Wow. GHWB was in the CIA form the mid-50's on?

[elehhhhna]

Who knew?

Russ Baker's new book is scary and fascinating.

Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America (Hardcover)
by Russ Baker

After eight disastrous years, George W. Bush leaves office as one of the most unpopular presidents in American history. Russ Baker asks the question that lingers even as this benighted administration winds down: Who really wanted this man at the helm of the country, and why did his backers promote him despite his obvious liabilities and limitations? This book goes deep behind the scenes to deliver an arresting new look at George W. Bush, his father George H. W. Bush, their family, and the network of figures in intelligence, the military, finance, and oil who enabled the family’s rise to power. Baker’s exhaustive investigation reveals a remarkable clan whose hermetic secrecy and code of absolute loyalty have concealed a far-reaching role in recent history that transcends the Bush presidencies. Baker offers new insights into lingering mysteries—from the death of John F. Kennedy to Richard Nixon’s downfall in Watergate. Here, too, are insider accounts of the backroom strategizing, and outright deception, that resulted in George W. Bush’s electoral success. Throughout, Baker helps us understand why we have not known these things before. Family of Secrets combines compelling narrative with eye-opening revelations. It offers the untold history of the machinations that have shaped American politics over much of the last century.

http://www.amazon.com/Family-Secrets-Dynasty-Powerful-Influence/dp/1596915579/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230822955&sr=8-1

[Are_grits_groceries]

1. I just started reading this book.

I'll bet you can find their paws in more places and in more
eras than this author did.

[merh]

2. thanks for posting this

they are a creepy bunch, I want to order the book and your post reminded me (and provided the amazon link).

Happy New Year - thank god GWB will be gone, we have to keep Jeb out.

[babylonsister]

3. He was the Director of Central Intelligence...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H._W._Bush

Director of Central Intelligence

In 1976, Ford brought Bush back to Washington to become Director of Central Intelligence. He served in this role for 355 days, from January 30, 1976 to January 20, 1977.<20> The CIA had been rocked by a series of revelations, including those based on investigations by Senator Frank Church's Committee regarding illegal and unauthorized activities by the CIA, and Bush was credited with helping to restore the agency's morale.<21> In his capacity as DCI, Bush gave national security briefings to Jimmy Carter both as a Presidential candidate and as President-elect, and discussed the possibility of remaining in that position in a Carter administration<22> but it was not to be. Bush's time as CIA Director has gotten him much notoriety in the Ufology community. Many Ufologists believe that Bush is the President with the most knowledge of UFO because of his CIA career. It is rumored that at one time during the Ford Presidency, the President called then Director Bush about UFOs and Bush responded, "Mr. President that information is on a need to know basis and frankly you do not need to know. The President's curiosity does not suffice."

:wow:

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. If George Bush I knew of the existence of aliens back in 1977, think about

how inconsequential he thinks the rest of us are.

[dorkulon]

21. Citation needed

Seriously. "It is rumored?"

[geckosfeet]

4. Errr - a lot of people know.

But it sounds like the book delivers a lot of additional detail.

[SoCalDem]

27. the problem is that every year, more and more people

who "knew him when", are dying or becoming too feeble to have their recollections carry much weight.

This is the penalty we pay for secrecy.

When the real story come dribbling out over decades, too much gets lost in the process or too many different versions have slight contradictions..

We will NEVER know all the shit that Poppy was involved in, and all the lost/ruined lives along the way.

people love "stories",and booksellers depend on them, so we will always have the stories, but we will never get the truth..

Truth comes in contemporaneously conducted investigations, trials and testimony under oath..(and even then we don't always get it, but our chances are a lot better than books written 45 years later)

[juno jones]

5. K&R! n/t

[UTUSN]

6. BAKER pulls no punches. It's all familiar territory but with more dots connected

The incredible labyrinth of the B.F.E.E. connections is spelled out with a cast of hundreds and over generations.

But where Kitty KELLEY was browbeaten into pulling her punches, like in the story of Poppy's ditching the plane and getting his crew killed, BAKER puts it out there. KELLEY was blackballed from her years-long venues, like the Larry KING show, and was lambasted by Matt LAUER on the Today Show. She was on for two days, and the first day LAUER blasted her (for telling the truth). I actually called and talked to a producer and gave them Hades. The next day LAUER treated her better. She has been called "just gossip" but I'll repeat here that "gossip" does NOT equate with "UNtruth."

Please, may this book be a blockbuster!1 K&R #4: Somebody give the Big #5!1

[Frustratedlady]

13. I ordered a copy as well as the JFK book by James W. Douglass

I hope I won't be disappointed in either book.

[UTUSN]

25. I'm up to p. 113. You shouldn't be disappointed.

However, it IS packed with hundreds of names and the maze of relationships difficult to keep straight.

[Blue_In_AK]

29. Kelley's book was quite good,

and I was happy to see that she's quoted a few times in Baker's book.

