of up to 24 hours and told aides that he had to fly to Washington for a secret meeting of former CIA directors. Bush told his aides that he could not divulge his whereabouts, and that he would not be available." Former CIA chief Stansfield Turner denies such meetings took place.
George W. Bush declares his candidacy for the Midland Congressional district. He wins the Republican primary and loses in the general election.
George W. Bush begins operations of his oil firm, Arbusto Energy. With the help of Jonathan Bush, he assembles several dozen investors in a limited partnership including Dorothy Bush, Lewis Lehrman, William Draper, and James Bath, a Houston aircraft broker
1979
Fifty Bush family investors and friends, led by uncle Jonathan, a New York Republican Party official and an investment manager, invest $4.7 million to set up young Bush in a company called Arbusto.
1980
Bush runs for the presidency after agreeing to prospective manager James Baker's condition that mistress and aide Jennifer Fitzgerald can't be arround, according to journalist Kitty Kelly.
Bush becomes Reagan's vice presidential candidate. Runs as a rightwinger again.
Mosbacher becomes chief fundraiser for Bush's presidential campaign. Forms a millionaire's club of 250 contributors, each of whom cough up $100,000.
William Casey forms a working group to prepare for possible Carter October political surprise. In early October, an Iranian official meets with three top Reagan campaign aides. All three deny memory of the meeting in subsequent proceedings.
On October 21, Reagan hints he has a secret plan to release the hostages. This is right around the alleged date of a Paris meeting at which the so-called "October Surprise" was settled. Some allege that at this meeting it was agreed to end the arms embargo against Iran if Iran would release its hostages after the election. While Bush's presence at this meeting has been denied by the House committee investigating the October Surprise, Bush's whereabouts at this critical time remain in doubt. The White House, in fact, has leaked conflicting stories.
Prescott Bush writes a letter to James Baker in September which says, "Herb Cohen - the buy that offered help on the Iranian hostage situation - called me yesterday afternoon. herb has a couple of reliable sources on the National Security Council, about whome the [Carter] administration does not know, who can keep him posted on developments."
Rep. Dan Quayle goes on a Florida golfing vacation with seven other men and Paula Parkinson -- an insurance lobbyist who later posed nude for Playboy. Parkinson describes Quayle as a husband on the make, but says she turned him down because she was already having an affair with another congressman. Marilyn Quayle says, "anybody who knows Dan Quayle knows he would rather play golf than have sex."
The Reagan-Bush campaign receives stolen copies of Carter's briefing books.
Bush's campaign manager, James Baker, forces the dismissal of Bush aide Jennifer Fitzgerald, described in a 1982 Time story as having "much to say about where Bush goes, what he does and whom he sees." Bush continues to pay Fitzgerald out of his own pocket.
1981
Reagan-Bush inaugurated. Hostages released moments before. Shortly thereafter, arms shipments to Iran resume from Israel and America. In July, an Argentinean plane chartered by Israel crashes in Soviet territory. It is found to have made three deliveries of American military supplies to Iran. In a 1991 story in Esquire, Craig Unger quotes Alexander Haig as saying "I have a sneaking suspicion that someone in the White House winked." Says Unger: "This secret and illegal sale of military equipment continued for years afterwards."
James Baker named Reagan's chief of staff.
SEC filings for Zapata Oil for 1960-66 are found to have been "inadvertently destroyed."
Reagan authorizes CIA assistance to Contras.
1982
CIA director William Casey begins Operation Black Eagle to expand US role in Central America. Urges use of "selected Latin American and European governments, organizations and individuals" in the project.
Inslaw, a computer software company, signs a $10 million contract to install a case-tracking program in 94 US Attorney's offices. Four months later, after obtaining a copy of Inslaw's proprietary version of the program, the government cancels the contract and begins an aggressive campaign to force the company into bankruptcy. Later sources claim that the program was installed by the CIA and sold to various foreign intelligence agencies.
