George H.W. Bush
From The Kennedy Assassination Resource
George Herbert Walker Bush
The 41st President of the United States of America (1989–1993). The son of Prescott Sheldon Bush and Dorothy Walker Bush. He was born in Milton, Massachusetts, and raised in Greenwich, Connecticut. Prior to his presidency, Bush had been the 43rd Vice President of the United States under President Ronald Reagan. He was also a U.S. Congressman from Texas (1967–1971), United States Ambassador to the United Nations (1971–1973), Republican National Committee Chairman (1973–1974), Chief of the U.S. Liaison Office in the People's Republic of China (1974–1976), and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (1976–1977).
Bush is the father of the 43rd and current President, George Walker Bush, and the current Governor of Florida, John Ellis Bush.
In 1953, Bush created Zapata Petroleum Corporation, an oil exploration company, along with his business partners John Overbey, and brothers Hugh and Bill Liedtke. Zapata was also the operational name of the Bay of Pigs invasion.
Through his work with Zapata Off-Shore, Bush is alleged to have come into contact with Felix Rodriguez, Barry Seal, Porter Goss and E Howard Hunt around the time of the Bay of Pigs operation. John Loftus writes: "Zapata [Off-Shore] provided commercial supplies for one of Allen Dulles’ most notorious operations: the Bay of Pigs invasion."
CIA liaison officer Col. L. (Leroy) Fletcher Prouty alleges in his book, The Secret Team, that Zapata Off-Shore provided or was used as cover for two of the ships used in the Bay of Pigs invasion: the Barbara J and Houston. Prouty claims he delivered two ships to an inactive Naval Base near Elizabeth City, North Carolina, for a CIA contact named George Bush, who re-named the boats. As a World War II Navy pilot, Bush had named his first Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo-bomber plane the Barbara after his wife, a second plane the Barbara II, and a third plane the Barbara III.
The Bay of Pigs operation was directed out of the "Miami Station" (aka JM/WAVE), which was the CIA's largest station worldwide. It housed 200 agents who handled approximately 2,000 Cubans. Robert Reynolds was the CIA's Miami station chief from September 1960 to October 1961. He was replaced by career-CIA officer Theodore Shackley, who oversaw Operation Mongoose. When Bush became CIA Director in 1976 he appointed Ted Shackley as Deputy Director of Covert Operations.
CIA operative Felix Rodriguez had extensive contact with George Bush during the Iran-Contra affair. In September 1986 General John K. Singlaub wrote Oliver North expressing concern about Felix Rodriguez's daily contact with the Bush office and warned of damage to President Reagan and the Republican Party. Their degree of interaction and Bush's familiarity with Rodriguez suggests a long term history.
Michael Mahony alleges that Zapata Off-Shore was used as part of a CIA drug-smuggling ring to pay for arming Nicaraguan Contras in 1986-1988, including Rodriguez, Eugene Hasenfus and others. Mahony claims Zapata's oil rigs were used as staging bases for drug shipments, allegedly named "Operation Whale Watch." Mahony allegedly worked for Naval Intelligence, US State Department and CIA for two decades.
Many details of the Bay of Pigs emerged during the Church and Pike Committee hearings. William Colby, CIA Director since 1973, believed in making public previous misdeeds. President Ford, on Henry Kissinger's advice, replaced Colby in late 1975 with George H. W. Bush.
Officially, with no prior experience in the intelligence community, although then serving as US Ambassador to China, Bush was appointed Director of the CIA by Ford and served 355 days, from January 30 1976-January 20, 1977. Twenty-one years later, after Bush's 8 years as Vice President and 4 years as President, the CIA Headquarters was re-named the "George Bush Center for Intelligence" in October 1998.
Some direct evidence supporting the connection between Zapata Co and the CIA may come from two FBI memos regarding George Bush, in November 1963. The first memo names Zapata Off-Shore and was written by FBI Special Agent Graham Kitchel on 22 November 1963, regarding the assassination of JFK that day. It begins: "At 1:45 p.m. Mr. GEORGE H. W. BUSH, President of the Zapata Off-Shore Drilling Company, Houston, Texas, residence 5525 Briar, Houston, telephonically furnished the following information to writer... BUSH stated that he wanted to be kept confidential... was proceeding to Dallas, Texas, would remain in the Sheraton-Dallas Hotel." This would say that Bush called the FBI just 75 minutes after JFK's assassination.
A second FBI memo, written by J. Edgar Hoover himself, identifies "George Bush" with the CIA. It is dated 29 November 1963 and refers to a briefing given Bush on 23 November. The FBI Director describes a briefing about JFK's murder "orally furnished to Mr. George Bush of the Central Intelligence Agency... [by] this Bureau" on "November 23, 1963." So "George Bush of the CIA" was briefed by the FBI the day after "George H. W. Bush, President of the Zapata Off-Shore Drilling Company" called the FBI. This "George Bush of the CIA" was important enough, and enough involved with sentiments of the anti-Castro Cubans, that the FBI had him briefed that there were "no plans for unauthorized action against Cuba." It is not clear whether the briefing took place in Dallas or Washington, DC. Furthermore, Hoover felt this briefing was important enough to reassure the State Department's Intelligence unit of it, in writing.
When this second memo surfaced during the 1988 presidential campaign, Bush spokespersons said Hoover's memo referred to another George Bush who worked for the CIA. CIA spokeswoman Sharron Basso suggested it was referring to a George William Bush. However, others described this G. William Bush as a "lowly researcher" and "coast and beach analyst" who worked only with documents and photos at the CIA in Virginia from September 1963 to February 1964, with a low rank of GS-5. G. William Bush swore an affadavit in federal court denying that Hoover's memo referred to him.
This raises questions as to why the CIA took the unusual step of mis-identifying a former officer. In his book The Immaculate Deception: The Bush Crime Family Exposed, US Army Brigadier General Russell Bowen wrote there was a cover-up of Zapata's CIA connections.
