Looking behind the Bushes.

 
 Great moments in a great American family
 1918 - 1994
 
 1918
 
 Prescott Bush Sr., leads a raid on a Indian tomb to
 secure Geronimo's skull for Skull & Bones.
 
 1937
 
 Prescott Bush's investment firm sets up deal for the
 Luftwaffe so it can obtain tetraethyl lead.
 
 1942
 
 Three firms with which Prescott Bush is associated are
 seized under the Trading with the Enemy Act.
 
 SARASOTA HERALD-TRIBUNE: The president of the Florida
 Holocaust Museum said Saturday that George W. Bush's
 grandfather derived a portion of his personal fortune
 through his affiliation with a Nazi-controlled bank.
 John Loftus, a former prosecutor in the Justice
 Department's Nazi War Crimes Unit, said his research
 found that Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a
 principal in the Union Banking Corp. in Manhattan in
 the late 1930s and the 1940s. Leading Nazi
 industrialists secretly owned the bank at that time,
 Loftus said, and were moving money into it through a
 second bank in Holland even after the United States
 declared war on Germany. The bank was liquidated in
 1951, Loftus said, and Bush's grandfather and
 great-grandfather received $1.5 million from the bank
 as part of that dissolution . . . Loftus pointed out
 that the Bush family would not be the only American
 political dynasty to have ties to the "wrong side of
 World War II." The Rockefellers had financial
 connections to Nazi Germany, he said. Loftus also
 reminded his audience that John F. Kennedy's father,
 an avowed isolationist and former ambassador to Great
 Britain, profited during the 1930s and '40s from Nazi
 stocks that he owned. "No one today blames the
 Democrats because Jack Kennedy's father bought Nazi
 stocks," Loftus said. Still, he said, it is important
 to understand these historical connections for what
 they tell us about politics today. The World War II
 experience points out how easy it was then -- and
 remains today -- to hide money in multinational funds.
 
 SARASOTA HERALD TRIBUNE
 
 1953
 
 George Bush and the Liedtke brothers form Zapata
 Petroleum. Zapata's subsidiary, Zapata Offshore, later
 becomes known for its close ties to the CIA.
 
 1954
 
 The Bush family buys out the Liedtke brothers.
 
 1955
 
 George Bush sets up a Mexican drilling operation,
 Permago, with a frontman to obscure his ownership. The
 frontman later is convicted of defrauding the Mexican
 government of $58 million.
 
 1959
 
 Manuel Noriega recruited as an agent by the US Defense
 Intelligence Agency.
 
 1960
 
 Some investigators believe George Bush spent part of
 this year and the next in Miami on behalf of the CIA,
 organizing rightwing exiles for an invasion of Cuba.
 Is said to have worked with later Iran-Contra figure
 Felix Rodriguez.
 
 
 1961
 
 According to the Realist, CIA official Fletcher Prouty
 delivers three Navy ships to agents in Guatemala to be
 used in the Bay of Pigs invasion. Prouty claims he
 delivered the ships to a CIA agent named George Bush.
 Agent Bush named the ships the Barbara, Houston and
 Zapata. (A reader points out, however, that the name
 of the swamp surrounding the Bay of Pigs was Zapata]
 
 Bay of Pigs invasion fails. Right-wingers blame
 Kennedy for failure to provide air cover. CIA loses 15
 men, another 1100 are imprisoned.
 
 George Bush invites Rep. TL. Ashley -- a fellow Skull
 & Boner -- down to Texas for a party in order to meet
 "an attractive girl." Bush writes that "she may be
 accompanied by an Austrian ski instructor but I think
 we can probably flush him at the local dance hall."
 Bush notes that he's had to unlist his phone because
 "Jane Morgan keeps calling me all the time." [From a
 letter in the Ashley archives uncovered by Spy
 magazine.]
 
 Zapata annual report boasts that the company has paid
 no taxes since it was founded.
 
 1963
 
 John F. Kennedy is assassinated. Internal FBI memo
 reports that on November 22 "reputable businessman"
 George H. W. Bush reported hearsay that a certain
 Young Republican "has been talking of killing the
 president when he comes to Houston." The Young
 Republican was nowhere near Dallas on that date.
 
