From: covici@ccs.covici.com (John Covici)
Reply-To: covici@ccs.covici.com
Newsgroups: alt.activism
Subject: Unauthorized Biography of George Bush: part 27
Date: 1 Oct 92 21:32:47 GMT
Organization: Covici Computer Systems

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{XIX: Iran-Contra} 

On October 11, 1986, the {Washington Post} ran two
headlines side-by-side: ``Captured
American Flyer to be Tried in
Nicaragua'' and ``Bush is Linked to
Head of Contra Aid Network.'' 
   The {Post} reported: ``Max Gomez,
a Cuban American veteran of the CIA's
ill-fated Bay of Pigs operation, has
told associates that he reported to
Vice President Bush about his
activities as head of the secret air
supply operation that lost a cargo
plane to Nicaraguan missile fire.... 
   ``Gomez has said that he met with
Bush twice and has been operating in
Nicaragua with the Vice President's
knowledge and approval, the sources
said.... 
   ``Asked about these matters, a
spokesman for Bush, Marlin Fitzwater,
said: `Neither the vice president nor
anyone on his staff is directing or
coordinating an operation in Central
America.' 
   ``... The {San Francisco Examiner},
which earlier this week linked [Bush
adviser Donald] Gregg to Gomez,
reported that Gomez maintains daily
contact with Bush's office....''@s7@s6
   George Bush's career was now on
the line. News media throughout the
world broke the story of the Hasenfus
capture, and of the crewman's fingering
of Bush and his underlings Rodriguez
and Posada Carriles. 
   Bush was now besieged by inquiries
from around the world, as to how and
why he was directing the gun-running
into Latin America. 
   Speaking in Charleston, South
Carolina, George Bush described Max
Gomez/Rodriguez as ``a patriot.'' The
vice president denied that he himself
was directing the illegal operations to
supply the Contras: {``To say I'm
running the operation ... it's
absolutely untrue.''} 
   Bush said of Rodriguez: ``I know
what he was doing in El Salvador, and I
strongly support it, as does the
President of El Salvador, Mr. Napoleon
Duarte, and as does the chief of the
armed forces in El Salvador, because
this man, an expert in
counterinsurgency, was down there
helping them put down a communist-led
revolution [i.e. in El Salvador, not
Nicaragua].''@s7@s7 
   Two days later, Gen. Adolfo
Blando@aan, armed forces chief of staff
in El Salvador, denied Bush's
contention that Felix Rodriguez worked
for his country's military
forces.@s7@s8 
   {October 12, 1986:} 
   Eugene Hasenfus gave and signed an
affidavit in which it was stated:
``About Max Gomez [Felix Rodriguez],
Hasenfus says that he was the head
Cuban coordinator for the company and
that he works for the CIA and that he
is a very close friend of the
Vice-President of the United States,
George Bush.... 
   ``About Ramon Medina [escaped
airplane bomber Luis Posada Carriles],
Hasenfus says that he was also a CIA
agent and that he did the `small work'
because {Max Gomez} was the `senior
man.' He says that {Ramon} took care of
the rent of the houses, the maids, the
food, transportation and drivers, and
also, coordination of the fuel for the
aircraft, etc.'' [emphasis in the
original].@s7@s9 
   His cover being blown, and knowing
he was still wanted in Venezuela for
blowing up an airliner and killing 73
persons, Posada Carriles now
``vanished'' and went
underground.@s8@s0 
   {October 19, 1986:} 
   Eugene Hasenfus, interviewed in
Nicaragua by Mike Wallace on the CBS
television program {60 Minutes,} said
that Vice President Bush was well aware
of the covert arms supply operation. He
felt the Reagan-Bush administration was
``backing this 100 percent.'' 
   Wallace asked Hasenfus why he
thought that Gomez/Rodriguez and the
other managers of the covert arms
resupply ``had the blessing of Vice
President Bush.'' Hasenfus replied,
``They had his knowledge that he was
working [on it] and what was happening,
and whoever controlled this whole
organization--which I do not know--Mr.
Gomez, Mr. Bush, I believe a lot of
these other people. They know how this
is being run. I do not.''@s8@s1 

