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In the coming days, the media will be filled with memories and criticism of former President George H.W. Bush's historic life and political career. But most will not report – and few really know – about the history of Bush's role in building a nested network of families, businesses, and intelligence that has charted the nation's journey for years. decades. This work was secret and preceded several decades his career in intelligence.
Bush, who died on November 30 at age 94, is recalled with nostalgia as emblematic of a supposedly more civil and distinguished era, when the United States leaders put the country first. But George HW Bush and his associates have been instrumental in shaping a power equation that protected and defended their interests – primarily by means they sought to obscure. "
When Joseph McBride discovered the double life document from George HW Bush, he was not looking for that.This was in 1985, and McBride, a former editor of the Daily Variety, was at the California State University San Bernardino Library, looking for a book about director Frank Capra Like many good reporters, McBride has landed a "light" tangent, spending day after day around reels of microfilm material related to the assassinations of the FBI and JFK McBride was a volunteer from the Kennedy campaign and, since 1963, was intrigued by the unanswered questions surrounding the most singular of American tragedies.
A note in particular caught his attention and he He bent over to take a closer look. A memorandum from FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, dated November 29, 1963, literally jumped off the screen. Under the title "Assassination of President John F. Kennedy," Hoover reported that the day after the murder of JFK, the office provided two people with briefings. One was "Captain William Edwards of the Defense Intelligence Agency". The other: "Mr. George Bush, Central Intelligence Agency. "
For:
Director
Bureau of Intelligence and Research
Department of State[We have been] indicates that the State Department has the feeling that he is misled by an anti-Castro A group could take advantage of the current situation and undertake an unauthorized raid against Cuba, considering that the assassination of President John F. Kennedy could announce a change in US policy … [Our] sources know no plans [such] … The contents of the above information were provided orally to Mr. George Bush of the Central Intelligence Agency and Captain William Edwards of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
McBride shook his head. George H. W. Bush? In the CIA in 1963? Coping with Cubans and the JFK assassination? Would it be the same man who was now vice president of the United States? Even when Bush was appointed director of the CIA in 1976 in the middle of the crackdown on the agencies, his main asset was the fact that he was not part of it when he was beaten, attempted and killed. in Iran, Cuba, Chile and elsewhere. Hot spots about which embarrassing information was leaked every day during Senate hearings.
For the director of the CIA, Bush, the control had been very damaged. The 1963-1973 decade was marked by a crisis that shook confidence. There was the assassination of Kennedy and his questionable accounting by the Warren Commission. Then come the revelations of how the CIA has used private foundations to channel funds to organizations in the United States, such as the National Student Association. Then came Watergate, with its dim light of CIA members such as E. Howard Hunt and their dark misdeeds. The Americans had the feeling of a sort of sanctioned underground organization, operating outside the law and yet protected by it. At the time, President Gerald Ford, who arrived at his post when Richard Nixon had resigned, dismissed William Colby, director of the CIA, who was perceived by the hardliners as too accommodating with congressional investigators and future reformers intelligence.
Ford named George HW Bush head of the CIA. But Bush did not seem absolutely qualified for such a position, especially at a time when the agency was under heavy surveillance. He had been ambassador of the United Nations, chairman of the Republican National Committee and American envoy to Beijing, where Nixon and Henry Kissinger had considered him a lightweight and worked around him. What experience has he had in the world of intelligence and espionage? How could he restore public confidence in a tarnished espionage agency? Nobody seemed to know.
Bush served with the CIA for a year, from early 1976 to early 1977. He worked discreetly to reverse the CIA's watergate practice reforms, moving as much offshore as possible and beyond. of responsibility. Although brief, it nevertheless created a picture problem in 1980, when Bush ran unsuccessfully in the Republican presidential election against former California governor Ronald Reagan. Some critics warned of the dangerous precedent that allowed a person who had led the CIA, with his legacy of dark secrets and secret maneuvers, blackmail and murder, to preside over the US government.