 According to a 1988 story in The Nation, a memo from
 J. Edgar Hoover states that "Mr. George Bush of the
 CIA" had been briefed on November 23rd, 1963 about the
 reaction of anti-Castro Cuban exiles in Miami to the
 assassination of President Kennedy. George says it
 ain't him, admits he was in Texas but can't remember
 where.
 
 1964
 
 George Bush runs as a Goldwater Republican for
 Congress. Campaigns against the Civil Rights Act.
 
 1966
 
 Bush, runs as a moderate Republican, gets elected to
 Congress. Robert Mosbacher chairs Oil Men for Bush.
 
 Apache leader Ned Anderson meets with the Skull &
 Bones lawyer and George Bush's brother Jonathan who
 attempt to return the skull Prescott Bush had looted.
 Anderson refuses the skull because he says it isn't
 Geronimo's.
 
 1968
 
 George W. Bush joins Skull & Bones at Yale
 
 1970
 
 Bush loses Senate race to Lloyd Bentsen, despite
 $112,000 in contributions from a White House slush
 fund. Jim Baker is campaign chair. Bush later claims
 to have reported correctly all but $6000 in cash
 --which he denies he got. A 1992 story in the New York
 Times says the $6000 was listed in records of Nixon's
 "townhouse operation" which was designed in part to
 make GOP congressional candidates vulnerable to
 blackmail.
 
 1971
 
 Bush is named UN Ambassador by Nixon.
 
 Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs finds enough
 evidence of Noriega's involvement in drug dealing to
 indict him, but US Attorney's office in Miami
 considers grabbing Noriega in Panama for trial here to
 be impractical. State Department also urges BNDD to
 back off.
 
 1972
 
 Bill Liedtke gathers $700,000 in anonymous
 contributions for the Nixon campaign, delivering the
 money in cash, checks and securities to the Committee
 to Re-Elect the President (the infamous CREEP) one day
 before such contributions become illegal. Bill says he
 did it as a favor to George.
 
 1973
 
 Bush is named GOP national chair. Brings into the
 party the Heritage Groups Council, an organization
 with a number of Nazi sympathizers.
 
 Bush, according to Lowell Weicker, inquires as to
 whether records of the "townhouse operation" should be
 burned.
 
 Robert Mosbacher wins an offshore drilling concession
 from Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
 
 Watergate tapes indicate concern by Nixon and aide HR
 Haldeman that the investigation into Watergate might
 expose the "Bay of Pigs thing." Nixon also speaks of
 the "Texans" and the "Cubans." and mentions
 "Mosbacher."
 
 In another tape, Nixon decides following his
 re-election to get signed resignations from his whole
 government so he can centralize his power. Says Nixon
 to John Erlichman: "Eliminate everyone, except George
 Bush. Bush will do anything for our cause."
 
 1974
 
 Bush is named special envoy to China.
 
 1975
 
 DEA report notes Noreiga's involvement in drug trade.
 
 George W. Bush graduates from Harvard Business School
 
 1976
 
 Jerry Ford names George Bush CIA director, his fourth
 political patronage job in a little over five years.
 Bush later claims this is the first time he ever
 worked for the CIA. At his confirmation hearings, Bush
 says, "I think we should tread very carefully on
 governments that are constitutionally elected."
 
 Bush holds first known meeting with Noriega. Noriega
 starts receiving $110,000 a year from the CIA.
 
 Noriega found to be working for Cubans as well, but
 keeps his CIA gig.
 
 Bush sets up Team B within the CIA, a group of
 neo-conservative outsiders and generals who proceed to
 double the agency's estimate of Soviet military
 spending.
 
 Senate committee headed by Frank Church proposes
 revealing size of the country's black budget --
 intelligence spending that, in contradiction to the
 Constitution, is kept secret even from the Hill.
 According to journalist Tim Weiner, Bush argues that
 the revelation would be a disaster and would
 compromise the agency beyond repair. By a one vote
 margin the matter is referred to the Senate. It never
 reaches the floor.
 