   Cover-Up of Bush Role

   {November 3, 1986:} 
   The Lebanese newspaper {Al-Shiraa}
revealed that the U.S. government was
secretly dealing arms to the Khomeini
regime. This was three weeks after the
Eugene Hasenfus expose of George
Bush made world headlines. 
   {November 22, 1986:} 
   President Reagan sent a message,
{through Vice President George Bush,}
to Secretary of State George Shultz,
along the lines of ``Support me or get
off my team.''@s8@s2 
   {December 18, 1986:} 
   CIA Director William Casey, a
close ally of George Bush who knew
everything from the inside, was
operated on for a ``brain tumor'' and
lost the power of speech.          
   That same day, associates of Vice
President George Bush said that Bush
believed White House Chief of Staff
Donald Regan should resign, but claimed
Bush had not yet broached the issue
with the President. Donald Regan said
that he had no intention of
quitting.@s8@s3 
   {February 2, 1987:} 
   CIA Director William Casey
resigned. He soon died, literally
without ever talking. 
   {February 9, 1987:} 
   Former National Security Director
Robert McFarlane, a principal figure in
the Reagan-Bush administration's covert
operations, attempted suicide by taking
an overdose of drugs. McFarlane
survived. 
   {February 26, 1987:} 
   The President's Special Review
Board, commonly known as the Tower
Commission, issued its report. The
commission heavily blamed White House
Chief of Staff Donald Regan for the
``chaos that descended upon the White
House'' in the Iran-Contra affair. 
   The commission hardly mentioned
Vice President George Bush except to
praise him for his ``vigorous
reaffirmation of U.S. opposition to
terrorism in all forms''! 
   The afternoon the Tower Commission
report came out, George Bush summoned
Donald Regan to his office. Bush said
the President wanted to know what his
plans were about resigning. Donald
Regan blasted the President: ``What's
the matter--isn't he man enough to ask
me that question?'' Bush expressed
sympathy. Donald Regan said he would
leave in four days.@s8@s4 
   {February 27, 1987:} 
   Cable News Network televised a
leaked report that Donald Regan had
already been replaced as White House
chief of staff. After submitting a
one-sentence letter of resignation,
Donald Regan said, ``There's been a
deliberate leak, and it's been done to
humiliate me.''@s8@s5 
   George Bush, when President,
rewarded the commission's chairman,
Texas Senator John Tower, by appointing
him U.S. secretary of defense. Tower
was asked by a reporter at the National
Press Club, whether his nomination was
a ``payoff'' for the ``clean bill of
health'' he gave Bush. Tower responded
that ``the commission was made up of
three people, Brent Scowcroft and
[Senator] Ed Muskie in addition to
myself, that would be sort of impugning
the integrity of Brent Scowcroft and Ed
Muskie.... We found nothing to
implicate the Vice President.... I
wonder what kind of payoff they're
going to get?''@s8@s6 
   President Bush appointed Brent
Scowcroft his chief national security
adviser. 
   But the Senate refused to confirm
Tower. Tower then wrote a book and
began to talk about the injustice done
to him. He died April 5, 1991 in a
plane crash. 
   {March 8, 1987:} 
   In light of the Iran-Contra
scandal, President Reagan called on
George Bush to reconvene his Terrorism
Task Force to evaluate the current
program! 
   {June 2, 1987:} 
   Bush summarized his findings in a
press release: ``[O]ur current policy
as articulated in the Task Force report
is sound, effective, and fully in
accord with our democratic principles,
and national ideals of freedom.''@s8@s7 
   {November 13, 1987:} 
   The designated congressional
committees filed their joint report on
the Iran-Contra affair. Wyoming
Representative Richard Cheney, the
senior Republican member of the House
Select Committee to Investigate Covert
Arms Transactions with Iran, helped
steer the joint committees to an
impotent result. George Bush was
totally exonerated, and was hardly
mentioned. 
   George Bush, when President,
rewarded Dick Cheney by appointing him
U.S. secretary of defense, after the
Senate refused to confirm John Tower. 

