George Bush and the assassination of JFK

[Brian Schmidt]

I know there have been multiple posts about George Bush and his potential involvement in JFK's assassination on this forum in the past, but I wanted to lay out a narrative similar to my post on Nixon & the JFK assassination. Like I said with Nixon, who was a clear beneficiary to the murder of the Kennedy brothers, the Bush Dynasty came to rise alongside the modern conservative movement and after (due to?) the fall of the Camelot. Consider the following:

George Herbert Walker Bush was born into a wealthy and powerful family, among them bankers and weapons contractors. George's father, Prescott Bush, was a Wall Street executive banker, lawyer, and Senator who was alleged to have helped finance Hitler's rise to power and during WWII, bankrolled both sides. He was also allegedly involved in the 1933 Business Plot in which wealthy businessmen conspired to overthrow the Roosevelt administration and set up a fascist government. An influential family, the Bushes socialized and did business with the likes of the Rockefellers, Harrimans, Lodges, and Dulles.

George Bush served in the Navy in WWII and upon his discharge attended Yale where he was a member of Skull & Bones. After graduating, he moved his family to Texas where he began work in the oil business, originally for Dresser Industries, then co-founded Zapata Petroleum Corporation, becoming president of Zapata Offshore in 1954. Being president of a Texas oil company, he undoubtedly rubbed elbows with the powerful oil executives of the time.

One of Zapata's early principals and co-founders was Thomas J. Devine. Devine left the CIA in 1953 to help establish Zapata. Investigative Journalist Russ Baker notes, "For Devine, who would have been about twenty-seven years old at the time, to resign at such a young age, so soon after the CIA had spent a great deal of time and money training him, was, at minimum, highly unusual. It would turn out, however, that Devine had a special relationship allowing him to come and go from the agency, enabling him to do other things without really leaving its employ." Devine would go on to "rejoin" the CIA in June of 1963 under non-official cover status.

Baker goes on to argue that around this period, Bush was involved in many improbable business deals - investments that didn't have a clear profit motive and seemed more like CIA fronts than legitimate business transactions.

It is well known that the Bay of Pigs Invasion was code-named Operation Zapata. John Sherwood, who led the CIA's anti-Castro operations in the early 1960s, said that Zapata Offshore was used as a conduit to fund these operations, in the guise of oil contracts. Strangely, the SEC records for Zapata are missing for the years 1960 through 1967. It is also rumored that George Bush helped raise funds for Operation 40 as early as 1959.

On November 20, 1963, two days before Kennedy was assassinated, Bush had dinner with Al Ulmer of the CIA, who was involved with some 'change of governments' himself and was associated with Robert Maheu.

Like many other figures who would go on to hold important positions in the government, Bush was in Dallas the night before and morning of the Kennedy assassination, but would later claim he couldn't remember where he was during the event.

One of Bush's best friends in 1963 was Jack Crichton, a staunch anti-Communist with a history of intelligence dating back to his employment with the OSS. Crichton started the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment in 1956 and was a member of an Army Intelligence Reserve unit.

In November 1963 Crichton was involved in the arrangements of the visit that President John F. Kennedy made to Dallas. His close friend, Deputy Police Chief George L. Lumpkin, and a fellow member of the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment, drove the pilot car of Kennedy's motorcade. Also in the car was Lieutenant Colonel George Whitmeyer, commander of all Army Reserve units in East Texas. The pilot car stopped briefly in front of the Texas School Book Depository, where Lumpkin spoke to a policeman controlling traffic at the corner of Houston and Elm. Lumpkin would later tell the House Select Committee on Assassination that he had been consulted by the Secret Service on motorcade security, and his input had eliminated an alternative route.