After $3 million is poured into Arbusto with little oil and no profits, just tax shelter George W. Bush changes the company name to Bush Exploration Oil Co. Subsequently he is kept afloat by an investment from Philip Uzielli, a Princeton friend of James Baker III. For the sum of $1 million, Uzielli bought 10% of the company at a time in 1982 when the entire enterprise was valued at less than $400,000. Subsequently, to save the company George W. Bush merges with Spectrum 7, a small oil firm owned by William DeWitt and Mercer Reynolds. DeWitt had graduated from Yale a few years earlier than Bush and was the son of the former owner of the Cincinnati Reds. Bush becomes president of Spectrum 7. He also gets 14% of the Spectrum's stock. Meanwhile, 50 original investors in Arbusto get paid off at about 20 cents on the dollar.
Prescott Bush Jr.'s campaign for senator from Connecticut goes down hill after he tells a woman's club: "I'm sure there are people in Greenwich who are glad [the immigrants] are here, because they wouldn't have someone to help in the house without them."
1983
Noriega meets again with George Bush.
Bush presents an autographed photo to a WWII Ukrainian leader under the Nazis, whose regime killed 100,000 Jews.
KAL 007 crashes under circumstances that remain suspicious to this day.
Bush promotes Jennifer Fitzgerald from appointments secretary to executive assistant. Seven staffers resign in protest. Fitzgerald tells the New York Post: "Everyone keeps painting me as this old ogre. I really don't worry about it. All these bizarre things just simply aren't true."
Neil Bush forms his first oil company. He puts in $100, his partners contribute $160,000 and Neil is named president of the firm, JNB Exploration.
Jeb Bush's business partner, Alberto Duque, goes bankrupt, is eventually convicted of fraud and is sentenced to 15 years in prison.
1984
Jeb Bush lobbies the Department of Health & Human Services on behalf of Cuban--American businessman Miguel Recarey, Jr., whose medical firm, IMC, later collapses. Recarey, who was close to mobster Santos Trafficante and the contras, later disappears with at least $12 million in federal funds.
George Bush takes part in meetings to plan increased "third country" aid to the Contras..
CIA mines Nicaraguan harbors.
Spectrum 7 Corporation, an Ohio oil exploration outfit owned by Dubya's Yalie pal William DeWitt Jr., buys out Bush Exploration, setting up young Bush as CEO at $75,000 a year and giving him 1.1 million shares of the firm's stock. The company's fortunes soon sink, with $400,000 in losses and a debt of $3 million.
1985
Jennifer Fitzgerald is sent to work on Capitol Hill after stories arise linking her romantically with George Bush.
Stuart Spencer's public relation firm starts receiving over $350,000 from Panama to improve Noriega's image.
CIA starts using BCCI as a conduit.
George Bush thanks Oliver North for "dedication and tireless work with the hostage thing, with Central America." Bush will later deny knowing about the Contra effort until late 1986.
Neil Bush joins the board of Silverado S&L, serves until 1988. Silverado loans his partners in JNB $132 million which they never repay. Silverado will eventually collapse at a taxpayer cost of $1 billion.
408 TOW anti-tank missiles are shipped from Israel to Iran. A day later, US hostage Benjamin Weir is released.
1986
VP Bush goes to Honduras to promote support for the Contras. Takes along baseball players Nolan Ryan and Gary Carter.
Contra figure Felix Rodriguez meets with Donald Gregg, Bush's national security advisor, to complain about Iran-Contra operatives skimming funds from the Contras.
Bush may have made several secret visits to Damascus between 1986-88 according to a 1992 report in Time, which said two senior GOP senators were pressing for a probe. The allegation is that Bush went to negotiate the release of hostages in Lebanon but in fact stonewalled Syria, "playing for campaign timing. Republicans want to get to the bottom of intelligence-community suspicions that the US somehow blew a chance to free Terry Anderson and his fellow captives."
Iranian arms runner Manucher Ghorbanifar proposes "diversion" of profits from Iran arms sales to Contras.