   The Mortification of the U.S.
Congress
 
   {January 20, 1989:} 
   George Bush was inaugurated
President of the United States. 
   {May 12, 1989:} 
   President Bush's nomination of
Donald Gregg to be U.S. ambassador to
Korea was considered in hearings by the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 
   What follows are excerpts from the
typed transcript of the Gregg hearings.
The transcript has never been
reproduced, it has not been printed,
and it will not be published by the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
which is evidently embarrassed by its
contents.@s8@s8 
   {Gregg:} [As] his national
security adviser [for] six and a half
years ... I worked closely with the
vice president keeping him informed as
best I could on matters of foreign
policy, defense, and intelligence.... 
   [After Vietnam] I did not see
[Felix Rodriguez] until the early
eighties where he would drop into
Washington sporadically ... we remained
friends.... So, some of those contacts
would have been [1979-1982] when I was
at the White House at the NSC. 
   {Sen. Sarbanes:} And Felix
would come to see you there? 
   {Gregg:} No, at my
home.... [Then] he brought me in '83
the plan which I have already discussed
with Senator Cranston.... [At that
point] I was working for the vice
president ... [which I began in] August
1982. 
   {Sen. Sarbanes:} In
December of 1984 he came to see you
with the idea of going to El Salvador.
You ... cleared it with the vice
president? 
   {Gregg:} ... I just said,
``My friend Felix, who was a remarkable
former agency employee ... wants to go
down and help with El Salvador. And I
am going to introduce him to [State
Department personnel] and see if he can
sell himself to those men,'' and the
vice president said fine. 
   {Gregg:} Felix went down
there about the first of March [1985].
Before he went ... I introduced him to
the vice president.... 
   {Sen. Sarbanes:} So before
he went down, you undertook to
introduce him to the vice president....
Why did you do that? 
   {Gregg:} Well, the vice
president had always spoken very highly
and enthusiastically of his career [!],
or his one-year as DCI [Director of
Central Intelligence]. I had gone out
with him to the agency just after I
joined him in '82 and I saw the
tremendous response he got there and he
got quite choked up about it and as we
drove back in the car he said, you
know, that is the best job I have ever
had before I became vice president. 
   So here it was, as I said probably
the most extraordinary CIA comrade I
had known, who was going down to help
in a country that I knew that the vice
president was interested in.... 
   The vice president was interested
in the progress of the Contras. 
   There were two occasions on which
he asked me, how are they doing and I,
on one occasion went to a CIA officer
who was knowledgeable and got a
run-down on how they were doing from
that and sent it to the vice president
and he sent it back with no comment. 
   On another occasion, he asked me
again, how are they doing, and I
went--I drew a memo up, I think on the
basis of a conversation with North.
Again, he returned that with no
comment. So he was interested in the
Contras as an instrument of putting
pressure on the Sandinistas.... 
   {Sen. Simon:} Let me read
another section from Senator Cranston's
statement. I believe the record
suggests the following happened: After
Boland II was signed in October 1984
[outlawing all U.S. aid to the
Contras], you and certain others in the
White House were encouraged to secure
military aid for the Contras through
unorthodox channels. 
   Your career training in
establishing secrecy and deniability
for covert operations, your decades-old
friendship for Felix Rodriguez,
apparently led you to believe you could
serve the national interest by
sponsoring a freelance covert operation
out of the vice president's office. 
   What is your response to that
statement? 
   {Gregg:} Well, I think it
is a rather full-blown conspiracy
theory. That was not what I was
doing.... I was involved in helping the
vice president's task force on
antiterrorist measures write their
report. But normally I had no
operational responsibilities.... 
   {Sen. Simon:} When did you
first find out the law was being
violated? 
   {Gregg:} By the law, do
you mean the Boland amendment? 
   {Sen. Simon:} That is
correct. 
   {Gregg:} I guess my
knowledge of that sort of came at me
piecemeal after Hasenfus had been shot
down.... 
   {Sen. Simon:} So what you
are telling us, you found out about the
law being violated the same time the
rest of us found out the law was being
violated? 
   {Gregg:} Yes, sir.... 
   {Sen. Cranston:} From
February 1985 to August 1986, you have
acknowledged that you spoke to
Rodriguez many, many times on the
telephone. Let me quote from your sworn
deposition to the Iran-Contra
Committee: ``Felix called me quite
often and frequently it was what I
would call sort of combat catharsis. He
used to do the same thing in
Vietnam....'' 
   Now, is it still your testimony
that Rodriguez never mentioned his deep
involvement in Contra supply activities
during any of these phone
conversations? 
   {Gregg:} That is my
testimony. 
   {Sen. Cranston:} Is it
still your testimony that prior to Aug.
8th, 1986, Rodriguez never mentioned
the status of his Contra resupply
efforts during his numerous
face-to-face meetings with you in
Washington? 
   {Gregg:} Never. 
   {Sen. Cranston:} Is it
still your testimony that Rodriguez did
not mention the status of his Contra
resupply efforts in the very meetings
that were convened according to two
memos bearing your name, for Rodriguez
to ``brief the vice president on the
status of the war in El Salvador and
efforts to resupply the Contras''? 