A little over an hour after the assassination, Bush would call the Houston branch of the FBI to state that he wished to furnish hearsay that James Parrott had threatened the president's life. Was this call to establish a record that Bush was in Tyler, TX at the time of the assassination? According to Russ Baker, at the same time Bush was calling in a tip about Parrott to the FBI, Bush's own assistant was in Parrott's house conducting a business transaction. "The net effect was that Reynolds (Bush's assistant) bailed Parrott out, by providing him with an alibi. Thus Parrott became Poppy’s alibi, and Poppy’s assistant became Parrott’s." In fact, James Parrott would go on to work for George Bush's presidential campaign at a low level years later.

In 1985, an 11/29/63 document surfaced from FBI Director Hoover stating "[We have been] advised that the Department of State feels some misguided anti-Castro group might capitalize on the present situation and undertake an unauthorized raid against Cuba, believing that the assassination of President John F. Kennedy might herald a change in U.S. policy," and would go on to say that he orally furnished the information to "Mr. George Bush of the Central Intelligence Agency and Captain William Edwards of the Defense Intelligence Agency." The Bush camp has denied that the document is referring to him, but there was only one other George Bush in the CIA at the time, and was a data analyst who had only been employed for a few months at the time of the assassination and thus unlikely to be briefed on such information. If indeed George H. W. Bush, it raises many questions as to why he would be the person briefed at the CIA. Was he in charge of anti-Castro Cubans? Was Hoover creating a paper trail linking Bush to the assassination as insurance?

Bush remained president of Zapata Offshore until 1964, but would turn his attention away from the oil business to politics. Although he lost a 1964 election for a seat in the U.S. Senate, he won a spot in the House of Representatives in 1966 and won reelection in 1968. It seems, however, that he would maintain his agency connections during this period, especially to Thomas Devine. According to the CIA memo, Devine "accompanied Bush on a trip to Vietnam from 26 December 1967-11 January 1968, for which he was issued an interim top-secret clearance by the US Department of Defense." Russ Baker has suggested that there might be a link with the controversial Phoenix Program, headed by Ted Shackley, who will be discussed further in following paragraphs.

In 1969, during Nixon's inaugural celebration, Bush left the festivities to meet privately with Lyndon Johnson, reportedly the only Republican to do so. Russ Baker suggests that he was actually close to LBJ for many years even before Johnson became president, despite making occasional partisan public attacks on him and John Connally.

In 1970, Nixon convinced him to run for Senate, but ended up losing the election. After the loss, Nixon appointed him ambassador to UN, despite seemingly lack of foreign policy experience. In the midst of the Watergate Scandal, Nixon asked Bush to chair the Republican National Committee in 1973. Reportedly, when Bush learned of the "smoking gun" section of the Watergate tapes, in which Nixon attempts to get the CIA to back off by using "the whole Bay of Pigs thing" as leverage - which many researchers and Haldeman himself believed was code for the JFK assassination - Bush "broke out in assholes and sh-t himself to death." When Nixon refers to the "Texans" on the tape, he may have been talking about Bush's inner circle of Mosbacher, Bill Liedtke, and perhaps even Bush himself.

By the mid-70’s, it had become a tumultuous time for the intelligence community due to fallout from Watergate and a slip of Ford's tongue about assassination attempts on foreign leaders. There had been a series of Congressional hearings and investigations into past abuses of power by the CIA; people with things to hide were undoubtedly nervous where it all may lead. When CIA director William Colby began cooperating with investigators too much, he was sacked by Gerald Ford and replaced with Bush. It surprised many that Bush would be chosen for the job considering he had "no previous intelligence background." In the wake of wide-spread criticism of the Agency, David Atlee Phillips would go on to form the Association of Former Intelligence Officers. George Bush would become the honorary chairman of the board of directors.

