http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/3579.htmlA tradition of terror
by David Malmo-Levine (20 Oct, 2004) Four generations of war and drug war profiteers are at the heart of America's power structure.
PART ONE: THE DEATH MERCHANT AND THE NAZI BANKER
"If the people were to ever find out what we have done, we would be chased down the streets and lynched." ? George H W Bush, cited in the June 1992 Sarah McClendon Newsletter.
1907-1918: Merchant of death
The story of the Bush clan's rise to power begins in 1908, when Samuel Prescott Bush (Dubya's great-grandfather) was elected President of Buckeye Steel Castings Company. Sam supplied Wall Street with castings for their railroads and later became the first president of the National Manufactures Association (NAM). NAM has had a history of supporting fascist organizations, including creating the infamous John Birch society.1
In 1917, Prescott Sheldon Bush (Sam's son and Dubya's grandfather) joined the influential Skull and Bones secret society at Yale. Skull and Bones was incorporated in 1856 by opium smugglers W H Russell and Daniel C Gilman ? not the last time Skull and Bones members would be involved in the global drug trade.2
In 1918, Samuel Prescott Bush was made director of the facilities division of the US War Industries Board under its chairman, Bernard Baruch and his assistant, the banker Clarence Dillon. It was here the Bush clan learned how profitable war could be. Dillon would later help Sam's son get a job managing the coal mines at Auschwitz.
Samuel Bush was labeled a "Merchant of Death" in the years following the Great War as investigations determined that the German army was largely armed by him. After World War I, Germany was stripped of its arms, but Samuel Bush was allowed to keep his millions, and his arms business was allowed to grow and prosper. In 1944, he was awarded a huge government contract to make armor casings for World War II.
In 1918, Prescott Bush served as an intelligence officer at the front in France. This would be the beginning of the long relationship between the Bush clan and America's intelligence community.
A poster erected during a protest in Havana
1926-1952: War profiteering and Nazi banking
"The Bush family fortune came from the Third Reich." ? John Loftus, former US Justice Department Nazi War Crimes investigator and President of the Florida Holocaust Museum as quoted in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune on November 11, 2000.
In 1926, Prescott Bush was promoted to Vice-President of WA Harriman & Co. Clarence Dillon of Dillon Read set up the German Steel Trust with Thyssen and partner, Fredrick Flick. Thyssen was Hitler's first major industrial backer. Bush and Harriman ? along with George Herbert Walker ? owned a third of Flick's holding company, and called their share "Consolidated Silesian Steel Corp."
Prescott's job was to manage the finances of a coal mine very close to where the Auschwitz concentration camp was later built. According to a Dutch intelligence agent, Prescott Bush managed a portion of the slave labor force in Poland during World War II.
Greed wasn't the only motivation for being a Nazi banker ? Prescott Bush was an active white supremacist. In 1931, he and George Walker (Dubya's other great-grandfather and namesake) hosted the Third International Congress of Eugenics. The event called for the sterilization of 14 million Americans (none of whom were named Bush or Walker or any other name found at Yale).
In 1934, Hitler was in control of Germany and the profits from the Thyssen-Flick union soared to over $100 million. All the Nazi-connected banks were overflowing with money. Prescott Bush became managing director of Union Bank and took over the operations of the German plan. In October 1942, the US Alien Property Custodian seized the stock shares of this bank for "trading with the enemy." The Bush family still made $1.5 million from their investment in Nazi Germany.
In 1948, young George H W Bush followed in the footsteps of his father Prescott and his uncle James, and joined the Skull and Bones Society at Yale.
This happened just one year after the CIA was created by Brown Brothers banker (and Skull member) Robert A Lovett and Nazi banker Allen Dulles. Lovett lived on Jupiter Island, the exclusive upper-class community also home to Prescott Bush.
Hitler's SS were said to be inspired to use a "skull and bones" for their emblem because of their favorite American Bankers. Founder W A Harriman and five other Brown Brothers Harriman bankers were all members of Skull and Bones.
Skull and Bones remains a very influential secret society. According to an article about the organization in the July 2004 Vanity Fair, 15 Yale juniors are "tapped" to join each year. There are only about 800 "Bonesmen" currently living, yet their ranks have included three US presidents, two Supreme Court justices, plus many cabinet members, senators and congressmen. Vanity Fair also cites strong links between the Skull and Bones society and the CIA, as well as the Time Inc media empire ? Time magazine was founded by two Bonesmen. Bush has appointed 10 Bonesmen to ambassadorships and other positions in his administration. Interestingly, John Kerry is also a Skull and Bones alumni.
Like father, like son.
PART TWO: GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH ? THE EARLY YEARS
1952-present day: CIA, MK-Ultra, Zapata Oil and Eli Lilly
"Mr. George Bush of the CIA had been briefed on November 23, 1963 about the reaction of anti-Castro Cuban exiles in Miami to the assassination of President Kennedy." ? A recently found memo from FBI head J Edgar Hoover, The Nation, August 13, 1988.
