Have you guys seen this letter on Greg Palast's site?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

"U.S. Attorney
"Dan Mills
"816 Congress
"Austin Tx 78701

"In light of all of the questions about the Lottery I think it is
important to reveal some information that should be disclosed.


"Several months ago many of us felt that the Lottery Commission should
rebid the GTech contract when it came up for renewal. Leaders of the
Republican Party strongly supported rebldding and I believe the Chair of
the Commission also wanted to rebid. It is now time to disclose at least
one reason why it was not rebid. Governor Bush thru Reggie Bachor made a
deal with Ben Barnes not to rebid becauae Barnes could confirm that Bush
had lied during the 94 campaign. During that campalgn, Bush was asked if
his father, then a member of Congress, had helped him get in the
National Guard. Bush said no he had not, but the fact is his dad called
then Lt. Gov. Barnes to ask for his help to get his son not just in the
Guard, but to get one of the coveted pilot slots which were extremely
hard to get.
"At the time, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX contacted General Rose at the Guard and
took care of it. George Bush was placed ahead of thousands of young men,
some of whom died in Viet Nam. Robert Spellings also knows about this
and began telling the story which made a lot of people nervous. I am
told that Spellings was also an aide to Barnes at the time this took place.

"Bashur was sent to talk to Barnes who agreed never to confirm the story
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. At this time I can't release my name, but at the proper time I will
come forward and show this story to be true, Too many people know this
happened, Governor Bush knows his election campaign might have had a
different result if this story had been confirmed at the time."
----------------------------------------------
Uh boyee. This one is gonna leave a mark, if this person comes forward.

[acmavm]

1. Oh please, please, please. Let this be true and let it happen. PLEASE!

Whoever this person is should do the right think NOW. This person knows what kind of sleaze we're dealing with.

And if they don't do something, they just may find themselves in the same place so many other have that have crossed the BFEE.

[Chichiri]

2. Link? (n/t)

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

9. Here:

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_11364.shtml

Follow the embedded link. I tried posting the link, but the whole damn document shows up in the response. If I left that in, it would bomb the DU bandwidth.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

3. I got it in an email...

From the former National Guard Adjutant General who confirms Paul Lukasiak's research. He says he found it on Palast's site somewhere.

[Chichiri]

4. He refers to Bush as "Governor"

which means the letter was written between 1994 and 2000. This person said he would come forward "at the proper time"; why didn't he in 2000?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

5. I suspect because...

Texas politics are as ugly and bloodthirsty as we imagine them. After all, threats have been made to Ben Barnes, for going public.

Then again, this person may be speaking from an historical perspective.

[starroute]

6. Found a little more background by Googling on Spellings' name

Bush also received support from Sid Adger, a Houston businessman with close ties to then-Congressman George H. Bush, to pull strings to get him into a local unit. Also, Ben Barnes, Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, was a close Bush family friend who used connections to find a way for the young Bush to evade the Vietnam War.

A friend of the Bushes called Barnes and asked for him to find a slot for Bush in the Air National Guard. Barnes in turn called General James Rose of the Air National Guard and recommended Bush for a pilot position. Barnes aide was Nick Kralj who, along with Robert Spellings, ran an underground railroad to quietly moved the sons of prominent Texans into the National Guard. (Charles Lewis, (The Buying of the President 2000))

http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/jphuck/Book4Ch.3.html


According to Ivins, in 1968, a close family friend of the Bush's telephoned a man by the name Ben Barnes. Barnes, who was at the time speaker of the Texas House, was told that Congressmen Bush's son needed a spot in the Air National Guard. Barnes then called Brigadier General James Rose and recommended GW for a pilot position.

It was later divulged by Barnes that oil magnate Sid Adger was the family friend who placed the call. It should also be noted that Adger was a Houston businessman and friend of George H Bush, belonged to the same clubs and sent their children to the same private schools. His son's also served in the same unit is George W Bush.

Ivins claims that in a civil suit, an interview with a former statewide office holder confirmed that Barnes, Krali and Robert Spellings(both aides to Barnes) ran an underground railroad that quietly moved the sons of the privileged from selective service offices into a safe haven in Texas Guard units. The unit that accepted Bush also included the sons of former Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen, former Texas Governor John Connally, senator John Tower, and both of Sid Adger’s sons. Ironically it was Bush that was promoted as the Guards anti drug poster boy, amusing since he had such great difficulty answering the cocaine question that followed him into the presidency. "George Walker Bush is one member of the younger generation that doesn't get his kicks from pot or hashish or speed. Oh, he gets high, all right, but not from narcotics."

http://forums.techguy.org/archive/index.php/t-157614.html


(James Bath was associated with both Sid Adger and Lloyd Bentsen after his and Bush's National Guard days -- associations that ultimately led Bath into his BCCI and bin Laden connections. This group of people ties in with the 80's S&L scandals as well.)

[starroute]

12. And here's another confirming story

This is from a Washington Post story titled "At Height of Vietnam, Bush Picks Guard" which appeared in 1999 (and which includes the infamous bubblegum photo.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/wh2000/stories/bush072899.htm

One address for those seeking help getting in was Ben Barnes, a Democrat who was then the speaker of the Texas House and a protege of Gov. John B. Connally. A top aide to Barnes, Nick Kralj, simultaneously served as aide to the head of the Texas Air National Guard, the late Brig. Gen. James M. Rose.