In September 1976, while DCI, Bush received a curious letter. It was from George de Mohrenschildt, Oswald's former best friend. In the letter, de Mohrenschildt explains that he is under surveillance and that a net is closing in on him and that he foolishly tried to talk about Oswald and it angered a lot of people. He was asking for Bush's help to remove the net around him. It turned out that George Bush and George de Mohrenschildt had known each other for a long time dating back to when Bush had roomed with GDM's nephew at Phillips Academy. Bush responded to the letter, addressing GDM's concerns only tangentially. Six months later, de Mohrenschildt died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

As Director of the CIA, Bush made Ted Shackley his Deputy Director of Covert Operations. When Carter beat Ford in the 1977 election, Stansfield Turner became the new DCI and Shackley was relieved of his duties as Deputy Director. He left the Agency soon after. Shackley maintained his apparatus of CIA agents and assets, however, and during the run-up to the 1980 election, Bush was meeting with Shackley weekly. A former senior CIA officer, John Murray, suggested that Shackley had some sort of control over Bush. He suspected it was something to do with illegal covert activities that had been carried out when Bush was director of the CIA.

Shackley, of course, had been head of JMWAVE during raids against Cuba and during the Kennedy assassination, and was also a protégé of William Harvey. Members JMWAVE staff have been suspected of playing a role in the assassination of JFK. David Morales, Shackley's chief of staff at JMWAVE is widely considered a major player in the assassination and reportedly confessed his involvement. Bradley Ayers, a CIA agent based at the JMWAVE station, claimed multiple officers at JMWAVE had operational knowledge of the assassination, including Ted Shackley.

In 1980, the Reagan/Bush ticket won the election, amid subsequent allegations of an October Surprise in which Iranian hostages were held until after the election to ensure a Republican victory. It is from here on that a cast of characters with history and ties to CIA-Cuban adventures re-emerge during the Reagan administration and ensuing Iran Contra Scandal.

It is beyond the scope of this post, but the Iran Contra Scandal (and other 1980's scandals) brought out a curious group of ex-spooks that have links to Bush and are alleged to have been connected to the Kennedy assassination. These include Tom Clines, Carl Jenkins, Rafael "Chi Chi" Quintero and Felix Rodriguez. Gene Wheaton, a key figure in exposing Iran Contra, claimed Raphael Quintero and Carl Jenkins were both involved in the assassination of JFK. Rafael Quintero once said that if he were granted immunity and compelled to testify about past actions, it would be the biggest scandal ever to hit the United States.

Another curious figure with links to George Bush and the CIA to show back up in a 1980's scandal was Barry Seal. Seal, a CIA asset during the late 50's through the 60's, had been a member of the Civil Air Patrol and possibly Operation 40. Allegedly in his hometown of Baton Rouge, it is an open secret that Seal flew the get-away plane out of Dallas after the Kennedy assassination. At some point in the late 60's, Barry Seal's CIA adventures morphed into a personal, full-time drug trafficking job. In March, 1984, Seal was indicted for smuggling Quaaludes and laundering money. In an attempt to avoid an expected 10 year sentence, Seal made direct contact with George Bush. He agreed to testify before a secret session of Bush's Task Force on Drugs against the Sandinistas cartel. Seal agreed to organize a sting operation where he managed to get a photograph of Pablo Escobar helping Nicaraguan soldiers to load 1,200 kilos of cocaine on a military cargo plane. In return, a judge handed him only six months probation. Was there another reason Bush was so willing to personally help Seal? Seal would go on to become a mix between DEA informant and drug dealer, eventually landing another drug conviction. Seal was asked by his close friend, Rene Martin, if he feared being killed by the Ochoa family. Barry Seal replied that he was not afraid of the Colombians because he had not implicated senior members of the organization. Seal was more worried about his contacts within the US government. This view is supported by Lewis Unglesby, Seal’s lawyer. He confirmed that the man Seal was willing to testify against was George Bush. In February, 1986, Seal was killed by machine gun in his car.

Bush family would continue to be associated with individuals tied to early 1960's cover operations. For example, George W. Bush would go on to appoint Porter Goss, a longtime CIA agent dating back to Operation 40, as director of the agency.