 Chilean dissident Orlando Letelier is assassinated by
 Chilean secret police agents. CIA fails to inform FBI
 of pending plot and of assassins' arrival in US. CIA
 claims the hit was the work of left-wingers in search
 of a martyr.
 
 Bush writes internal CIA memo asking to see cable on
 Jack Ruby visiting Santos Trafficante in jail. In
 1992, Bush will deny any interest in the JFK
 assassination while CIA head.
 
 Bush claims nuclear war is winnable.
 
 1977
 
 Philippine dictator Marcos buys back Robert
 Mosbacher's oil concession. Mosbacher claims he was
 swindled. Philippine officials say they never saw any
 expenditures by Mosbacher on the project.
 
 1978
 
 Bush, Mosbacher and Jim Baker become partners in an
 oil deal.
 
 >From a Washington Post article by Bob Woodward and
 Walter Pincus: "According to those involved in Bush's
 first political action committee, there were several
 occasions in 1978-79, when Bush was living in Houston
 and traveling the country in his first run for the
 presidency, that he set aside periods of up to 24
 hours and told aides that he had to fly to Washington
 for a secret meeting of former CIA directors. Bush
 told his aides that he could not divulge his
 whereabouts, and that he would not be available."
 Former CIA chief Stansfield Turner denies such
 meetings took place.
 
 George W. Bush declares his candidacy for the Midland
 Congressional district. He wins the Republican primary
 and loses in the general election.
 
 George W. Bush begins operations of his oil firm,
 Arbusto Energy. With the help of Jonathan Bush, he
 assembles several dozen investors in a limited
 partnership including Dorothy Bush, Lewis Lehrman,
 William Draper, and James Bath, a Houston aircraft
 broker
 
 1980
 
 Bush becomes Reagan's vice presidential candidate.
 Runs as a rightwinger again.
 
 Mosbacher becomes chief fundraiser for Bush's
 presidential campaign. Forms a millionaire's club of
 250 contributors, each of whom cough up $100,000.
 
 William Casey forms a working group to prepare for
 possible Carter October political surprise. In early
 October, an Iranian official meets with three top
 Reagan campaign aides. All three deny memory of the
 meeting in subsequent proceedings.
 
 On October 21, Reagan hints he has a secret plan to
 release the hostages. This is right around the alleged
 date of a Paris meeting at which the so-called
 "October Surprise" was settled. Some allege that at
 this meeting it was agreed to end the arms embargo
 against Iran if Iran would release its hostages after
 the election. While Bush's presence at this meeting
 has been denied by the House committee investigating
 the October Surprise, Bush's whereabouts at this
 critical time remain in doubt. The White House, in
 fact, has leaked conflicting stories.
 
 Rep. Dan Quayle goes on a Florida golfing vacation
 with seven other men and Paula Parkinson -- an
 insurance lobbyist who later posed nude for Playboy.
 Parkinson describes Quayle as a husband on the make,
 but says she turned him down because she was already
 having an affair with another congressman. Marilyn
 Quayle says, "anybody who knows Dan Quayle knows he
 would rather play golf than have sex."
 
 The Reagan-Bush campaign receives stolen copies of
 Carter's briefing books.
 
 Bush's campaign manager, James Baker, forces the
 dismissal of Bush aide Jennifer Fitzgerald, described
 in a 1982 Time story as having "much to say about
 where Bush goes, what he does and whom he sees." Bush
 continues to pay Fitzgerald out of his own pocket.
 
 1981
 
 Reagan-Bush inaugurated. Hostages released moments
 before. Shortly thereafter, arms shipments to Iran
 resume from Israel and America. In July, an
 Argentinean plane chartered by Israel crashes in
 Soviet territory. It is found to have made three
 deliveries of American military supplies to Iran. In a
 1991 story in Esquire, Craig Unger quotes Alexander
 Haig as saying "I have a sneaking suspicion that
 someone in the White House winked." Says Unger: "This
 secret and illegal sale of military equipment
 continued for years afterwards."
 
 James Baker named Reagan's chief of staff.
 