"It must be another George Bush" [19659013] In 1985, when McBride found the FBI memo about Bush's past, the reporter did not immediately follow this curious trail. Bush was now a recently re-elected vice president (a notoriously powerless position), and McBride himself was busy with something else. In 1988, however, the true identity of "Mr. George Bush of the CIA "took on a new meaning as George H. W. Bush was ready to assume his role as heir to the Reagan presidency. Joe McBride has decided to make the leap from entertainment reporting to politics. He picked up the phone and called the White House
"Can I talk to the Vice President?", He asks
McBride has to be content with Stephen Hart, spokesman for the vice president. Hart denied that his boss was the man mentioned in the memo, quoting Bush directly. "I was in Houston, Texas, at the time and I was working in the independent oil drilling sector. And I ran for the Senate at the end of the year63. I have no idea what he is talking about. Hart concludes by saying, "It must be another George Bush."
McBride found the answer troubling – rather detailed for a ritual of non-denial. It was almost like a blanket that Bush was a little too eager to leave. He returned to Hart with other questions for Bush:
- Have you ever worked for or with the CIA before becoming his director?
- If so, what was the nature of your relationship with the agency and
- Have you been informed by an FBI member of Cuban anti-Castro activities as a result of the assassination of the President Kennedy [of]?
In less than half an hour, Hart called him back. . The spokesman has now stated that, although he did not speak to Bush, he would nevertheless answer the questions himself. Hart stated that the answer to the first question was no and that, therefore, the other two were not applicable.
Without getting discouraged, McBride called the CIA. A spokesman for the agency, Bill Devine, said, "This is the first time I hear about this. . . I will see what I can find and I will call you back. "
The next day, the PR manager was extremely formal and opaque:" I can neither confirm nor deny. "That was the usual answer given by the agency dealing with its sources and methods." Could the agency reveal if there had been another George Bush in the CIA? : "Twenty-seven years ago I have a great deal of doubt, and in any event, it is our standard policy not to confirm that anyone is involved in the CIA."
"Apparently" George William Bush
But it seems that this standard policy has been established to be broken. McBride's revelations were published in the July 16, 1988 issue of Liberal magazine The Nation under the title "The Man Who Was Not There, George Bush," CIA Shortly after, the CIA spokesman Sharron Basso told The Associated Press that the CIA believed that "the file should be clarified". She stated that the FBI document was "apparently" referring to a George William Bush who had worked in 1963 at the night shift at Langley Headquarters in Virginia, and that "it would have been Appropriate place to receive such an FBI report ". George William Bush, she said, had left the CIA in 1964 to join the Defense. Intelligence Agency.
True, the article did not cause major headaches to George HW Bush. The following month, he triumphantly accepted the GOP presidential nomination at his convention in New Orleans, without asking thorny questions about his past.
The CIA does not find "any other" George Bush?
Meanwhile, the CIA Basso told reporters that the agency had not been able to locate "the other" George Bush. The assertion was reported by several media, without any comment on the irony on the part of a vaunted intelligence agency – with thousands of employees and a budget of several billion – unable to to locate a former employee inside US borders.
Maybe what the CIA really needed someone like Joseph McBride. Although not an investigative journalist, McBride had no trouble finding George William Bush. Not only was the man rediscoverable; he was still on the US government payroll. In 1988, George Bush worked as a claims representative with the Social Security Administration. He explained to McBride that he had only briefly worked at the CIA, as a GS-5 probationary officer, analyzing documents and photos during the night shift. In addition, he stated that he had never received an inter-agency briefing.
Several years later, in 1991, David Armstrong, former editor of Texas Observer, was tracking down the other person on Hoover's memo, Captain William Edwards. Edwards could confirm that he was on duty at the Defense Intelligence Agency on the day in question. He said that he did not remember this briefing, but that he had found the memo plausible in reference to a briefing that he could have received over the phone while he was there. was at his desk. Although he said that he had no idea who George Bush was and who had also been informed, Edward's rank and experience were certainly far superior to those of the night clerk George William Bush.