On June 10, 1954, Prescott Bush received a letter from Connecticut resident H Smith Richardson, owner of Vick Chemical Company (now known as a maker of cough drops and Vapo-Rub). The letter concerned the establishment of the H Smith Richardson Foundation, a Bush family-dictated private slush fund which was to be utilized by the CIA, and by Vice President Bush, for the conduct of his Iran-Contra adventures.3
In the late 1950's, the H Smith Richardson Foundation took part in the "psychological warfare" of the CIA. This was not a foreign, but a domestic, covert operation, carried out mainly against unwitting US citizens. In this period, the Richardson Foundation helped finance experiments at Bridgewater Hospital in Massachusetts, the center of some of the most brutal MK-Ultra tortures. These outrages have been graphically portrayed in the movie Titticut Follies.4
Zapata Oil
In 1952, Prescott Bush was elected to the US Senate. A year later, his son George H W Bush used money from the Nazi bankers ? Brown Brothers and Harriman ? to form Zapata Oil, a front for the CIA.
Zapata's offshore oil served as the perfect CIA cocaine smuggling scam, as those who worked on the rig never had to go through customs.5
In 1961, Zapata's annual report boasted that the company had paid no taxes since it was founded. In 1981, SEC filings for Zapata Oil for 1960-66 were found to have been "inadvertently destroyed."6
Operation Zapata
The CIA's ties to the Italian Mafia are well-known, and go back to the Mob's assistance with the Allied invasion of Italy in World War II. Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution removed the Mafia (and their drug smuggling) out of Cuba. The Mafia complained to their buddies at the CIA.
In 1961, the CIA attempted to invade Cuba using US-trained and equipped Cubans. Code-named "Operation Zapata," two of the boats used in the invasion were named "Houston" and "Barbara." Operation Zapata was a failure and became known as the "Bay of Pigs" invasion. Much of the US intelligence community held then-President John F Kennedy responsible, as he refused to commit US air power to the invasion.
Incredibly, George H W Bush claims to have forgotten where he was in Texas on the day of Kennedy's death. Oddly, he is known to keep in contact with Felix Rodriguez ? the anti-Castro Cuban assassin who killed Che Guevara.
1977-79: Eli Lilly
George H W Bush was corporate director at Eli Lilly (current makers of Prozac and cannabis substitutes) from 1977 to 1979, and later intervened, as vice president, on the company's behalf with the Treasury department.7
Bush (as vice-president) repeatedly intervened to help the pharmaceutical drug industry. For example, he eased the first stage of the FDA approval process for synthetic drugs. One author asks: "Could these eased regulations have contributed to the recent deaths from liver failure in association with an Eli Lilly anti-hepatitis drug as it was undergoing early stages of testing at NIH (National Institute of Health)?"8
Bush's vice president Dan Quayle came from Indiana ? the home of Eli Lilly ? and Quayle's father had controlling interest in the company. Dan Quayle later acted as go-between for drug kingpins, gun runners, and government officials in the Iran-Contra scandals.
L-R Bushes: Barbara, a baby George W, George Sr, Dorothy Walker and Prescott.
PART THREE: GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH IN POWER
1980-1998: Iran Contra, Panama and tobacco politics
"Casual drug use is responsible for the casualties of the drug war... Dabblers in drugs bear responsibility for the blood being spilled." ? George H W Bush, Public, September 13, 1989.9
Iran Contra
On November 21, 1989, President Bush signed a new anti-drug law that provided over $3 billion for expanded anti-drug programs, including treatment facilities, federal prison expansion, education, and law enforcement.
Given his past dealings with Zapata and Miami and Skull and Bones, one would have naturally doubted the sincerity of these efforts. His record as vice president and president during the Iran-Contra affair is educational, to say the least.
Bush was totally involved in the Iran-Contra scandal. The Reagan/Bush administration traded weapons to Iran for the release of American hostages (or, more accurately, used the existence of American hostages as an excuse to sell weapons to Iran). Then they funded the right-wing, anti-socialist, anti-Sandanista Contra "rebel" death squad. The Contras were financed by the arms for hostages deals ? and by cocaine growing and smuggling.
Bush aided in the cocaine cover up while claiming he was "out of the loop." Gary Webb of the San Jose Mercury News claims otherwise, highlighting evidence that the CIA had briefed George H W Bush personally regarding the Contra army and their "planeloads of cocaine and marijuana" being flown into the US to finance the civil war.10
The Panama deception
In 1976, George H W Bush held the first known meeting between a member of the CIA and Panama Military Dictator Manuel Noriega. At this point, Noriega started receiving $110,000 a year from the CIA.
In December of 1989, the US invaded Panama, ostensibly in order to capture Manuel Noriega on drug charges. Yet Noriega had been on the CIA payroll since the 1960's ? and remained on the payroll during his worst drug-crime periods.
The official body count for the Panama Invasion is approximately 500 Panamanians (mainly civilians) dead, but non-governmental sources with no less evidence count thousands more; there were 3,000 wounded and tens of thousands left homeless, not to mention the 23 American dead and 324 American wounded.
A reporter once asked Bush, "Was it really worth it to send people to their death for this? To get Noriega?"