 SEC filings for Zapata Oil for 1960-66 are found to
 have been "inadvertently destroyed."
 
 Reagan authorizes CIA assistance to Contras.
 
 1982
 
 CIA director William Casey begins Operation Black
 Eagle to expand US role in Central America. Urges use
 of "selected Latin American and European governments,
 organizations and individuals" in the project.
 
 Inslaw, a computer software company, signs a $10
 million contract to install a case-tracking program in
 94 US Attorney's offices. Four months later, after
 obtaining a copy of Inslaw's proprietary version of
 the program, the government cancels the contract and
 begins an aggressive campaign to force the company
 into bankruptcy. Later sources claim that the program
 was installed by the CIA and sold to various foreign
 intelligence agencies.
 
 After $3 million is poured into Arbusto with little
 oil and no profits, just tax shelter George W. Bush
 changes the company name to Bush Exploration Oil Co.
 Subsequently he is kept afloat by an investment from
 Philip Uzielli, a Princeton friend of James Baker III.
 For the sum of $1 million, Uzielli bought 10% of the
 company at a time in 1982 when the entire enterprise
 was valued at less than $400,000. Subsequently, to
 save the company George W. Bush merges with Spectrum
 7, a small oil firm owned by William DeWitt and Mercer
 Reynolds. DeWitt had graduated from Yale a few years
 earlier than Bush and was the son of the former owner
 of the Cincinnati Reds. Bush becomes president of
 Spectrum 7. He also gets 14% of the Spectrum's stock.
 Meanwhile, 50 original investors in Arbusto get paid
 off at about 20 cents on the dollar.
 
 1983
 
 Noriega meets again with George Bush.
 
 Bush presents an autographed photo to a WWII Ukrainian
 leader under the Nazis, whose regime killed 100,000
 Jews.
 
 KAL 007 crashes under circumstances that remain
 suspicious to this day.
 
 Bush promotes Jennifer Fitzgerald from appointments
 secretary to executive assistant. Seven staffers
 resign in protest. Fitzgerald tells the New York Post:
 "Everyone keeps painting me as this old ogre. I really
 don't worry about it. All these bizarre things just
 simply aren't true."
 
 Neil Bush forms his first oil company. He puts in
 $100, his partners contribute $160,000 and Neil is
 named president of the firm, JNB Exploration.
 
 Jeb Bush's business partner, Alberto Duque, goes
 bankrupt, is eventually convicted of fraud and is
 sentenced to 15 years in prison.
 
 1984
 
 Jeb Bush lobbies the Department of Health & Human
 Services on behalf of Cuban-American businessman
 Miguel Recarey, Jr., whose medical firm later
 collapses. Recarey, who was close to mobster Santos
 Trafficante, later flees the US under indictment with
 at least $12 million in federal funds.
 
 George Bush takes part in meetings to plan increased
 "third country" aid to the Contras..
 
 CIA mines Nicaraguan harbors.
 
 1985
 
 Jennifer Fitzgerald is sent to work on Capitol Hill
 after stories arise linking her romantically with
 George Bush.
 
 Stuart Spencer's public relation firm starts receiving
 over $350,000 from Panama to improve Noriega's image.
 
 CIA starts using BCCI as a conduit.
 
 George Bush thanks Oliver North for "dedication and
 tireless work with the hostage thing, with Central
 America." Bush will later deny knowing about the
 Contra effort until late 1986.
 
 Neil Bush joins the board of Silverado S&L, serves
 until 1988. Silverado loans his partners in JNB $132
 million which they never repay. Silverado will
 eventually collapse at a taxpayer cost of $1 billion.
 
 408 TOW anti-tank missiles are shipped from Israel to
 Iran. A day later, US hostage Benjamin Weir is
 released.
 
 1986
 
 VP Bush goes to Honduras to promote support for the
 Contras. Takes along baseball players Nolan Ryan and
 Gary Carter.
 
 Contra figure Felix Rodriguez meets with Donald Gregg,
 Bush's national security advisor, to complain about
 Iran-Contra operatives skimming funds from the
 Contras.
 
