ALTHOUGH THE TAUNT “WHERE WAS
George?” became something of a joke during the
1988 presidential campaign, President-elect Bush was not,
as he claimed, “out of the loop” in the Iran-contra affair.
Indeed, Bush was fully briefed on the Administration’s
arms sales to Iran, and, long before Oliver North became a
household word, an unauthorized contra resupply opera-
tion was operating out of the Vice President’s office under
the direction of his national security adviser Donald
Gregg, formerly a high-ranking CIA officer.
Gregg was reportedly a lead player in a successful
effort in early 1983, by staffers of the Vice President’s
office and the National Security Council, to “wrest con-
trol” of Central America policy from the State Depart-
ment.’ Bush himself, according to one recent report, as-
sented to a 1982 request from CIA director Casey to let his
office be used as a cover for the secret resupply of the
contras.”
Gregg put his CIA colleague from Vietnam days, Felix
Rodriguez, in charge of coordinating contra airlifts at
Ilopango Air Base in El Salvador, where, according to
several sources, Rodriguez represented himself as an em-
issary of the Vice President. Both Richard Brenneke and
former Panama official Jos6 Bland6n identified Rodriguez
as the Harari network’s U.S. contact in Central America.
Logs from the Vice President’s office show that Rod-
riguez met 17 times with members of Bush’s staff, three
times with the Vice President in attendance. Although
Bush has protested that “the only discussions I have ever
had with Felix relate to El Salvador,” a memo from Gregg,
released by the Iran-contra committee and dated April 16,
1986, refers to a May 1 meeting at which Rodriguez was
to brief Bush on “resupply of the contras.”
Intelligence operative Richard Brenneke says that
when he asked if the Harari network’s arms dealing was
authorized by the Administration, it was Gregg’s name
and number that the Mossad station chief in Guatemala
gave him. On November 3, 1983, Brenneke insists, Gregg
assured him that he should “by all means cooperate.” 5
John Mattes, a Federal public defender in Miami dur-
ing the secret contra support operations, maintains that
Bush’s son Jeb “was the man to see if you wanted to aid
the contras.” While he was chairman of the Dade County
Republican Party Jeb Bush reportedly raised private funds
for the contras. 6
There have been no firm answers to the many ques-
tions raised during the 1988 campaign about the Presi-
dent-elect’s knowledge of Gen. Manuel Noriega’s links to
drug trafficking. But Col. Roberto Diaz Herrera, former
second-in-command of the Panama Defense Forces, has
said that during a December 1983 meeting Bush told
Noriega he was aware of his activities and asked him to
support the contra effort.’ Noriega claims to have pictures
and tape recordings linking Bush to the training of contras
in Panama, Diaz asserts.” After Noriega’s activities be-
came a big story in the United States, he engaged Wash-
Out of the loop?
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1988
m Cn
a)
-4 -I
as
a)
ington lobbyist Stuart Spencer to advise him “on matters
that included federal investigations of Panamanian in-
volvement in the drug trade.”‘ Spencer went on to work
for the Bush-Quayle campaign.
LTHOUGH THE PRESIDENT-ELECT AC-
quired the reputation of a complaisant front man as
he trudged through each station on his distinguished
r6sum6, Bush’s service as CIA director was hardly in-
nocuous. Appointed in 1975, when the Ford Administra-
tion needed a new face to calm Congressional fury over
revelations about the Agency’s practices, Bush allowed
his covert operatives to keep him “out of the loop.” Conse-
quently, he had little to tell Congress.
He not only kept information on ex-agent Edwin
Wilson (later convicted for selling arms to Libya) from
Congress, he also impeded criminal investigations of
Wilson, of the assassination of former Chilean Ambassa-
dor Orlando Letelier, and of former CIA Director Richard
Helms (for lying to Congress about Agency involvement
in the 1973 coup in Chile).”‘
If George Bush’s presence was wraithlike as he went
on his way and no fingerprints were left, that is a testa-
ment to his aides and associates-who have earned them-
selves a place in the Bush Administration.
George Was There
1. Steven Emerson, Secret Warrt iors, (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons,
1988), pp. 125-126.
2. Howard Kohn and Vicki Monks, “The Dirty Secrets of George Bush.”
Rolling Stone, Nov. 3, 1988.
3. Emerson, Secret Warriors, p. 128.
4. Quote from New York Times, Oct. 22, 1986; Gregg memo reproduced
in People’s Daily World, April 2, 1988.
5. Jim Redden, “Burning Bush,” Willamette Week (Portland), July 14-20,
1988; UPI, May 15, 1988.
6. Kohn and Monks, “The Dirty Secrets.”
7. “More on Bush-Noriega,” Newsweek, Oct. 31, 1988.
8. Thames Television This Week, cited by AP, “British TV takes on
Bush,” Sacramento Bee, Sept. 22, 1988.
9. New Republic, Sept. 26, 1988, quoted by Guardian (New York), Oct.
19, 1988.
10. Scott Armstrong and Jeff Nason, “Company Man,” Mother Jones,
Oct. 1988.
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