   {Gregg:} There was no
intention to discuss resupply of the
Contras and everyone at that meeting,
including former Senator Nick Brady
have [sic] testified that it was not
discussed. 
   {Sen. Cranston:} As you
know, it is difficult to reconcile
those statements about what happened in
the meeting with the statement and
memos from you that the agenda was ...
two things, one of them being efforts
to resupply the Contras.... 
   {Gregg:} Those memos first
surfaced to my attention in December of
1986, when we undertook our first
document search of the vice president's
office. They hit me rather hard because
by that time I had put the pieces
together of what had been going on and
I realized the implications of that
agenda item. 
   I did not shred the documents. I
did not hide it.... [T]his is the worst
thing I have found and here it is, and
I cannot really explain it.... I have a
speculative explanation which I would
like to put forward if you would be
interested. 
   {Sen. Cranston:} Fine. 
   {Gregg:} Again, turning to
Felix [Rodriguez]'s book ... Felix
makes the following quote.... This is
the quote, sir: ``... I had no qualms
about calling [Sam Watson] or Don
[Gregg] when I thought they could help
run interference with the Pentagon to
speed up deliveries of spare chopper
parts.'' That means helicopters. 
   ``I must have made many such calls
during the spring of 1986. Without
operating Hughes 500 helicopters it was
impossible to carry out my strategy
against the [El Salvadoran]
insurgents....'' [There are] then
documented steps that Colonel Watson
had taken with the Pentagon to try to
get spare parts expedited for El
Salvador.... 
   So my construction is this, sir. I
recall that in the meeting with the
vice president the question of spare
parts for the helicopters in El
Salvador was discussed and so that I
think {what the agenda item on the two
memos is, is a garbled reference to
something like resupply of the copters,
instead of resupply of the Contras}
[emphasis added].'' 
   {Sen. Sarbanes:} How did
the scheduling proposal of April 16,
1986 and the briefing memorandum of
April 30th take place? 
   {Gregg:} They were
prepared by my assistant, Mrs. Byrne,
acting on advice from Colonel Watson.
She signed my initials, but those are
not my initials. I did not see the
documents until December 1986, when I
called them to the attention of the
House Intelligence Committee.... And if
... my speculation does not hold up, I
have to refer you to a memorandum that
I turned over to the Iran-Contra
Committee on the 14th of May 1987.... 
   {Sen. Sarbanes:} I am
looking at that memorandum now. 
   {Gregg:} Okay. That has
been my explanation up until now. 
   {Sen. Sarbanes:} But you
are now providing a different
explanation? 
   {Gregg:} It is the only
one--I have been thinking about these
documents for over two years, and it is
the only thing that I can come up with
that would come close to explaining
that agenda item--given the fact that
there was no intention of discussing
resupply to the Contras. That resupply
of the Contras was not discussed,
according to the testimony of everyone
who was in the meeting....'' 
   {Sen. Kerry:} Douglas
Minarczik is who? 
   {Gregg:} He was one of my
assistants in my office responsible for
Mid-East and African affairs.... 
   {Sen. Kerry:} And he was
working for you in 1985 and 1986, that
period? 
   {Gregg:} Yes. 
   {Sen. Kerry:} Now, when I
began first investigating allegations
of the {gun-running} that was taking
place out of Miami, {Miami was buzzing
with the notion that the vice
president's office was somehow involved
in monitoring that, at least} [emphasis
added]. 
   Now, Jesus Garcia was a Miami
corrections official who got into
trouble and wound up going to jail on
weapons offenses. Through that
connection, we came across telephone
records. And those telephone records
demonstrate calls from Garcia's house
to Contra camps in Honduras, to John
Hull in Costa Rica, and Douglas
Minarczik in, not necessarily in your
office, but directly to the White
House. 
   However, there is incontrovertible
evidence that he had in his possession
the name of Mr. Minarczik, a piece of
paper in our possession, in Garcia's
home in connection with monitoring
those paramilitary operations, in
August of 1985. 
   Now, how do you account for the
fact that Minarczik's--that the people
involved with the Contra supply
operations out of Miami ... had
Minarczik's name and telephone number,
and that there is a record of calls to
the White House at that time? 
   {Gregg:} I cannot account
for it. Could it have anything to do
with our old friend Mr. Brenicke [sic]?
Because Brenicke did have Minarczik's
phone number.... 
   {Sen. Kerry:} ... No.
Totally separate. 
   {Gregg:} This is all new.
I do not have an explanation, sir.... 
   {Sen. Kerry:} Do you
recall the downing of a Cuban airliner
in [1976] in which 72 people lost their
lives as a result; do you remember
that? 
   {Gregg:} Yes. 
   {Sen. Kerry:} A terrorist
bomb. And a Cuban-American named Luis
Posada [Carriles] was arrested in
Venezuela in connection with that. He
then escaped in 1985 with assistance
from Felix Rodriguez--I do not know if
this is going to be in the [Rodriguez]
book or not-- 
   {Gregg:} It is. 
   {Sen. Kerry:} Okay, and he
brought him to Central America to help
the Contras under pseudonym of Ramon
Medina, correct? 
   {Gregg:} Now, I know that;
yes. 
   {Sen. Kerry:} ... [Is] it
appropriate for a Felix Rodriguez to
help a man indicted in a terrorist
bombing to escape from prison, and then
appropriate for him to take him to
become involved in supply operations,
which we are supporting? 
   {Gregg:} I cannot justify
that, sir. And I am not certain what
role Felix played in getting him
out.... 
   