 Bush may have made several secret visits to Damascus
 between 1986-88 according to a 1992 report in Time,
 which said two senior GOP senators were pressing for a
 probe. The allegation is that Bush went to negotiate
 the release of hostages in Lebanon but in fact
 stonewalled Syria, "playing for campaign timing.
 Republicans want to get to the bottom of
 intelligence-community suspicions that the US somehow
 blew a chance to free Terry Anderson and his fellow
 captives."
 
 Iranian arms runner Manucher Ghorbanifar proposes
 "diversion" of profits from Iran arms sales to
 Contras.
 
 George W. Bush and partners receive more than $2
 million of Harken Energy stock in exchange for a
 failing oil well operation, which had lost $400,000 in
 the prior six months. After Bush joined Harken, the
 largest stock position and a seat on its board were
 acquired by Harvard Management Company. The Harken
 board gave Bush $600,000 worth of the company's
 publicly traded stock, plus a seat on the board plus a
 consultancy that paid him up to $120,000 a year. When
 Harken runs short of cash it hooks up with investment
 banker Jackson Stephens of Little Rock, Arkansas, who
 arranges a $25 million stock purchase by Union Bank of
 Switzerland. Sheik Abdullah Bakhsh, who joins the
 board as a part of the deal, is connected to the
 infamous BCCI.
 
 1987
 
 Bush's former chief of staff, Daniel Murphy, flies to
 Panama with South Korean influence peddler Tongsun
 Park on a private plane owned by arms dealer Sargis
 Soghnalian to meet with Noriega. Murphy later tells a
 Senate subcommittee that he informed Noriega that he
 need not resign before the 1988 election despite the
 Reagan administration public pressure to the contrary.
 
 Bill Casey dies.
 
 Lee Atwater accuses Robert Dole of spreading stories
 about Bush and Jennifer Fitzgerald. An agreement is
 worked out, as reported by Sidney Blumenthal in the
 Washington Post: "The Dole people didn't spread any
 rumors and promised not to do it again. And the Bush
 people haven't spread rumors about the Dole people
 spreading rumors and won't do it again. "
 
 Harken Energy project gets rescued by aid from the
 BCCI-connected Union Bank of Switzerland in a deal
 brokered by Jackson Stephens, later to show up as a
 key supporter of Bill Clinton.
 
 1988
 
 Jeb Bush and a partner default on a $4.5 million loan
 from a Florida S&L. The default will cost taxpayers'
 millions. Bush and his partners will repay only ten
 percent of the loan but will keep all real estate
 collateralized by it.
 
 Silverado S&L goes under after receiving 126 cease &
 desist orders in past four years from the Topeka
 office of the Office of Thrift Supervision. These
 orders found conflict of interests, insider abuse and
 other violations.
 
 Dwight Chapin, ex-Nixon dirty trickster, gets job in
 Bush campaign.
 
 Rudi Slavoff becomes head of Bulgarians for Bush. In
 1983, Slavoff organized an event honoring Austin App,
 promoter of the theory that the Holocaust was a hoax.
 
 Slavoff joins other GOP ethnic leaders in the
 Coalition of American Nationalities co-chaired by
 Edward Derwinski. Among them is a former member of an
 Hungarian pro-Nazi party. After press revelations,
 eight of the leaders accused of anti-semitism resign
 from the campaign. Bush says: "Nobody's giving in...
 These people left of their own account."
 
 GOP flier warns that "all the murderers, rapists and
 drug pushers and child molesters in Massachusetts vote
 for Michael Dukakis."
 
 Bush establishes Team 100, which will eventually grow
 to 249 individuals who contribute nearly $25 million
 in soft money to help the GOP cause. The contributions
 also apparently help the contributors, various of whom
 get ambassadorial appointments, legislative favors,
 and intervention on regulatory and criminal matters.
 
 Bush denies knowledge of Noriega's involvement in drug
 dealing.
 
 The Willie Horton ad is aired. Credit for similar
 tactics is given to campaign guru Lee Atwater, whose
 PR firm had represented drug-connected Bahamian prime
 minister Oscar Pinding and the Philippines' Marcos.
 Atwater himself had represented UNITA, the CIA-backed
 Africa rebel group.
 
