George H.W. Bush

[RainDog]

Last edited Fri Dec 28, 2012, 03:32 PM - Edit history (1)

In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq by George H.W. Bush, one of his good friends engaged in propaganda directed toward American citizens. Testimony before Congress included lies by a woman who claimed babies were tossed from incubators. She was not accountable for lying to Congress (perjury) b/c she was under the umbrella of Bush's buddies.

http://www.prwatch.org/books/tsigfy10.html

Hill & Knowlton, then the world's largest PR firm, served as mastermind for the Kuwaiti campaign. Its activities alone would have constituted the largest foreign-funded campaign ever aimed at manipulating American public opinion. By law, the Foreign Agents Registration Act should have exposed this propaganda campaign to the American people, but the Justice Department chose not to enforce it. Nine days after Saddam's army marched into Kuwait, the Emir's government agreed to fund a contract under which Hill & Knowlton would represent "Citizens for a Free Kuwait," a classic PR front group designed to hide the real role of the Kuwaiti government and its collusion with the Bush administration. Over the next six months, the Kuwaiti government channeled $11.9 million dollars to Citizens for a Free Kuwait, whose only other funding totalled $17,861 from 78 individuals. Virtually all of CFK's budget - $10.8 million - went to Hill & Knowlton in the form of fees.

The man running Hill & Knowlton's Washington office was Craig Fuller, one of Bush's closest friends and inside political advisors. The news media never bothered to examine Fuller's role until after the war had ended, but if America's editors had read the PR trade press, they might have noticed this announcement, published in O'Dwyer's PR Services before the fighting began: "Craig L. Fuller, chief of staff to Bush when he was vice-president, has been on the Kuwaiti account at Hill & Knowlton since the first day. He and [Bob] Dilenschneider at one point made a trip to Saudi Arabia, observing the production of some 20 videotapes, among other chores. The Wirthlin Group, research arm of H&K, was the pollster for the Reagan Administration. . . . Wirthlin has reported receiving $1.1 million in fees for research assignments for the Kuwaitis. Robert K. Gray, Chairman of H&K/USA based in Washington, DC had leading roles in both Reagan campaigns. He has been involved in foreign nation accounts for many years. . . . Lauri J. Fitz-Pegado, account supervisor on the Kuwait account, is a former Foreign Service Officer at the US Information Agency who joined Gray when he set up his firm in 1982."

...The more television people watched, the fewer facts they knew; and the less people knew in terms of basic facts, the more likely they were to back the Bush administration." (same as it ever was in regard to right wing positions, btw.)

In fact, the most emotionally moving testimony on October 10 came from a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl, known only by her first name of Nayirah. According to the Caucus, Nayirah's full name was being kept confidential to prevent Iraqi reprisals against her family in occupied Kuwait. Sobbing, she described what she had seen with her own eyes in a hospital in Kuwait City. Her written testimony was passed out in a media kit prepared by Citizens for a Free Kuwait. "I volunteered at the al-Addan hospital," Nayirah said. "While I was there, I saw the Iraqi soldiers come into the hospital with guns, and go into the room where . . . babies were in incubators. They took the babies out of the incubators, took the incubators, and left the babies on the cold floor to die."83

Three months passed between Nayirah's testimony and the start of the war. During those months, the story of babies torn from their incubators was repeated over and over again. President Bush told the story. It was recited as fact in Congressional testimony, on TV and radio talk shows, and at the UN Security Council. "Of all the accusations made against the dictator," MacArthur observed, "none had more impact on American public opinion than the one about Iraqi soldiers removing 312 babies from their incubators and leaving them to die on the cold hospital floors of Kuwait City."

Nayrirah was actually a member of the Kuwaiti royal family who lied to Congress to gin up support for a war against a guy that Bush and Reagan had loved when they were selling arms for hostages to Iran, but still opposed.

Then there was the issue of selling nuclear weapons components to Pakistan.

That was the doing of George H.W. Bush, as well.

Read up on BCCI if you want to know the full extent of the damage George H.W. Bush did to this nation. What an entitled ass. So entitled he thinks his family should be able to buy the office of president at will. Look for Jebbie in the future.

[niyad]

1. some of us have never forgotten this information, but thank you for posting it for those who were

either too young, too unaware, or simply forgot.

I wish I believed in hell, because that is where he and his partners in crime--ALL of them--belong.

[RainDog]

2. I have a copy of the PR firm's book, The Rape of Kuwait.

I also have copies of the books by Time Mag reporters, CBS reporters, as well as Carter administration and Reagan administration bureaucrats who told the truth about BCCI, the October Surprise (Reagan selling weapons to Iran to secure his election, the pig ass mother fucking shithole) and the truth about the REPUBLICANS supplying nuclear weapons capacity to Pakistan.