[Ron Ecker]

It is well known that the Bay of Pigs Invasion was code-named Operation Zapata. John Sherwood, who led the CIA's anti-Castro operations in the early 1960s, said that Zapata Offshore was used as a conduit to fund these operations, in the guise of oil contracts.

The Bay of Pigs is on the Zapata Peninsula in Cuba.

[Brian Schmidt]

Yes, and that's obviously integral to the mission being named that. If Bush was involved in the BOP, it has been suggested that this was a double entendre of sorts.

[Ron Ecker]

Yes, and that's obviously integral to the mission being named that. If Bush was involved in the BOP, it has been suggested that this was a double entendre of sorts.

It seems odd to me that a military mission would be named so precisely for the potential benefit of the enemy. Why didn't they call the Normandy invasion Operation Normandy? (It was called Operation Overlord.)

[Brian Schmidt]

I thought the same thing, Ron. It's very out of character for the naming of secret missions.

A lot of websites (I think even Fletcher Prouty made this claim) discuss how the support ships were named Houston and Barbara J and how Bush had a habit of naming things, like his combat aircraft, after parts of his personal life. I'm very skeptical of this claim, but it would make sense then that Zapata had an ironic double-meaning for those in the know.

[Ron Ecker]

Since Barbara Bush has no middle name (and her maiden name was Pierce), I would assume that the Barbara J was named for some other Barbara.

[Jon G. Tidd]

GHW Bush lied, I'm sure, when he said he never worked for the CIA prior to becoming its director.

GHW Bush lied, I'm sure, when he said he must have been out of the room going to the bathroom when Iran-Contra was being discussed with Reagan.

GHW Bush came into the Nixon White House and was the individual who brought Howard Hunt into the White House.

GHW Bush was the U.S. drug czar. Under his tenure as drug czar, the flow of illegal drugs into the U.S. increased markedly. For further background in this regard, I suggest "Deep Politics" by Peter Dale Scott.

Does anyone here see a pattern?

[Ron Ecker]

GHW Bush is the Godfather of one of America's two royal families. The next U.S. president will be named Bush or Clinton. Which says an awful lot about U.S. voters. And like I always say, people get the government they deserve.

[Roger DeLaria]

These don't really mention Poppy Bush, but get into Gary Webb and the whole Contra/CIA Drug story. I thought Kill The Messenger was a pretty good film.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/11485819/kill-messenger-gary-webb-true-story.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-a-palermo/gary-webb-kill-the-messenger_b_6017820.html

[Paul Brancato]

Good work Brian - you assembled a lot of the Bush connections in one place. I sometimes wonder if the members of the board here just feel it's too dangerous to jump on this bandwagon. There is of course more info, as you alluded to when you reached Bush as VP, and it ties directly to the whole BOP thing. I also think Tidd is right to tie in the drug trade, as Peter Dale Scott did so admirably.

This material used to be at my fingertips, but it's been almost 30 years since I wrote the Iran Contra Scandal trading cards. Major Cuban players like Felix Rodriguez were close to Bush. I'm glad you quoted Rafael Quintero - we don't hear it often enough. Bush also protected Luis Posada, responsible for the Cuban airline bombing. The CIA guy at the top of this pyramid was Ted Shackley, and as you say he was an acolyte of Harvey. What you didn't mention but I am sure you know is that both of them were stationed in Berlin when Reinhardt Gehlen was head of West German intelligence. It was Daniel Sheehan who first shed light on Shackley. Sheehan inspired my efforts, and part of my profits went to his Christic Institute. Of course he got no where, and to hear him tell it the last stop was Senator John Kerry. When Sheehan tells his stories he is very believable, and since some of it is first hand, based on personal experience, and some is interviews with first hand players, the lack of references to back up his claims doesn't bother me. I trust his personal integrity and don't think he is lying or exaggerating.

The other thing I recalled when reading your excellent synopsis, is that Thomas Devine and George DeMohrenschildt come together in Joan Mellon's book Our Man in Haiti. Interestingly, Devine is identified by his CiA code name, but his partner in crime is not. I assume that to be George Bush, and I believe Joan Mellon wondered if it was too.