    Committee Session June 15,
1989
 
   {Sen. Cranston:} Before
proceeding in this matter, I would like
to state clearly for the record what
the central purpose of this
investigation is about and in my view
what it is not about. 
   It is not about who is for or
against the Contras.... 
   Similarly, this investigation is
not about building up or tearing down
our new President [Bush]. We have tried
throughout this proceeding to avoid
partisan attacks. Indeed, {Republicans
and Democrats alike} have sought Mr.
Gregg's withdrawal as one way to avoid
casting aspersions on the [Bush] White
House.... [emphasis added]. 
   Mr. Gregg remains steadfast in his
loyalty to his boss, then-Vice
President Bush, and to his long-time
friend, Felix Rodriguez. Mr. Gregg has
served his country in the foreign
policy field for more than three
decades. 
   By all accounts he is a loyal
American.... 
   As Mr. Gregg himself conceded last
month, there are substantial reasons
for senators to suspect his version of
events and to raise questions about his
judgment. 
   It does not take a suspicious or
partisan mind to look at the
documentary evidence, the back channel
cables, the ``eyes only'' memos, and
then to conclude that Mr. Gregg has not
been straight with us. Indeed, I am
informed that more than one Republican
senator who has looked at the
accumulated weight of the evidence
against Mr. Gregg, has remained
unconvinced and has sought Mr. Gregg's
withdrawal. 
   Mr. Gregg, this committee has a
fundamental dilemma. If we are to
promote a man we believe to have misled
us under oath, we would make a mockery
of this institution.... 
   ... [It] has been established that
when you are confronted with written
evidence undermining your story, you
point the finger of blame elsewhere. At
our last hearing you said Gorman's
cables were wrong, North's notebooks
were wrong, Steele's memory was wrong,
North's sworn testimony [that Gregg
introduced Rodriguez to him] was wrong,
you concocted a theory that your aide,
Watson, and your secretary erred by
writing ``Contras'' instead of
``helicopters'' on those infamous
briefing memos for the Vice
President.... 
   Incredibly, when senators confront
you with the documentary evidence which
undermines your story, you accuse us of
concocting conspiracy theories and you
do so with a straight face. 
   ... I think it is clear by now
that many important questions may never
be answered satisfactorily, especially
because we have been stonewalled by the
administration. 
   The National Security Agency has
rejected our legitimate enquiries out
of hand. The Central Intelligence
Agency provided a response with access
restrictions so severe ... as to be
laughable. 
   The Department of Defense has
given an unsatisfactory response two
days late. The State Department's
response was utterly unresponsive. They
answered our letter after their
self-imposed deadline and failed to
produce specific documents we requested
and which we know exist. 
   This Committee has been
stonewalled by Oliver North, too. He
has not complied with the Committee
subpoena for his unredacted notebooks.
The redacted notebooks contain repeated
January 1985 references to Felix
Rodriguez which suggests North's
involvement in Rodriguez' briefings of
the Vice President. 
   No member of the Senate can escape
the conclusion that these
administration actions are contemptuous
of this Committee.... 
   {Sen. McConnell:} ...
During the period of the Boland
Amendment, were you ever asked to
inform the vice president's office or
lend his name to private, nonprofit
efforts to support the Contras? 
   {Gregg:} Yes. I recall one
instance, in particular, where there
was a request--I guess it was probably
from one aspect of the Spitz Channell
organization, which had a variety of
things going on in and around
Nicaragua. 
   We got, on December 2nd, 1985, a
letter to the vice president, asking
him to get involved in something called
the Friends of the Americas, which was
aid to the Meskito Indians ... in
Nicaragua that had been badly
mistreated by the Sandinistas.... And
so I have a document here which shows
how we dealt with it. I sent it to
Boyden Gray, the counsel of the vice
president and said, ``Boyden, this
looks okay as a charity issue, but
there is the question of precedent.
Please give me a legal opinion.
Thanks.'' ... Boyden Gray wrote back to
me and said, ``No, should not do.
Raises questions about indirect
circumvention of congressional funding
limits or restriction, vis-a-vis
Nicaragua.'' 
   That is the only time I recall
that we had a specific request like
that, and this is how we dealt with it. 
   {Sen. Pell} [Chairman of
the Committee]{:} ... First,
you say that you offered to resign
twice, I think. 
   Knowing that you are a very loyal