George W. Bush and partners receive more than $2 million of Harken Energy stock in exchange for their failing oil well operation, which had lost $400,000 in the prior six months. Bush puts up about $500,000 and gets a $120,000 annual consulting fee along with $131,250 in stock options. After Bush joined Harken, the largest stock position and a seat on its board were acquired by Harvard Management Company. Harvard agrees to buy 1.35 million shares of Harken for $2 million and invest another $20 million in Harken projects.
Jeb Bush is hired by Miguel Recarey to find a new headqarters for his business. Jeb is paid $75,000 but fails to come up with a building for IMC.
According to an HHS Medicare fraud inspector later, Miguel Recarey's IMC is using Medicare funds to treat wounded Contras. IMC is receiving $30 million a month for its Medicare patients. Robert Teich, a DEA official in Miami, will later say, "IMC is a classic case of embezzlement of government funds." He calls the skimming of Medicare funds a "bust out" in which money is "drained out the back door." The Wall Street Journal will report that Santos Trafficante "helped out when Recarey needed business financing."
JIM YARDLEY, NY TIMES - In his earliest known tie to the Enron Corporation, President Bush, then an oil man in West Texas, joined an energy drilling venture organized in 1986 by a subsidiary of Enron. The drilling operation - which succeeded in striking oil and natural gas in Martin County - came as Mr. Bush's company, the Spectrum 7 Energy Corporation, was struggling to stay afloat during a collapse in world oil prices. The company was also in final negotiations to be taken over by a Dallas-based company, Harken Energy. Executives involved in the drilling venture characterized it as an ordinary business deal. Enron Oil and Gas, then an exploration subsidiary with offices here in Midland, served as operator and majority partner. Mr. Bush's company, which had a 10 percent working interest in the deal, was one of a handful of minority investors . . . It is unclear whether Mr. Bush was involved in the deal because he controlled adjacent mineral leases or if Spectrum 7 was simply sought out as an investor. Bill Morrison, who ran the Midland office of Enron Oil and Gas at the time, said he recalled soliciting about 12 to 15 companies as potential investors in the project, including Spectrum 7. He said many companies, struggling for capital, declined the offer, but Spectrum 7, apparently with cash on hand, signed on for the 10 percent interest.
1987
Bush's former chief of staff, Daniel Murphy, flies to Panama with South Korean influence peddler Tongsun Park on a private plane owned by arms dealer Sargis Soghnalian to meet with Noriega. Murphy later tells a Senate subcommittee that he informed Noriega that he need not resign before the 1988 election despite the Reagan administration public pressure to the contrary.
Bill Casey dies.
Lee Atwater accuses Robert Dole of spreading stories about Bush and Jennifer Fitzgerald. An agreement is worked out, as reported by Sidney Blumenthal in the Washington Post: "The Dole people didn't spread any rumors and promised not to do it again. And the Bush people haven't spread rumors about the Dole people spreading rumors and won't do it again. "
Harken Energy, with George W Bush on the board, gets rescued by aid from the BCCI-connected Union Bank of Switzerland in a deal brokered by Jackson Stephens, later to show up as a key supporter of Bill Clinton. The deal was also pushed along by another Clinton friend, David Edwards. Edwards will bring BCCI-linked investors into Harken deals including Abdullah Bakhsh, purchases $10 million in shares of Stephens dominated Worthen Bank.
Jan. 15: Dan Lasater begins serving a 30-month sentence for cocaine distribution. In July, he is paroled to a Little Rock halfway house.
1988
Dan Quayle is named VP candidate. Stuart Spencer is assigned to improve Dan Quayle's image, the same job he handled for Noriega and Nixon.
Quayle embarrasses campaign by such statements as "[The Holocaust] was an obscene period in our nation's history," adding that "I didn't live in this century."
Prisoner who claimed he sold marijuana to Quayle is put into solitary confinement by the head of federal prisons, aborting a planned news conference shortly before the election.
