Spring 1971 Bush Using National Guard F102 to Shuttle Tropical Plants

[liveoaktx]

http://changeforamerica.com/blog/archives/000280.html

(See the Washington Post link inside)
"We weren't looking for someone, but I thought this would be a talented guy we should hire, and he was available," Gow said. In early 1971, Gow gave Bush a job as a management trainee. He was required to wear a coat and tie and dispatched around the country and even to Central America, looking for plant nurseries that Stratford might acquire. The newly buttoned-down businessman also moved into a garage apartment that he shared with Ensenat off Houston's North Boulevard, an old 1920s neighborhood close to downtown.

"We traveled to all kinds of peculiar places, like Apopka, Florida, which was named the foliage capital of the world," said Peter C. Knudtzon, another Zapata alumnus who was Stratford's executive vice president and Bush's immediate boss.

Once or twice a month, Bush would announce that he had flight duty and off he would go, sometimes taking his F-102 from Houston to Orlando and back. "It was really quite amazing," Knudtzon said. "Here was this young guy making acquisitions of tropical plants and then up and leaving to fly fighter planes."

******
What was Bush doing USING GOVERNMENT PROPERTY for personal use and WHAT was he doing in CENTRAL AMERICA?

[kainah]

1. And that *IS* the question

What was Bush doing USING GOVERNMENT PROPERTY for personal use and WHAT was he doing in CENTRAL AMERICA?

My sister and I tried to research this several months ago and came up pretty empty after a fair amount of effort. But it is certainly a most interesting open question. I hope someone with more than we could find checks in.........

[jimshoes]

2. Had these tropical plants been processed

into say, powdered form by any chance?

[RobertSeattle]

3. Isn't Marijauna a tropical plant?

:evilgrin:

[hexola]

4. If he was a real Texan...

...he wouldn't need a jet to find a good quantity deal on buds...

I'm picturing plants potted in some unusual white potting soil...

[TexasProgresive]

5. Panama Red and Alcapulco Gold

And maybe a little refined coca leaf to settle the nose.

[West Coast Democrat]

6. Am I dreaming, or did Kerry mention this the other night...

on Hardball?

[City Lights]

7. Running drugs?

:shrug:

Sounds like something the chimp would do.

[DrWeird]

8. Coca.

If you're flying plants in and out of central America, what other kind of plant could it be?

[hexola]

9. Unlikely....

It takes too way much of the plant to produce the final product.

It would be more likely he would be getting raw coca paste or some other refined product...

[kainah]

10. Whoops, IGNORE

Stupid me. Sorry.

[liveoaktx]

11. Drugs aside, someone in the military can't joyride at will in an F102

Shows his character (or lack of )again, that not only was he irresponsible, but surely doing something illegal using military planes for personal business (whatever that was).

[dmr]

12. Damn!

Good question.

What a prosperous guy. And, in the meantime, real soldiers were dodging bullets in Nam. What a guy.

[kiahzero]

13. The person in question here isn't saying Bush flew plants in the plane

I think focus should be on the "taking his F-102 from Houston to Orlando and back" rather than the quote: "Here was this young guy making acquistions of topical plants and then up and leaving to fly fighter planes"

Interpreted precisely, Bush's boss is saying that Bush would make the acquisitions, and then leave to do his guard duty... I guess this must have been in 1972, when he was actually doing it.

[Catshrink]

14. Or maybe not...

he may have said he was going to guard duty but actually went on a bender.

[kiahzero]

16. True

But nothing in that story implies Bush was using the F-102 to transport anything.

As for misusing TANG equipment, that's open to debate.

[kentuck]

15. I believe Bush spent a lot of time in Central America....

at least, during the Iran-Contra days of Ollie North and Elliott Abrams...His role has been completely overlooked, imo.

[SoCalDem]

17. I have posted this article MANY times.. Looks like someone FINALLY

decided to make it real again.:):):):)

I maintain that THIS is why he and Bath got their "walking papers" so abruptly.. Bush TOLD people about how he used his Guard plane to "ferry plants" from Florida to Texas.. THIS HAS to be against the rules..

What KIND of plants were those, GeorgieBoy????

He worked at the AG compnay right around that time.. (another job "given" to him by Daddy's friends... He only worked there a short time..(and he used to take Marvin with him sometimes)

I think some of his "fellow pilots" caught wind of it and dropped a dime on him..

[Minstrel Boy]

18. "Bush flew for airline tied to Iran/Contra drug trafficking"

During the summer of 1974 George W Bush flew for a CIA-connected airline in Alaska later suspected by the Iran Contra Commission of being involved in CIA drug trafficking in support of the Contras, the MadCowMorningNews has learned.

The company, Alaska International, has also been publicly accused of illegally selling C-130 military aircraft to Col. Moammar Qaddafi's Libya which were used in Libya’s invasion of Chad, despite the U.S. government ban on sales of the aircraft to Libya.

Bush’s Alaska adventure is another ‘missing’ chapter of Bush’s biography, and has almost completely escaped media attention. We learned of it first in a letter from a reader of the first two segments of our report on “The Secret History of George W. Bush.”

“About the connections you're tracing in Alabama – you might want to look at a few years later when Bush was in Alaska working for Mark Air, which also had a reputation for undercover operations,” the reader wrote.

More here:
http://www.madcowprod.com/index.html

Daniel Hopsicker has a couple of other recent pieces here on George Bush's "lost years", and the stink of spooks and drugs:

http://www.madcowprod.com/index46.html
http://www.madcowprod.com/index47.html

[Minstrel Boy]

19. Kicking this n/t