Everyone still gets to see the picture of (private citizen in the revolving door of govt and private right-wing affiliated industry) Rumsfeld making deals for chemical weapons with Hussein.

But, yeah, the truth is that Republicans have been the party of scum bags since Reagan.

[RainDog]

4. Oh, and let us not forget Dresser Industries and Halliburton

If anyone wants to know why Cheney was vice president - there's your answer.

[RainDog]

6. or read about it here

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64535-2005Jan10.html

...let's talk about Halliburton's well-executed $5 billion escape from its asbestos problems, most of which Cheney created when he orchestrated Halliburton's purchase of Dresser Industries in 1998. Few people connect this problem with Cheney, but they should, given that he was in charge at the time and got a raise as a result of buying Dresser.

Had he still been Halliburton's chief executive, Wall Street might have forced him to take responsibility for the asbestos problem he imported to his company. But because he wasn't around -- and because his successor, Dave Lesar, was a stand-up guy -- Cheney has largely escaped scrutiny for this fiasco.

Now that Halliburton has managed to extract itself from its asbestos liability by paying a ton of cash and stock to trusts that will compensate victims and their lawyers, we can get a handle on how much Dresser's piece of the problem cost Halliburton. It turns out to be almost as much as Halliburton paid for the company.

While Halliburton's all-stock takeover of Dresser was valued at $7.7 billion when it was announced in February 1998, it was worth only $5.3 billion when it was completed seven months later. The bankruptcy settlement is costing Halliburton just about that much: around $2.8 billion in cash, Halliburton stock with a market value of $2.3 billion the day before Dresser's bankruptcy was resolved and miscellaneous odds and ends and potential payments.

The reporter in this piece focuses on Cheney's role supposedly "bungling" by buying Dresser.

Salin noted here -

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5143708

stories get into the news speculating about HOW the CEO and board of Halliburton could have so devalued the threat of asbestoes suits (which were starting to pick up speed - and suddenly there was pressure in congress to pass a law protecting industries from asbestoes liability law suits.)

Meanwhile - in a far different section of newspapers - and thus somehow never put together in the mainstream media, from time to time the interesting story of how Halliburton became a BIG business partner to Saddam Hussein in the late nineties - in the rebuilding of the Iraqi oil fields. Now the story first emerged in the 2000 elections to be emphatically denied by Cheney - there were sanctions against US businesses doing business in Iraq + says Cheney he would NEVER have approved doing business with such an evil leader. A wee bit later he is forced to admit that yes indeedy ole Halliburton had done business in Iraq - and was the largest supply of infrastructure building to the Iraqi oil fields. But, the few stories that actually appeared at the time, pointed out... that Halliburton didn't break any laws... see they got around the law by using (the newly acquired) (french division) of... wait for it... Dresser Industries.

[Doremus]

15. Jaysus on a shingle, it's a freaking miracle there's still a country here left for them to pillage.

We are talking soulless, unfeeling automatons whose only mission is to find money and devise ways to steal it. Woe be to those in their way.

So many of them, it's a blessed miracle the country is still standing.

One wonders how much longer it will take them to topple it.

[rgbecker]

3. Then there was the Arms for Hostages deal.

If we started a new thread for every weird Bush deal that harmed the US and its relationship with the rest of the world it might knock the Gun talk back to the Gungeon.

Get ready though for singing of high praises when that guy kicks the bucket.

[RainDog]

5. I thought about that

One thread for every foreign policy fuck you that Bush gave to the U.S.

He'll get no high praises from me.

[Egalitarian Thug]

7. One of the prime players in a massive criminal conspiracy that has gone on for decades,

protected by the fact that they are all very well connected and financed. The more you learn the more you realize just how far this goes. Just talking about the constituent components of this crime is guaranteed to end any hope for a career in DC.

Like the Business Plot in the 30s, this has been swept away and has/will disappear while the participants walked away with billions.

[RainDog]

11. It's an extension of the business man's plot of the 1930s

with many of the same families still benefiting from two-tiers of justice - one for the rich, one for everyone else.

The rich and the powerful in this nation do not deserve respect from anyone.

If they earn it, they'll get it.

Otherwise, they're all just participating in the same corrupt system.

[Egalitarian Thug]

13. Good point and true. Failure to enforce laws and deliver justice has brought us here. n/t

[RainDog]

16. The older I get, the less respect I have for institutions of power

Because I see their corruption, over and over, and see that no steps are taken to actually deal with the HUGE problems they have created and continue to create.

