Robert Parry: Keeping a Curious Bush Secret

[marmar]

from Consortium News:



Keeping a Curious Bush Secret
August 12, 2011

Exclusive: One of the strange mysteries from the Reagan-Bush era is where did George H.W. Bush go on one Sunday in October 1980 when some witnesses placed him meeting with Iranians in Paris. More than three decades later, Bush’s supposed alibi remains a state secret, Robert Parry reports.

By Robert Parry


More than three decades ago, on Oct. 19, 1980, then-Republican vice presidential candidate George H.W. Bush supposedly took an afternoon trip to visit a family friend in Washington, an alibi that could prove he could not have traveled secretly to Paris for treacherous meetings with Iranians.

But Bush’s White House in 1992 – and his presidential library now – have refused to release the name of this alibi witness or even the address where Bush allegedly went. The insistence on keeping this secret has just been reaffirmed by Debra Steidel Wall, deputy archivist of the United States.

So, rather than release what theoretically should be a fact the Bush Family would want out – proof that the elder George Bush did not engage in secret talks with Iranians behind President Jimmy Carter’s back regarding 52 Americans then being held hostage in Iran – the U.S. government is saying that only a costly federal court lawsuit can dislodge this historical detail.

Or, perhaps the reason that this secret has been so zealously guarded for so long is that Bush never took the afternoon trip, that it was just part of a cover story to conceal his mission to Paris, and that the host — if questioned — would discredit Bush’s alibi . ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2011/08/12/keeping-a-curious-bush-secret/

[Kurmudgeon]

1. I expect typical knee jerk excuses if anyone pays attention to this.

And if proven true, what is a fit punishment for anyone who worked against American hostages?

[Maccagirl]

2. Every dirty deal in the last 50 years (re: US government)

has G H W Bush's handprint. I'm convinced that John Kerry (on the committee investigating BCCI) knows where the bodies are buried but has no means to legally prove his facts. It makes me want to scream.

[n2doc]

3. Kerry's a Bonesman

Maybe he won't rat on his 'brother'

[saras]

4. "Maybe he won't rat on his 'brother'" - Not if he wants to live, he won't...

[blm]

5. Then you don't understand what he did on BCCI. He took Bush to court many times to force turnover

of documents that WH refused to turn over claiming state secrets. There were some he won and some he lost, but BECAUSE he kept pushing it into court back then that we were even able to learn two decades later about the August 6, 2001 PDB. Prior to Kerry's legal interventions, Presidents could get away with hiding those briefings.

Kerry needed to get INTO the WH to finally gain access to all the documents that were kept from him back then, by Bush1 and his Dem successor.

This country lost its best chance in 2004 to finally have a president who believed in the people's right to know.

[grasswire]

6. I wonder how many other times the secret service lied for Poppy

"Another part of Bush’s alibi for Oct. 19 – a morning trip to the Chevy Chase Country Club – previously collapsed when no one at the club recalled the visit and the account from Secret Service supervisor Leonard Tanis, who described a brunch also involving Barbara Bush and Justice and Mrs. Potter Stewart, turned out to be false.

Disproving Tanis’s account, Mrs. Bush’s Secret Service records showed her taking a morning jog along the C&O Canal, and Mrs. Stewart told me that she and her late husband never had brunch with the Bushes at the Chevy Chase club. When questioned by congressional investigators, none of the other Secret Service agents on the detail recalled going to the Chevy Chase club at all.

After his Chevy Chase story was debunked, Tanis – a Secret Service official who was known to be personally close to Bush – withdrew it"

[defendandprotect]

7. October Surprise was TREASON .... and, let's also note that Nixon also

pulled an "October Surprise" by working back channels to keep the

Vietnam Peace talks from going forward and benefiting Humphrey !!


I'd question every election back to Nixon/Humphrey -- which is when the

computers began to come in -- late 1960's!!


I doubt there evere was a "Southern Strategy " -- only computer voting!!