Did Bush Sr. pardon Iran-Contra criminals who could have implicated him?

[NAO]

Those on the right are forever frothing about all the pardons Clinton granted at the end of his presidency. They have pushed this talking point into the mainstream to tarnish Clinton.

Author John Pilger, in "The New Rulers of the World", suggests that the War in Somalia was, among other things, used as a distraction from the fact that G.H.W. Bush, who had lost to Clinton, was pardoning Iran-Contra co-conspirator criminals who could have later implicated him in the scandal.

Does anyone know of any articles or websites that document how many pardons GHW Bush granted at the end of his presidency? What were the crimes they were pardoned for? How many did he pardon? And how many of GHWB's pardoned criminals are now serving in Junior's administration?

[musette_sf]

1. well, Casey

conveniently dropped dead.

[bobbyboucher]

4. Don't forget that small plane crash. Who was that again?

The Repub from Texas that missed out on the Sec Def cause he drank too much?

[charlie]

5. John Tower? n/t

[bobbyboucher]

6. Bingo, didn't his commission have

the goods?

[charlie]

11. If they did

I don't recall them releasing much that pointed at Bush.

While we're noting coincidental deaths, John Heinz, who was also investigating Iran Contra, died the day before Tower.

[bobbyboucher]

13. Private plane too. Coincidence theory.

No conspiracy here.

[charlie]

15. Yup

Luckiest sumbitches in the history of the planet, those Bushes. I don't know why they don't just move out of Washington and buy weekly Lotto tickets. They'd never lose.

[Gman]

12. Zactly my first thought

[two gun sid]

16. Don't forget Adm. Poindexter

He works for W's administration in some kind of position dealing with computer espionage.

[NAO]

18. Poindexter - Orwellian Office of "Total Information Awareness"

Poindexter headed (heads?) the nefarious Information Awareness Office's (IAO)** special project dubbed "Total Information Awareness"



Remarks as prepared for delivery by Dr. John Poindexter, Director, Information Awareness Office of DARPA, at DARPATech 2002 Conference, Anaheim, Calif., August 2, 2002
http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/dod/poindexter.html

The original website of "Total Information Awareness" (as archived by The Memory Hole, before it went into stealth mode after public outcry)http://www.thememoryhole.org/policestate/iao/iao-original.htm

How "they" know exactly what you're doing - overview information gathering flowchart from IAO/TIA
http://www.thememoryhole.org/policestate/tia/tia-original.htm

**IAO was the great God of the Gnostics; gnosis=knowledge; probably just a coincidence, unless you are a tin-foil hatter. Of course, usually only tin-foil hatters have heard of IAO and TIA.

[two gun sid]

19. Not a tinfoil hatter

but, when I was in the service I knew an officer that had served under Poindexter. He said Poindexter was one of the most brilliant men he ever met. We were in the Persian Gulf when the Iran-Contra scandal broke so we were talking a lot about what had went on. His point was that there had to be more to what news we were getting because Poindexter was too smart to get caught. I trusted this officers opinion even though we were political opposites.

[Old and In the Way]

2. Here's a good overview

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Contra_Affair

[bobbyboucher]

3. Yes, that's why he had Perot get in and screw it all up,

otherwise he was going to jail. He had to lose, hence another Texan to the rescue. Perot starts to get too much momentum, then he quits for a while and sounds like a nut, then he's back in and gets 20%. Clinton wins, but with only 43 or so percent.

Then the pardons on Christmas day, 1992.

OK, now hit me with "Wait till Fox and the NYT get ahold of this, it'll make us all look like nuts again". Hehehehehehe.

[seemslikeadream]

7. Adnan Khashoggi

Democracy for sale
Greg Palast


...

Who owned Barrick Gold Mining - where did it come from? Have you ever heard of Barrick? I'd never heard of Barrick in my life. I looked it up, and who put up the money to create this corporation? A guy named Adnan Khashoggi. Now Adnan Khashoggi was the arms dealer who traded the arms for hostages in the Iran Contra game. "Poppy" Bush claimed he didn't know about that; he said he was out of the loop. So this is the guy who gave arms to the Ayatollah. It's a little odd because George Bush is working for the guy who armed the Axis of Evil.

By the way, it's interesting that "Poppy" Bush's last act in office, before he went on to Khashoggi's corporation, was to pardon Adnan Khashoggi, who had been charged with a felony - no connections please!

But by the end of 1996 it looks like Khashoggi was getting out of Barrick, and what was he doing? Well, when you try to track arms dealers, the people who deal with them and who know where they are any more are not necessarily Nobel Peace Prize winners, except for Henry Kissinger. But according to some really creepy sources, in May 1986 there was a meeting in place called Hotel Monceau in Paris between Khashoggi and representatives of a family named Bin Laden. Now don't misunderstand about the Bin Ladens. These are good people: they're business partners of the Bush family through a corporation called Carlyle and various Saudi royals. And they and a financier from Switzerland, who is handling the money for an organisation called Al Qa'eda, were dividing up which salaries should pay how much, and provide what arms to this organisation.

