Bad Apples falling not far from the Bushes

Saddam, Prisoner #38699-079 and George Bush

Sunday, 11 March 2007 Written by Garrett Johnson

The Federal Bureau of Prisons website currently gives Inmate #38699-079 a projected release date of September 9, 2007.
Why should that matter to you? Because Inmate #38699-079 is no average prisoner. This inmate was trained by the CIA, took part in a coup d'etat, orchestrated the "disappearances" of political opponents, became rich on the CIA payroll while George Bush The Elder ran it, took part in the assassination of the president of his country, became the de facto ruler of his nation, and eventually his nation was invaded by American troops in which thousands were killed just so he could be overthrown.

Does this story sound familiar? It should, because the story can be told about two different men.

Inmate #38699-079 is Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno, and his current residence is Miami, Florida.

The other man I speak of, who's story is so similar is Saddam Hussein, who currently resides somewhere in Hell.
These two men have someone in common: George H. W. Bush. To tell this story properly we need to start in 1959.

1959: Fighting the Cold War

In 1959 Elvis Presley was serving in the Army in Germany. Buddy Holly, J.P. Richardson, and Richie Valens had died in a Iowa cornfield.
And in Iraq, Saddam Hussein was part of a six-man assassination team that the CIA had organized to kill a popular new national leader named Abdul Karim Qassim. On April 10, 2003 investigative report by UPI Intelligence Correspondent Richard Sale wrote:

...In the past Saddam was seen by U.S. intelligence services as a bulwark of anti-communism and they used him as their instrument for more than 40 years. His first contacts with U.S. officials date back to 1959, when he was part of a CIA-authorized six-man squad tasked with assassinating then Iraqi Prime Minister Gen. Abdul Karim Qasim...In the mid-1980s, Miles Copeland, a veteran CIA operative, told UPI the CIA had enjoyed "close ties" with...Ba'th Party...In a recent public statement, Roger Morris, a former National Security Council staffer in the 1970s, confirmed this claim, saying that the CIA had chosen the authoritarian and anti-communist Baath Party `as its instrument.'
"According to another former senior State Department official, Saddam, while only in his early 20s, became a part of a U.S. plot to get rid of Qasim. According to this source, Saddam was installed in an apartment in Baghdad on al-Rashid Street directly opposite Qasim's office in Iraq's Ministry of Defense, to observe Qasim's movements.
"Adel Darwish, Middle East expert and author of "Unholy Babylon", said the move was done "with full knowledge of the CIA," and that Saddam's CIA handler was an Iraqi dentist working for CIA and Egyptian intelligence. U.S. officials separately confirmed Darwish's account.
"Darwish said that Saddam's paymaster was Capt. Abdel Maquid Farid, the assistant military attaché at the Egyptian Embassy who paid for the apartment from his own personal account. Three former senior U.S. officials have confirmed that this is accurate.
"The assassination was set for Oct. 7, 1959, but it was...botched...Qasim, hiding on the floor of his car, escaped death, and Saddam, whose calf had been grazed by a fellow would-be assassin, escaped to Tikrit, thanks to CIA and Egyptian intelligence agents, several U.S. government officials said.
"Saddam then crossed into Syria and was transferred by Egyptian intelligence agents to Beirut, according to Darwish and former senior CIA officials. While Saddam was in Beirut, the CIA paid for Saddam's apartment and put him through a brief training course, former CIA officials said. The agency then helped him get to Cairo, they said...
"...During this time Saddam was making frequent visits to the American Embassy where CIA specialists such as Miles Copeland and CIA station chief Jim Eichelberger were in residence and knew Saddam, former U.S. intelligence officials said.

Miles Copeland was an interesting character of his own. He was a professional jazz musician and was one of the original members of the OSS (which later became the CIA). He was part of Operation Ajax, the CIA coup that overthew the democratic Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammed Mossadegh, in 1953.
After retirement from the CIA, he wrote an article in 1988 called "Old spooks for Bush" which asserted that the intelligence community overwhelmingly supported George H. W. Bush for President.

Meanwhile in Panama, Manuel Noriega was a student in school. Noriega would later graduate from Fort Gulick in the Panama Canal Zone (renamed in 1963 to the School of the Americas), but in 1959 he was a student at the Peruvian Military School of Chorrillos. While there Noriega was more than willing to spy for the CIA "informing on colleagues in his socialist party, and on leftist students". [New York Times, 9/28/88]

George Bush was one of the founders of Zapata Oil that was created in 1953. His partner was a man named Thomas J. Devine, a CIA staffer and covert officer. Prescott Bush was a close personal friend of Allen Dulles, the CIA Director in the 1950's and early 1960's.

