How W got in the "champagne" unit
Domenico Rosa
DR
==================================================
From: AbelM...@webtv.net (AbelM...@webtv.net)
Subject: Re: Ben Barnes Admits Shielding Shrub From the Vietnam War.
Newsgroups: talk.politics.usa, alt.military, alt.politics,
alt.politics.bush, talk.politics.misc
Date: 2004-08-31 02:35:02 PST
From:
http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=17565
Still unreported: The pay-off in the Air Guard fix
By Greg Palast - GregPalast.com
08.30.04 -
In 1968, former Congressman George Herbert Walker Bush of Texas, fresh
from voting to send other men's sons to Vietnam, enlisted his own son
in a very special affirmative action program, the "champagne" unit of
the Texas Air National Guard. There, Top Gun fighter pilot George
Dubya was assigned the dangerous job of protecting Houston from
Vietcong air attack.
This week, former Lt. Governor Ben Barnes of Texas 'fessed up to
pulling the strings to keep Little George out of the jungle. "I got a
young man named George W. Bush into the Texas Air Guard -- and I'm
ashamed."
THE PAY-OFF
That's far from the end of the story. In 1994, George W. Bush was
elected governor of Texas by a whisker. By that time, Barnes had left
office to become a big time corporate lobbyist. To an influence
peddler like Barnes, having damning information on a sitting governor
is worth its weight in gold -- or, more precisely, there's a value in
keeping the info secret.
Barnes appears to have made lucrative use of his knowledge of our
President's slithering out of the draft as a lever to protect a
multi-billion dollar contract for a client. That's the information in
a confidential letter buried deep in the files of the US Justice
Department that fell into my hands at BBC television.
Here's what happened. Just after Bush's election, Barnes' client GTech
Corp., due to allegations of corruption, was about to lose its license
to print money: its contract to run the Texas state lottery. Barnes,
says the Justice Department document, made a call to the newly elected
governor's office and saved GTech's state contract.
The letter said, "Governor Bush ... made a deal with Ben Barnes not to
rebid [the GTech lottery contract] because Barnes could confirm that
Bush had lied during the '94 campaign."
In that close race, Bush denied the fix was in to keep him out of
'Nam, and the US media stopped asking questions. What did the
victorious Governor Bush's office do for Barnes? According to the
tipster, "Barnes agreed never to confirm the story [of the draft
dodging] and the governor talked to the chair of the lottery two days
later and she then agreed to support letting GTech keep the contract
without a bid."
And so it came to pass that the governor's commission reversed itself
and gave GTech the billion dollar deal without a bid. The happy
client paid Barnes, the keeper of Governor Bush's secret, a fee of
over $23 million. Barnes, not surprisingly, denies that Bush took
care of his client in return for Barnes' silence. However, confronted
with the evidence, the former Lt. Governor now admits to helping the
young George stay out of Vietnam.
Take a look at the letter yourself -- with information we confirmed
with other sources -- here:
http://www.gregpalast.com/ulf/documents/draftdodgeblanked.jpg
Frankly, I don't care if President Bush cowered and ran from Vietnam.
I sure as hell didn't volunteer... but then, my daddy didn't send
someone else in my place. And I don't march around aircraft carriers,
talking about war and sacrifice, with parachute clips around my
gonads.
More important, I haven't made any pay-offs to silence those who could
change my image from war hero to war zero.
"TIME WARNER WON'T LET US AIR THIS"
By the way: I first reported this story in 1999, including the
evidence of payback, in The Observer of London. US media closed their
eyes. Then I put the story on British television last year in the
one-hour report, "Bush Family Fortunes." American networks turned
down BBC's offer to run it in the USA. "Wonderful film," one
executive told me, "but Time Warner is not going to let us put this on
the air." However, US networks will take cash for advertisements
calling Kerry a Vietnam coward.
The good news is, until Patriot Act 3 kicks in, they can't stop us
selling the film to you directly. The updated version of "Bush Family
Fortunes," with the full story you still can't see on your boob tube,
will be released next month on DVD. See a preview here:
http://www.gregpalast.com/bff-dvd.htm
For more on our president's war years and the $23 million payment,
read this excerpt from the New York Times bestseller, The Best
Democracy Money Can Buy:
http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=233&row=1
Don Phillipson
"Domenico Rosa" <DR...@teikyopost.edu> wrote in message
news:915472c2.0409...@posting.google.com...
> I am surprised that the following has not been posted to these NGs.
There is a reason: not much historical interest here.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)