So there was this meeting, and this is what concerned me: if I know about it, then do you think that American and British Intelligence might know about it? I was interested in this for good reasons: my office had been on the 52nd floor of World Trade Center Tower One, and I wanted to know what happened. And I want to know who knew what, and when did they know it? The US had spent a trillion bucks on the CIA, and the British Government had spent God knows how much on MI6 and MI5, while people were meeting in the Hotel Monceau figuring out how much to give to Al Qa'eda. So the question was, how did the US and European Intelligence not know about the greatest, the most devastating, brutal, bloody attack on American soil since Pearl Harbour? And what I learned is that the intelligence agencies didn't see it coming because they were told not to look.
more
http://www.think-twice.org.uk/2002/palast/

[NAO]

10. Palast on Khashoggi/Barrick - ties into Radical Cleric Pat Robertson

I think I remember Palast had tied in Barrick to Radical Cleric Pat Robertson.

I do remember that some of Mullah Robertson's illegal/shady activities were documented by Palast in "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy". Robertson was also involved in Diamond smuggling operation, using it to finance his "ministry" and also using his "ministry" as a cover for the shady activities.

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: An Investigative Reporter Exposes the Truth About Globalization, Corporate Cons, and High-Finance Fraudsters by Greg Palast

[seemslikeadream]

14. Pat Robertson: 'I don't have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist'

If you don't know about the Invisible Cord, then you have not read New World Order by Dr Marion 'Pat' Robertson. This is the same Pat Robertson that the Bank of Scotland recently named chairman of its new American consumer-bank holding company. Interestingly, the Scottish bank's biography of Robertson failed to mention New World Order, the 1991 bestseller that the Wall Street Journal, in a mean-spirited review, described as written by 'a paranoid pinhead with a deep distrust of democracy'.


There is so much the Bank of Scotland forgot to include in its profile of Robertson that it is left to this newspaper to describe this man of wealth and taste. The bank, for example, failed to note that he is best known to Americans as leader of the 1.2 million-strong ultra-right political front, Christian Coalition.
It may seem a bit odd for the Bank of Scotland to choose as its spokesman a man who has been compared to Ian Paisley. But bank officials say they are not concerned with Robertson's religious beliefs. Nor, apparently, is Robertson concerned with theirs.
He said: 'You're supposed to be nice to Episcopalians, Presbyterians and Methodists ... Nonsense. I don't have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist.'

Why would the Bank of Scotland want to join up with a figure whose unpalatable views on women, gays, Democrats and others led one unkind civil liberties organisation to describe him as 'the most dangerous man in America'?

Someone more cynical than me might suspect that the Bank of Scotland covets Robertson's fiercely loyal following, the 2 million conspiracy wonks and charismatic evangelicals who, a former business partner says, 'would give him their life savings'. 'These people believe he has a hot-line to God.'

...

The combination of ministry and Mammon has provided Robertson with a net worth estimated at between $200m and $1 billion. He himself would not confirm his wealth, except to tell me that his share of the reported $50m start-up capital for the bank is 'just a small investment for me'.

...

There was also, says Volder, the $7m he gave to 'Operation Blessing' to alleviate the woes of refugees fleeing genocide in Rwanda. Robertson's press operation puts the sum at only $1.2m. More interesting is the way the Operation Blessing funds were used in Africa. Through an emotional fundraising drive on his TV station, Robertson raised several million dollars for the tax-free charitable trust. Operation Blessing bought planes to shuttle medical supplies in and out of the refugee camp in Goma, Congo (then Zaire).
more
http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=49&row=1

[stevedeshazer]

8. Naw

Nothing to see here.

<snip>

Proclamation 6518
Grant of Executive Clemency
December 24, 1992

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Today I am exercising my power under the Constitution to pardon former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and others for their conduct related to the Iran-Contra affair.

For more than 6 years now, the American people have invested enormous resources into what has become the most thoroughly investigated matter of its kind in our history. During that time, the last American hostage has come home to freedom, worldwide terrorism has declined, the people of Nicaragua have elected a democratic government, and the Cold War has ended in victory for the American people and the cause of freedom we championed.

In the mid 1980's, however, the outcome of these struggles was far from clear. Some of the best and most dedicated of our countrymen were called upon to step forward. Secretary Weinberger was among the foremost.

Caspar Weinberger is a true American patriot. He has rendered long and extraordinary service to our country. He served for 4 years in the Army during World War II where his bravery earned him a Bronze Star. He gave up a lucrative career in private life to accept a series of public positions in the late 1960's and 1970's, including Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. Caspar Weinberger served in all these positions with distinction and was admired as a public servant above reproach.

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/pardonsex5.htm

[jody]

9. Casper would have told all to avoid prison and George W. would have

have been impeached.

[UTUSN]

17. ----------Welllllllll---------Yessssss n/t

[UTUSN]

20. Is Our MSM Remembering This---------Well, NOoooooooo n/t