 Fred Malek, ex-Nixon aide, resigns from the Bush
 campaign after it's revealed that he compiled a list
 of Jews in the Labor Dept. as part of a Nixon
 investigation of a "Jewish cabal."
 
 A few days before the supposedly surprise arrest of
 five BCCI officials, some of the world's most powerful
 drug dealers quietly withdraw millions of dollars from
 the bank. Some government investigators believe the
 dealers were tipped off by sources within the Bush
 administration.
 
 Although Felix Rodriguez, former leading cop under
 Batista, claims he left the CIA in 1976, Rolling Stone
 reports that he is still going to CIA headquarters
 monthly to receive assignments and get his bulletproof
 Cadillac serviced.
 
 Bankruptcy judge George Bason Jr. concludes that the
 government stole Inslaw's software through "trickery,
 fraud and deceit."
 
 Stock market drops 43 points on false rumor that
 Washington Post was about the publish the
 Bush-Fitzgerald story.
 
 1989
 
 Bush inaugurated. Aides tell the press that the new
 administration would rather "stay one step behind than
 be one step ahead."
 
 Bush authorizes CIA support to Noriega's opposition,
 giving Noriega an excuse to annul Panama's elections.
 
 Bush claims executive privilege to avoid testifying in
 the Oliver North trial, thus becoming first president
 to use this power to keep his acts as vice president
 under wraps.
 
 Dan Quayle declares changes in Soviet Union "just a
 public relations extravaganza."
 
 Bush brother Prescott flies to Shanghai after the
 Tiananmen Square massacre to close a deal for an $18
 million resort there, despite his brother's ban on
 high-level Chinese contacts. Prescott says, "We aren't
 a bunch of carrion birds coming in to pick the
 carcass. But there are big opportunities in China, and
 America can't afford to be shut out."
 
 Prescott Bush also visits Japan, searching for
 consulting contracts just ten days before his brother
 arrives on a presidential tour. The Japanese firm that
 paid Prescott a quarter-million dollar consulting fee
 comes under investigation for exchange law violations
 and links to the Japanese mob.
 
 C. Boyden Gray, the president's top ethics official,
 corrects his 1985 and 1986 financial disclosure forms.
 He forgot to include $98,000 in income.
 
 George Bush signs the S&L bailout bill promising that
 "these problems will never happen again."
 
 The Chicago Tribune reports: "After 14 fishing
 outings, the President has failed to catch a single
 fish."
 
 At White House behest, the DEA lures drug dealer to
 Lafayette Park to make arrest in front of presidential
 home for the benefit of Bush's upcoming drug speech.
 At first, drug dealer is dubious, asks DEA agent,
 "Where the fuck is the White House?"
 
 Defense secretary nominee John Tower runs into
 confirmation troubles when it is revealed that he has
 received hundreds of thousands of dollars in
 consulting fees from defense contractors. Runs into
 more trouble with revelations of womanizing and
 drinking. His nomination is rejected.
 
 The sale of three communications satellites to China
 is announced. Prescott Bush is a $250,000 consultant
 in the deal.
 
 GOP memo is leaked implying that House Speaker Tom
 Foley is a homosexual.
 
 President Bush signs a top-secret directive ordering
 closer ties with Iraq, which opens the way for $1
 billion in new aid just a little more than a year
 before Bush goes to war against that country. The
 agricultural credit allows Saddam Hussein to use his
 hard currency for a massive military buildup.
 
 A second judge concurs that the government stole
 Inslaw's software.
 
 The Statistical Abstract of the United States,
 published by the US government, reports that the GNP
 of East Germany during the 1980s was greater than that
 of West Germany. The figures come from the CIA.
 
 Bahrain officials suddenly break off offshore drilling
 negotiations with Amoco and decide to deal with Harken
 Energy, George Bush Jr.'s firm. Harken has had a
 series of failed ventures and no cash, so the Bass
 brothers are brought in to finance Harken's efforts at
 a cost of $50 million.
 
