From: harelb@MATH.CORNELL.EDU (misc.activism.progressive Auto-Poster)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc
Subject: THE OCTOBER SURPRISE: "Where Was George?" (part 1)
Date: 17 Aug 92 06:42:08 GMT
Organization: misc.activism.progressive on UseNet ; ACTIV-L@UMCVMB


   PICK A BUSH, ANY BUSH: Why did candidate Bush disappear from
   public view for some 20 hours just two weeks prior to what was a
   very close presidential election? And where did he go?  The Bush
   administration appears to be working overtime to provide an alibi.
   But these over-eager efforts have not been coor- dinated. [..] The



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                    ============================= 
                    T H E   F I R S T   S T O N E 
                    ============================= 
                           By Joel Bleifuss 
                   In These Times, May 15-21, 1991 
		   [See bottom for free issue info]

============================ 
Attacks, heart and otherwise 
============================ 

On May 3, President Bush finally addressed allegations that he 
helped the 1980 Reagan-Bush presidential campaign strike a 
secret deal with Iran to have the 52 American hostages held in 
Teheran until after the election. Emphasizing the point with well 
rehearsed gesticulations, he labeled the charges "sickening." 

He meant it. The next day Bush was laid up in Bethesda suffer- 
ing the trials and fibrillations of a disintegrating presidency. The 
ever-chipper vice president was one irregular heartbeat away 
from assuming office. And the the public was left wondering 
whether their president had approached the 1980 election with 
the same wisdom that in 1988 led him to choose Dan Quayle as a 
running mate. 

=====================
So where was George? 
=====================

"Was I ever in Paris in 1980? Definitively, definitely no. That's 
all. Please print it. And let's try to stop this rumormongering 
that's going on. Stop repeating rumors over and over again," he 
said in his May 3 executive order. 

But, Mr. President, the press has tried to stop the rumors, with 
no one trying harder than the Washington Post. The Post finally 
assigned a staff reporter to cover the issue, though it has yet to 
give the allegations a serious examination. Thomas Lippman, in 
his front-page May 4 article, "Tale of Hostage Intrigue Refuses to 
Die," didn't even try. 

Lippman's piece in Washington's newspaper of record set a dis- 
mal standard. His story, like others that appeared across the na- 
tion that Saturday, highlighted Bush's denials without explaining 
exactly what the president was denying. 

Lippman did say that "the tale keeps surfacing ..reinforced by 
a chain of circumstantial evidence." But rather than describe that 
evidence, he wrote simply that in "some versions" of the story, 
"George Bush, then Reagan's running mate, participated in a sec- 
ret meeting in Paris that sealed the reported deal." He then prints  
the denial by an "angry President Bush." 

But having raised the question of Bush's whereabouts, Lippman 
left it at that. He did say that during the May 1990 perjury trial of 
CIA operative Richard Brenneke, the Justice Department failed to 
prove that Brenneke lied about attending one of three October 
1980 meetings in Paris where the alleged deal was finalized. Sev- 
eral accounts place Bush, soon-to-be CIA chief William Casey and 
then-Carter White House national-security aide Donald Gregg at 
these meetings. 

While Lippman admitted that the Justice Department's case 
against Brenneke was unable to establish a believable alibi for 
Casey and Gregg, he did not address where Bush was on the 
weekend of Oct. 18 and 19,1980, when the Paris meetings are 
said to have taken place. 

This much is known: at 9 p.m. that Saturday, Bush concluded a 
speech at Widener University in Delaware County, Pa. He was 
next seen in public at 7 p.m. Sunday in Washington giving a 
speech to the Zionist Organization of America. 

PICK A BUSH, ANY BUSH: Why did candidate Bush disappear 
from public view for some 20 hours just two weeks prior to what 
was a very close presidential election? And where did he go? 
The Bush administration appears to be working overtime to 
provide an alibi. But these over-eager efforts have not been coor- 
dinated. 


The alibis follow, in order of appearance: 


*  In the fall of 1988, Republican presidential campaign workers 
explained that Bush spent those unaccounted hours at the Chevy 
Chase Country Club in suburban Maryland, on private business. 
This story was supported by a heavily redacted Secret Service re- 
port that said Bush was at the club with unknown parties. In May 
1990, at the Brenneke trial, the Justice Department offered two 
Secret Service agents as witnesses to explain Bush's whereabouts. 
In unconnncing, lackluster testimony, the two had trouble mak- 
ing their case. 

*  On April 22, Vice President Quayle was asked on Detroit's 
ABC-TV affiliate WXYZ where Bush was on that weekend in Oc- 
tober. Quayle said he didn't know but promised to get back to 
the station with an answer. The next day the vice president's of- 
fice faxed its version of Bush's itinerary to the station. According 
to Alan Upchurch, executive producer of WXYZ news, the fax in- 
dicated that on the Sunday in question Bush spent all day at 
home without a Secret Service escort. On May 9,I called the vice 
president's office and asked for a copy of that itinerary. I was told 
to contact the president's press office. 

*  Last week, on May 8, the _Wall Street Journal's_ Gordon 
Crovitz provided Bush with another itinerary for his lost weekend: 
"Sunday, Washington, D.C., Lunch with Supreme Court Justice 
Potter Stewart and Mrs. Stewart." This alibi originates with the 
Secret Service, which several months ago provided that informa- 
tion to the Government Accounting Office. Apparently, brunching 
with a Supreme Court Justice looks more presidential than an 
overnight visit to a Washington country club with parties un- 
known. Further, Bush's brunch cannot be confirmed -- the judge is 
dead and his wife suffers from chronic memory loss. 

*  Also on May 8, Jerry Seper of the Washington Times reported 
that Bush was at home with a Secret Service escort. He wrote, 
'he Secret Service says he awoke about 6:30 a.m. [Sunday], had 
lunch at his Washington home and spent the day there preparing 
the speech [to the Zionist Organization of America in 
Washington]." 

*  On May 9, I called the White House media-relations office and 
asked for a copy ol Bush's itinerary for October 18 and 19,1980. 
A woman named Jeanie said she would fax it to me. When the 
itinerary did not arrive, I called back and she told me, "We're still 
working on that." 

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