Silverado S&L goes under after receiving 126 cease & desist orders in past four years from the Topeka office of the Office of Thrift Supervision. These orders found conflict of interests, insider abuse and other violations.
Dwight Chapin, ex-Nixon dirty trickster, gets job in Bush campaign.
Rudi Slavoff becomes head of Bulgarians for Bush. In 1983, Slavoff organized an event honoring Austin App, promoter of the theory that the Holocaust was a hoax.
Slavoff joins other GOP ethnic leaders in the Coalition of American Nationalities co-chaired by Edward Derwinski. Among them is a former member of an Hungarian pro-Nazi party. After press revelations, eight of the leaders accused of anti-semitism resign from the campaign. Bush says: "Nobody's giving in... These people left of their own account."
GOP flier warns that "all the murderers, rapists and drug pushers and child molesters in Massachusetts vote for Michael Dukakis."
Bush establishes Team 100, which will eventually grow to 249 individuals who contribute nearly $25 million in soft money to help the GOP cause. The contributions also apparently help the contributors, various of whom get ambassadorial appointments, legislative favors, and intervention on regulatory and criminal matters.
Bush denies knowledge of Noriega's involvement in drug dealing.
The Willie Horton ad is aired. Credit for similar tactics is given to campaign guru Lee Atwater, whose PR firm had represented drug-connected Bahamian prime minister Oscar Pinding and the Philippines' Marcos. Atwater himself had represented UNITA, the CIA-backed Africa rebel group.
Fred Malek, ex-Nixon aide, resigns from the Bush campaign after it's revealed that he compiled a list of Jews in the Labor Dept. as part of a Nixon investigation of a "Jewish cabal."
A few days before the supposedly surprise arrest of five BCCI officials, some of the world's most powerful drug dealers quietly withdraw millions of dollars from the bank. Some government investigators believe the dealers were tipped off by sources within the Bush administration.
Although Felix Rodriguez, former leading cop under Batista, claims he left the CIA in 1976, Rolling Stone reports that he is still going to CIA headquarters monthly to receive assignments and get his bulletproof Cadillac serviced.
Bankruptcy judge George Bason Jr. concludes that the government stole Inslaw's software through "trickery, fraud and deceit."
Stock market drops 43 points on false rumor that Washington Post was about the publish the Bush-Fitzgerald story.
Aziz Rehman, a junior BCCI official in Miami, tells a Senate committee that "I saw Jeb Bush two or three times over there. . . This was all part of the bank's trying to cultivate public officials and prminent individuals." Another BCCI official will write in his diary, "Jeb Bush, VP George Bush's son, [is] a name. . .to be remembered."
1989
Bush inaugurated. Aides tell the press that the new administration would rather "stay one step behind than be one step ahead."
Bush authorizes CIA support to Noriega's opposition, giving Noriega an excuse to annul Panama's elections.
Bush claims executive privilege to avoid testifying in the Oliver North trial, thus becoming first president to use this power to keep his acts as vice president under wraps.
Dan Quayle declares changes in Soviet Union "just a public relations extravaganza."
Bush brother Prescott flies to Shanghai after the Tiananmen Square massacre to close a deal for an $18 million resort there, despite his brother's ban on high-level Chinese contacts. Prescott says, "We aren't a bunch of carrion birds coming in to pick the carcass. But there are big opportunities in China, and America can't afford to be shut out."
Prescott Bush also visits Japan, searching for consulting contracts just ten days before his brother arrives on a presidential tour. The Japanese firm that paid Prescott a quarter-million dollar consulting fee comes under investigation for exchange law violations and links to the Japanese mob.
C. Boyden Gray, the president's top ethics official, corrects his 1985 and 1986 financial disclosure forms. He forgot to include $98,000 in income.
George Bush signs the S&L bailout bill promising that "these problems will never happen again."
The Chicago Tribune reports: "After 14 fishing outings, the President has failed to catch a single fish."