servant of what you view as the
national interest, and knowing the
embarrassment that this nomination has
caused the administration, I was
wondering why you did not ask your name
to be withdrawn ... to pull your name
back.... [w]hich has been recommended
by many of us as being a way to resolve
this problem. 
   {Gregg:} Well, I haven't
because I think I'm fully qualified to
be ambassador to South Korea. And so
does the vice president [sic]. 
   So I am here because he has asked
me to serve.... 
   {Sen. Cranston:} ...
Senators will recall that on Oct. 5th
of '86 a plane bearing military
supplies to the Contras was shot down
over Nicaragua. The sole survivor,
Eugene Hasenfus, spoke publicly of the
role of Felix Rodriguez, alias Max
Gomez, in aiding military resupply and
noted Gomez's ties to the vice
president's office. 
   Could you please describe your
understanding of why it was that the
first call to official Washington
regarding the shootdown was from Felix
Rodriguez to your aid[e] in Washington? 
   {Gregg:} ... [It] was
because on the 25th of June of that
year he had come to Washington to
confront North about what he regarded
as corruption in the supply process of
the Contras.... [H]e broke with North
on the 25th of June and has not been on
speaking terms with the man since
then.... [H]e tried to get me--he could
not--he reached Colonel Watson.... 
   {Sen. Cranston:} As you
recall, the vice president was besieged
at that time with inquiries regarding
Rodriguez's ties to the vice
president's office. What did you tell
[Bush press spokesman] Marlin Fitzwater
regarding that relationship? 
   {Gregg:} ... The thrust of
the press inquiries was always that
from the outset I had had in mind that
Rodriguez should play some role in the
Contra support operation, and my
comments to Marlin ... were that that
had not been in my mind.... 
   {Sen. Cranston:} Let me
quote again from the {New York Times},
George Bush quoted October 13, '86.
Bush said, ``To the best of my
knowledge, this man, Felix Rodriguez,
is not working for the United States
government.'' 
   Now Mr. Gregg, you knew that
Rodriguez was aiding the Contras and
receiving material assistance in the
form of cars, housing, communications
equipment and transportation from the
U.S. government. Did you inform Bush of
those facts so that he could make
calculated misleading statements in
ignorance of his staff's activities? 
   {Gregg:} ... At that point
I had no idea that Felix--you said--you
mentioned communications equipment. I
had no idea he had been given by North
one of those encryption devices. I
think I was aware that Colonel Steele
had given him access to a car, and I
knew he was living in a BOQ at the air
base. He was not being paid any salary.
His main source of income was, as it is
now, his retirement pension from CIA. 
   {Sen. Cranston:} ... You
told the Iran-Contra committee that you
and Bush never discussed the Contras,
had no expertise on the issue, no
responsibility for it, and the details
of Watergate-sized scandal involving
NSC staff and the [Edwin] Wilson gang
was not Vice Presidential. 
   Your testimony on that point I
think is demonstrably false. There are
at least six memos from Don Gregg to
George Bush regarding detailed Contra
issues.... 
   {Sen Cranston:} Am I
correct in this, that you have
confirmed ... that senior U.S.
military, diplomatic ... and
intelligence personnel, really looked
with great doubt upon Rodriguez's
mission and that they tolerated it only
because Rodriguez used his contacts
with the vice president and his staff
as part of the way to bolster his
mission. 
   {Gregg:} ... I was not
aware of the diplomatic; I was aware of
the military and intelligence, yes,
sir. 
   {The committee voted in
favor of confirmation.} Cranston
voted no. But three Democrats--Charles
Robb, Terry Sanford and Chairman
Claiborne Pell--joined the Republicans. 
   Sanford confirmed Cranston's
viewpoint, saying that he was allowing
the nomination to go through because he
was afraid ``the path would lead to
Bush,'' the new President. Sanford
said, shamefacedly, {``If Gregg was
lying, he was lying to protect the
President, which is different from
lying to protect himself.''}@s8@s9 
   In George Bush's government,
the one-party state, the knives soon
came out, and the prizes appeared. 
   The Senate Ethics Committee,
including the shamefaced Terry Sanford,
began in November 1989, its attack on
the ``Keating Five.'' These were U.S.
Senators, among them Senator Alan
Cranston, charged with savings and loan
corruption. The attack soon narrowed
down to one target only--the
Iran-Contrary Senator Cranston. 
   On Aug. 2, 1991, Senator Terry
Sanford, having forgotten his shame,
took over as the new chairman of the
Senate Ethics Committee. 