It's hard to tell your children to have respect for the law when, say, the Justice Dept. gives banks the equivalent of a parking ticket for laundering money for murderous drug cartels but puts people in jail for life when they're some guy in Oklahoma who was peddling pot to friends.

[Egalitarian Thug]

33. The realization that the world is now run by criminals that make the Cosa Nostra look

like choirboys is a tough one.

I believe that my decision to not have kids is the best one I made in my life as I'm still hopeful that the worst of it will happen after I'm already gone.

OTOH, the selection of bush 43 and the incredibly rapid deterioration of the American public's collective intellect has caused me to worry that I may be forced to witness more of it come to pass than I ever wanted to.

[donquijoterocket]

18. one of the

only two or three Marines I respect saved us from that businessman's plot. Smedley D. Butler who had more integrity and love for this country, despite his recognition of its flaws, than they had money.

[RainDog]

8. And Pakistan and nuclear components

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2870996&mesg_id=2870996

It's a long post with lots of links to useful information.

Also, Time magazine reporters noted that the head of Saudi intelligence said everyone in the region knew Bush was selling nuclear components to Pakistan... back in the day when people wondered why no one in Congress except for a few, like Kerry, wanted to investigate the ties of terrorism financing, nuclear weapons and other actions by Republicans.

[riderinthestorm]

9. Its dangerous historical revisionism and whitewashing to smooth Jeb Bush's presidential run

From the Carlyle Group (Bush and the Saudis) with their band of ultra rich internationalists manipulating and exploiting global events to gin up profits - to Iran Contra, its all getting swept under the rug by many people (including a fair few DUers) who refuse to tell true stories.

Its dangerous and wickedly smart as sweeping these things under the rug under the guise of "no grave dancing allowed!111!!!" ensures Jeb's return.

K and R for a great OP. You need to make an OP for each one of the Bush family crimes so they aren't forgotten when it comes time to sum up the man's life when he dies.

[donquijoterocket]

21. I'd add

With your permission, a recommendation that folks read Robert Baer's,Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude, and Robert Dreyfuss'

Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam

.If one or the other doesn't piss you off, the combination will or you've got little apprehension of where we're at and how we got that way.

[riderinthestorm]

23. A big, big thumbs up for both of those books! Add away. The more info the better imho. nt

[Mika]

10. Rummy too.

Selling WMD's and related components R US.

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&newwindow=1&safe=off&tbo=d&sclient=psy-ab&q=donald+rumsfeld+abb&oq=rumsfeld+abb&gs_l=hp.1.2.0i30l2j0i5i30.1390.9983.0.16130.12.9.0.3.3.0.754.2777.2j3j0j1j0j2j1.9.0.les%3B..0.0...1c.1.fgv3o85xG7s&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.1355534169,d.b2I&fp=1a015cb23eea1553&bpcl=40096503&biw=1170&bih=866

[adieu]

12. Wag The Dog

A lot of what you wrote reminds me of the PR campaign used in that movie starring DeNiro and Dustin Hoffman.

[RainDog]

14. George Junior told biographer Mickey Hershkowitz

...that any president who wants to stay in power just needs to start a war - and that's why his daddy lost a second term.

A lesson that Junior "learned" with the WMD lies before Congress by Powell for the second invasion of Iraq that was based upon political opportunism and collusion with other nations to the detriment of our own.

[Mira]

17. I'm glad you posted this now.

Bookmarked.
He is, BTW, in intensive care and quite ill.

[liberal_at_heart]

19. I don't have a problem with posts that criticize his policies

but I refuse to participate in the hate mongering and death watch going on.

[RomneyLies]

22. +1

[Doctor_J]

28. Yet you were nice enough to kick this thread

although in a sanctimonious way

[RainDog]

29. heh

I haven't been around DU much lately and have missed the hate fest.

I just think it's important for people to know what these people, who lived off the govt teat for their entire lives as "public servants" and as CEOs of govt. subsidized industries did while they were still kicking.

Are there any bigger welfare queens than the oil and defense industries?

[Doctor_J]

30. The Bush family is a perfect example

The whole family is a bunch of freeloaders. Neil got billions of taxpayer $ for his Silverado scam, and now is raking in billions more on a school privatization con. All the rest of them have been on the government dole since the 1930s.

[sellitman]

20. My Facebook is full of RW tributes to the prick already

I bet none of them would bat an eyelash to continue their false idol worship even having read these posts.