At White House behest, the DEA lures drug dealer to Lafayette Park to make arrest in front of presidential home for the benefit of Bush's upcoming drug speech. At first, drug dealer is dubious, asks DEA agent, "Where the fuck is the White House?"
Defense secretary nominee John Tower runs into confirmation troubles when it is revealed that he has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting fees from defense contractors. Runs into more trouble with revelations of womanizing and drinking. His nomination is rejected.
The sale of three communications satellites to China is announced. Prescott Bush is a $250,000 consultant in the deal.
GOP memo is leaked implying that House Speaker Tom Foley is a homosexual.
President Bush signs a top-secret directive ordering closer ties with Iraq, which opens the way for $1 billion in new aid just a little more than a year before Bush goes to war against that country. The agricultural credit allows Saddam Hussein to use his hard currency for a massive military buildup.
A second judge concurs that the government stole Inslaw's software.
The Statistical Abstract of the United States, published by the US government, reports that the GNP of East Germany during the 1980s was greater than that of West Germany. The figures come from the CIA.
Bahrain officials suddenly break off offshore drilling negotiations with Amoco and decide to deal with Harken Energy, George Bush Jr.'s firm. Harken has had a series of failed ventures and no cash, so the Bass brothers are brought in to finance Harken's efforts at a cost of $50 million.
Neil Bush bails out of JNB Exploration, the firm where he became president with a $100 ante, leaving his partners to worry about its debt. Days earlier he forms Apex Energy with a personal investment of $3000. The rest of the money -- $2.7 million -- comes from an SBA program designed to help "high risk start-up companies." Like JNB, it proves to be just that. Apex will later go belly-up with no assets.
Two months after his father's inauguration, George W. Bush announces that he and a syndicate of investors have purchased the Texas Rangers. The investors are Edward "Rusty" Rose, Richard Rainwater, Bill DeWitt, Roland Betts (a former Yale frat brother) and Tom Bernstein (Bett's partner in a film investment concern). While Bush appears to lead the group, Rainwater makes clear that Rose is to control how the business is run. Bush's stake in the $86 million deal is 2%, financed with a $500,000 loan from a Midland Bank of which he had been a director and $106,000 from other sources. Rainwater and Rose put up 14.2 million, Betts and Bernstein invested about $6 million and the balance comes from smaller investors and loans. Bush will eventually sell his share for $15 million.
1990
DAILY ENRON
Federal regulators give Bush son Neil the mildest possible penalty in the $1 billion failure of the Silverado S&L. The deal is so good that Bush drops his appeal. Among other things, Neil, as a Silverado director, voted to approve over $100 million in loans to his business partners.
January: Bahrain awards exclusive offshore drilling rights to Harken Oil. This is a surprise as Harken is in very shaky financial condition, has never drilled outside of Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma and had never drilled undersea at all. The Bass brothers are brought in by Harken for sufficient equity - $25 million - to proceed with the effort. Harvard Management increases its investment. Harken's stock price rises from $4.50 to $5.50.
May Harken officials warn board the company is about to run out of cash.
June Harken drills two dry holes in Bahrain. George W. Bush sells two-thirds of his Harken Energy stock at the top of the market for $850,000, a 200% profit, but makes no report to the SEC as required by law. Bush Jr. says later the SEC misplaced the report. An SEC representative responds: "nobody ever found the 'lost' filing." One week after Bush's sale, Harken reports an earnings plunge. Harken stock falls more than 60%. Bush uses most of the proceeds to pay off the bank loan he had taken a year earlier to finance his portion of the Texas Rangers deal.
August: Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait. Harken's stock price drops substantially. Two months after Bush sells his stock, Harken posts losses for the 2nd quarter of well over $20 million and is shares fall another 24 %, by year end Harken is trading at $1.25. Bush has insisted that he did not know about the firm's mounting losses and that his stock sell-off was approved by Harken's general counsel.