Bush replied, "Every human life is precious, and yet I have to answer, yes, it has been worth it."11
The original post-invasion plans called for outright US military government, with the head of the US Army Southern command as Panama's de facto ruler. At the last minute a decision was made to install Guillermo Endara as president, but his government was "merely a facade."12
Endara, one of the two vice presidents, and the attorney general, all had links to drug trafficking and money laundering. The Bush Administration confiscated thousands of boxes of Noriega government documents and refused to hand over any of them to Panamanian investigators. Cocaine smuggling has since returned to Panama.
PART FOUR: DUBYA
"I think the baby boomer parents ought to say I've learned from mistakes I may or may not have made. And I'd like to share some wisdom with you, and that is: Don't use drugs." ? George "Dubya" Bush, during his presidential campaign, December 1999.13
1968-2004: Secrets and lies
Dubya was known to have been a heavy drinker and even "experimented" with cocaine and marijuana back in his Skull and Bones days.14 One author claims to know three people with first-hand accounts of Dubya's expunged cocaine arrest.15
In 1999, while running for president, George "Dubya" Bush lied about his views on medical marijuana. Campaigning in Seattle, Bush answered questions about medical marijuana laws by saying, "I believe each state can choose that decision as they so choose."
Yet since Dubya took office, his administration has presided over many raids of legitimate medical marijuana doctors, patients and clubs, including the LA buyers club in 2001 and Santa Cruz's WAMM in 2002.16
Needing an excuse to invade
Defending the role of the drug war as a pretext to meddle in the affairs of other countries, Dubya had this to say:
"The Soviet Union is no more. Some people think, 'what do we need intelligence for?' My answer to that is we have plenty of enemies. Plenty of enemies abound. Unpredictable leaders willing to export instability or to commit crimes against humanity. Proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, narco-trafficking, people killing each other, fundamentalists killing each other in the name of God. These and more. Many more."17
Shortly after taking office, Dubya began his long tirade against the "terrorists" in the (oil-rich) nation of Columbia:
"Terrorists plague Colombia with killing and kidnapping. They have been found in Panama and are feared by Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador and Brazil. Colombia's President, Andres Pastrana, has begun the fight against drugs, corruption and poverty. But the Colombian government must operate from a position of strength. That is why I support the $1.3 billion in aid the Congress has passed and the President has signed. This money should help build up the capabilities of Colombia's armed forces. Even though I do not advocate the use of American troops in battle, our forces can help train the Colombian military. Our aid will help the Colombian government protect its people, fight the drug trade, halt the momentum of the guerrillas and bring about a sensible and peaceful resolution to this conflict."18
Immediately after 9-11, Dubya drew a connection between the new war against terror and the old war against drugs:
"There's another war at home, too... and that's to win the war against the scourge of drugs."
Dubya went on to further establish the connection between these two "infinite" wars:
"...it's so important for Americans to know that the traffic in drugs finances the work of terror, sustaining terrorists... that terrorists use drug profits to fund their cells to commit acts of murder. If you quit drugs, you join the fight against terror in America."
And then, elevating his witch hunt to a holy crusade, he added:
"And when we fight against drugs, we fight for the souls of our fellow Americans."19
Election/selection 2004: Afghanistan, Columbia and beyond
What is in store for the world? We know George "Dubya" Bush and his pals want all the world's oil and total control of the underground drug trade ? which is why they needed Afghanistan and Iraq, and why they are salivating at the thought of Colombia.
Whatever you finally decide to do on election night, don't vote Bush. A hundred years of war, murder and death from those morons is enough.
? For a longer version of this article, with links to complete references: cannabisculture.com/news/bush
? For more exposure on the Bush dynasty:
http://www.pot-tv.net/shows/2836.htmlReferences
1) American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush, Kevin Phillips, 2004, Viking, p. 21.
2) Fleshing Out Skull and Bones, Kris Millegan (Edit), 2003, TrineDay, p. 157.
3)
http://www.tarpley.net/bush4.htm4) Ibid.
5) Behold a Pale Horse, William Cooper, 1991, Light Technology, p. 214.
6)
http://www.bushwatch.org/family.htm7) Blacklisted News: Secret Histories from Chicago to 1984, Dana Beal, Steve Conliff and Grace Nichols, Bleecker, 1983, p. 170.
:cool: Talking Back to Prozac, Peter R. Breggin, MD, and Ginger Ross Breggin, 1994, St. Martin's, pp. 207-208.
9) Drug Warriors and their Prey, Richard Lawrence Miller, 1996, Praeger, p. 23.
10) ocweekly.com/ink/archives/98/9lede-webb.shtml
11) New York Times, December 1989.
12) Official Pentagon study of the Panama occupation, The Nation, March 1994.
13)
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/ju ... _8-20.html14) Fortunate Son: George W Bush and the Making of an American President, J H Hatfield, 2000, Soft Skull, pp. xxxi, 33, 34, 48.
15)
http://www.americanpolitics.com/20020924Bisbort.html16) Bush: Marijuana Laws Up to States, Spencer S Hsu, Washington Post, October 1999; B7.
17)
http://www.odci.gov/cia/public_affairs/speeches18)
http://www.foreignpolicy2000.org/library/10_imf19)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001