Shortly after the publication of McBride's article in . Nation, the magazine published a follow-up article in which the author provided evidence that the Central Intelligence Agency had lied to the American people. The play came as everyone focused on Bush's coronation at the Louisiana Superdome. As in McBride's previous story, this disclosure was hailed as the equivalent of a collective yawn of the media. An opportunity was spoiled, not only to know the true story of the man who would become president, but also to recognize the hijacking of "George William Bush" for what it was: a long series of distractions Calculations and episodes of misinformation throughout the history of the Bush family.
George William Bush settles
The election taking only two months and a sense of urgency growing in some circles, acknowledged George William Bush under oath – in the context of a statement in a lawsuit filed by a non-profit group looking for records of Bush's past – that he was the junior officer of A quarter of a quarter at the CIA office between September 1963 and February 1964, in service when Kennedy was shot. "I do not recognize the contents of the memorandum as information that was given to me orally or otherwise during my stay at the CIA," he said. "In fact, during my stay at the CIA, I did not receive any oral communication from any government agency, of any kind whatsoever. I did not receive any information regarding Kennedy's assassination while I was at the CIA on the part of the FBI. On the basis of the above, I conclude that I am not Mr. George Bush of the CIA, mentioned in the memorandum. ". .
George HW Bush: A spy from the age of 18
Almost a decade elapsed between Bush's election in 1988 and the declassification and publication in 1996 of a another government document that shed more light on the issue. This declassified document would help answer some of the questions raised in the 1963 Hoover memorandum, such as: "If George Herbert Walker Bush was already connected to the CIA in 1963, what is the date of the relationship?" [19659028] But it would be another decade before this second document was found and revealed to the public. Let's go back to December 2006, when JFK researcher Jerry Shinley was stuck to her computer, browsing the digitized database of documents, on the Mary Ferrell Foundation website.
On this December day, Shinley found an internal CIA memo mentioning George HW Bush [the Bush designated Director of Central Intelligence (DCI)]. Dated November 29, 1975, he reported, generally in spared terms, the revelation that the man who was about to become the CIA leader actually had previous ties with the agency. And the link discussed here, unlike that discovered by McBride, does not date back to 1963, but to 1953 – a decade earlier. In a letter to the head of the spying section of the spy and spying agency, the chief of "Cover and Commercial Agents" wrote:
Through Mr. Gale Allen . . . I learned that Mr. George Bush, designated representative of DCI, already knew the WUBRINY / LPDICTUM project, now completed, which was involved in exclusive commercial operations in Europe. He became aware of this project through the intermediary of Mr. Thomas J. Devine, a former CIA staff employee and, later, an associate member of Mr. Bush for the oil hunt. Their joint activities resulted in the creation of Zapata Oil [sic] [in 1953] which they eventually sold. After the sale of Zapata Oil, Mr. Bush embarked on the policy and Mr. Devine became a member of the investment company Train, Cabot and Associates, New York. . . The attached memorandum describes the close relationship between MM. Devine and Bush in 1967-1968, which, according to Mr. Allen, were maintained while Mr. Bush was our ambassador to the United Nations.
Typically for highly compartmentalised and secretive people. According to the intelligence services, the memo did not say how Bush knew Devine, or whether Devine simply withdrew from the spy trade to become a real entrepreneur. Devine, who was then about twenty-seven at the time, resigned so young, so soon after the CIA spent a lot of time and the money spent on her training was the least extremely unusual. . It would however turn out that Devine had a special relationship allowing him to come and go from the agency, allowing him to do other things without really quitting his job. In fact, the CIA's history is peppered with cases where CIA officers have submitted their "resignation" as a means of creating denial while continuing to work closely with the agency. .
Devine's role in creating Zapata would remain hidden for more than ten years – until 1965. At that time, while Bush was retiring from business to devote himself a seat in Congress, Devine's name suddenly appeared as a member. board of directors of the company derived from Bush, Zapata Offshore – almost as if it was his function to maintain the current operation. To be sure, he and Bush remained united at the hip. . .