An anonymous letter addressed to a U.S. attorney in Texas, produced in a discovery proceeding for an ongoing lawsuit, charged that Barnes assisted Bush in getting into the Guard. The suit was brought by the former director of the Texas Lottery Commission, who believes Barnes, now a lobbyist, may have played a role in his dismissal.

In a deposition for the suit, Kralj confirmed that he would get calls from Barnes or his chief of staff, Robert Spelling, "saying so-and-so is interested in getting in the Guard." Kralj said he would then forward the names to Gen. Rose.

In an interview, Barnes also acknowledged that he sometimes received requests for help in obtaining Guard slots. He said he never received such a call from then-Rep. Bush or anyone in the Bush family.

[starroute]

14. The GTech story and more in this CounterPunch piece

It seems that all the pieces of Bush's dubious military career are starting to come together in a coherent story-line. And boy, does he come off looking like crap.

http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair08122004.html

But the handouts didn't stop there. Bush didn't want to remain a lowly private or corporal in those drab uniforms. He saw himself as officer material. Yet, he had no desire to subject himself to the mental and physical rigors of Officer Candidate School. In his mind, he was a birthright officer. And so it came to be. After a mere six weeks of training, Bush was promoted to the rank 2nd Lieutenant. He didn't even have his pilot's license.

In the wake of this astounding achievement, Bush felt it was time for a breather. He abandoned his training with the Guard for two months, hightailing it to the beaches and bars of Florida, where he claimed to have occasionally lent the services of his agile political mind to the senatorial campaign of rightwing, neo-segregationist congressman Ed Gurney, a favorite of Richard Nixon. Gurney won, but his victory was short lived. Gurney was later indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of political corruption, bribery and perjury. He walked away a free man courtesy of a hung jury.

<snip>

The flying fratboy's application to the University of Texas law school was ungraciously declined, despite the pleas of his father, who had just lost a fierce senatorial campaign against Lloyd Bentsen. Whatever its faults, apparently the University of Texas isn't prone to handing out legacy admissions to New Haven-born whelps of the political elite. Even in Texas, you have to draw the line somewhere.

Sulking at this unfamiliar rebuke, Bush slunk off to Ellington Air Base near Houston to join the 111th Fighter Squadron. By most accounts, his drinking, already problematic, began to intensify. By other accounts, it was during this time in Ellington that Bush began to refamiliarize himself with his narcotic of choice at Yale...cocaine. In his college days, Bush not only snorted, he dealt. Among the haut monde at Yale, he was known as one of the top purveyors of primo Colombian powder in New Haven, dispensing the crystal snow from ounce bags.

[NoMoreMrNiceGuy]

7. Bush's father,then a member of congress????? HUH?

I don't think Bush lost the election in '92 and then was a member of congress in '94. I've read this over and over again....am I that stupid or is something wrong here?

[Awsi Dooger]

13. At the time of the National Guard irregularities

Early '70s, when Bush Sr. was in Congress

[slojim240]

8. Don't wast time posting this to the choir. Put out there in a military

blog and post it in Freeperland. We already know this shit, they don't. They may not want to belive it but they will have to deal with it!
I think the Swiftboat liars should get a copy.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

10. It would last in FreePeeLand...

No more than two minutes, tops. RimJob's rimjobbers would have it off of there in femtoseconds.

Military blog? Most likely the same thing.

No, someone in the press has to get on this story. All the elements are in place. All of them.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

11. DUPE.

[punpirate]

16. It still needs some clarification...

... Dubya may have an out, in that the "close friend" who called Barnes was Adgar. Barnes will specify this in his "60 Minutes" interview. He will also say that he was not called directly by either Bush in 1968 (he has, after all, testified under oath that neither Bush called him about Guard service).

But, it's doubtful that Adgar did this without checking with the elder Bush first.

The most important part of this is to call into question Bush's veracity. He is on the record as saying that he wasn't helped into the Guard, and that "they needed a pilot, so I applied."

I think the greater question is not how he got in--it was nicknamed, after all, the champagne unit--but how he got out. That was Bush's doing, in collusion with his unit commanders. There's where the real scandal lies. He was released fourteen months before his commitment was up at a time when policy was to release someone only up to six months early in order to attend school, and after not only missing numerous drills, but failing to take two consecutive annual flight physicals (May, 1972 and May, 1973).

Cheers.

[0rganism]

15. One factual error to clear up, prior to propagation

AFAIK, at the time George W. bush entered the Texas Air Nat'l Guard (May of 1968), Ben Barnes was NOT Lt. Governor, but rather Speaker of the (Texas) House until 1969. This should be corrected, or else the entire content will be held suspect by any skeptical audience.

[punpirate]

17. This error originates, I think...

... with Ben Barnes himself, during his 1999 testimony. Since Barnes served first as Speaker of the House and then as Lt. Gov. of Texas, he himself was unclear on his position at the time of the request from Adgar. He was Speaker of the House in 1968.

Easily explained, but, as you say, an inconsistency, nevertheless.