Bush on a oil rig

1968: Coup D'Etat

In 1968 there were riots in Chicago. MLK and Robert Kennedy were assassinated.
And in both Iraq and Panama our boys were involved in their own coup d'etat. It was a great year for future dictators.

On July 30, 1968, acting president Colonel 'Abd ar-Razzaq an-Nayif was invited to lunch at the presidential palace. After the meal, Saddam Hussein entered with a group of armed officers and told an-Nayif he was under arrest. An agreement was reached in which an-Nayif's life was spared in exchange for him leaving the country. This coup had been encouraged by the CIA.
Saddam Hussein didn't become dictator right then. Instead he was the right-hand man for Colonel Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr. But al-Bakr was getting old and sick. Hussein would slowly gain more and more power in Iraq. I have no evidence that Saddam was actually on the CIA payroll during this period of his life, but there was evidence of CIA connections.

Saddam sharing a laugh with Bakr

Meanwhile in Panama, Noriega was moving up the ladder. After graduating from the School of the Americas, he became a member of the National Guard and was promoted to lieutenant in 1968.

In October of 1968 Arnulfo Arias Madrid won the presidential election of Panama. This was the third time he served as president of Panama, yet he had never managed to serve a single full term.
In 1931 Arias led a coup that deposed President Florencio Harmodio Arosemena. In 1940 he was elected president, but was so sympathetic to Hitler's Germany that America sponsored a coup against him in October 1941. In 1949 he ran for president and lost, but was awarded the presidency the following year. He immediately set up a secret police force and suspended the constitution. Arias was overthrown in another coup in 1951.
Now he was president again, and immediately set out to restructure the command of the National Guard. After just 11 days Arias was ousted in a coup by the National Guard that forced him to flee to Miami, Florida.
Noreiga wasn't a major player in this coup, but he was involved in the power struggle the following year. Noreiga backed eventually winner Omar Torrijos and Noreiga received a promotion to lieutenant colonel and was appointed chief of military intelligence by Torrijos. It was a critical position to have at the time because Panama had a guerrilla problem at the time. These guerrillas guerrillas backed deposed-Arnulfo Arias. Noreiga was ruthless and the guerrillas were crushed. Meanwhile, Hussein had to deal with a long, crushing rebellion by the Kurds that finally ended in 1970.
Being in the position of chief of military intelligence, Noreiga came into more direct contact with the CIA. This is when he went on the CIA payroll, reportedly receiving more than $110,000 per year [Newsweek, 1/15/90]. Former CIA Director Admiral Stansfield Turner said Noriega became a CIA "asset" in the early 1970s.

Meanwhile, George H.W. Bush ran unopposed in the general election for House seat of the 7th District of Texas in 1968. But in 1970 he ran for Senate and lost. After a stint as United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Bush became Chairman of the Republican National Committee during the Watergate Scandal.

1976: Making friends

In 1976 the band Boston released their debut album. Jimmy Carter won the presidential election.

In Washington, George H.W. Bush became Director of Central Intelligence. He was only Director for a single year, but it was a rough year. The Church Committee had just released a 14-part report detailing countless acts of immoral, illegal, and disgusting actions by the CIA all over the world. Bush's job was to guide the CIA through these rough waters without any serious reform.
It was a tough job, but being Director of the CIA also had its rewards. For instance, meeting interesting new people - like Manuel Noriega, for instance.

"We all know that Bush met with Noriega, even though he was there only 11 months. And I will affirm that Bush had him on the payroll."
- Admiral Stansfield Turner

Bush met Noreiga over lunch in December 8, 1976, at the residence of the Panamanian Ambassador to Washington.

"During this meeting there were discussions concerning the unrest in the canal zone. But at no time did Mr. Bush suggest that the Panamanian government was in any way responsible for the bombing" that had occured in the Canal Zone when Ford, worried about attacks from Reagan demanding that the canal remain in US hands, had cut off the talks on the future of the canal. Noriega's proffer adds that "when Bush left office he sent a letter to Noriega thanking Noriega for his assistance. Bush said that he was going to inform his successor of Noriega's cooperation."
- from Noriega's defense documents at his 1991 trial

It was revealed that year that Noriega was also working for the Cubans, but somehow remained in the CIA payroll anyway. They would meet again in 1983, and there are rumours of a third meeting.
Also that year, the Carter Administration and Gen. Omar Torrijos were involved in negotiations over handing the Panama Canal Zone back to Panama.