Devine, like George Bush, is now over 80 years old and still active in the business world in New York. When I joined him in the winter of 2007 and talked to him about recently discovered CIA memoranda that concerned both his agency relations and his longstanding ties to Bush, he gave a dry laugh, then proceeded cautiously.
"Tell me who you work with in the family," he asked when I informed him that I was working on a book about Bush. I explained that the book was not exactly an "authorized" biography and that, as a result, I did not "work" with a family member. In addition, I noticed that the Bushs were not renowned for their responsiveness to journalistic investigations. "Family policy has been going on since George was in power, they do not talk to the media," Devine replied. But he agreed to contact the Bush family for permission. "Well, the answer is, I will inquire. I have your phone number and I will call you back as soon as I am informed.
Curiously, he recalled, two weeks later, after registering with his old friend in Houston. He explained that former President George H. W. Bush should not cooperate. Several months later, when I spoke to him, he was still talking about nothing. He complained that, thanks to an article I wrote about him in the Real News Project (www.realnews.org), he was now on Wikipedia. And he then uttered a few words:
Thomas Devine: I just broke one of the first rules of this game.
Russ Baker: And what is it? ?
Thomas Devine: Do not complain. In fact, Devine had little to complain about. At the time, while knowing that it seemed to confirm that he had himself participated in the "game", I did not understand the full extent of his activities with Bush. I also did not understand that the importance of their relationship during the tumultuous event of 1963 was to be discussed in the following chapters.
No case like espionage
Previously, there was a strategic services office. (July 1942 – October 1945) or a central intelligence agency (founded in 1947), companies and lawyers representing international companies often employed collaborators in their firms as private agents to collect data on their competitors and business opportunities abroad. It was therefore natural to think that many of the first OSS recruits were recruited into the ranks of oil companies, Wall Street banking companies and Ivy League universities and often equated the interests of their powerful trading partners. national interests. Such relationships, such as the one between George H. W. Bush and Thomas Devine, made sense for the CIA. .
At the time George HW Bush founded his own company, Zapata Petroleum, it was not difficult to list the backers with long-standing ties to business activities. ;industrial spying. Devine's petroleum facility has provided Bush with ideal coverage for traveling abroad and. . . identify potential CIA recruits among foreign nationals. .
The role of "Poppy" in Bush's intelligence seems to date back to the Second World War, when he entered the Navy at eighteen. Upon arrival at his training center in Norfolk, Virginia, in the fall of 1942, Bush was trained not only as a pilot of a torpedo bomber, but also as a photo officer, responsible for critical and highly sensitive aerial surveillance. . .
After mastering the K-20 portable aerial camera and film processing technique, Bush recruited and trained other pilots and crew members. His own flying team became both a bomber unit and a spying unit. The information they obtained on the Japanese Navy, as well as crucial information on the Japanese land defenses, was passed on to the US Naval Intelligence Center at Pearl Harbor and the Marine Corps to plan amphibious landings in order to to reduce the number of victims. 19659006] The purported snapshot of the operation was so secret that even under the navy regulations in force at the time, revealing his name would lead to a court martial. According to a book by Robert Stinnett, one of his companions, Admiral Marc Mitscher was right to say that the Bush team had filed a report in which she actually mentioned his top secret project. The three people above Bush in his chain of command were forced to take the razor blades to view the report pages and remove the defended language.
Apparently, the lesson has not been lost for Bush. From that moment, as every Bush scholar has learned, Bush's life will respect this principle: no names, no traces on paper, no fingerprints. If you want to know what Bush did, you must have the patience of a bloodhound yourself.
For Part 1, please go here; Part 2, here; The third part here; The fourth part, here; The fifth part, here; Part 6, here; Part 7, here; Part 8, here; Part 9, here; Part 10, here
Russ Baker
Russ Baker, award-winning investigative journalist, is the founder and editor of WhoWhatWhy.com.
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