George W. Bush is asked by Carlyle Group to serve on the board of directors of Caterair, one of the nation's largest airline catering services which it had acquired in 1989. The offer is arranged by Fred Malek, long time Bush associate who is then an advisor to Carlyle.
October: Arlington, Texas Mayor Richard Greene signs a contract that guarantees $135 million toward the new Texas Ranger Stadium's estimate price of $190 million. The Rangers put up no cash but finance their share through a ticket surcharge. From the team's operating revenues, the city will earn a maximum of $5 million annually in rent, no matter how much the Rangers reap from ticket sales and television (a sum that will rise to $100 million a year). Another provision permitts the franchise to buy the stadium after the accumulated rental payments reached a mere $ 60 million. The property acquired so cheaply by the Rangers includes not just a fancy new stadium with a seating capacity of 49,000 but an additional 270 acres of newly valuable land. Legislation is passed and signed that authorizes the Arlington Sports Facilities Development Authority with power to issue bonds and exercise eminent domain over any obstinate landowners. Never before had a Texas municipal authority been given the license to seize the property of a private citizen for the benefit of other private citizens. A recalcitrant Arlington family refuses to sell a 13 acre parcel near the stadium site for half its appraised value. The jury awards more than $4 million to the family.
November: Harken transfers $20 million in debts to Harvard partnership, eliminates another $16 million in debt by transferring assets to Harvard.
Fred Malek returns to power with ambassador status to head up planning for the economic summit.
S&L industry is losing money at the rate of $3 million a minute. Bailout chief estimates total cost at $325-500 billion.
Some 200 young soccer players have their games canceled for security reasons because Bush wants to go fishing on the Potomac nearby. Says one seven-year-old player: "We had a tough soccer game and he's just going fishing. He could play somewhere else."
Bush son Jeb gets the federal government to pay off the $4,5 million he owed to a failed Florida thrift. Jeb pays $500,000.
Bush brother Jonathan's east coast brokerage fined in two states for violating laws and Jonathan is barred from public trading in Massachusetts.
Bush's attorney general, Richard Thornberg, is warned about BCCI but does nothing.
Federal court of appeals throws out the Inslaw case on the grounds that it did not belong in bankruptcy court.
Bush says, "The economy is headed in the right direction."
1991
January: President Bush attacks Iraq.
February: Dubya, as the official in charge at Harken, reports his stock sale to the SEC - eight months late.
April - The SEC begins an investigation into Harken dealings. Chairman Richard Breeden, who was appointed by the senior Bush and served him as an economic policy adviser, hails from Baker & Botts, a big Texas oil law firm where he was a partner. Inside the SEC, James Doty, general counsel and the official in charge of any litigation that might come out of the Harken investigation, is another alumnus of Baker & Botts. And as a private attorney, before joining the government, Doty represented the younger Bush in matters related to Dubya's ownership of the Rangers.
August - The SEC reports that its staff has reviewed thousands of pages of documents, interviewed witnesses and met lawyers for Harken and Mr Bush. It concludes that there is insufficient evidence to determine that Mr Bush had any inside information or advance knowledge of Harken's losses. The SEC recommends that the matter be closed.
September: Harvard begins selling Harken stock at more than $6 a share, receiving $7.4 million over the next 12 months.
Former top aide to White House Chief of Staff John Sununu goes to work for a prominent figure in the BCCI scandal less than a month after leaving the Bush administration. Edward Rogers Jr. signs a $600,000 contract to give legal advice to Sheik Kamal Adham, an ex-Saudi intelligence officer who is being investigated for his role in BCCI's takeover of First American Bancshares.
The Miami acting US Attorney is allegedly rebuffed by the Justice Department in his efforts to indict BCCI and some of its principal officers on tax fraud charges. Justice Department later denies this occurred.
Danny Casolaro, a reporter investigating the Inslaw story, is found dead in a motel room bathtub, the day after he met a key source. The death was ruled a suicide. Perhaps he is despondent over the loss of his briefcase, which is missing from the room.