 Neil Bush bails out of JNB Exploration, the firm where
 he became president with a $100 ante, leaving his
 partners to worry about its debt. Days earlier he
 forms Apex Energy with a personal investment of $3000.
 The rest of the money -- $2.7 million -- comes from an
 SBA program designed to help "high risk start-up
 companies." Like JNB, it proves to be just that. Apex
 will later go belly-up with no assets.
 
 Two months after his father's inauguration, George W.
 Bush announces that he and a syndicate of investors
 have purchased the Texas Rangers. The investors are
 Edward "Rusty" Rose, Richard Rainwater, Bill DeWitt,
 Roland Betts (a former Yale frat brother) and Tom
 Bernstein (Bett's partner in a film investment
 concern). While Bush appears to lead the group,
 Rainwater makes clear that Rose is to control how the
 business is run. Bush's stake in the $86 million deal
 is 2%, financed with a $500,000 loan from a Midland
 Bank of which he had been a director and $106,000 from
 other sources. Rainwater and Rose put up 14.2 million,
 Betts and Bernstein invested about $6 million and the
 balance comes from smaller investors and loans. Bush
 will eventually sell his share for $15 million.
 
 1990
 
 Federal regulators give Bush son Neil the mildest
 possible penalty in the $1 billion failure of the
 Silverado S&L. The deal is so good that Bush drops his
 appeal. Among other things, Neil, as a Silverado
 director, voted to approve over $100 million in loans
 to his business partners.
 
 January: Bahrain awards exclusive offshore drilling
 rights to Harken Oil. This is a surprise as Harken is
 in very shaky financial condition, has never drilled
 outside of Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma and had never
 drilled undersea at all. The Bass brothers are brought
 in by Harken for sufficient equity to proceed with the
 effort. Harken's stock price increases from $4.50 to
 $5.50.
 
 George W. Bush sells two-thirds of his Harken Energy
 stock at the top of the market for $850,000, a 200%
 profit, but makes no report to the SEC until March
 1991. Bush Jr. says later the SEC misplaced the
 report. An SEC representative responds: "nobody ever
 found the 'lost' filing." One week after Bush's sale,
 Harken reports an earnings plunge. Harken stock falls
 more than 60%. Bush uses most of the proceeds to pay
 off the bank loan he had taken a year earlier to
 finance his portion of the Texas Rangers deal.
 
 August: Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait. Harken's stock
 price drops substantially. Two months after Bush sells
 his stock, Harken posts losses for the 2nd quarter of
 well over $20 million and is shares fall another 24 %,
 by year end Harken is trading at $1.25. Bush has
 insisted that he did not know about the firm's
 mounting losses and that his stock sell-off was
 approved by Harken's general counsel.
 
 George W. Bush is asked by Carlyle Group to serve on
 the board of directors of Caterair, one of the
 nation's largest airline catering services which it
 had acquired in 1989. The offer is arranged by Fred
 Malek, long time Bush associate who is then an advisor
 to Carlyle.
 
 October: Arlington, Texas Mayor Richard Greene signs a
 contract that guarantees $135 million toward the new
 Texas Ranger Stadium's estimate price of $190 million.
 The Rangers put up no cash but finance their share
 through a ticket surcharge. From the team's operating
 revenues, the city will earn a maximum of $5 million
 annually in rent, no matter how much the Rangers reap
 from ticket sales and television (a sum that will rise
 to $100 million a year). Another provision permitts
 the franchise to buy the stadium after the accumulated
 rental payments reached a mere $ 60 million. The
 property acquired so cheaply by the Rangers includes
 not just a fancy new stadium with a seating capacity
 of 49,000 but an additional 270 acres of newly
 valuable land. Legislation is passed and signed that
 authorizes the Arlington Sports Facilities Development
 Authority with power to issue bonds and exercise
 eminent domain over any obstinate landowners. Never
 before had a Texas municipal authority been given the
 license to seize the property of a private citizen for
 the benefit of other private citizens. A recalcitrant
 Arlington family refuses to sell a 13 acre parcel near
 the stadium site for half its appraised value. The
 jury awards more

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