   Bush, LaRouche and
Iran-Contra
 
   George Bush and his friends have
repeatedly told political pundits that
America is ``tired'' and ``bored'' of
hearing about the Iran-Contra affair. 
   Bush has taken a dim view of those
who were not tired or bored, but fought
him. 
   Oct. 6, 1986 was a fateful day
in Washington. The secret government
apparatus learned that the Hasenfus
plane had been shot down the day
before, and went scurrying about to
protect its exposed parts. At the same
time, it sent about 400 heavily armed
FBI agents, other federal, state and
local policemen storming into the
Leesburg, Virginia, publishing offices
associated with the American dissident
political leader Lyndon LaRouche, Jr. 
   LaRouche and his political
movement had certified their danger to
the Bush program. Six months before the
raid, LaRouche associates Mark
Fairchild and Janice Hart had gained
the Democratic nominations for Illinois
lieutenant governor and secretary of
state; they won the primary elections
after denouncing the government-mafia
joint coordination of the narcotics
trade. With this notoriety, LaRouche
was certain to act in an even more
unpredictable and dangerous fashion as
a presidential candidate in 1988.
LaRouche allies were at work throughout
Latin America, promoting resistance to
the Anglo-Americans. The
LaRouche-founded {Executive
Intelligence Review} had exposed U.S.
government covert support for
Khomeini's Iranians, beginning in 1980. 
   More directly, the LaRouchites
were fighting the Bush apparatus for
its money. Connecticut widow Barbara
Newington, who had given Spitz
Channell's National Endowment for the
Preservation of Liberty $1,735,578 out
of its total 1985 income of
$3,360,990,@s9@s0 was also contributing
substantial sums to LaRouche-related
publishing efforts ... which were
exposing the Contras and their
dope-pushing. Fundraiser Michael
Billington argued with Mrs. Newington,
warning her not to give money to the
Bush-North-Spitz Channell gang. 
   Back on August 19, 1982, and on
November 25, 1982, George Bush's old
boss, Henry A. Kissinger, had written
to FBI Director William Webster, asking
for FBI action against ``the LaRouche
group.'' In promoting covert action
against LaRouche, Kissinger also got
help from James Jesus Angleton, who had
retired as chief of counterintelligence
for the CIA. After Yalie Angleton got
going in this anti-dissident work, he
mused ``Fancy that, now I've become
Kissinger's Rebbe.''@s9@s1 
   One week before the raid, an FBI
secret memorandum described the
LaRouche political movement as
``subversive,'' and claimed that its
``policy positions ... dovetail nicely
with Soviet propaganda and
disinformation objectives.''@s9@s2 
   Three months after Spitz
Channell's fraud confession, Vice
President Bush denounced LaRouche at an
Iowa campaign rally: ``I don't like the
things LaRouche does.... He's bilked
people out of lots of money, and
misrepresented what causes money was
going to. LaRouche is in a lot of
trouble, and deserves to be in a lot of
trouble.''@s9@s3 
   LaRouche and several associates
eventually went on trial in Boston, on
a variety of ``fraud'' charges--neither
``subversion'' nor defunding the
Contras was in the indictments. Bush
was now running hard for the
presidency. 
   Suddenly, in the midst of the
primary elections, the LaRouche trial
took a threatening turn. On March 10,
1988, Federal Judge Robert E. Keeton
ordered a search of the indexes to Vice
President George Bush's confidential
files to determine whether his spies
had infiltrated LaRouche-affiliated
organizations. 
   Iran-Contra Special Prosecutor
Lawrence Walsh had acquired, and turned
over to the LaRouche defense, in
response to an FOIA request, a secret
memorandum found in Oliver North's
safe. It was a message from Gen.
Richard Secord to North, written May 5,
1986--four days after North had met
with George Bush and Felix Rodriguez to
confirm that Rodriguez would continue
running guns to the Contras using Spitz
Channell's payments to Richard Secord.
The memo, released in the Boston
courtroom, said, ``Lewis has met with
FBI and other agency reps and is
apparently meeting again today. Our Man
here claims Lewis has collected info
against LaRouche.''@s9@s4 
   The government conceded that ``our
man here'' in the memo was Bush
Terrorism Task Force member Oliver
``Buck'' Revell, the assistant director
of the FBI. ``Lewis''--``soldier of
fortune'' Fred Lewis--together with
Bush operatives Gary Howard and Ron
Tucker, had met later in May 1986, with
C. Boyden Gray, counsel to Vice
President Bush.@s9@s5 
   Howard and Tucker, deputy sheriffs
from Bush-family-controlled Midland,
Texas, were couriers and bagmen for
money transfers between the National
Security Council and private
``counterterror'' companies. They were
also professional sting artists. Howard
and Tucker had sold 100 battle tanks to
a British arms dealer for shipment to
Iran, and had taken his $1.6 million.
Then they turned him in to British
authorities and claimed a huge reward.
A British jury, outraged at Howard and
Tucker, threw out the criminal case in
late 1983. 
   The LaRouche defense contended,
with the North memo and other
declassified documents, that the Bush
apparatus had sent spies and
provocateurs into the LaRouche
political movement in an attempt to
wreck it. 
   Judge Keeton demanded that the
Justice Department tell him why
information they withheld from the
defense was now appearing in court in
declassified documents. 
   The government was not
forthcoming, and in May 1988, the judge
declared a mistrial. The jury told the
newspapers they would have voted for
acquittal. 
   But Bush could not afford to quit.
LaRouche and his associates were simply
indicted again, on new charges. This
time they were brought to trial before
a judge who could be counted on. 
   Judge Albert V. Bryan, Jr. was the
organizer, lawyer and banker of the
world's largest private weapons dealer,
Interarms of Alexandria, Virginia. As
the new LaRouche trial began, the
CIA-front firm that the judge had
founded controlled 90 percent of the
world's official private weapons
traffic. Judge Bryan had personally
arranged the financing of more than a
million weapons traded by Interarms
between the CIA, Britain and Latin
America. 
   Agency for International
Development trucks carried small arms,
rifles, machine guns and ammunition
from Interarms in Alexandria for
flights to Cuba--first for Castro's
revolutionary forces. Then, Judge
Bryan's company, Interarms, provided
guns for the anti-Castro initiatives of
the CIA Miami Station, for Rodriguez,
Shackley, Posada Carriles, Howard Hunt,
Frank Sturgis, et al. When George Bush
was CIA director, Albert V. Bryan's
company was the leading private
supplier of weapons to the CIA.@s9@s6 
   In the LaRouche trial, Judge Bryan
prohibited virtually all defense
initiatives. The jury foreman, Buster
Horton, had top secret clearance for
government work with Oliver North and
Oliver ``Buck'' Revell. LaRouche and
his associates were declared guilty. 
   On January 27, 1989--one week
after George Bush became
President--Judge Albert V. Bryan
sentenced the 66-year-old dissident leader
LaRouche to 15 years in prison. Michael
Billington, who had tried to wreck the
illicit funding for the Contras, was
jailed for three years with LaRouche;
he was later railroaded into a Virginia
court and sentenced to another {77
years in prison} for ``fundraising
fraud.'' 
                                                  