Maybe it's worth mentioning here the author Peter Levenda, who has written some awesome books on the post war nazi movement and on the wandering bishops, both of which subjects he, like Sheehan, has personal intersections with.

[Steven Gaal]

http://whowhatwhy.org/2013/09/25/part-2-viva-zapata-3/

DEVIVE & BUSH OPERATION below,gaal

In 1958, Zapata Offshore’s drilling rig Scorpion was moved from the Gulf of Mexico to Cay Sal Bank, the most remote group of islands in the Bahamas and just fifty-four miles north of Isabela, Cuba. The [Cay Sal] island had been recently leased to oilman Howard Hughes, who had his own long-standing CIA ties, as well as his own “private CIA.”

By most appearances, a number of CIA-connected entities were involved in the operation. Zapata leased the Scorpion to Standard Oil of California and to Gulf Oil. CIA director Dulles had previously served as Gulf’s counsel for Latin America. The same year that Gulf leased Bush’s platform, CIA veteran Kermit “Kim” Roosevelt joined Gulf’s board. This was the same Kermit Roosevelt who had overseen the CIA’s successful 1953 coup against the democratically elected Iranian prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, after Mossadegh began nationalizing Anglo-American oil concessions. It looked like the Bush-CIA group was preparing for operations in the Caribbean basin.

The offshore platforms had a specific purpose. “George Bush would be given a list of names of Cuban oil workers we would want placed in jobs,” said one official connected to Operation Mongoose, the program to overthrow Castro. “The oil platforms he dealt in were perfect for training the Cubans in raids on their homeland.”

==============================

wiki

Various writers have suggested that Zapata Off-Shore, and Bush in particular, cooperated with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), beginning in the late 1950s.^[14]John Loftus, in his book The Secret War Against the Jews: How Western Espionage Betrayed the Jewish People quotes former U.S. intelligence official:

The Zapata-Permargo deal caught the eye of Allan Dulles, who the "old spies" report was the man who recruited Bush's oil company as a part time purchasing front for the CIA. Zapata provided commercial supplies for one of Dulles' most notorious operations: the Bay of Pigs Invasion. – Chapter 16, p. 368

Edited July 16, 2015 by Steven Gaal

[Paul Brancato]

David Talbot's new book The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government" is available on preorder from Amazon with a release date in mid October 2015. I suspect this book will be very revealing.

[Brian Schmidt]

David Talbot's new book The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government" is available on preorder from Amazon with a release date in mid October 2015. I suspect this book will be very revealing.

Thanks for the heads up about the book, Paul, and for the kind words in your previous post.

I just read the description of the book on Amazon and can't wait to read it.

[Steven Gaal]

David Talbot's new book The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government" is available on preorder from Amazon with a release date in mid October 2015. I suspect this book will be very revealing.

Thanks for the heads up about the book, Paul, and for the kind words in your previous post.

I just read the description of the book on Amazon and can't wait to read it.

BRIAN me too !!

Prescott Bush and Allen Dulles were very close friends since the early 1930s , GAAL

see http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=21367&p=289607

the Dulles did it thread by gaal

Edited July 22, 2015 by Steven Gaal

[Kathleen Collins]

I read on the Internet that George H.W.Bush was the adopted son of Prescott Bush. And that Bush's real father was a nazi who escaaped Germany with American help. There is absolutely no resemblance between George H.W. Bush and Prescott Bush.

GHW Bush is the Godfather of one of America's two royal families. The next U.S. president will be named Bush or Clinton. Which says an awful lot about U.S. voters. And like I always say, people get the government they deserve.

I am voting for Donald Trump. Especially after that evil one we have today who wants to

bring us to the New World Order. Why can't we get rid of that guy? How much has to

happen?

Kathy C

Edited July 26, 2015 by Kathleen Collins