During the treaty negotiations between Torrijos and the Carter Administration, the US National Security Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency are alleged to have conducted eletronic eavesdropping against Panamanian officials involved in the negotiations. This bugging had reportedly been discovered by Noriega, who had allegedly proceeded to bribe members of the US Army's 470th Military Intelligence Group, who furnished him with tapes of all the bugged conversations, which Noriega then submitted to Torrijos. According to published accounts, the US Army had investigated this situation under a probe code-named Operation Canton Song, and identified a group of "singing sergeants" on Noriega's payroll. Lew Allen, Jr., the head of the NSA, supposedly wanted a public indictment of the sergeants for treason and espionage, but Bush is alleged to have demurred, saying that the matter had to be left to the Army, which had decided to cover up the matter.

Bush left the CIA with the Republican Presidency. 1977 was also the year that President Carter had Noriega removed from the CIA payroll [New York Times, 10/2/88].

In Iraq, Saddam Hussein became an official general in the Iraqi Army in 1976 as elderly al-Bakr became increasingly unable to fulfill his duties as president.

1983: Everything coming up roses

In 1983 America defeated the awesome communist threat of Grenada, the Police had a hit with "Every Breath You Take", and Return of the Jedi was the top grossing film.

Meanwhile all three of our boys were living it up. Bush was vice-president of America, and one of the first things he did was to put Noreiga back on the CIA payroll.
Noreiga had a string of good luck as well. It seems his boss, Omar Torrijos, died in a plane crash. How did it happen? Noreiga's defense attorney, Frank Rubino, was quoted as saying "General Noriega has in his possession documents showing attempts to assassinate General Noriega and Mr. Torrijos by agencies of the United States.". These documents were never allowed as evidence in trial, because the presiding judge agreed with the U.S. government's claim that their public mention would violate the Classified Information Procedures Act. In Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, writer John Perkins claims that an American-provided bomb was the cause of the airplane crash.
OTOH, Colonel Roberto Díaz Herrera, a former associate of Noriega, claims that Noriega planted the bomb.
There were two curious coincidences involving Torrijos' death.
a) his death came only six months after Bush because vice-president
b) his death came only three months after Ecuadorian President and reformer Jaime Roldós Aguilera died in almost exactly the same circumstances

No matter who killed Torrijos, Noriega and the CIA benefited. Torrijos instituted land reform and was actually regarded by the poor of Panama as a friend. To the CIA that meant he was a communist and needed to be killed.
Noriega began consolidating his control over Panama, leaving only Rubén Darío Paredes as a political rival. By August of 1983, even that wasn't an issue, when Noriega promoted himself to general and became the de facto ruler of Panama.
Noriega was a valuable allie of the American intelligence community, as he allowed the free flow of money and weapons to the Contras through his country. But he also committed one sin - he refused Oliver North's demands to provide military assistance to the Contras. Noriega believes that this more than anything else led to his falling out with Bush.
But that was later. In 1983 Noriega was meeting his old buddy George Bush. Noriega visited the White House, State Department, Pentagon, and even CIA Director William Casey [Newsweek, 1/15/90]. What was discussed? We'll never know.

Judge William Hoeveler blocked testimony about arms shipments to the contras. Also, he rejected as irrelevant use of classified records from the 1983 meeting between Noriega and Vice President George Bush. "There's more than meets the eye in the Noriega case," says Dick & Gregorie, one of the former assistant U.S. Attorneys who developed the case against Noriega. "But nobody wanted to push certain buttons."
- from Time article concerning Noriega trial

Noriega retained CIA support and money through most of the 1980's (just like the 1970's), but relations slowly got more chilly.

On the other side of the world the story was much the same. Saddam consolidated his control over Iraq on July 22, 1979, when he gave a very Stalinistic speech in front of the Iraqi Assembly. He read off 68 names of deputies who were "guilty of being disloyal" and they were led out of the room under arrest. 22 were later executed.
Saddam wasted little time starting a disastrous war with Iran. Quick early victories turned into horrific defeats, and then into bloody, grinding, trench warfare. However for the Reagan/Bush Administration, this wasn't a bad thing. They didn't exactly trust Saddam, but they hated Iran, so it was only natural to support Saddam.