George Bush spends three nights in a Houston hotel so he can claim Texas residency. Texas has no income tax.
Neil Bush bails out of Apex Energy after collecting $320,000 in salary plus expenses. Bill Daniels, cable-TV magnate who has been lobbying against regulation of the cable industry, offers Neil a job. According to a representative, he "thought Neil deserved a second chance."
1992
New York Times reports that three of Bush's top fundraisers are being sued in connection with bank failures and another pleaded guilty to mail fraud in connection with an S&L. These men include the GOP national finance chair, vice chair and two co-chairs of the President's Dinner, which raised $9 million for Republican causes.
Former US Attorney General Elliot Richardson, representing the owners of Inslaw, tells Mother Jones, "I don't know any case where the government has stonewalled like this."
First of Harken Energy's wells off Bahrain comes up dry. George W. Bush takes a leave of absence from the firm to work in his father's campaign, saying "I don't want to involve this company in any kind of allegations of conflicts or whatever may arise."
Village Voice reports that President Bush has taken at least 76 partisan flights during his term, at a cost to the taxpayers of over $6 million.
Nixon's Jew hunter Fred Malek is back as Bush's campaign manager.
Campaign sells photo opportunities with the president at a fundraiser for $92,000 each.
Washington, DC, loses $52,000 in taxes because Bush claims to be a Texas resident.
Donald H. Alexander contributes $100,000 to Team 100; shortly thereafter he's named ambassador to the Netherlands.
Bush says: "I will do what I have to do to be reelected."
JERRY URBAN, HOUSTON CHRONICLE, JUNE 4, 1992: The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network -- known as FinCEN -- and the FBI are reviewing accusations that entrepreneur James R. Bath guided money to Houston from Saudi investors who wanted to influence US policy under the Reagan and Bush administrations, sources close to the investigations say . . . The federal review stems in part from court documents obtained through litigation by Bill White, a former real estate business associate of Bath . . . White became entangled in a series of lawsuits and countersuits with Bath, who for some six years has prevailed in the courts. . . . In sworn depositions, Bath said he represented four prominent Saudis as a trustee and that he would use his name on their investments. In return, he said, he would receive a 5 percent interest in their deals. Tax documents and personal financial records show that Bath personally had a 5 percent interest in Arbusto '79 Ltd., and Arbusto '80 Ltd., limited partnerships controlled by George W. Bush, President Bush's eldest son. Arbusto means 'bush' in Spanish. Bath invested $ 50,000 in the limited partnerships, according to the documents. There is no available evidence to show whether the money came from Saudi interests. George W. Bush's company, Bush Exploration Co., general partner in the limited partnerships, went through several mergers, eventually evolving into Harken Energy Corp., a suburban Dallas-based company . . . Bush said that to his knowledge, Bath's investment was from personal funds, and no Saudi money was invested in Arbusto. Bath, 55, a former U.S. Air Force pilot, declined to comment for the record. Spokesmen for FinCEN and the FBI also declined to comment. According to a 1976 trust agreement, drawn shortly after Bush was appointed director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Saudi Sheik Salem M. Binladen appointed Bath as his business representative in Houston. Binladen, along with his brothers, owns Binladen Brothers Construction, one of the largest construction companies in the Middle East. According to White, Bath told him that he had assisted the CIA in a liaison role with Saudi Arabia since 1976. Bath has previously denied having worked for the CIA . . . Bath received a 5 percent interest in the companies that own and operate Houston Gulf Airport after purchasing it on behalf of Binladen in 1977.
1993
The SEC ends a perfunctory investigastion of Harken.
With the new Ranger stadium being readied to open the following spring, George W. Bush announces that he would be running for governor. He is says his campaign theme will be self-reliance and personal responsibility rather than dependence on government.