   Notes for Chapter XIX
 

   76.
 {Washington Post,} Oct. 11,
1986.

   77.
 {Washington Post,} Oct. 12,
1986, Oct. 14, 1986.

   78.
 {Washington Post,} Oct. 14,
1986.

   79.
 Hasenfus Affidavit, p. 3.

   80.
 Rodriguez and Weisman, {op.
cit.,} p. 241.

   81.
 {Washington Post,} Nov. 20,
1986.

   82.
 {Washington Post,} Feb. 12,
1987.

   83.
 {Washington Post,} Dec. 18,
1986, {Wall Street Journal,} Dec. 19,
1986.

   84.
 Donald T. Regan, {For the
Record: From Wall Street to Washington}
(New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovitch,
1988), pp. 368-73.

   85.
 {Ibid.}
 
   86.
 {New York Times,} March 2,
1989.
 
   87.
 {CovertAction,} No. 33, Winter
1990, p. 15.
 
   88.
 Stenographic Transcript of
Hearings Before the U.S. Senate
Committee on Foreign Relations,
Nomination Hearing for Donald Phinney
Gregg to be Ambassador to the Republic
of Korea. Washington, D.C., May 12 and
June 15, 1989.
 
   89.
  Mary McGrory, ``The Truth
According to Gregg,'' {Washington
Post,} June 22, 1989.
 
   90.
  NEPL contributions 1985
printout, cited in Armstrong, {op.
cit.,} p. 226.
 
   91.
  Kissinger letters,
declassified in 1984, photostats in
{EIR Special Report:} ``Irangate...,''
pp. 52, 55.
 
   Angleton quote in Tom Mangold,
{Cold Warrior} (New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1991), p. 352.
 
   See also Burton Hersh, ``In the
Hall of Mirrors: The Cold War's
Distorted Images,'' in {The Nation,}
June 23, 1991. Hersh says: ``I knew
Angleton in the last five years of his
life [he died May 11, 1987]. Angleton
was amusing himself just then with a
vendetta against Lyndon LaRouche.'' 
   92.
  Director FBI to D[efense]
I[ntelligence] A[gency], Sept. 30,
1986, classified SECRET.
 
   93.
  Bush at Shelton, Iowa, July
31, 1987, quoted in {EIR Special
Report:} ``Irangate...,'' p. 65.
 
   94.
  Secord to North 5/5/86
memorandum marked SECRET, declassified
Feb. 26, 1988 by Special Prosecutor
Lawrence Walsh, photostat in {EIR
Special Report:} ``Irangate...,'' p.
31.
 
   95. 
{Washington Post,} March 27,
1989.
 
   96.
 Corporate records of the First
National Bank of Alexandria and the
First Citizens Bank of Alexandria,
1940s to 1960s, in {Polk's Bankers
Directory.} 
   Clarence J. Robinson,
{Reminiscences} (Fairfax, Va.: George
Mason University, 1983).

----
         John Covici
          covici@ccs.covici.com

 

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