"It is becoming increasingly clear that George Bush Sr., operating largely behind the scenes throughout the 1980's, initiated and supported much of the financing, intelligence, and military help that built Saddam's Iraq into [an aggressive power]" And "Reagan/Bush administrations permitted -- and frequently encouraged -- the flow of money, agricultural credits, dual-use technology, chemicals, and weapons to Iraq."
- Ted Koppel on Nightline, June 9, 1992

I don't have any record of an official meeting between Saddam and Bush, but there is the famous picture of Rumsfeld and Saddam on December 20, 1983.

Don't they look like Best Buds? This was less than a month after Noriega and his good buddy Bush had their meeting.
Like Noriega, Bush made certain that the military and financial aid kept flowing to Saddam through most of the 1980's. But as the decade ended things went sour between Bush and his good friends.

1989: A falling out

In 1989 the Berlin Wall came down, the Exxon Valdez has a little accident near the Alaskan coast, and one of Our Boys makes it big, George H. W. Bush becomes President of the United States.


However, by this time Bush's friendship with Noriega had hit a rough times. In 1988 the DEA indicted Noriega on drug trafficking charges. The Bush Administration was looking to undermine his old friend's dictatorship at every turn with the CIA giving $10 million to political opponents.

A further ingredient in the dangerous dissatisfaction in Wall Street and environs was that Bush had botched and bungled a US-sponsored coup d'etat against the Panamanian government loyal to Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega. ...On October 3, 1989, several officers of the Panamanian Defense Forces under the leadership of Major Moises Giroldi attempted to oust General Noriega and seize power. The pro-golpe forces appear to have had Noriega in their physical control for a certain period of time, and they were in contact with the US Southern Command in Panama City through various channels. But they neither executed Noriega nor turned him over to the US forces, and Noriega used the delay to rally the support of loyal troops in other parts of Panama. The US forces mobilized, and blocked two roads leading towards the PDF headquarters, just as they golpe leaders had requested. But the golpistas also wanted US combat air support and would have required US ground forces to provide active assistance. Bush stalled on these requests, and the golpe collapsed before Bush could make up his mind what to do.

It's time to pull out the military. Operation Just Cause on December 20, 1989, was initiated to "defend democracy". Of course the fact that we put the dictatorship in place in the first place was never questioned by the MSM. How many people died to capture Noriega? Some say hundreds. Some say thousands. The fact that after all these years and no one knows suggests that few really want to know.
The US confiscates thousands of boxes of Noriega government documents and refuses to hand over any of them to Panamanian investigators. "The United States is protecting robbers and thieves and obstructing justice. We are the owners of the documents. If I am to complete my work, I have to see the documents," Panama's chief prosecutor. [Los Angeles Times, 6/23/90]

During the preparation of his 1991 trial in Miamai, Florida, Noriega's defense attorneys submitted a document to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida in which they specified matters they intended to use in Noriega's defense which might involve information considered claissified by the US government. Before being released to the public, this document was heavily censored. No part of this filing is more heavily censored, however, than the section entitled "General Noriega's Relationship with George Bush," which has been whited out on approximately 6 of 15 pages, allegedly to protect US national security.

I won't bog down this diary with details of the trial (I'll leave that to others), but I will ask the question "if Tony Blair was guilty of trafficking drugs, would we invade England?"

Meanwhile, in Iraq things were just about to go from bad to worse. No one knows exactly when the Bush Administration decided they wanted to attack Iraq, but it wasn't in the fall of 1990.

Sometime in late 1989 or early 1990, the Pentagon's war plan for destroying Iraq and stealing Persian Gulf oil fields was put into motion. At that time, Defendant Schwarzkopf was named the Commander of the so-called U.S. Central Command - which was the renamed version of the Rapid Deployment Force - for the purpose of carrying out the war plan that he had personally developed and supervised. During January of 1990, massive quantities of United States weapons, equipment, and supplies were sent to Saudi Arabia in order to prepare for the war against Iraq.

I have a friend who left the Marines in 1989. He told me that his squad was working on the Kuwait border preparing for war even then. Of course that is all hearsay and no one is going to believe that George Bush would intentionally plot a war against a nation who wasn't a threat to us, right? Especially against a good buddy he had supplied with weapons and financial aid for a decade.

What do you think?

Original article posted here.