[Wilms]

24. ^

[wildbilln864]

25. thank you & k & r! nt

[MotherPetrie]

26. He's an evil man.

[Doctor_J]

27. It would be very difficult to find a member of the Bush Family

who has not committed treason, perjury, or some major felony. Hopefully when JEB runs for president in2016 the Dems drag ALL of this stuff into the light, proudly

[a11ig8r]

31. Poppy is a mean horrible human being.

[RainDog]

32. Here's a good reading list

If you want to know - these are available via ABE and your local used book seller.

Full Service Bank by James Adams, Douglas Frantz

The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI by Jonathan Beaty and S.C. Gwynne (both former Time magazine reporters)

Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Republican Party by Russ Bellant. This one is especially interesting when talking about Reagan reaching out to fascists in the U.S. from former Soviet Bloc nations and regions to help form his new Republican Party (as opposed to the Eisenhower era rational Republican that sent the Nat'l Guard to Arkansas to enforce desegregation.)

The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict by Linda J. Bilmes, Joseph E. Stiglitz - covers Junior, but the previous invasion was just the first round to ousting Saddam after he got too big for his puppet britches. That's the problem with overthrowing regimes in other nations and installing puppets... it always seems to come back to bite you one way or another.

Or, I dunno, maybe, flying by the seat of their pants, these self-styled Zeusistas just keep running damage control on situations they created in the first place.

Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press by Kristina Borjesson. This is a good one to explain how reporters find their stories cannot be told because it would make some powerful someones unhappy - and that's more important than truth in corporatocracy.

Cronies: Oil, The Bushes, And The Rise Of Texas, America's Superstate by Robert Bryce

Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press by Alexander Cockburn, Jeffrey St. Clair

Out of Control: The Story of the Reagan Administration's Secret War in Nicaragua, the Illegal Arms Pipeline, and the Contra Drug Connection by Leslie Cockburn

Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll. This one won the Pulitzer for nonfiction in 2005 and goes through 20 years of CIA (Bush was director before he was v.p. etc.) covert ops (that Reagan/Bush tried to finance privately via selling arms to Iran via profits from cocaine and, thus, also destabilize Central America.

S & L Hell: The People and the Politics Behind the $1 Trillion Savings and Loan Scandal by Kathleen Day

The Italian Letter: How the Bush Administration Used a Fake Letter to Build the Case for War in Iraq by Peter Eisner. People know about the WMD testimony - but a lot of people don't know about the false claims that someone (cough, neocons) ginned up to build a case for war during Junior's misbegotten 8 years of the worst fucking president of anyone's life now still breathing... thanks, Poppy Bush!

A Lexicon of Terror: Argentina and the Legacies of Torture (Oxford World's Classics) by Marguerite Feitlowitz. The Nixon/Reagan/Bush presidencies were notable for the willingness to crawl into bed with torturing fascists regimes in South and Central America. See? It wasn't that much of a leap to start torturing at Abu Ghraib b/c our intel agencies had been involved as functionaries while the fascists in Argentina, for instance, flew students over the ocean and pushed them out of planes.

And there was that other guy, Pinochet, Milton Friedman's economic wet dream, who massacred students wholesale in football stadiums. And both of these regimes kept pregnant women alive until they gave birth, then killed them and gave their babies to "good" families.

These may sound like the "baby out of the incubator" story because they're so horrific. However, these incidences have been documented repeatedly and Chileans, for instance, have an online db to chronicle the crimes carried out with America's blessing by fascists in the homes of our neighbors to the south.

Lost History by Robert Parry is also a really useful book to explain what the govt was doing on our name way back when. He's also online at Consortium News (he's a former Pulitzer-nominated reporter) and he has lots of article related to the topics in this book.

Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq by Alan Friedman. I was happily surprised to hear a female Democrat mention this book when discussing the invasion of Iraq, the sequel. Jane... D Ca...

American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush by Kevin Phillips. Phillips predicted the rise of Reagan-era conservatism long before he wrote this book.

The Politics of Rich and Poor: Wealth and the American Electorate in the Reagan Aftermath by Kevin P Phillips

Dirty Money: Bcci : The Inside Story of the World's Sleaziest Bank by Mark Potts

If you want to know about corruption in your nation, you need to look at the revolving door of govt and biz and how they do things even when the American public would not want them done.

[reeds2012]

34. George H W Bush - The Unauthorized Biography

http://tarpley.net/online-books/george-bush-the-unauthorized-biography/

There is no way Jeb is winning in 2016. That would make 3 Bushes in the past 30 years.

The banks are somewhat more subtle than that.