[UTUSN]

31. Oh, it was great as far as it went, but nowhere as edgy as her Nancy RAYGUN and SINATRA books.

I defended her high and low right here at DU against people dismissing her as a "mere gossip." As I say, I believe the B.F.E.E. through her publisher and the media browbeat her out of going full throttle. Larry KING was happy to have her on his show scores of times so long as she was talking about the Royals, but did NOT let her on to talk about the BUSHes.

[malaise]

7. Wasn't he also chairman of the RNC at some point

I ordered this book. It should arrive soon.

sp.

[chimpymustgo]

11. Was Poppy Deep Throat? A C-SPAN caller this morning suggested that. His point: the Bushes are so

secretive, yet Bob Woodward has been "roaming the halls of the White House" writing books on W. The caller said he'd done a lot of research of Watergate, and noted that Bush was RNC Chair at the time. My, my, the man does seem have his filthy, criminal fingers all over everything.

I will buy the book!

[tblue37]

26. No, that would be the recently deceased Mark Felt.

(He just died December 18, 2008.)

[chimpymustgo]

33. Of course, I know about Mark Felt. But there remain many questions about his actual role in

Watergate - and whether Felt was the only source or even the main source. Don't forget - whenever the Bushes - and Bob Woodward - are involved, things are NOT as they may appear.

[Alexander]

23. Yes. The US Senate almost didn't confirm him as CIA Director because of that.

They viewed his appointment as "too partisan" and extracted a pledge from him not to run for president in 1976.

[fascisthunter]

8. Yup... that Secretive Fascist Has Been Looking for Power for a Very Long Time

[dysfunctional press]

10. bay of pigs, operation northwoods, kennedy assasination...

we all would have been MUCH better off if that p.o.s. had met the same fate as his ww2 planemates.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

12. That whole family needs to be dragged out to the streets

and publicly executed.

[Alexander]

17. Bush Sr. said the American people would do it if only they knew everything his family had done.

“Sarah, if the American people had ever known the truth about what we Bushes have done to this nation, we would be chased down in the streets and lynched.” - George H. W. Bush to reporter Sarah McClendon, December 1992

[SammyWinstonJack]

18. And that is why we will never fully know what they've done too us.

x(

[Alexander]

22. I think we will, long after they are out of power.

Already the truth is leaking out bit by bit.

50 years from now, I suspect we'll know a lot more, like we're learning about Nixon long after the fact.

[kath]

14. GHWB is perhaps the only person alive who was over the age of 5 on Nov 22 1963 who "CAN'T REMEMBER"

WHAT HE WAS DOING OR WHERE HE WAS THAT DAY.

Veddy inteddesting....

[Alexander]

24. Nixon too. I found that double coincidence most interesting.

I wish more people would entertain the notion that coincidences like that simply don't happen.

[Captain Hilts]

15. GHWB and GWB don't get along and GWB had advisers GHWB HATED. nt

[Alexander]

16. He started Zapata Oil with another CIA agent, Thomas J. Devine.

Of course, the elder Bush lied about his CIA involvement, claiming his nomination for director in 1976 was a "real shocker".

Yet George W. would brag to all his friends that his daddy had CIA connections, so it seems H. W.'s secret was blown by his arrogant son not being able to keep his mouth shut.

[quaker bill]

19. I did

Which is why I have been protesting these guys since Nixon.

[THUNDER HANDS]

20. I'll never forget an email I got in 1998

I was writing for a pretty popular pro wrestling website and the theory was floated about Hulk Hogan possibly running for president, so I wrote a little thing about it on the website.

A few days later I got a random E-mail from someone telling me, with no doubt in his or her mind, that George W. Bush was going to be the next president of the United States. This was before Bush even announced he was running, because I had never heard of the guy before.

[Blue_In_AK]

28. I just started reading this book, too.

What a tangled web.

[ileus]

30. I thought we all knew he had JFK killed.

[Waiting For Everyman]

32. This is not a secret or news. It was known before he became VP.

Most who were paying attention to it knew after Watergate, and his era as head of the CIA.

This is why it's good to have old people around. And maybe listen to them once in a while.

[DevonRex]

34. Thanks for the tip. I was trying to explain some of GHWB's history

to my husband last night. Especially when it got to the CIA and JFK and the mafia and drug dealing and how there's an interconnection. Which is not to say that the connections themselves are proof of anything, but that they do make you go hmmmm.

[TWiley]

35. He was CIA director during the "Iranian hostage mess"

A young senator Kerry lead an investagaton titled "the October Suprise" which questioned the whole Iran - Contra thing. I watched those proceedings on C-Span and ex-hostages were interviewed and some said their captors knew of the failed rescue attempt before it happened.

The implicaton was that Bush was director of the CIA, and also Regans VP candidate. The whole affair sounded like treason. Two people conspiring against our sitting president Carter for political purposes.

They were held for about 444 days, and released when Regan took office. Oddly, they were rewarded with sophisticated military weapons as evidenced in the sub-titled Arms for Hostages scandle.

[UTUSN]

36. KICK for, please Russ BAKER whoever you are, write one about JEB!1 (Before it's too late) n/t