PBS FRONTLINE: [From a French source] The Saudi authorities' decision to issue an arrest warrant for Osama bin Laden on 16 May 1993 does not threaten to affect the relationship between the bin Ladens and the royal family. Osama, one of Mohammed's youngest son, has been known for years for his fundamentalist activities . . . King Fahd's two closest friends were: Prince Mohammed Ben Abdullah (son of Abdul Aziz' youngest brother), who died in the early '80s and whose brother, Khaled Ben Abdullah (an associate of Suleiman Olayan), still has free access to the king; and Salem bin Laden, who died in 1988 . . . Like his father in 1968, Salem died in a 1988 air crash...in Texas. He was flying a BAC 1-11 which had been bought in July 1977 by Prince Mohammed Ben Fahd. The plane's flight plans had long been at the center of a number of investigations. According to one of the plane's American pilots, it had been used in October 1980 during secret Paris meetings between US and Iranian emissaries. Nothing was ever proven, but Salem bin Laden's accidental death revived some speculation that he might have been "eliminated" as an embarrassing witness. In fact, an inquiry was held to determine the exact circumstances of the accident. The conclusions were never divulged . . . There was also a political aspect to Salem bin Laden's financial activities . . . Salem bin Laden played a role in the US operations in the Middle East and Central America during the '80s. On his death in 1968, Sheik Mohammed left behind not only an industrial and financial estate but also a progeny made up of no less than 54 sons and daughters, the fruit of a number of marriages . . . Upon Sheik Salem's death, the leadership of the group passed to his eldest son, Bakr, along with thirteen other brothers who make up the board of the bin Laden group. The most important of these are Hassan,Yeslam and Yehia. Most of these brothers have different mothers and different nationalities as well. Each has his own set of affinities, thus contributing to the group's international scope. Bakr and Yehia are seen as representatives of the "Syrian group"; Yeslam, of the "Lebanese group". There is also a "Jordanian group." Abdul Aziz, one of the youngest brothers, represents the "Egyptian group" and is also manager of the bin Laden group's Egyptian branch, which employs over 40,000 people. Osama bin Laden is, incidentally, the only brother with a Saudi mother.
FRONTLINE
1994
George W. Bush is elected Governor of Texas, defeating Ann Richards 53 to 46 %.
1999
George W. Bush celebrates the Martin Luther King holiday by staying inside the Governor's Mansion with the windows closed so he wouldn't hear the thousands of Martin Luther King celebrants listening to speeches right outside his window on the Texas capitol grounds, less than a football field away . .
NEWSMAX: Soon-to-be GOP presidential nominee George W. Bush was suspended during his service in the Texas Air National Guard for failing to take a physical that included a drug test, The Sunday Times of London reports . . . "In April 1972 the Pentagon implemented a drug-abuse testing program that required officers on 'extended active duty', including reservists such as Bush, to undergo at least one random drug test every year," reported the Times. "The annual medical exam that year included a routine analysis of urine, a close examination of the nasal cavities and specific questions about drugs." . . . But in May 1972, he took a leave of absence from the Guard to work on the Senate campaign of Winton Blount, a friend of George Bush Sr., then a Texas congressman. Bush Jr. applied for a transfer from Houston to Dannelly Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. But, says the Times, documents show no evidence that once in Alabama, Bush ever attended the required training. Bush's commander for the period in question, Gen. William Turnipseed, now retired, claims the young airman never showed up for regular drills . . . The Texas Governor has been plagued by drug questions since last summer, when he claimed to be drug free for the last 25 years . . . Still, despite a deluge of media speculation over Bush's possible past cocaine use, not a single witness has come forward to say they saw him use the drug. On the other hand, no fewer than six witnesses have claimed in published reports that President Clinton used cocaine.
"Some people have too much freedom." -- George W. Bush
2000
"Jeb's the smart one" -- George Bush Sr. to dinner partner
Former President George Bush tries to block Gen. Manuel Noriega's release from a US prison because he fears the Panamanian strongman wants to kill him. Noriega attorney Frank Rubino says the assertion was made by Assistant US Attorney Pat Sullivan, who represented the government at a parole hearing for Noriega.
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